Ads for Playboy Fragrances Have Plenty of Happy Endings, and a Few Weird Ones Too

One of the better Playboy ads of recent years was last year's "Elevator" spot from DDB Paris and directors The Perlorian Brothers. Here are two more ads done in the same style. The earlier spot sold shower gel for men; these are for Playboy's VIP fragrances for men and women. Playboy is at its best when it's not taking itself too seriously. That's (mostly) true here, plus there's the added bonus of a nice structure that keeps things lively. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Playboy Fragrances
Advertising Agency: DDB, Paris
Executive Creative Director: Alexandre Hervé
Copywriter: Alexis Benoit
Art Director: Paul Kreitmann
Production Company: Les Télécréateurs
Director: The Perlorian Brothers
Account Director: Xavier Mendiola
Planner: Fabien Leroux
Sound: THE
Client Team Director: Jurgen Scharfenstein
Agency Producers: Emilie Talpaert, Sophie Megrous
Account Team: Julie Garguillo, Timothee Desruelles

    

Geico Makes the Perfect Ad for Hump Day

Here is Geico's latest commercial from The Martin Agency. Uploaded on hump day, it's all about hump day. And it stars a certain mammal that hails from the Middle East and Africa. You can see where this is going. Part of the insurance company's ongoing "Happier Than" campaign. Silliness at its best. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Geico

Agency: The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Alexander
Group Creative Director: Steve Bassett
Creative Director: Wade Alger
Creative Director, Art Director: Sean Riley
Senior Copywriter: Ken Marcus
Executive Broadcast Producer: Molly Souter
Producer: Samantha Tucker
Junior Producer: Emily Taylor
Strategic Planner: Melissa Cabral
Group Account Director: Chris Mumford
Account Director: Liz Toms
Account Supervisor Parker Collins
Account Coordinator: Carter Crenshaw
Project Manager: Susan Karns

Group Talent Director: Suzanne Wieringo
Production Business Manager: Amy Trenz

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Wayne McClammy
Director of Photography: Tim Ives
Executive Producer, Managing Partner: Kevin Byrne
Producer: Nate Young
Production Supervisor: Steve Ruggieri

Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Ian MacKenzie
Editor: Dave Koza
Assistant Editor: Carmen Hu
Editorial Producer: Evan Meeker
Director of Operations: Biz Lunskey

Visual Effects: The Mill
Executive Producer: Jo Arghiris
Producer: Colin Blaney
Shoot Supervisor: Tony Robins
2-D Lead Artist: Randy McEntee
2-D Artists: Tony Robins, Paul Downes, Jamin Clutcher
Art Support: Rob Meade
3-D Lead Artist: Kevin Ives
3-D Artists: Billy Dangyoon Jang, Olivier Varteressian, Laurent Giaume, Justin Diamond, Sean Dooley, Joshua Merck, Hassan Taimur, Wyatt Savarese, Samuel Crees, Ross Scroble

Audio Post, Sound Design: Rainmaker Studios
Engineer: Jeff McManus
Music: "Happier Than" theme song by Adam Schlesinger

Principal Actors in Spot:
"Ronny" – Alex Harvey
"Jimmy" – Timothy Cole
Musical Duo in all spots

"Hump Day"
"Mike" – Michael Clark
"Julie" – Lindsay Stoddart
"Leslie" – Leslie Tsina
"Camel VO" – Chris Sulivan
Voiceover announcer: Andrew Anthony

    

Advertising Student Ships His Pants to Kmart’s Agency, Lands Internship

If you can ship your pants skillfully and creatively, you have a good chance of working at Kmart's ad agency, Draftfcb. The agency said today that it has brought in a new intern in large part because of his pants-shipping abilities. Alf Zapata shipped his actual pants and résumé to Draftfcb's recruiting department. That got him an interview; his "portfolio, witty humor and enthusiasm" got him the internship, the agency says. This raises the possibility that you could get an internship at Y&R in New York simply by apologizing and then acting superior. More images below.

