Hasta La Creative!

Here's a fantastic ad stunt orchestrated by media agency PHD on Britain's ITV. On Sunday night, the TV broadcaster devoted a whole commercial break during an episode of Dancing on Ice to airing remade versions, done entirely in Lego, of four well-known British ads—to promote The Lego Movie.

See the entire ad break here:

The first spot was an abbreviated version of the famous 2012 Vinnie Jones CPR ad for the British Heart Foundation. That was followed by 30-second ads, remade practically shot for shot, for Confused.com, BT and Premier Inn. Short promos for The Lego Movie aired in between each of the spots, followed by a proper trailer at the end.

Check out the four original ads below. Via Creative Review.

All this talk about the TV commercials on the Super Bowl, but who could forget about the radio commercials? Well, almost everyone. But not WestwoodOne, which aired the game on Sunday and just released a list of the five best radio ads of the night.

The big winner was Motel 6, which placed the top spot—an amusing ad from The Richards Group called "Autocorrect," narrated by Tom Bodett, the chain's spokesman for going on 30 years. The ads that placed second, third and fourth—for Tilted Kilt restaurants, Subway and Exergen—are honestly pretty wretched. Coming in at No. 5 is Taco Bell, whose ad will elicit some chuckles as well.

Check out the Motel 6 and Taco Bell ads below.

Using children in politically tinged advertising is often problematic. Some would say it's tantamount to propaganda. Still, the kids who sang "America the Beautiful" in other languages for Coca-Cola's Super Bowl ad are so charmingly innocent in these behind-the-scenes videos—and so optimistic about how the ad will be received—that it makes the whole ruckus seem extra ridiculous.

Of course, Coke isn't as innocent. It knew the ad, by Wieden + Kennedy, would be controversial. Even these clips from the recording sessions hint at that—why else would they ask the girls how people might react to the ad? And yet it's irresistible when Naomi, the girl who sings in Spanish, says: "They might feel joyful. They might feel like, 'Wow, America has all these different things.' And they might feel, like, really proud of their country, I hope. Cause I know I am pretty proud."

Coke released its own statement about the ad this week, saying in part: "For centuries America has opened its arms to people of many countries who have helped to build this great nation. 'It's Beautiful' provides a snapshot of the real lives of Americans representing diverse ethnicities, religions, races and families, all found in the United States. … We believe 'It's Beautiful' is a great example of the magic that makes our country so special, and a powerful message that spreads optimism, promotes inclusion and celebrates humanity—values that are core to Coca-Cola."

The ad's director, John Hillcoat of Skunk, has also spoken out this week. "We all know there are those kind of bigots out there, but I had no idea how deeply embedded it was. It seems that the divide in America has never been greater," he said in a statement.

Despite its optimism, Coke recognizes that divide, too. Tellingly, YouTube comments are disabled on all the videos featuring the girls—to protect them. Comments are enabled on the main ad, though, and are at 12,500 and counting. Wade into that debate at your own risk.

Pepsi famously dialed back its volume of TV ads for this year's Super Bowl to focus on its sponsorship of the halftime show. Here's the ad from Mekanism that will run right before the halftime show begins. It shows New York City springing to life with music, with its landmarks serving as instruments. NYC is such a rich, inspiring place for this kind of approach. Nothing revolutionary, but a nice little opening number for Bruno Mars.

Newcastle Brown Ale, which didn't buy airtime in Sunday's Super Bowl but is doing a wonderfully silly campaign about how it almost did, rolled out more content from Droga5 this week—including the hilarious endorsement below by Anna Kendrick.

Just like last week's Newcastle trailer was the year's best Super Bowl teaser, Kendrick's performance will surely be the funniest among this year's celebs.

Newcastle has done a lot of great stuff around this faux Super Bowl campaign, including a brilliantly self-mocking native ad on Gawker as well as bogus focus-group videos and another endorsement video starring Keyshawn Johnson.

"It seemed like the obvious thing we had to do, and unfair to the world if we didn't," Newcastle brand director Quinn Kilbury said of the Super Bowl ambush. "The Super Bowl is great. The game is amazing, everyone loves the game. But it's become much more about marketing in some ways, and the over-the-top ridiculousness that surrounds it. I saw a lot of that when I was doing the real Super Bowl marketing stuff over at Pepsi, so it's close to my heart, and it is a little ridiculous sometimes. For a brand that likes to poke fun at marketing, we had to poke fun at Super Bowl marketing at some point."

He added: "The brief to Droga5 was, essentially, hijack the conversation around Super Bowl marketing. We had a couple of ideas, but essentially that was it. At first I think we saw doing something around the game itself, but then we thought if you're going to do the Super Bowl, or the Super [Bleep], as we're calling it, you have to be true to the whole marketing show. You have to treat the commercial like it's a $100 million blockbuster."

See the rest of the content below.

BBDO New York is on a roll with Guinness. Following last year's "Basketball" spot, truly one of the best of 2013, here's a great new commercial starring U.S. biathletes Tracy and Lanny Barnes. If you don't know their story, just watch the commercial—it's remarkably affecting, given that it's mostly just a static image and some text coming and going.

The spot is on YouTube for now, but will be pulled off the site at midnight Wednesday (Jan. 29), Guinness confirmed. That's because Guinness is not an Olympic sponsor and cannot air advertising featuring Olympic athletes between Jan. 30 and Feb. 26.

Credits below.

UPDATE: The ad was made private on YouTube last night, but you can still see it, for now, at the non-YouTube embed below.

