Hasta La Creative!

Hunky football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is immediately recognizable around the world (That gorgeous face!). But stuff him into a padded suit, add scruffy facial hair and ratty clothes and he can hang out undetected even in his bustling hometown. Even a soccer ball and fancy footwork can’t give him away.

That’s the setup of a just-launched video to announce the athlete’s foray into consumer electronics, namely headphones and portable speakers. Posted on Facebook, with no paid media push around it, the video has racked up  33 million views in two days. It also has nearly 900,000 shares, 1.4 million “likes” and 100,000 comments. At one point on Monday, the digital piece was attracting nearly 1 million views every half-hour, outpacing even YouTube’s “Ad of the Decade” with Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant.

The four-minute video, shot in a busy plaza in Madrid, comes from Los Angeles-based Shareability, which is a co-owner with Ronaldo and Incubrand of the new ROC Live Life Loud brand. Execs there said a prank-style approach made sense for the famous Real Madrid forward.

“He’s a very serious guy who plays and trains 98 percent of the time, so we wanted to show him in a way he’s never been seen before,” said Tim Staples, one of Shareability’s founders. “We thought it would be really fun to take the biggest athlete in the world and hide him in plain sight.”

Ronaldo, like many U.S. entertainers before him, is wading into the hot tech and audio market. The new company has a partnership with manufacturer Monster, which is presently embroiled in a lawsuit against celebrity headphone pioneer Beats by Dre over Monster’s role in the design of Beats products—a fight that’s now also soured Monster’s relationship with Apple, Beats’ new owner.

In other words, Monster is chasing market share by pairing with another huge name, and all the cachet that brings. Though the U.S. may be flooded with gadgets like the one Ronaldo is now hawking, global territories where the soccer star is hugely popular have plenty of room for growth, Staples said. And Ronaldo’s 105 million Facebook followers have gotten the ball rolling, so to speak, proving that his nascent brand can make a name for itself without traditional advertising.

The headphones themselves, at $200 and up, aren’t exactly an impulse buy, so time will tell if the video’s popularity converts to sales. But the short film, even if it weren’t a commercial on the down-low, would have its own charm. One passing pedestrian refuses to give Ronaldo her phone number—she must really regret that now—and in the end, a beaming kid gets to unexpectedly meet an idol—not to mention the priceless look of confusion on his face when a bearded rando starts autographing a ball for him.

Check out a behind the scenes clip below. 

Hand out fliers about the dangers of osteoporosis pretty much anywhere and see what happens. Crumple. Toss. No one reads all those statistics. But chase those same folks with a remote-controlled wheelchair? Now you have yourself a public service campaign.

Never mind that it could spike some heart rates—why is that contraption following me?—it’s for the greater good.

The prank-style awareness campaign, from FCB Health for Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y., shares some fairly alarming data: About 54 million Americans have osteoporosis or low bone density, and one in two women over age 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis. Recovery can be brutal, or nonexistent—hence the wheelchair as the central prop.

With slightly more ominous background music, “Beware the Chair” could double as an ad for a horror flick. (Put a creepy baby in it, and you have a Thinkmodo production.) Initial reaction seems to be pretty strong, judging from the video. Or maybe those people were already trembling?

The work will get print, outdoor and heavy social media distribution via Crouse Hospital’s Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. FCB is also offering it free to hospitals and health care groups across the country.

Perfectly coiffed former Full House patriarch Alan Thicke rolling around on a luxurious king­sized bed: dream or nightmare? It’s for a good cause, so be a sport and play along.

Thicke certainly does. The 67­-year-­old actor, talk show host, reality star and Paula Patton ex­father in law is working hard to sell that piece of castoff furniture. He lolls about on his high-thread­count sheets, eating donuts and reading fake books. While mostly horizontal, he even tags the footboard and autographs some head shots. “Nobody asked for these—I just like signing my face,” he says.

You want to own that beautiful mahogany frame (not mattress), you say? You’re in luck. Bidding happens online Nov. 22.

The stunt, found at AlanThickesBed.com, is a fundraiser for Canadian nonprofit resale chain ReStore, and proceeds from the auction will go to Habitat for Humanity. The videos come from JWT Canada, which plans a social media campaign that will follow the bed from Los Angeles to Toronto.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: ReStore/Habitat for Humanity
Agency: JWT Canada
Chief Creative & Integration Officer: Brent Choi
Creative Director: Ryan Spelliscy
Art Director: Dan Bache 
Copywriter: Henry Park
Senior Producer: Shelby Spigelman
Account Team: Lezlie Grossman, Kathleen Dusk, Corrine Luxon, Victoria Radziunas, Melanie Reiffenstein
Client Team: Rob Lee, Lisa Bogart, Joanna Dwyer
Digital Design Team: Patrick Schroen, Bruno Medugno
Director: Only Child (Mike Andrews & Daniel Mabe)
DOP: Roman Jakobi
Production Company: Descendants TV 
Executive Producers: Tasha Litt / Gerard Cantor
Producer: Anton Laines
Post-Production: Alter Ego / AXYZ   
Editing House: Saints Editorial
Editor: Raj Ramnauth
Executive Producer: Michelle Rich
Colorist: Clinton Homuth        
Online: AXYZ?Flame Artist: James Andrews?Producer: Karen Huybers?Music: Silent Joe
Creative Director: Trevor Allan
Producer & Music Supervisor: Jane Heath