    

Girl Barfs Up Her Own Dad in Baffling Anti-Drinking Ad From Spain

"Every time you get drunk, you separate yourself from the things that matter most. Like your family." That's the voiceover in this weird anti-drinking ad from Spain, aimed at young adults. The girl in the ad is seen vomiting up what is apparently her father. The sound effects are nasty, and the metaphor isn't much better. Second spot after the jump, in which a guy gets "separated" from his girlfriend—by upchucking her on a bathroom floor. Agency: Bungalow 25. Via Ads of the World.

    

Even Home Intruders Get the Girl in Campaign for Axe’s New Hair Products

'Tis the season for male-grooming brand extensions. Old Spice introduced its shaving gel last week. And now, Axe has updated its range of hair products for men. It's advertising them with four new 20-second ads from BBH London that have launched in Europe and will reach North America this weekend. The creative idea is that well-styled hair is crucial when you meet someone for the first time. The spots present various quirky first-meeting scenarios—the most faux-provocative of which is probably the home-invasion scenario, in which burglar seduces buglee with his perfectly slicked 'do. "We wanted to capture a simple truth about guys and their grooming habits," says David Kolbusz, deputy executive creative director at BBH. "Whenever a man sees a woman he fancies, he tends to touch up his hair before making the initial approach. We dramatized this behavior by setting it in the most extreme of circumstances." More spots and credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Lynx/Axe
Agency: BBH London

BBH Creative Team: Matt Fitch & Mark Lewis and Harry Orton and Robin Warman
BBH Creative Director: David Kolbusz
BBH Producer: Charlie Dodd
BBH Strategic Business Lead: Ngaio Pardon
BBH Strategy Director: Dan Hauck
BBH Strategist: Tim Jones
BBH Team Director: Heather Cuss
BBH Team Manager: Cressida Holmes Smith

Production Company: Outsider and Station Films
Director: Harold Einstein
Executive Producer: Eric Liney
Producer: Jon Stopp/Richard Packer
DoP: Danny Cohen
Post Production: The Mill
Editor/Editing House: The Mill
Sound: Factory

    

British Advertising Hits New Low With Commercial Starring Talking Butt Crack

What a week it's been. As Friday draws to a close, I see your defecating man in the exercise video and your threesome-inducing Sexual Chocolate wine, and I raise you one talking butt crack in this British advert for something called Polycell. It's some sort of spray product that promises "No more unsightly cracks" in your walls. Unfortunately, there's one major unsightly crack in the commercial. And it talks. David Ogilvy would be proud. Agency: 18 Feet & Rising. Full list of perpetrators below.

CREDITS
Client: Polycell
Agency: 18 Feet & Rising
Creative Director: Stephen de Wolf
Creatives: Alex Delaney & Oli O'Neill
Agency Producer: Emily Hodgson Julia Methold
Account Director: Adrienne Little
Strategic Business Lead Rob Ward
Director: Simon Willows
Production Company: Blink
Production Company Producer: Tiernan Hanby
Executive Production Company Producer: James Bretton
Editor: Mark Aarons
Post Production Company: The Electric Theatre Company
Post Production Company Producer: Helen Sutermeister
VFX Supervisor: Andrew Stewart
Colourist: Steffan Perry @ Framestore
Sound Engineer: Tony @ Wave Studios

    

Dumb Ways to Die Is Now a Video Game for the iPhone and iPad

There are now even more "Dumb Ways to Die"—and smart ways to live—as McCann Australia has made a video game out of its beloved, superviral train-safety ad from last year. "Starring all the characters from the viral hit Dumb Ways to Die for Metro Trains Melbourne, the game allows players to flick piranhas away from a character's private parts and defend another from a snake attack among other ways to avoid being dumb," the agency says. "Players can also pledge to 'not do dumb stuff around trains' at the click of a button." The game, developed by McCann in collaboration with local developer Barrel Of Donkeys, has been the No. 1 free app in Australia for a week, and is charting in 79 other countries. John Mescall, executive creative director of McCann Australia, said: "With the main Dumb Ways to Die video now close to 46 million views, we wanted to give young people another platform on which to enjoy the characters and, more importantly, to continue to remind them that being dumb around trains can and should be avoided."

