Hasta La Creative!

We wrote about the launch of The Marketing Arm’s fun “Uncle Drew” spot for Pepsi Max last year. Uncle Max is Kyrie Irving transformed into an old baller who teaches “young bloods” a thing or two about fundamentals. The Marketing Arm has revived Irving’s character for “Uncle Max: Chapter 3″  (which Irving also wrote and directed), featuring Nate Robinson as “Lights” and WNBA star Maya Moore as”Betty Lou.”

The spot, directed by O Positive’s Jonathan Klein, shows Uncle Drew attempting to get the old team together, starting with “Lights.” Drew visits “Lights” at an old jazz club, and convinces him to join him for a game, against the best advice of Betty Lou. If you want to skip past the setup and get to the action (it’s a long spot and we know a lot of you have short attention spans), fast forward to around the 2:25 mark.

While it’s hard to believe anyone but the most gullible of people would fall for Kyrie Irving and Nate Robinson in makeup, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun watching the two made up as old men school a bunch of ballers. Uncle Drew and “Lights” are killing it when they’re interrupted by the arrival of Betty Lou, who shows up to drag “Lights” from the court, concerned about his bad hip. But when someone in the crowd calls her an “old lady” she changes gears and joins in on the action. Watching the three taunt and destroy their opponents is a whole lot of fun, especially when “Lights” dribbles off an opponent’s head or Betty Lou and “Lights” bow to each other following an alley-oop. At the end of the spot “Lights” asks Uncle Drew who he’s going to pick up next. “We’re going to get the big man,” he says, “We need him.” Looks like we can expect more Uncle Drew spots from The Marketing Arm in the future. No complaints here. Check out the second chapter of the Uncle Drew saga after the break. continued…

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They take their baseball pretty seriously in St. Louis and Boston, and that includes at each city’s respective ad agencies. The ad agencies for each team –Boston based CTP and St. Louis based HLK — have thrown down for the Beards vs. Birds challenge, which includes some unique betting terms that you can read below.

1. The losing team donates to the winning team’s charity. CTP would donate to Cardinals Care a “non-profit foundation providing assistance to children’s agencies through efforts such as building baseball fields and supporting youth baseball teams,” while HLK would donate to Red Sox Scholars, a program providing “mentoring, enrichment activities and college scholarships to 220 Boston Public School students.”

2. The losing agency’s CEO will intern for a day at the winning agency. 

3. The losing agency serves the winning agency dinner. If the Red Sox lose, CTP will bring Harpoon ale, Fenway franks and clam chowder to HLK. If the Cardinals lose, HLK will bring Budweiser, toasted ravioli and pork steaks to CTP.

4. The losing agency will turn over their website and social media sites to the winning agency the day of the victory parade. The winning agency will also get to re-write the email signatures of the losing agency. Plus the losing agency’s receptionist must answer the phone, “Congratulations to the World Series Champion (Boston/St. Louis), you have reached (HLK/CTP).”

5. The losing agency will rename their softball team in honor of the winning team.

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#WeAreWarriors, the latest social and broadcast Golden State Warriors campaign from MUH·TAY·ZIK HOF·FER, shows what would happen if NBA fans got to take the court with their favorite team’s NBA players. The sentiment is spot-on, especially considering how fans like to use the first-person plural when talking about their teams, even though these fans are not paid to play basketball for a living. The Warriors have always been progressive with their social media and fan interaction – including last year’s promotional Social Media Night – and this is another way for the organization to connect on and off the court with fans.

The 30-second spot titled “A Little Help” shows one average Joe getting posted up by Warriors 7-foot Australian behemoth Andrew Bogut. Unfortunately, because of the height difference, the fan’s face keeps bouncing against Bogut’s butt. But like most crazy sports fans, he probably liked it. And he probably bragged about it to his friends. And deep down, his friends were probably jealous. There will be three additional #WeAreWarriors spots in the future, all of which are focused on the team’s fans. Here’s to hoping they will also include Warriors guard Kent Bazemore (seen here as the other guy offering a hand to help up the fallen fan). Bazemore is the NBA’s best and most-celebrated benchwarmer. You can see why here. Yes, a fan created a compilation video of Bazemore’s bench celebrations. That’s wonderful.