More sweet. Less scary. That’s the promotional campaign, not the ingredient list.

The perennial Easter favorite Peeps continue to try to become a year-round candy with these “peepified” illustrations for Halloween. The simple, colorful drawings are part of an ongoing campaign dubbed “Every day is a holiday,” launched earlier this year to introduce Peeps Minis, diminutive flavored versions of the original chicks. (They’re less than half the size of the flagship product, and come in bags, not the traditional cellophane-front flat boxes).

The airy sugar dumplings, made by confectioner Just Born, haul in an estimated 70 percent of their business at Easter and only a fraction on other holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day. There are ghost and pumpkin Peeps on shelves now, but they’ve never moved as briskly as springtime’s puffy chicks and bunnies.

The campaign for Peeps Minis, from New York ad agency The Terri & Sandi Solution, has included digital images on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with Peeps-centric drawings for obscure holidays like Mutt’s Day, Make Someone Laugh Day and National Singing Telegram Day. Fifteen-second TV ads celebrate National Take Your Pants for a Walk Day, Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day and other “holidays.” (Go ahead, Google them).

And about those ingredients: mainly sugar, corn syrup and gelatin. Boo!

There will be no question about who rummaged through the trash, shredded the sofa or butt-scooted across the carpet. The pet cam will tell all. But that's not really the purpose of this lightweight collar camera, the centerpiece of a digital campaign for Nature's Recipe pet food. The device is supposed to capture the world from your dog or cat's perspective, snapping photos so you can create an online scrapbook under headings like "So That's What My Shins Look Like."

The campaign, from JWT's Digitaria in San Diego, public relations firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies, media shop Starcom and social agency VaynerMedia, launched recently with online scrapbooks from bloggers and pet advocates. (Nonspoiler alert: there's lots of sky, trees and food bowls in a day in the life of a pet.)

From now until March, animal lovers can win their own collar cams and, possibly, a pet-friendly vacation as part of the "Nature's Recipe for Moments" contest. Or they could just end up with a bunch of pictures of the inside of their toilets.

It may go without saying that NFL fans have an insatiable desire to get close to their gridiron heroes, whether that means having them coach a local peewee team or teaching them a customized victory dance. Some of those fantasies work out better than others, according to new spots from BBDO and Atmosphere Proximity for longtime NFL sponsor Visa.

As part of a season-stretching promotion to give fans an ultimate NFL experience, Visa is gathering fans' dreams on Twitter and Instagram under the hashtag #MyFootballFantasy. Not all of those will revolve around goofy end-zone movements, if luck is on the players' sides. The dreams could be anything, really, but they're capped at a cash value of $100,000. Plenty of leeway there?

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones stars in a BBDO spot that broke this week for the ongoing campaign, where the origins of his victory shuffle are revealed. Hint: chubby superfan with a white-guy overbite. (In a bit of bad timing for Visa, Jones's season could actually be over already due to injury.) Still to come: New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees fulfilling another sample fantasy. The real winners will emerge before the Super Bowl.

Check out the Jones spot below and the kickoff for the promo, a commercial with San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh going medieval on some pint-sized football players. Dad didn't think that one through very well.

CREDITS
Client: Visa
Spot: "Dance Fever"
Agencies: BBDO, New York; Atmosphere Proximity, New York
Chief Creative Officer: David Lubars
Executive Creative Directors: Toygar Bazarkaya, Tom Markham
Associate Creative Directors: Kim Baskinger, Rey Martinez
Art Director: Jamie McGaw
Copywriter: Mike Folino
Group Executive Producer: Brian Mitchell
Executive Music, Radio Producer: Loren Parkins
Associate Producer: Georgie Turner

Senior Account Director: Olivia Farr
Group Account Director: Mark Pileggi
Account Director: Joe Prota
Account Manager: Jessica Sinto

Agency: MRY
Associate Creative Director: Ben Waldman
Account Supervisor: Ariel Feigenbaum
Production Assistant: Samantha McGrane

Production Company: Traktor
Director: Traktor
Executive Producer: Richard Ulfvengren
Head of Production: Rani Melendez

Editing Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Carlos Arias
Producer: Lauren Cancelosi

Visual Effects: MPC

Audio Mix: Sonic Union
Mixer: Michael Marinelli
Mixer: Paul Weiss

Velocity Sports & Entertainment
Senior Manager: Kevin Solomon

Dunkin' Donuts in Thailand has just seen a 50 percent bump in sales on the heels of a new print, TV and Facebook ad campaign, and the CEO of the local franchise is crowing about the sugar rush. So what if it's all because of a controversial ad?