    

Huggies App Sends You a Tweet Whenever Your Kid Pees in His Diaper

Today in useless marketing-driven product innovations, we have Huggies TweetPee, a little sensor dreamed up by Ogilvy Brazil that affixes to your baby's diaper, syncs with an app and tweets at you whenever it detects pee (in the form of a higher humidity level). This will work great for people whose parenting consists of the occasional diaper change in between marathon Twitter sessions. Evidently (it's somewhat hard to tell from the case-study video) the app also keeps track of the number of diapers you go through, and alerts you when you're running low. That may be the whole idea here—getting you to blow through diapers quicker by prompting you to change them every time the kid pees a little bit. In that regard, TweetPoop might be more useful than TweetPee—getting the kid out of a poopy diaper faster has its benefits. (You could call it "DM Your BM.") The problem, of course, is you don't need a fancy sensor to detect that. Via Adverblog.

UPDATE: Huggies got in touch and clarified that the clip-on humidity sensor is only a concept device and will not be available to purchase. The app is apparently intended simply to help parents in their purchasing of diapers. Here is the statement from Huggies:

"Huggies Brazil is excited to announce we will launch TweetPee in Brazil this July—a new iPhone app that is designed to help parents better keep track of the volume of diapers they use and provide easy integration with online retailers to make life easier for busy moms and dads.  In conjunction with the TweetPee app's debut in Brazil, feature videos will highlight the experiences of 10 moms and dads who use the app to streamline and more effectively plan for their purchases.

In the promotional video referenced, the clip-on humidity sensor is intended merely as a concept device to help showcase these 10 parents' experience with the app. It will not be made available for purchase, nor are we suggesting parents are unable or too busy to notice when their babies' diapers need changing! Please visit huggiestp.com.br for more information as news develops."

    

Nicole Kidman Is Gloriously Happy in First U.S. Ads for Australian Multivitamins

Nicole Kidman frolics around in some fields, giggles a lot and just generally looks happy and healthy in her first ad campaign for Swisse Wellness, Australia's No. 1 multivitamin brand. And this isn't just some act. "During the shoot, which took place at the historic Terrara House Estate on the Australian New South Wales south coast, Ms. Kidman surprised the crew by diving into the Pacific Ocean for a spontaneous early morning swim at Seven Mile Beach," the brand tells us. "She drove a pickup truck around the rural estate and enjoyed fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden." See, truth in advertising! The spot, the first of four, was done by Melbourne-based ad agency Noisy Beast, which is said to be planning to open an office in Chicago this year to handle U.S. marketing for the Swisse brand. The shoot was styled by a fellow Australian Oscar winner of Kidman's, costume designer Lizzy Gardiner, and directed by U.S. photographer and filmmaker John Urbano. "I joined Swisse because I wanted to help bring awareness to the importance of living a healthy lifestyle in a busy, often stressful world," said Kidman, who signed up as the brand's global ambassador last year. "I love feeling healthy and fit."

    

Two Friends Are Not Quite Who They Appear in Touching British Juice Ad

I'll admit to not seeing the twist ending coming in this evocative new spot by BBH London for fruit-drink brand Robinsons. You could quibble with the end lines, perhaps—and here's why—but that's overthinking it. It's an extremely sweet ad, expertly shot by the directing duo of Si & Ad at Academy Films. The commercial breaks Saturday in the U.K. during Britain's Got Talent and will run in 30- and 60-second executions. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Robinsons
Agency: BBH, London

BBH Creative Team: Matt Moreland, Chris Clarke, Sarah Hardcastle, Elliot Shiels
BBH Creative Directors: Hamish Pinnell, Justin Moore
BBH Producer: Glenn Paton
BBH Strategic Business Leads: John Harrison, Becky Russell 
BBH Strategist: Lilli English
BBH Team Director: Alex Monger

