Hasta La Creative!

Nike running: So easy, a caveman can do it?

Wieden + Kennedy made quite the discovery earlier this month. The agency says it's "pretty damn pumped" to have finally found the first ads it ever made—which happen to be the first national broadcast ads Nike ever aired. The three spots ran during the New York City Marathon in October 1982. Two of the three had been lost for decades.

The agency writes on its blog:

For all you ad geeks out there, we're pretty damn pumped to share something very special with you. We've uncovered the first-ever ads made by Messrs. Wieden and Kennedy, Nike's first-ever nationally broadcast work. Until today, two of these were considered lost and never vaulted. Our digital librarian Phoebe Owens has spent the entire time she's been with W+K searching for them, alongside Nike historian Scott Reames, with the help of David Kennedy. Today, some old, poorly-labeled tapes proved to have what we've been searching for.

These aired during the NYC marathon. They were shot and cut within a couple of weeks, with a skeleton crew. They were a tiny team and they made it happen, and the rest is history.

See the ads below.

With the opening series between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks (finally) kicking off the MLB season this Saturday in Australia, Hub Strategy, AOR for the Oakland Athletics, have just launched the fifth incarnation of their award-winning “Green Collar Baseball” marketing campaign for the A’s.

There’s been reason to celebrate in Oakland the past two years, as the A’s have won back-to-back AL West titles. This year, for their integrated campaign featuring “eight television commercials as well as print, outdoor, digital & social advertisements,” Hub Strategy wanted to up the personality factor. There’s certainly no shortage of personality for the A’s, and Hub had a blast working with the players on the new campaign, with Hub CEO/Creative Director DJ O’Neil calling it “by far my favorite work yet.”

The feeling is mutual, as A’s VP of sales/marketing, Jim Leahey, says, “We feel that this year’s TV commercials may be our best ever and we are confident that our fans will enjoy connecting with the fun personalities of our players.”

So far, two of the eight TV spots have been revealed: “Tunnels of Greatness” and “Tarp Therapy.” “Tunnels of Greatness” — featuring Josh Donaldson, Jarrod Parker, Sonny Gray, Sean Doolittle and Derek Norris — is a lot of fun, built around the idea of extending the “Home Run Tunnel” celebration to other, more mundane aspects of the game. “Tarp Therapy,” which references Donaldson’s spectacular tarp catch from last season, isn’t quite as effective. It’s the kind of concept that might look funny on paper, but doesn’t play out so well on tape (although they deserve bonus points for featuring Mike Gallego). Hopefully the rest of Hub Strategy’s “Green Collar Baseball” spots can build on the momentum of “Home Run Tunnel” and give fans one more reason to cheer on the A’s. Here’s the info we have on the remaining six spots:

• Secrets of the Game: Young players Parker, Gray and Norris turn to veteran Brandon Moss for his secrets to success in the majors.
• Unicorn 2.0: Doolittle and Parker attempt to take the signature unicorn bullpen ?backpack to another level this year.
• Generations: Moss learns that for some fans, being on the field for a fireworks show can fulfill a lifelong dream.
• #winning: Doolittle coaches Bob Melvin, Curt Young and Mike Gallego on social media best practices.
• Holding Him On: Moss is a talkative guy, and his mouth can be as much of a weapon as his bat.
• Pre-Internet: Coaches Young and Gallego both reflect on how much has changed since their 1989 World Championship with the A’s.

You can watch “Home Run Tunnel” above, and stick around for “Tarp Therapy,” along with credits, after the jump continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Leo Burnett and was produced company Prettybird/director Billy Rainey served as creative and production (in addition to media) for the NCAA’s new campaign promoting the importance of education to young athletes, called “2.3 or Take a Knee.”

The campaign introduces the new, stricter NCAA GPA requirements student athletes must meet in order to qualify for Division-I sports, “ensuring their brains are getting the workout they need” (or just driving up the cost of a term paper). To spread the word, and teach high school athletes about the importance of education, LB and Prettybird created a talking bench. 75 high school athletes were caught on eight hidden cameras receiving some tough love lectures from the talking bench, and some of their reactions are pretty funny. That their coaches don’t seem to have been in on the gag only adds to the humor. Whether the prank will translate to the teens taking away a lesson on the importance of academics, however, remains to be seen. See the talking bench in action for yourself in the 2:28 video above, and check out @talkingbench for the Twitter campaign.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Wow, talk about efficient. Fresh off winning the AB InBev Harbin Beer business back in November, BBH China has launched a series of ultra-short television spots for their Harbin Beer World Cup 2014 campaign.

