The world-traveling Molson Beer Fridge became famous for being exclusive—when it visited European cities earlier this year, only people with a Canadian passport could open it. Now, the fridge is back, and being even nicer to one Canadian guy, with help from his friends.
This new spot, from agency Rethink, tells the tale of two friends who surprise a third friend—a rabid hockey fan who for some reason has fled Canada for the remote Gili Islands in Indonesia—by bringing him a red fridge of his own to keep in his little hut, which may or may not have the electricity to run it. The friends also bring a satellite system so the other guy catch the Olympic Games this winter.
It's a fine stunt, as far as it goes, though the surprise isn't quite as delightful as the premise of the earlier video (which was apparently the second most viewed commercial online in Canada this year). Plus, the emotion remains mostly bottled up. Unlike some other heartwarming ads, where people weep only, the fridge recipient here claims he's actually "sweating" and not in fact getting weepy over his buddies' thoughtful gesture.
A 30-second version of the ad will begin airing in Canada on Dec. 26.
CREDITS Client: Molson Canadian Title: "The Beer Fridge: Project Indonesia"
Agency: Rethink Creative Directors: Aaron Starkman, Chris Staples, Dré Labre, Ian Grais Art Directors: Aaron Starkman Joel Holtby, Vince Tassone, Christian Buer Writers: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick, Account Director: Ashley Eaton Broadcast Producer: Dave Medlock
Production Company: Untitled Films Director: Tyler Williams Executive Producer: Lexy Kavluk Line Producer: Tom Evelyn Director of Photography: John Houtman
Postproduction: Rooster Post Executive Producer: Melissa Kahn Editor: Marc Langley Assistant Editor: Nick Greaves
Postproduction: Fort York VFX Music, Sound Design: RMW Music
Jerry Seinfeld has written eight new Acura commercials in collaboration with Boston ad agency Mullen as part of the brand's title sponsorship of his Web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. The faux-vintage spots—all eight are posted below—will bookend new episodes of the show, coming Jan. 2. They were directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and inspired by actual old car commercials from the '60s.
But while those old spots sound a bit ridiculous these days (Seinfeld ran actual vintage Acura ads as pre-roll on Comedians in Cars last season), these new ads are intentionally silly—playing off the old style but taking it in absurd directions.
Seinfeld spoke with AdFreak on Tuesday about the creative process behind the ads, his experience with Super Bowl spots and what he thought of Will Ferrell's Dodge work.
So, these are fun spots. This must have been an exciting project for you. You know, I have done a bit of advertising over the years. But I have never been given the creative freedom that I was given on these by Acura. They're gutsier than any other company I've ever worked with. Not that I've worked with that many, but I've worked with a few. Because this work, as you can see, is not like any other work that they've done. And usually—as you well know, being in the ad game—the clients tend to get nervous, especially when they're spending a lot of money. But [Acura marketing chief] Mike Accavitti, I've never seen a guy like this guy. Nerves of steel. It's pretty rare. But I think that's why they came out so good. I would give him all the credit.
Tell me about the creative process—how you worked with Mullen on these. Mullen and I sat in a room together. Now, we ran vintage Honda and Acura stuff from the '60s and '70s last season on Comedians in Cars. And everybody kind of enjoyed that. And I said, Yeah, I've looked at everything that exists of the old advertising, and I picked out all the good ones. And I don't have any more. And I thought, Why don't we make new old advertising … that's bad. Because that's what's fun. A lot of the lines are stuff we actually found. We would put our little spin on it.
A lot of the advertising in the old days focused on the size of the car. People felt that you were really getting your money's worth if the car had a big trunk. Which of course is something that no one cares about now. No one buys an SUV and goes, "Well, how big is the trunk?" Because they're all big.
So, it's about taking the old tropes and pushing them a little bit. Yes. And you know, to me, a lot of things have gotten worse that you could point to in our culture. A lot of advertising has gotten worse. I think it's kind of lost its nerve, to be honest with you. I feel like the advertising of the '60s, they were nervier. You know why? Because there was less at stake. It always worked. There were three networks. Everyone's going to see this. They're going to buy the car. And now, everyone's more nervous. Eyeballs are harder to get. And everyone's less inclined to take a risk.
You've seen those high stakes firsthand, having done Super Bowl ads for American Express and, of course, Acura. Yeah. I've done a number of Super Bowl ads. And that is the best advertising of the year. That is when people realize they're going to be compared directly against other ads.
What did you think of Will Ferrell's ads for Dodge? I like anything Will Ferrell does, so I was a fan of those. But it didn't seem to be a different type of car advertising. It seemed to be a different type of movie advertising. But different is always good.
