Hasta La Creative!

Independent, Seattle-based agency WONGDOODY appointed Jennie Moore as the agency’s latest creative director, focusing on its Papa Murphy’s Pizza and Litehouse Foods accounts.

Moore joins full-time after freelancing with the agency for the past six months, working on accounts including Amazon and Alaska Airlines (which went to Mekanism earlier this year), in addition to the aforementioned Papa Murphy’s Pizza and Litehouse Foods.

It marks something of a homecoming for Moore, who spent over five years as a senior copywriter with the agency beginning in September of 2004. She began her career as a copywriter with McCann Erickson Seattle, working with clients including Washington Mutual, Washington Apple Commission, Experience Music Project, Seattle International Film Festival and Warn Winches during her four years with the agency.

She left McCann Erickson for her first stint as a freelancer, splitting her time as a freelance copywriter between direct client work and agency work. The brands she worked on during the following four years included Starbucks, RealNetworks, Hornall Anderson, DaVinci Gourmet, Microsoft, Amazon and PAWS. Before her current appointment, she spent time freelancing with agencies including Creature, Here and There and David Leonard Creative; clients included Seattle’s Best Coffee, Umpqua Bank, The Gates Foundation, Bartell Drugs and Taco Time Northwest.

“Even though I’m no newbie to WONGDOODY, the novelty of working alongside Tracy Wong and all the other talented, fun, people here never wears off for me,” Moore said in a statement. “I’m so excited to be rejoining the WONGDOODY family, and to help lead the Papa Murphy’s and Litehouse accounts moving forward. It’s like coming home.”

“What I treasure most about Jennie — besides her writing talent — is the trust I have in her,” added WONGDOODY Chairmain and Co-Founder Tracy Wong. “She brings leadership, dedication and enthusiasm that both our agency and clients will immediately benefit from.”

Wongdoody taps Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson in a new spot for Alaska Airlines.

In the 60-second spot, Chief Football Officer Wilson puts the Alaska Airlines crew through training camp, remarking, “Alaska Airlines and I are basically one and the same: we’re always prepared. The separation’s in the preparation.” Wilson runs snackuracy and teddy bear tossing drills, and quizzes the team on routes and seat switching strategy. The airline training camp schtick is not a bad idea, and it is timely, but the full-length spot stretches the idea a little thin. It is much better served by the 30-second version, which we’ve included, along with credits, after the jump. (more…)

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L.A./Seattle-based Wongdoody and digital studio World Famous have joined forces to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Seattle International Film Festival by reintroducing viewers to some of their favorite movies.

Watch as a vaguely robotic/European narrator posing as a “futuristic scientist transport[ing] willing subjects into alternate realities” sells the “Cinescape” experience by empowering a viewer to live out her “Trainspotting” toilet fantasy and recasting some extra as the only professional actor in “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

The campaign, which also features “key art, print, outdoor, online and identity assets”, is currently airing as a trailer in various Seattle-area theaters. It will expand in various forms in the period leading up to the festival’s May 15th opening date.

The relationship between the agency and the festival has been a long one; this is their 11th collaboration.

Check out the shorter cut along with some quotes and credits after the jump.

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If you’ve already burned through Friday Night Lights, Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Bob’s Burgers, The League, Orange Is The New Black, and basically any other TV series worth watching on Netflix, set phasers to the documentary section for the 2011 film Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Directed by David Gelb, the movie is a portrait of 85-year-old world-renowned sushi master, Jiro Ono, who’s dedicated (literally) almost every waking moment of his life to perfecting his craft.

The film goes to great lengths to show how far Jiro strives to make the most perfect sushi in the world while simultaneously begging the questions, “What if your entire life was dedicated to only one pursuit? How would that affect your personal relationships? How do you then define success, if the concept of ‘success’ is even an ascertainable goal in your mind?” It’s as troubling a portrayal as it is fascinating, causing the viewer a level of introspection that few other films can achieve. It only made sense, then, for Gelb to follow-up his documentary on the world’s best sushi by filming its American equivalent, Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake pizza, for a new campaign from Wong, Doody, Crandall, Wiener.

It’s clear that Gelb employs some Jiro Dreams of Sushi-style camera work here. However, whereas his documentary focuses on getting to know the people behind the food, his spot has no time to do so. So, we instead get some creepy anonymous hands, kneading pizza dough in slow motion. We get some mom feet, with a mom arm shooting into frame from above to half-hug her child. Finally, we get some assorted family hands, each reaching out of nowhere to grab pizza slices (again, in slow-motion). All of this while creepy piano-plinking plays menacingly in the background.

While watching Jiro Dreams of Sushi, I was nervous that perhaps someone in Jiro’s immediately family would comment on his coldness, or his chef-before-father mentality. While watching this spot for Papa Murphy’s, I was worried that someone would be murdered. Credits after the jump.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.