CREDITS
Client: Guinness
Spot: "Barnes Sisters"

Agency: BBDO, New York
Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Tom Darbyshire
Associate Creative Director, Copywriter: Jon Yasgur
Associate Creative Director, Art Director: Jim Cancelliere

Director of Integrated Production: Dave Rolfe
Producer: Whitney Collins

Editorial, Animation: My Active Driveway
Creative Director: Steve Choo

Music: Andrew Knox Music
Music Producer: Loren Parkins

A year after the Red M&M belted out Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That)," it's Yellow's turn to take the spotlight during the Super Bowl.

The Mars candy brand just released a teaser for its 30-second spot, set to air in the first half of the Feb. 2 broadcast. Not much is revealed, aside from some aerobics and an abduction via tranquilizer dart.

The spot, from BBDO New York, will promote peanut M&M's.

"It's about time we remind the world how irresistible M&M's Peanut really is," Seth Klugherz, senior director of M&M's Chocolate Candies, said in a statement. "Each M&M's Peanut is literally 1 in 100—meaning we have to sort through 100 different peanuts, just to find one that's lucky enough to make its way into a bag of M&M's Peanut."

CREDITS
Client: Mars/M&M's
Title: "Abduction"

Agency: BBDO, New York
Chief Creative Officer: David Lubars
Executive Creative Directors: Tim Bayne, Lauren Connolly
Senior Art Director: Eduardo Petersen
Art Director: Jamie McCelland
Copywriter: Roberto Danino
Senior Producer: Regina Iannuzzi
Producer: Sofia Doktori

Senior Account Director: Susannah Keller
Account Director: Carrie Lipper
Account Manager: Tani Nelson
Account Executive: Alyce Regan

Production Company, Visual Effects: Laika, House
Executive Producer, President: Lourri Hammack
Director: Kirk Kelly
Producers: Zilpha Yost, Julie Ragland
Editing House: PS260
Editors: Maury Loeb, Ned Borgman
Assistant Editors: Matt Posey, Colin Edelman
Senior Producer: Laura Patterson

Sorry, Bart. It looks like Butterfinger's first Super Bowl ad will have a theme better suited to those over 18.

The Super Bowl spot, by ad agency Dailey and director Clay Weiner of Biscuit Filmworks, will launch Butterfinger Peanut Butter Cups. The Nestlé brand released a teaser on Tuesday showing peanut butter and chocolate going to couple's therapy in an effort to spice up their boring relationship (a not-so-subtle jab at peanut-butter cup market leader Reese's). The whole teaser is pretty suggestive, particularly when another couple, cheese and crackers, emerge from the therapist's office excitedly fondling a giant hard salami. Peanut butter and chocolate, meanwhile, begin to see the possibilities of a more satisfying union themselves by staring at the centerfold of a copy of Exotic Snacking magazine. "The cup is about to get crunchy," says the tagline.

The Super Bowl ad will be a different execution but with the same couple's therapy theme, the AP reports. For more, see the campaign site at www.butterfingercups.com.

Twitter is a tough crowd during any high-profile live TV programming, when snark levels always spike. Cheerios learned that the hard way during the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday when it aired a six-month-old commercial from Saatchi & Saatchi in New York that aimed for heartwarming but came off, to many, as depressing.

The ad shows a mom and her son having breakfast, when the boy pipes up and asks, "Did Nana ever give you Cheerios when you were a little kid?" This seemingly innocent question leads to an exchange that's supposed to be cute, though it leaves Mom practically in tears by the end—and got Twitter fuming.

Check out some of the reactions below. The spot is, of course, super manipulative—but that's hardly out of line with what Cheerios always does in its advertising. The General Mills brand blatantly manufactures emotion, sometimes more deftly than other times. We didn't think this one was actually that bad. (And in fact, a number of people praised the ad on Twitter last night, or at least said it made them teary.) But the difference is, during an event like the Globes, you're much more likely to get abused on Twitter for that kind of manipulation.

Makes you wonder what the brand is planning for its first Super Bowl ad next month.

Cheerios–reanimating dead grandparents for 83 years.

— tad friend (@tadfriend) January 13, 2014

Perhaps I'm unfeeling but that mawkish "breakfast w Nana" ad from Cheerios should be taken off the air and flogged #GoldenGlobesAds

— Brian Steinberg (@bristei) January 13, 2014

WHY IS THIS CHEERIOS AD ABOUT BREAKFAST WITH DEAD GRANDMOTHERS TRYING TO BRING ME DOWN? #GoldenGlobesAds

— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 13, 2014

Did Nana die because she choked on a Cheerio? #GoldenGlobes #Cheerios

— Julia Bensfield Luce (@Juliabirrd) January 13, 2014

Did Lars Von Trier direct that @cheerios commerical? #dark #GoldenGlobes

— Paul Kuhn (@PKRippa) January 13, 2014

Congratulations to that Cheerios commercial for being the most manipulative and calculated thing I've seen all night. #GoldenGlobes

— Matt Pruett (@matthasarms) January 13, 2014

"Let's have a commercial about a grandma dying and discussing Cheerios" "yes that sounds great!" #goldenglobes

— Kylie Sparks (@kyliesparks) January 13, 2014

Fuck you Cheerios

— Joshua Topolsky (@joshuatopolsky) January 13, 2014

Raise a giant Cherry Coke and toast Denny's for this great tweet after the BCS title game—offering distraught Auburn fans a road map for where they can comfort-eat their miseries away on the long drive back home to Alabama. It's great partly because it could have so easily been killed, for perhaps being a tad scornful and for sort of making fun of Denny's as well. In other BCS news, Charmin posted the tweet below—apparently having made peace with almost-profanity after getting spooked by its own famous "Asgard" tweet back in November.

Wow. We have a feeling there are lots of college football fans about to sheet their pants right about now..

— Charmin (@Charmin) January 7, 2014