So, you wrote a lot of the jokes for these Acura ads? I did. We just wanted to get that feeling of "Hot, handsome and a honey to handle." Nobody says things like that anymore. Or "The perfect car for the big-car man." And the "Yesterday, today and tomorrow" thing. I like the little tension between the spokesman and the spokeswoman, that we can see that they aren't quite getting along.
My favorite thing is: "MDX. Three letters that stand for 'Earth, style and you.' " That's just like, nobody read that over and went, "What do you mean? Why does it stand for that? The letters don't even match up to that. Why are we saying that?" So, it's also part of the drunken, lazy ad culture of the '60s.
No good deed comes without a little punishment. That's Newcastle Brown Ale's "No Bollocks" take on responsibility messaging, judging by a recent stunt in Los Angeles orchestrated by Droga5.
The brand is introducing a new beer, Newcastle Cabbie Black Ale, and decided to promote it by driving drinkers home in black British taxis, on one condition—that they advertise the new brew through an enormous taxi-top megaphone for the entire ride. You can see footage from the rides below. The passengers are seen largely reading from a script, although there's some improvising going on, so perhaps the driver was also a copywriter.
Newcastle somewhat proudly declares that there were 67 noise complaints, but it was worth it to get 54 beer drinkers home safely. ("Don't be a wanker. Take a bloody cab," says copy on the back of the taxi.) The brand is also taking the taxi campaign further through a partnership with Taxi Magic, the nation's leading taxi app. In the more than 60 cities where Taxi Magic rides are available, Newcastle Cabbie point-of-sale displays will offer $5 toward a cab fare booked through the app.
"We're not exactly pioneers in declaring drinking and driving to be utter bollocks, but we're proud of the fact that we're putting our money where our mouth is and offering people a tangible incentive to enjoy our product safely," says Brett Steen, brand manager at Newcastle Brown Ale.
The fair-use fight between Beastie Boys and GoldieBlox isn't over.
After sparring several weeks ago over the unauthorized use of the Beasties song "Girls" in a GoldieBlox commercial that went viral, the toy company deleted the video and uploaded a new version with a different track (see below). But that did not satisfy the band, which has now countersued, demanding that GoldieBlox hand over profits it earned from using the song without permission, reports Gigaom. The Beasties also seek damages, lawyers' fees and an injunction preventing GoldieBlox from using the song in the future.
The suit claims GoldieBlox is liable for copyright and trademark infringement and sets the stage for a judge to decide whether or not the company's parody of "Girls," with different lyrics, constituted fair use—as GoldieBlox contended in its earlier, preemptive suit against the band. Also interesting: The band says it first heard about the GoldieBlox ad when an ad agency that was submitting the spot to Intuit's "Small Business Big Game" Super Bowl contest (in which GoldieBlox is a finalist) inquired with Universal Music Publishing Group about whether GoldieBlox had secured the rights. (They would have heard about it eventually, of course.)
So, it seems likely that we'll get a decision on the fair use question after all.
Special K believes positivity is key to weight management success. So, it's taking aim at its opposite—"fat talk," or the negative things some women say about their bodies and others. The Kellogg's brand says 93 percent of women fat talk, "and it's weighing women down." Now, ahead of the New Year slim-down season, Special K and Leo Burnett have launched a whole "Fight Fat Talk" campaign, with social, video and other efforts aimed at getting women to talk more positively about themselves.
The two-minute spot below, directed by O Positive's Peyton Wilson, has a pretty aggressive strategy for dealing with fat talk: It ambushes women with it while they're shopping for clothes (a prime occasion for fat talk). Actual fat talk, taken from Twitter and elsewhere, is printed on signs and labels in the store—and is meant to make women realize how terribly self-defeating it is.
The spot is clearly going for an empowering vibe, à la Dove or Pantene. And the women do get emotional upon seeing the signs, realizing they're being too hard on themselves. But in some ways, it doesn't feel as natural. Without any positivity at all, the signs just don't seem very inspiring—unlike the Dove and Pantene ads, which had the stranger-described sketches and the "Don't let labels hold you back" elements as springboards for positivity. Plus, there's also the inconvenient fact that Special K is expressly meant to make you thinner—rather than making you more accepting of yourself.
What do you think of the video? Does it work for you?
How do you deal with holiday stress? Activewear maker Lucy is humorously urging women to try something unconventional this year. Try dropping to the floor and adopting the "child's pose" from yoga—with your legs tucked under you, your head down and your arms outstretched in front. That should calm your nerves in line at Macy's, as long as security doesn't come running.