The ad is directed by MTZHF co-founder/ECD John Matejczyk and written by its ACD/CW, Josh Bogdan. Credits and some behind-the-scenes footage after the jump.

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After taking a different direction with their last SportsCenter spot, W+K New York and ESPN have gone back to what has made the “This Is SportsCenter” series so popular, employing humorous situations in the network’s Bristol HQ.

The spot, “Double Double,” stars Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Love as the guy responsible for pushing the coffee cart that keeps the SportsCenter crew caffeinated (UCLA mascot Joe Bruin can also be seen in the spot). This is an important job, because, as anchor Scott Van Pelt says, the SportsCenter crew relies “pretty heavily on the coffee cart” to keep going throughout the day. Love’s specialty is making “the best double-double,” which is two double espressos. Host Stan Verrett swears by Kevin’s double-doubles. In fact, he’s a little too fond of them. He requests another double-double from Love while he still has his two espressos in-hand, but Kevin says “I think maybe you should slow down.” Verrett continues to hound Love for more espresso as the spot goes on, with Kevin responsibly telling him he should just get through his show. At some point Love must have given in, and the results on Stan Verrett‘s show are pretty funny, as well as startling to co-host Neil Everett.

It’s a return to form for W+K, who play to their strengths with “Double Double.” The strategy seen here has worked for the “This Is Sportscenter” series in the past, and “Double Double” is the best SportsCenter spot in recent memory, with a good setup and comedic payoff thanks to Love and Verrett’s delivery. Let’s hope agency and brand continue sticking with what works in the future. Credits after the jump. continued…

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Illustrating a campaign called “Escape the Ordinary” with a magician and soccer players from Arsenal makes sense thematically: Magicians do magic, and who could be less ordinary in Europe than soccer players from the English Premier League? Other than the British royal family, it’s hard to think of anyone else.

However, for CMW and Citroen, making a three-minute promo clip with cars and magic with extraordinary actors still resulted in a very ordinary spot. As you’ll see, the build-up drags, and the trick – which is more fake mind-reading than magic – isn’t very exciting. Pick a color, a card, and a year (and for whatever reason, the creatives decided to have the magician guess the incorrect year, maybe so viewers will believe it’s real?) To his credit, magician Drummond Money-Coutts brings enough energy and effort to make the clip watchable. The Arsenal players, Ramsey, pretty-boy Giroux, etc., are just show ponies who aren’t there to do much. Magic is supposed to wow, especially online clips that can be manipulated with editing, yet from the pledge, there was little chance that this wobbly trick would shock, awe, or bring out any sort of emotional response. But, with all the high-priced talent, the best trick may have been making an advertising budget disappear so quickly.

Some brief credits after the jump.

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If there’s one thing that Detroit has going for it right now, it’s the Tigers. And if there’s one thing the Tigers always have going for them, it’s the super-dependable Miguel Cabrera, arguably the best hitter in baseball. So, if you’re a Detroit car company, just slap Miguel Cabrera in an ad and you’ve got a winner, right?

Doner (which will inevitably be mocked as “boner” in the comments section) has tapped Cabrera’s talents for their latest spot for Chrysler. Alternating between shots of Cabrera, aspiring young baseball players training, and the Chrysler Town & Country while talking about how there’s “one road to greatness” and there are “no shortcuts” whether “you’re trying to become the world’s greatest player or build the world’s greatest car” the spot pretty much sticks to a well-trodden formula. Ending with the irritatingly nonsensical “Imported From Detroit” tagline, and the better thought out #NoShortcuts hashtag, the spot certainly feels familiar.

There’s really nothing new about Doner’s approach, but as a baseball fan, the spot works for me. The background music sounds like it was taken from a “serious sports spot” stockpile somewhere and the “work hard to achieve greatness” message is certainly nothing new for Chrysler. But Miguel Cabrera isn’t just a great baseball player, he’s a seriously likable one, no matter what team you root for, with a truly photogenic swing. So despite the tired tropes of the spot, I can’t find it irritating (except for that tagline). The hometown appeal is obvious, but having people associate your product with Cabrera is a good thing, no matter where they’re from. But please Doner, work on a new tagline. Credits after the jump.