Production Company: Academy Films
Director: Si & Ad
Executive Producer: Lizie Gower
Producer: Dom Thomas
Director of Photography: Barry Ackroyd
Postproduction: The Mill
Editor, Editing House: Joe Guest @ Final Cut
Sound: Nick Angell

    

Domino’s New Site Lets You Watch Live Stream of Pizza Being Made Somewhere in Utah

Life just got more stressful for the workers at a Domino's Pizza restaurant in Salt Lake City. That's because that particular location is the guinea pig for the chain's new Domino's Live experiment, dreamed up by Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The agency has installed five cameras at the store to show workers making the pizzas in real time—kneading the dough, adding the toppings, popping the pies in and out of the oven. All through the month of May, anyone who orders a pizza online from any Domino's nationwide will be directed to DominosLive.com, where they will see … well, people making someone else's pizza, not yours (unless you happen to live near that location). The single-store pilot program went live today at 1 p.m. ET (11 a.m. local time), and so far we can see … hmmm, yep, there's some pizza being made. The footage is almost comically boring, but I suppose that's what you get with "transparency"—an inside look at a pretty tedious process in action. CP+B should have used hidden cameras instead. Then we might be in for more of a treat.

    

JetBlue Aims High With Online Tribute to NBA’s Jason Collins

The outpouring of support has been impressive for NBA player Jason Collins, the first openly gay male athlete in a major U.S. professional sport. Marketers, though, have been largely silent about Collins since yesterday—except for Nike, of course, whom he already endorses. (In a statement, the company said: "We admire Jason's courage and are proud that he is a Nike athlete. Nike believes in a level playing field where an athlete's sexual orientation is not a consideration.") About an hour ago, though, JetBlue posted an image created by its ad agency, Mullen, showing a rainbow image of the "i-people" from the company's "You Above All" brand campaign—to show support for Collins. "Thanks Jason, today we're all on the same team," reads the caption on the image, which was posted to Twitter and Facebook. Response has been mixed, with many fans and followers lauding the airline for supporting Collins and others wishing it had stayed "neutral." The brand's courage here is but a shadow of the player's courage, but it's brave nonetheless. Have other brands come out in support of Collins? Let us know in the comments.

    

Man Killed and Stuffed Down Toilet at Ad Agency, Google Photos Suggest

Google Business Photos is an interesting service through which companies can pay to add interior shots of their offices to Google Street View. The temptation to abuse the service by posting goofy or shocking photos would seem to be irresistible to creative agencies—and indeed, many of them have apparently been uploading prank images. The most curious so far have come from British agency Ideas by Music, which staged a gruesome shower-stall murder for one photo—and then showed the body stuffed unceremoniously into a toilet stall a few doors down. The same agency also staged a Shining tribute by putting a red tricycle in the middle of a hallway, and a mysterious girl standing nearby. Ideas by Music doesn't mind if you stumble across these disconcerting images—on the contrary, the agency's website is the Google Street View of its interior. Let's see if some U.S. agencies can step up and have some fun with this. Via The Atlantic.

    

Ogilvy Creates Saudi Arabia’s First Major Ad Campaign Condemning Violence Against Women

Saudi Arabia, which ranked 131st out of 134 countries for gender parity in a recent report from the World Economic Forum, has unveiled what is believed to be its first major ad campaign condemning violence against women. The first ad, created by Memac Ogilvy in Riyadh for the King Khalid Foundation, shows a woman in a niqab with a black eye. The English version of the copy reads: "Some things can't be covered: Fighting women's abuse together." "The veil does not only hide women's abuse, but it's also a representation of the social veil behind which a lot of societal deficiencies hide," says Fadi Saad, managing director of Memac Ogilvy in Riyadh. "It is one bold first step toward legislation to fight women's abuse in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We believe that the authorities are ready to support such a drive today given the evolution that is taking place in the country." It's another sign that views toward women may be slowly changing in Saudi Arabia. Last summer, Saudi women competed in the Olympics for the first time. And this January, King Abdullah appointed 30 women to the consultative Shura Council—also a first.

