Hasta La Creative!

Old Spice is tapping into the gamer community, which clearly overlaps with its own target, with an interesting campaign on Twitch—the live social video platform for gamers—in which viewers get to control a real human being dropping in a forest for three days.

Beginning Thursday at 10 a.m. PT, visitors to twitch.tv/oldspice will use the site’s chat feature to send commands to the man to perform. Users will work together to unlock achievements or activities for Nature Man. (“Arm wrestle an obviously fake bear? Hear stories from a wise tree? Stumble across interesting and good smelling characters? The scenarios are endless—and completely up to the participating gamers,” says Wieden + Kennedy, which built the experience.)

Beyond that, well, we’ll just have to see how it unfolds.

“Old Spice is thrilled to bring an outdoor gaming experience like no other to our fans and the Twitch community,” Kate DiCarlo, communications manager for P&G beauty care, tells AdFreak. “We’re always looking for new ways to entertain and build brand loyalty with our fans, and Twitch is the perfect partner to help us reach the gaming and live streaming culture in an authentic way. Plus, with scent names like Timber, Amber and Citron, we couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate our new nature-inspired Fresher Collection.”

The stream will run from 10 a.m. to sundown PT on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Traditional watch makers are in a bit of a bind with the launch of the Apple Watch. Do they just ignore it, or do they make fun of it—and in so doing, admit its buzzworthiness and give it that much extra attention?

Shinola is going with the latter approach, launching ads from Partners & Spade in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal (suitably old-school placements, naturally) that rib the wondrous new Apple device, which is finally available for pre-order today.

The ads promote the brand’s Runwell watch, which at $550 is almost identical in price to the lower-end Apple Watch, which goes for $549. The tagline is, “The Runwell. It’s just smart enough,” and the copy riffs on that theme:

Smart enough that you don’t need to charge it at night. Smart enough that it will never need a software upgrade. Smart enough that version 1.0 won’t need to be replaced next year, or in the many decades that follow. Built by the watchmakers of Detroit to last a lifetime or longer under the terms and conditions of the Shinola guarantee.

Yes, the watch might be old-school, but the snark is very modern-day. Full ad below.

CREDITS
Client: Shinola
Agency: Partners & Spade
Creative Director: Anthony Sperduti
Creative Director: Griffin Creech
Art Director: Danny Demers

There was enough snow this winter, and spring, that agencies started making ads with it.

At least, Lapiz did in this fun campaign for the Mexico Tourism Board. After an unexpected springtime snowstorm in Chicago, the agency called on local street artist NosE Lanariz to make some outdoor ads from the stuff—as you can see in the video below.

The campaign hit three locations in the city, with headlines like, “Take Your Clothes Off”, “Come Melt Under The Sun” and “Beaches With Sand This White.”

CREDITS
Client: Mexico Tourism Board
Campaign: Snow Graffiti
Agency: Lapiz
CCO: Laurence Klinger
Executive Creative Director: Fabio Seidl
Creative Director: Carlos ‘Ia’ Murad
Associate Creative Director: Flavio Pina
Copywriter: Eduardo Vea Keating
Producers: Bobby Gruenberg and Aldo Gagliardi
General Manager: Gustavo Razzetti
Account team: Ernesto Adduci, Pablo Sabouret
Director and Editor (video): Ben Derico
Editor: Jonny Arcila
Finish house: Optimus
Artist: NosE Lanariz

Last week, we saw HBO replying to 3-year-old tweets from cable cutters who wanted a stand-alone HBO option back then—something it is now launching with HBO Now. Today, the network unveils a companion video, in which it punks Jake Caputo—the guy who got people all riled up and demanding stand-alone service in 2012 by launching takemymoneyhbo.com—with help from some very special guests.

If Caputo really wants to give his money away to HBO, Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri and Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero will happily take it off his hands.

Here’s a simple and fun McDonald’s campaign from Leo Burnett Dubai promoting the fast-food chain’s delivery service, showing various characters receiving exactly what they love in a McDonald’s bag. (Not McDonald’s food, mind you, though you get the point.)

And that’s a key that the robot is getting, people. A key.

Via Adeevee.

More ads and credits below.

CREDITS
Client: McDonald’s
Agency: Leo Burnett Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Executive Creative Director: Andre Nassar
Creative Director: Rondon Fernandes
Art Director: Daniel Salles, Robison Mattei, Victor Toyofuku
Copywriter: Wayne Fernandes
Head Of Art: Bruno Bomediano

Advertising craft doesn’t get more delicate than this. Check out TBWAHakuhodo’s 3-D printed ice cubes, created for Japan’s Suntory Whisky.

The agency used what’s called a CNC router to carve the designs, which ranged from the Statue of Liberty to the Sphinx to Batman and everything in between. (There even appears to be, perhaps presciently, a Cannes Lion in the mix.)

Miwako Fujiwara of TBWAHakuhodo said the CNC router was chilled at -7 degrees Celsius to keep the ice from melting. The agency used an app called Autodesk 123D to capture the 3-D images and prep them for printing. “A touch of chilled whiskey polishes the surface of the ice and gives a beautiful shine to the sculpture,” Fujiwara added.