No, really, CEO Nadim Salhani says—so what? The ad in question shows a smiling woman in blackface with bright-pink lipstick holding the chain's new "charcoal donut." Predictably, this is kicking up a fury—outside its target region—though Salhani says that's just "paranoid American thinking." Salhani, whose teenage daughter is the model in the ad, further asks the Associated Press: "We're not allowed to use black to promote our donuts? I don't get it. What's the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white? Would that be racist?"

Dunkin' Donuts in the U.S. sees the situation differently, posting an apology on its website and promising a swift takedown due to the campaign's "insensitivity." Human Rights Watch called the ad "bizarre and racist." There's no word on whether Salhani, a surefire candidate in his own mind for father and marketer of the year, is still employed.

It's an image that was nearly too hot for Los Angeles, a town that regularly sees bare bums and lithe bodies in various states of undress along its famous streets and highways. But after some wrangling with ad sellers, and the threat of a ban, Lifetime will be able to launch its risqué billboard in L.A. after all to promote the 12th season of Project Runway.

The ad, from agency Ignition Print in Santa Monica, Calif., shows Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn lording over a bunch of nude models. The same image, by the way, got a swift and unconditional OK in New York, where it's debuting Wednesday on hundreds of bus shelters, kiosks, newsstands and other high-visibility spots. Guess the Nanny State of Bloomberg doesn't extend to public displays of flesh. The cable network, which wouldn't comment on the flap but said privately that it didn't want to scrap the campaign, had planned to make adjustments via Photoshop for L.A. But now, the image, sans added clothing, will appear in a single spot in L.A.—above the storied Sunset Strip, where no one impressionable ever goes.

If the models had had Glocks in their hands like all the one-sheets for Hollywood action flicks, this would've been a non-issue to start with. The series, which has used suggestive advertising with the smokin' hot Klum many times in the past, returns July 18.

In 1957, when Elvis recorded "All Shook Up," grinding and groping was referred to as heavy petting. Today, it's called an ad campaign for adult sexual aids. To launch a trio of new lubricants, Church & Dwight's Trojan brand picked a dreamy, breathy, super-slow cover of the classic Elvis hit by the indie duo Avila. The result is a pretty darn effective set of spots from agency The Joey Company featuring couples in various stages of romantic dry humping. But it's OK, viewers, because they're married, as evidenced by the prominent wedding rings on display. (There must still be backlash against TV ads for this genre of products, or marketers might be able to skip this too-obvious prop altogether.) The attractive folks in the ads aren't the only ones getting lucky. The song shot to the top 10 on iTunes, where it's been for six weeks. It found its way into the Trojan campaign via L.A.-based music marketing and licensing firm MediaHorse, which also landed Avila's cover of "My Favorite Things" for a Victoria's Secret holiday campaign. See all the spots below.

No one feels sorry for Jeff Lewis, and most everybody wants to see Padma Lakshmi in a soaking-wet cocktail dress. These and other truisms come through in Bravo's just-launched summer 2013 commercial, with the backdrop styled to look like a deserted tropical island. It's actually green screen, shot in winter in New York, so there were no real waves or sharks and, with lots of Real Housewives on hand, few real body parts. But lo and behold, James Lipton gets his second-in-a-row cameo, cementing his unlikely Bravolebrity status amid all the gold diggers and social climbers.

And speaking of prostitution, the ever-droll Lewis says in the behind-the-scenes footage that he feels "no better than a common street whore" for having participated in the spot. Chin up, Jeff. Many of your cable cohorts have done plenty worse than take a bucket of water in the face in the name of self-promotion.

The campaign, with new videos expected in the coming months, is the fourth consecutive summer-pegged Bravo work from L.A.-based Stun Creative. It hypes Top Chef Masters, Princesses: Long Island, Don't Be Tardy, Watch What Happens Live and other series in the cable channel's trashy universe. Will.i.am and Miley Cyrus, already gunning for "song of the summer" status with "Fall Down," provide the danceable soundtrack. And there's a Giggy appearance, so that's always good.

Second spot after the jump, with James Lipton playing cards with a monkey!