    

Paris Agency Introduces Come4.org, a Porn Site Devoted to Charity (NSFW)

What if being bad could do some good? That's the question asked by Come4.org, which describes itself as "the first user-generated, nonprofit pornography site devoted to funding charitable and ethically driven projects." The site is being unveiled with help from the Paris office of TBWA agency Being, which crafted an explicit 90-second short film, "The Lover," introducing Come4's first charitable initiative—helping to fund the Asta Philpot Foundation, which is committed to raising public awareness about the sexual rights of disabled people. (Philpot, an American living in Britain, advocates the right to an active sexual life for people with disabilities, even if it means paying for sex.) Check out the NSFW Web film below, followed by more from Come4.org about its philosophy and goals.

This film is NSFW due to nudity.

From Come4.org:

"Sex" is the top word searched on the Internet. With nearly billions of yearly revenues, the sex industry is one of the greatest markets online. Unfortunately, it is also one of the less ethical and transparent ones. Many people consuming free adult contents think that the only risk they may run into is that of being discovered by others. This idea, however, is plainly wrong, for the current model of consuming online sexual contents has many other negative implications.

The prevailing model is finalized to business, and thus it systematically aims at subjugating our sexual imagination to marketing standards. As a result, instead of reflecting the natural plurality of human sexuality, much of today's online sexual contents foster a one-dimensional perspective which is often fake, violent, macho-centered, and in many cases barely legal. We believe that we, as a self-aware community, can do better than this, and that time has come to rethink critically the relationship of online pornography and society.

With Come4 we aim to ignite a new sexual revolution, one that has at its core people instead of money, respect for diversity instead of uniformity, and solidarity instead of selfishness. Our goal is to devolve at least 1 percent of the total revenue of the online sex industry to support ethical causes aimed at defending and promoting sexual rights. Provided no one is harmed and that everything is legal, is there any reason why these revenues cannot be used for better ends?

CREDITS
Client: Come4.org
Spot: "The Lover"
Agency: Being, Paris
Creative Directors: Alasdhair MacGregor, Thierry Buriez
Art Director: Julien Chiapolini
Copywriter: Riccardo Fregoso
Head of TV: Maxime Boiron
Director: Jeppe Ronde
Executive Producer: Jean Ozannat
Production Company: Henry de Czar, Bacon

    

Microsoft to Apple and Samsung Fans: Stop Fighting, You Utter Morons

If smartphone advertising has a recurring theme, it's that the users of rival products are idiotic obsessives. Samsung made that point with its campaign poking fun at Apple fanboys. Now, Microsoft is making a similar point about both Apple and Samsung fans. The spot below for Windows Phone, from Crispin Porter + Bogusky and director Roman Coppola, takes place at a wedding, where half the crowd has iPhones and half has Galaxies. The bickering starts immediately, and soon escalates into a nasty brawl. A couple of attractive caterers, meanwhile, don't see what all the fuss is about. Can't we all just get along, and agree to buy Windows Phones? Of course, Microsoft would kill, or at least maim, for the kind of smartphone brand loyalty that the other two companies have. For now, the thinking seems to be, If you can't beat them, at least beat them up. And by the way—yes, unfortunately, Apple body tattoos do exist.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Microsoft Windows Phone
Spot: "The Wedding"
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Worldwide Chief Creative Officer: Rob Reilly
Executive Creative Director: Dan Donovan
Creative Directors: Dave Swartz, Dave Steinke, Bill Roden
Art Director: Robbin Ingvarsson
Copywriter: Waldemar Wegelin
Executive Integrated Producer: Aaron Kovan
Senior Integrated Producer: Laura Keseric
Junior Integrated Producer: Mike Borell
Production Company: Directors Bureau, Hollywood, Calif.
Director: Roman Coppola
Executive Producers (Production Company): Lisa Margulis, Elizabeth Minzes
Producer (Production Company): Mary Livingston
Postproduction: Method, Santa Monica, Calif.
Editorial Company: NO6LA, Santa Monica, Calif.
Executive Producer, Design: Crissy DeSimone
Producer: Leslie Tabor
Editor: Kevin Zimmerman        
Junior Music Producer: Chip Herter        
Group Account Director: Devin Reiter
Content Management Supervisor: Lynn Harris
Content Supervisor: Kelly Olech
Content Managers: Casey Wilen, Andrea Cadloni
Business Affairs: Katherine Graham Smith
Group Planning Director: Jason De Turris
Junior Cognitive Anthropologist: Tiffany Ahern