The campaign was launched in 2014 and just won a Branded Content & Entertainment Lotus trophy at the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival in Thailand.

Lots more images, along with credits, below.

CREDITS
Client: Suntory

Campaign: “3D on the Rocks”

Agency: TBWA HAKUHODO+HAKUHODO
Executive Creative Director+Creative Director+Planner: Kazoo Sato
Copywriter +Planner: Takahiro Hosoda, Nobuhiro Arai
Art Director+Designer: Yo Kimura, Yuki Tokuno
Creative Technologist: Masashi Matsukura
Producer: Kaoru Otani
Assistant Producer: Fusae Yoshikawa
PR: Kayoko Asano, Miwako Fujiwara

Production: TOKYO+mount inc.+amana

Movie:
Director: Eiji Tanigawa(TOKYO)
Camera: Senzo Ueno(TOKYO)
Light: Masachio Nishida
Art: Midoriko Nemoto(TAIYO KIKAKU?
Ice: Motoharu Kato(Yamane Ice)
Sizzle: Noriko Saotome(GRAND)
Video Engenner: Satoshi Igarashi
Producer: Toshiyuki Takei(TOKYO)
Assistant Producer: Masayoshi Takayanagi(TOKYO)
Production Manager: Makoto Takahashi(TOKYO)
Production Manager Assistant: Rintaro Kozasa(TAIYO KIKAKU??
OFFLINE Editor: Ryuichi Hasegawa(puzzle)
ONLINE Editor: Akira Nishibu(IMAGE STUDIO109)
Multi Audio: Yuta Sato(IMAGE STUDIO109)
Sound Effects: Norio Kobayashi(ONPa)

Music:
Executive Producer: Audioforce
Producer: DANIC
Composer: Steve Sidwell

Web:
Planner: Im Jeong-ho, Takeshiro Umetsu(mount inc.)
Planner +Art Director+Technical Director+Director: Hidekazu Hayashi(mount inc.)
Director: Hiroka Hasegawa, Hideki Yoshidatsu(mount inc.)
HTML coding: Hideki Yoshidatsu(mount inc.)
3DCG: Takeo Saito, Mika Nariya(FULVIS K.K.)
Production Manager: Ko Yoshida(mount inc.)

Graphic:
Photographer: Keisuke Minoda(acube)
Retoucher: Masahiko Furuta(RIZING)
Photo producer: Shinya Omi(amana)

Ricky Gervais is the ultimate anti-pitchman in this amusing set of ads for Australian broadband and cable company Optus, promoting its deal to bring Netflix to the country.

The creator of The Office and Extras, who’s done Netflix ads before, is less interested in talking about Optus and more interested in boasting about how much they paid him and how little effort he put into the pitch. He also delivers the whole message in his trademark stupidly arrogant David Brent style.

There’s also a funny spot in which he rushes to get the talking points in before the ad-skip button appears for YouTube viewers.

The campaign was created by APN News & Media’s content marketing arm Emotive in collaboration with M&C Saatchi and Fuel Communications.

“Allowing Ricky to take control of the scripts and deliver it with his globally renowned comedy style was a bold move which could only happen with a progressive brand like Optus. We’re all chuffed with the result,” says Emotive CEO Simon Joyce.

OK Go has collaborated with plenty of brands—including Chevrolet, Google, Samsung and State Farm—on its own music videos. But here is the first truly traditional commercial the band has ever filmed. Though of course, this being OK Go, it’s far from typical.

The ad, which the band worked on in China for much of February, is for the Chinese furniture store Red Star Macalline. Full of optical illusions, it visually references OK Go’s 2014 video “The Writing’s on the Wall” (which the band later accused Apple of ripping off) but is set to another OK Go track, “I Won’t Let You Down” (a remixed version by drummer Dan Konopka).

Hear the band talk about the project here:

CREDITS
Director: Damian Kulash Jr.
Co-Director & Creative Director: Mary Fagot

Executive Producer: Fung Ni
Director of Photography: Luke Geissbuhler
Art Director: Julius Mak
Production Manager: Bihong,Chan
Assistant Director: Joan Chen

Photograph group:
Steadicam Operator: Alec Jarnagin
1st Assistant : Kenan Qi
Assistants: Xinfeng Zhang Hongyan, zhang Yanru, wang
Equipement: Wei Pang
Digital Image Engineer: Tiger
Equipement Company: Yiying Shanghai

Light Group:
Lightman: Kok Kin Wing
1st Assistant: Jingdong Wang
Light Assistant: Bin Xu Xinbin Jiang Yongchao Hu Chaoliang Wang Yang An
Light Equipment : Chenjun Zhou

Art Group:
1st Assistant: Ong Wan Hoong
Art Assistants: Harris Eddie Sequerah, Rae Chen
Props: Songyi Wu
Studio Factory Manager: Yubin Xia
Recordist: Yan Xia