Harbin, the official World Cup sponsor in China, will run the blink-and-you’ve-missed-them spots every night on CCTV1 news and OOH media, where they are expected to reach hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers. As might be expected given the short duration, the ads keep things simple. The above “Freedom Time” exemplifies the approach here: the spot sees a Harbin drinker ignore a call from the boss during the big game, instead using the phone as a coaster. There’s something admirable about the efficiency required of the format, especially in contrast to the lengthy online spots that we see on a daily basis. Check out “Red Card” below, and stick around for the lengthy (7 seconds) “Slide Tackle” after the jump. It won’t even take a minute.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Today, Budweiser has officially launched its “Rise As One” campaign, developed by Anomaly, to promote its sponsorship of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The basis of the campaign is a “fully integrated, global content series” centered around the the theme of honoring “the moments that unite football fans worldwide.”

Highlighting the campaign is the new spot “Believe As One,” which made its digital debut today and will air internationally as anticipation for the World Cup continues to grow.  The new spot, filmed in black and white by director Garth Davis “to truly highlight the passion and pride for the sport that unites fans around the world, irrespective of the team they support” stokes anticipation of the FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil by showing the almost religious fervor fans across the globe bring to the game. The 60-second spot concludes with a group triumphantly raising their beers, followed by the “Rise As One” tagline.

“Football is unique in its ability to unite fans all over the globe and its unifying power is never more evident than when the world comes together during the FIFA World Cup,” Andrew Sneyd, Budweiser global VP, explains in a statement. “Through the ‘Rise As One‘ campaign and our new spot ‘Believe As One,’ Budweiser showcases the passion and building anticipation shared by fans and players the world over.”

In addition to the new spot, the folks at VICE (who are everywhere these days) are getting in on the action, partnering with Anomaly and Budweiser to launch “Budweiser Heroes,” which showcases “the real-life stories of individuals who have made a significant impact in their community and how their love of football transformed the lives of everyday people.” Beginning today, Budweiser is calling on fans to submit their own “Budweiser Heroes” stories. Budweiser and Vice will also be creating a series of digital shorts to serve as inspiration for the program. A few chosen winners will receive an all-expenses paid trip to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, tickets to a football match and a three-day stay at the Budweiser Hotel in Rio de Janeiro.” You can learn more about the “Rise As One” campaign at the official website, and stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Yes, as mentioned, the Climate Reality Project created a video of Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety, who won in giant slalom in Sochi by the way, talking to a snowflake.

Following the uncharacteristically warm Winter Olympic Games, Ligety decided to team up with CRP on their “I Am Pro Snow” campaign. The spot was created in-house, using b-roll footage from “I Am Pro Snow” partner Warren Miller‘s new film, Ticket to Ride. Climate Reality Project’s creative team combed through the footage for moments when Ligety was speaking with the boom operator, and created a fictional conversation with an animated snowflake. The results are damn near unwatchable, culminating in a painful rap from the snowflake. It’s a shame really, because this is a good cause and more people need to be educated about the realities of climate change, which in this case, was intended to explain why it was hurting snow sports. Well, not quite. If you feel like torturing yourself for 90 seconds or so, you can watch the video above. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

W+K’s trademark nonsensical humor is on full display in their latest, the new spot “Made by Kobe” promoting Kobe Bryant‘s Kobe 9 Collection for Nike, which launched on March 6th.

The spot imagines what it would be like if Kobe Bryant designed a piano: “It will turn piano boys into piano men. It will make Lionel Richie‘s tears cry tears.” Lionel Richie actually appears in the spot, tear slowly rolling down his cheek while he plays the piano, adding to the humorous tone. After talking up the hypothetical Kobe Piano, which looks pretty badass, the narrator introduces the “Made by Kobe*” Kobe 9 Collection. Although the product reveal comes 50 seconds into the 75 second spot, the sidelined Lakers star can be seen wearing his new line throughout the commercial.