    

Newcastle Brown Ale Lovingly Salutes Its Founder, and the Worms That Mercilessly Devoured Him

"Col. James Porter was laid to rest in Morpeth, where worms began eating his body." Droga5 delivers one of the best commercials ever about a company's founder—for Newcastle Brown Ale. Read more about the brewer's latest campaign here.

    

Work It, Kitty! Cats Get Toned With Aerobics Routine From Temptations Treats

Cats doing aerobics? DDB Chicago's amusing new video for Temptations cat treats is likely to blow up the Internet. No wonder Temptations-eating felines have the leg muscles to be able to cling so ardently to their owners. Check out the Work It Kitty website, where you can download the song ("I Don't Wanna Dance," recorded by Alex Gaudino, featuring Taboo) and learn more about the cats in the video. Ask your veterinarian if you're healthy enough for the Work It Kitty workout. Not recommended if you're on drugs, like those fools in JWT's Litter Genie spots. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Temptations Cat Treats
Agency: DDB, Chicago
Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer: Ewan Patterson
Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director: Mark Gross
Vice President, Creative Director, Art Director: Wayne Robinson
Vice President, Creative Director, Copywriter: Matt Collier
Vice President, Executive Producer: Will St. Clair
Executive Digital Producer: Jon Ellis
Music Production Manager: Linda Bres
Executive Producer, Music and Integration: Eric Johnson
Production Business Manager: Scott Terry
Designer: Cody Petruk
Digital Artist, Designer: Annie Tsikretsis
Print Producer: Erica Bletsch
Art Buyer: Karen Blatchford
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Editorial Company: Beast, Chicago
Editor: John Dingfield
Telecine: Company 3, Chicago
Post Effects, Graphics: Method Studios, Chicago
Music: Ultra Records, "I Don't Wanna Dance," recorded by Alex Gaudino featuring Taboo

    

The New York Times Defends Putting Ad With Bloodied Man Next to Bombing Coverage

The New York Times took some heat from readers on Monday for allowing an online ad showing a bloodied man lying on the ground to appear next to coverage of the bombings in Boston. The ad, for the Sundance Channel show Rectify, received enough criticism that the paper's public editor, Margaret Sullivan, weighed in with a piece Wednesday—giving some background and confirming that the paper did indeed approve the juxtaposition, and that it wasn't just some oversight. "This did not feel like it crossed the threshold," the Times's ranking advertising executive, Todd R. Haskell, tells Sullivan. Haskell says that by Monday, it had been a full week since the bombings, which made the ad more acceptable. "We try to be as respectful as we can but these are subjective calls that we make in real time," he adds. (The show premiered Monday, which also made it more difficult to move it to a later date.) Sullivan ends up agreeing with Haskell and with Richard J. Meislin, a former associate managing editor who now is a liaison between the newsroom and the ad department, who said he thought the juxtaposition was "unfortunate, but it did not cross the line to the point where we would ask that the ad be taken down." What do you think?

    

Old Spice Rolls Out World’s First Scratch-and-Sniff Banner Ad

More goofiness from Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy—a scratch-and-sniff banner ad, which of course they're calling the world's first. It's running over on The Onion's sports section. Clicking on it takes you to a form you fill out—after which they'll send you something in the mail that will let you "smell the Internet." It lacks the immediacy of real scratch-and-sniff gimmicks, perhaps, but spares you from looking like an idiot at the office with your nose to the computer screen. It promotes the Wolfthorn line of products.