Production Group:
Executive Producer: Xiaoming Tang
Production Assistants: Jojo Ying Yuanbiao Wang Yong Dong Longhui Li Yi Zheng
Translator: Lingyi Chen, Yifei Gu
Runner: Chao Huang
Transport: Shuguang You

Casting: Fei Huang, Jingyuan Yuan
Choreography: Guanglei Zhang
Dancers: Weijia zhou, Chuanjing XU, Kaijie Wang, Xi Xu, Zhijing Cao, Yimian Song, Xuqin Hua, Wentao Fan, Qin Zhang, Xubin Geng, Chunmeng Yan

Costume:
Stylist Director: Mengjia Zhan
Stylists: Yuanjun Xiao, Shiqi Zhang, Yinghui Huang, Zhihui Wang, Chen Wang, Bin Lang, Huiting Wang

Postproduction
Offline Editor: Fenny
TC : Jian Wang
Online user: CiCi & Yuqian Jin
Post Producer: Jojo Ying
Behind the Scene: Steven
Post Production Company: Liveplus Shanghai, Film Vally Shanghai
Music Studio : Take One, Shanghai

General Planner: Red Star Macalline “Two Days coming” program
Agency: 25hours, Shanghai
Production House: STEAM ,Shanghai
Advertising Agency Executive Creative Director: Lei Tao
Advertising Agency Creative Director: Song Zhang
Advertising Agency Art Director: Lei Shi, Binyan Huang
Account Director: Lingning Yan
Account Executive: Yan Huang, Da Li

Kevin Bacon has traded off the whole “six degrees” things in ads for years. Now it’s time to put the Bacon to work.

And that he does in an amusing if obvious campaign from Grey New York promoting eggs on behalf of the American Egg Board. Because after all, nobody knows eggs better than bacon. Or Bacon.

The online video gets surprisingly suggestive, as Kevin puts up with some heavy flirting from a married woman who discovers him just lying on her counter one day. And the spot doesn’t tire of puns, even though Kevin claims not to enjoy them.

He does enjoy his eggs, however.

“With a last name like Bacon, I’m the obvious choice, and I’m excited to be a part of the new Incredible Edible Egg campaign,” Bacon says in a statement. “I like the creativity behind the idea, and I’ve always been a big fan of eggs. They’re a nutritional powerhouse and I never get tired of them because there are so many ways you can eat them.”

Per-capita egg consumption grew to 260 in 2014, an increase of more than a dozen over the last five years, according to the USDA. The celebrity ad campaign is designed to keep that momentum going.

“Kevin Bacon brings real star power to the world of eggs and we think consumers are going to love this clever new version of bacon and eggs,” says Kevin Burkum, the American Egg Board’s svp of marketing. “And there’s no better time to talk about eggs with consumption at its highest level in three decades and Easter right around the corner.”

See the print ad below.

CREDITS
Client: American Egg Board
Spot: “Side of Kevin”
Agency: Grey New York
Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren (Global) / Andreas Dahlqvist (New York)
Creative Directors: Ari Halper (Executive Creative Director), Steve Krauss (Executive Creative Director), Brad Mancuso, Susan LaScala Wood
Art Directors: Jay Hunt / Pete Gosselin, Matt DeCoste
Copywriters: Jay Hunt / Pete Gosselin
Agency Producer: Perry Kornblum
Production Company (location): Moxie Pictures (LA)
Director: Martin Granger
Director of Photography: Alar Kivilo
Editor (person & company): Alex Cohan / Vision Post
Music/Sound Design (person & company): Matt Baker / Vision Post
Principal Talent: Kevin Bacon, Geneva Carr, Jeff Wiens

Never underestimate people’s power not to give a damn about what’s right in front of them.

We’ve seen this time and again in outdoor ad stunts, and this latest one from AMV BBDO in London is quite amusing to watch. It’s a PSA for Cancer Research U.K., which wanted to communicate that British people are missing the first signs of cancer. Well, no wonder they ignore small lumps in their bodies when they just walk right past weird giant lumps growing in the real world.

Model makers Artem built the lumps.

“The road lumps had to match the paving bricks of the street used for the shoot, and be distorted in such a way that made it appear as if a ‘tumor’ was growing in the road,” the company says. “The lumps had to be light enough to carry on and off set, but durable enough for a van to go over them; one of the lumps was reinforced in fiberglass to allow for a road sweeper to go over it.”

CREDITS
Client: Cancer Research U.K.
Agency: AMV BBDO, London
Creative Directors: Mike Crowe, Rob Messeter
Copywriter: Charlotte Adorjan
Art Director: Michael Jones
Agency Planners: Emily Harlock, Sarah Sternberg
Account: Gareth Collins, Emily Atkinson, Ally Humpherys
Agency Producer: Sophie Horner
Media Agency: Mediacom
Media Planner: Lucy Mitchell
Production Company: Rogue
Producer: Maddy Easton
Director: Sam Cadman
Sound: Gary Turnball / Grand Central Recording Studios
Post: Joseph Tang / The Mill
Editor: Kev Palmer / TenThree
Model Makers: Artem
Music: The Sound Works