The tongue-in-cheek spot below from ad agency Mono, directed by the actress Elizabeth Banks, shows the strategy in action. Give it a shot, and let us know how it goes.
Here's a wonderful little candy commercial from LoweFriends in Denmark that pulls off a rare trick. It's both edgy and traditional—with several F-bombs in the voiceover balanced out by an actually quite sweet story line about a goth girl who doesn't want to smile in public, but can't help herself while eating her delicious Nørregade candies. Likewise, the tagline, "Be happy in your mouth," is both somewhat suggestive yet disarming.
CREDITS Client: Nørregade Agency: LoweFriends Copywriter: Hans-Henrik Langevad Art Director: Mads Kold Production Company: Parafilm Director: Michael Toft Production Company Producer: Julie Mølsgaard
A year ago, State Farm released a wonderful commercial from agency Translation suggesting NBA star Chris Paul had a twin brother, Cliff, who happened to be a State Farm agent—because he was "born to assist." In April, agency and client released an amusing follow-up spot. And now, they're cleverly extending the campaign all the way into product design through a deal with Nike's Jordan Brand.
Yes, the Los Angeles Clippers star's Jordan CP3.VII sneaker is now available in an argyle design—inspired by Cliff, who is always seen in an argyle sweater in the State Farm spots. (The CP3.VII sneaker is also the first Jordan brand shoe with iD customization on the Nike website.) A new State Farm spot, posted below, shows Chris and Cliff brainstorming ideas to bring their fans together—and landing on the custom shoe idea. Paul, as always, is doubly great in the new ad playing both himself and his nerdy alter ego, even if the plot line of the new :30 isn't as magical as the two previous :60s.
"I am always amazed at how people have connected to Chris and Cliff," Paul said in a statement to AdFreak. "I enter an arena and people call out 'Where's your brother?' Working with State Farm and Jordan on the argyle customization of my new shoe adds another level of creativity to marketing both the shoe and State Farm."
State Farm marketing chief Tim Van Hoof said the argyle iD customizations are "an exciting and cool way to connect with NBA fans and increase our relevance within the NBA culture." And Translation creative director Emily Sander said the agency wanted to "dig deeper and give fans a culturally relevant way to own a piece of the story. … We found the perfect way to organically continue infusing State Farm into sports culture, while adding more dimension to the character and his story."
UPDATE 2: The Beastie Boys released this statement Monday:
Like many of the millions of people who have seen your toy commercial "GoldieBlox, Rube Goldberg & the Beastie Boys," we were very impressed by the creativity and the message behind your ad. We strongly support empowering young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes and igniting a passion for technology and engineering. As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads. When we tried to simply ask how and why our song "Girls" had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US.
UPDATE: A rep for the Beastie Boys tells the Huffington Post that the band has not made any claim against GoldieBlox, saying: "There was no complaint filed, no demand letter (no demand, for that matter) when [GoldieBlox] sued Beastie Boys."
Original item below: The feel-good ad of the month has taken a feel-bad turn. The Beastie Boys apparently have a problem with GoldieBlox's version of their song "Girls" in the overnight smash-hit "Princess Machine" commercial, which recast the track with new lyrics as an empowerment anthem for little girls. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the band has allegedly threatened legal action, claiming copyright infringement, and the toy company has preemptively filed its own lawsuit asking that its version of the song be considered fair use—a common defense in cases involving parody material. The sticking point for GoldieBlox may be that "Princess Machine" is expressly designed to sell toys, and thus is a commercial endeavor at least as much as it is a sociological statement, but it will be up to a court to decide. The Beastie Boys, meanwhile, risk looking like they're censoring a worthwhile message that has enthralled millions—though of course it's hard to protect your intellectual property if you're willing to look the other way now and then based on ideology or pressure from the public. You can read GoldieBlox's full complaint here.
A dreary rainstorm and a friend's apparent death might not seem like promising raw materials for an uplifting ad. But this one takes place in Ireland, so it all makes sense. The two-and-a-half minute spot for Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey was made by New York ad agency Opperman Weiss and directed by Laurence Dunmore of RSA Films. It features four friends all dressed up and trudging through the gloriously bleak countryside of Ireland, bottle of booze in hand, seeming to eulogize a fallen friend by singing the Irish folk song "A Parting Glass." Lovely stuff. Fast Company has an interview with creative director Paul Opperman, who says the men recorded the song in Saint Kevin's, the stone church in the film, known for its great acoustics. The film tries to capture what Irish music is like, he adds—"that sense of both melancholy and victory at the same time."