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When you’re selling a product that in all likelihood will provide people with absolutely nothing, appearances become even more important.

So the Multi-State Lottery Assocation tapped director Jay Silverman and Silverman Productions for a $30 million campaign for Powerball, featuring NFL Hall of Fame players Terry Bradshaw, Warren Moon, Joe Namath, Jerry Rice, and Barry Sanders. They were very pleased with the results. Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi_State Lottery Association says in a statement, “Jay and his team manage to pull out the true personalities behind these legends, capturing them for all to see, without any guesswork.”

The campaign capitalizes not just on the popularity of these all-time great NFL players, but also on Dancing with the Stars, via Jerry Rice’s inclusion. There’s also an “Ultimate Tailgate Party” promotion, which will allow Powerball players to win admittance to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Fan Festival at Cleveland’s I-X Center on May 3–4, 2014 and attend a special tailgate party the night before.

The Ultimate Tailgate Party is plugged in the spot “Anniversary Gift,” in which a woman suggests to her significant other that they get each other Powerball tickets for their anniversary. “You could hang out with some of the greatest football players ever,” she suggests as we flash to a scene of the man interacting with Barry Sanders and Joe Namath. “But what will you do?” he asks, as we flash to a scene of her dancing with Jerry Rice. The woman claims to just be thinking of him, with a knowing smile.

In another spot, “The Fun of Powerball,” we see the same couple trying to decide on “something exciting to do” in the grocery store. Jerry Rice pops up out of nowhere and suggests they play Powerball. “Is that Jerry Rice?” the woman asks, excited. “The Hall of Fame football player?” responds the man, to which the woman says, “No, the dancer.” It’s a little hokey, but a humorous examination of how a couple might see Jerry Rice a little differently after his turn on Dancing with the Stars. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who only know Rice from his time on the popular show. Each spot concludes with Terry Bradshaw enticing viewers to play Powerball for their chance to win.

This campaign has an almost nostalgic kind of cheesiness to it. These spots feel like they could have been made anytime between the 90s and now, if only Dancing with the Stars had existed back then (I’m really grateful it didn’t, though). There’s something reassuring in that.

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Question: What would a contemporary soccer-related version of “Les Miserables” look like if we replaced all the singing actors with kids and threw in the craftiest living man in cleats? Answer: This tw0-minute Leo Burnett commercial promoting Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 and accompanying smart watch. When Lionel Messi isn’t dominating the pitch or allegedly evading taxes, he’s also rebuilding cities as an urban developer! For the kids!

From a narrative perspective, this spot is about as corny as it gets – I think it will be very tough to top the new pair of Samsung ads that show the progression of pop-culture smart watches over the years and harp on some brilliantly revealed nostalgia. But “The Developer” is enjoyable on a micro level if you don’t think about it too hard, kind of like every James Cameron movie. Messi on his suit and tie. Kids singing a cute version of Lorde’s single “Royals.” There’s even a building demolition scene if you’re into that. And if you’re not, there’s always Messi, on his suit and tie, smiling, playing soccer with kids. Everybody loves that.  Credits after the jump.

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Ogilvy Chicago’s latest spot in their “People Who Get It” campaign for CDW features Charles Barkley, Doug Flutie, and a technologically advanced stadium without a team.

In the spot, Jim Gordon takes you on a tour of Gordon and Taylor stadium, a domed football stadium he touts as “the most technologically advanced stadium in the world,” thanks to CDW. Features include “3,000 screens, stadium-wide wi-fi, seamless POS systems and a cloud infrastructure solution.” The funniest moment of the spot comes right after this list of features. “Do I know what those are? Not exactly,” Gordon admits. “But they sound impressive.” This should hit home with a lot of people who fall a good deal short of IT expert, myself included.

Over the course of the spot it’s revealed that Gordon has the perfect stadium, a half-time show, cheerleaders, a mascot, Charles Barkley and Doug Flutie on board — basically everything he needs, except a team. He seems to get more and more panicked about this as the spot goes on. Looks like Flutie may have to QB himself. The spot is fun and lighthearted, although I wish Barkley had more lines as he has a good comic presence. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see a follow-up spot

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