The spot is exactly what we’ve come to expect from W+K, calling to mind some of their well-known past hits, like their famous work for Old Spice. The formula may be starting to show signs of age, but W+K still has a big leg up on the countless competitors attempting to imitate this kind of work. “Made by Kobe” will run until March 27th. Now if they’d only release that piano for real. Stick around for credits after the jump.

*Kobe is the name of a 12-year-old Chinese boy who works around the clock to handcraft the Kobe 9 Collection for 2 cents an hour. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Iris has launched a new campaign for Adidas called “Fast or Fail,” to promote Lionel Messi‘s new adiZero f50 Messi boot.

The campaign is centered around “an innovative real-time reactive game experience requiring players to beat opponents down an endless pitch and reach Rio de Janeiro in the fastest time possible.” Players will be given the opportunity to win tickets to the 2014 FIFA World Cup to see Lionel Messi play. In an interesting twist, the game is driven by social media — with “more mentions of Messi, the faster you go in the game.”

Iris also created a “Fast or Fail” video to promote the game and the new Messi boot. To create the video, they shot Messi on a green screen backdrop, and then worked with “Media Monks to create the CGI-built polygonised world you see in the game and film.” You can check out the 1:35 video above, and head here to try your hand at the #fastorfail game.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Sport Doesn’t Care” is the platform behind 72andSunny’s and Worldwide Paralympic Sponsor Samsung’s new campaign, showing that no matter who you are, your excuse doesn’t matter in the world of athletics.

The 90 second spot from 72andSunny Amsterdam, dubbed “What’s Your Problem? Sport Doesn’t Care,” features paralympic athletes Jessica Gallagher (alpine skiing), Seung-Hwan Jung (ice sledge hockey), Katarzyna Rogowiec (cross country skiing and biathlon), Anna Schaffelhuber (alpine skiing), Evan Strong (snowboard cross), and Greg Westlake (ice sledge hockey). These paralympians share their problems, such as “I am not a morning person,” “It’s so cold,” “Side wind. I don’t like it.” I hate the rain,” and “I’m too tired” and other problems any athlete might face, followed by the “Sport Doesn’t Care” message.

“Conversations around the Paralympic Games tend to focus on disability over athleticism,” explains Younghee Lee, EVP/global marketing, IT & mobile at Samsung Electronics. “As a brand with a passion for sport, Samsung aims to make the dialogue more empowering, focusing on the courage and performance of athletes and encouraging participation.”

Australian alpine skiier Jessica Gallagher expressed excitement at being involved in the campaign. “I think that Samsung’s commitment to the Paralympic movement is incredibly important. It calls much-needed attention to the fact that we as Paralympians are really not different from our Olympic Games counterparts — we work just as hard and want to win just as much,” she said. “I ski the same as any Olympian, I just use adaptive equipment to help negate my vision loss. Whether you’re a top athlete or a young child just starting out, sport doesn’t discriminate.”

The spot follows on the heels of a kickoff manifesto spot which launched February 20th, with a third spot in the series set for release on March 7th. Stick around for the manifesto spot after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Bacon is everywhere. (No, not Kevin Bacon.) And it seems everyone loves it—even pigs! It's so great, it once helped a man negotiate his way across the nation dealing exclusively in bacon. Thanks, Oscar Mayer. Now, the bacon craze is hitting the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The IronPigs this week unveiled what I can only imagine was a highly anticipated bacon-themed Saturday uniform, which includes a bacon-strip logo on the cap, and a "first-of-its-kind" bacon-style piping down both legs of the pants. Check it out at the team's new site, smellthechange.com. For those of us who like to get a bit more bacon for our buck, we can purchase other innovative merchandise such as scratch-and-sniff bacon-logo T-shirts, now available online.

One has to wonder, though. What will this do to the IronPigs' vegetarian fan base? On second thought, who cares!? If they were vegetarians, they weren't real fans anyway.

If loving bacon is wrong, I don’t want to be right. http://t.co/tyRm2x1t26 #smellthechange pic.twitter.com/HYSClDtZ2g

— IronPigs (@IronPigs) February 24, 2014