CREDITS William Grant & Sons Marketing Ltd Shane Hoyne – Global Brand Director
Opperman Weiss Paul Opperman – Writer Jeff Weiss – Art Director Mark Johnston – Executive Producer
Duotone Creative Director/Arranger: Jack Livesey Vocal Arranger: Eamon O'Leary Executive Producer: David Leinheardt
Bug Edit Andre Betz Editor Caitlin Grady Executive Producer
Taking its cues from the great 1997 documentary Hands on a Hardbody, Dodge and Wieden + Kennedy will launch a contest Tuesday called Hands on Ron Burgundy—an online test of endurance that will feature daily prizes as well as a grand prize of (as in the movie) a new car. In the film, contestants put their hands on a pickup truck, and the last person to take his or her hand off won the truck. The Burgundy contest, part of a larger campaign promoting the Dodge Durango and the upcoming film Anchorman 2, will go live at noon ET on Tuesday—and it looks like it will challenge users to click on Burgundy in photo after photo. The details will become clearer tomorrow, but it will surely take some serious stamina to win the car.
This kind of advertising as punishment was popular a few years back, when Burger King made people watch a spinning Whopper for hours on end to get coupons—and, in a somewhat similar idea to Dodge's, Peugeot had people click and hold their mouse button on a car for a chance at a free week's rental. People lasted up to 15 hours in that contest (and 77 hours in the movie)—so, proceed with this Burgundy thing with caution.
And you thought the NBA guys were talented for playing "Jingle Bells" via well-timed three-pointers. Check out the Kmart studs in the retailer's crazy Christmas cross-promotion with Joe Boxer via Draftfcb in Chicago—swaying their sacks to chime out their own impressive version of the holiday standard. That's some musical junk right there. It caps an offbeat year for agency and client, stretching from "Ship My Pants" through last week's evil-filled "Boardroom" spot. Sometimes it's just better to be on the naughty list.
UPDATE: For what it's worth, Chippendales did a similar video back in 2010.
New York is a stressful place, and Times Square isn't the most soothing of its neighborhoods. But thankfully, Draftfcb New York and the Jamaica Tourist Board recently plunked down an enormous stress ball on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets, giving New Yorkers and visitors a chance to "squeeze their burdens away." The giant ball doesn't work like a regular stress ball—you'd never get your hand around it—but perhaps you were meant to just give it a big hug, mon. In any case, its big smiling face served as a de-stresser by itself. And if all else failed, reggae artist and Jamaica native Gyptian was on hand to perform his mellow tunes for the crowd. More images, and credits, below.
CREDITS Client: Jamaica Tourist Board Agency: Draftfcb, New York Chief Creative Officer: Javier Campopiano Group Creative Director: Kevin Jordan Creative Directors: Bruno Acanfora, Ariel Abramovici Associate Creative Director: Lucas Bongioanni Group Management Director: Wendy Glass Account Supervisor: Ashley Hughes Account Executive: Molly Burns Producers: Joe De Franco, Susie Rofe, Daunno Jason
NBA stars are a festive bunch, with great timing to boot. They need both in the league's holiday campaigns. Last year, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Russell Westbrook and Joe Johnson impressively played the popular Christmas song "Carol of the Bells" just by bouncing basketballs (in a spot that soared to more than 8 million views). Now, here's the sequel—also from GS&P.
It stars Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, James Harden, Steve Nash and Stephen Curry shooting three-pointers at nets outfitted with Christmas bells—producing an even more impressive musical performance, this time of "Jingle Bells." LeBron James punctuates the song with a dunk at the end, then asks, "Please tell me the camera was on." It's a perfect spot.
Like last year's spot, this one promotes special-edition uniforms, available for sale, that 10 teams will wear on their Christmas Day games this year.
See a making-of video, plus credits, below.
CREDITS Client: NBA Spot: "Jingle Hoops"
Agency: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners Executive Creative Director: Jeff Goodby Creative Directors: Nick Klinkert, Adam Reeves Associate Creative Director, Copywriter: Rus Chao Associate Creative Director, Art Director: Kevin Koller Producer: Benton Roman Executive Producer: Tod Puckett Director of Broadcast Production: Cindy Fluitt Account Directors: Jason Bedecarre, Janice McManemy Account Manager: Heather Morba Senior Business Affairs Manager: Julie Petruzzo
Production Company: O Positive Director: Jonathan Klein Executive Producer: Ralph Laucella Line Producer: Angie Revell Director of Photography: Eric Steelberg
Editing: Final Cut Editor: Matt Murphy Assistant Editors: Tara Wall, Nate Connella Producer: Suzy Ramirez Executive Producer: Saima Awan
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