Hasta La Creative!

Buzzman is no longer independent. Havas Group today announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in Buzzman, the most awarded French independent advertising agency, a move that will further reinforce the Group’s creative excellence and bring on board a highly talented team.

Buzzman was founded in 2006 by George Mohammed-Chérif, keen to put the power of digital culture to work for brands. With the founding of Buzzman, he created a whole new model of a 100% independent advertising agency combining supreme creativity with an advanced understanding of consumer engagement. Buzzman has since become one of the most awarded agencies in the market and is acclaimed as one of the boldest and most creative in Europe.
 

Working alongside associates Thomas Granger (since 2009); Julien Levilain (since 2011), Olivier Amsallem (since 2007), Tristan Daltroff and Louis Audard (since 2010), and Clément Scherrer (since 2015), George Mohammed-Chérif has instilled in his teams a powerful culture and working methods rooted in exacting standards, autonomy and solidarity. Paris-based Buzzman reports a gross margin of 12.3M€. Its 140 talents leverage creativity and entertainment to profoundly influence consumer perceptions, behaviours and practices. Pushing the boundaries of traditional advertising and creating innovative concepts, Buzzman gives brands a way to engage with their audiences through powerful storytelling.

Buzzman works with leading brands such as Burger King, PMU, Boursorama Banque, Ikea, Ouibus (SNCF), Fleury Michon, Hippopotamus, Mondelez (Oreo, Milka), EasyJet, L’Oréal (Diesel, Puma Fragrances, Garnier), Huawei, NRJ Mobile, PayPal, BMW and more.

In keeping with the entrepreneurial and decentralized spirit embraced by Havas, Buzzman will now become part of the Group’s creative division, whilst retaining its independence in its 10th arrondissement offices. The agency can count on Havas Group to invest in the best talents and creative tools. The entire management team, headed by Georges Mohammed-Chérif, will continue to run the agency.

Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and CEO Havas Group said: “I am delighted and proud that Buzzman is joining Havas. Welcome aboard! Georges was one of the earliest advertising pioneers to seize on the amazing opportunities that digital has to offer. He made all the right decisions and took a bold step at just the right moment, launching a startup that has since become a creative force to be reckoned with, in France and beyond. This deal ties in perfectly with our determination to position Havas at the convergence of communications and entertainment since becoming part of Vivendi.”

Georges Mohammed-Chérif, President and Creative Director of Buzzman added the following: “In recent years, Buzzman has been the target of repeated approaches from leading communications and consulting groups. The reason why we have now chosen to go with Havas is Yannick Bolloré’s readiness to listen and his grasp of what it is that underpins our extraordinary creativity: our independence. The one non-negotiable condition for joining the Havas Group was maintaining our autonomy. We will now be able to take advantage of the synergies offered by the network and expand the field of opportunities, whilst holding fast to Buzzman’s recipe for success from the outset: exacting standards, outspokenness and boldness.“

RSA Films is pleased to announce acclaimed filmmaker Peter Atencio has joined the company for commercial representation. His work directing and producing the hit sketch comedy show “Key & Peele” landed him in the cultural zeitgeist and earned him an EMMY Award for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series along with multiple other EMMY nominations, a Peabody Award and an American Comedy Award.  He’s also met success directing and producing the TV drama “Whiskey Cavalier” this year for Warner Bros. and ABC. As a commercial director, Atencio is known for Pepsi Max’s popular viral campaign “Test Drive” for Davie Brown Entertainment/The Marketing Arm, which features Jeff Gordon pulling pranks in disguise. Work from that campaign was honored with Clios, a One Show Pencil and an AICP award.  Other commercial directing highlights are spots for Xfinity, Mountain Dew (Call of Duty: Black Ops 3), Taco Bell, Twitter and Honda, to note just a few.

Atencio also directed and produced Scott Free’s highly praised “Jean-Claude Van Johnson,” the original series for Amazon Studios that is a genre-busting, tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s life in the spotlight. And he has directed feature films such as Keanu, an action comedy for Warner Bros. starring Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele that evolves around an adorable gangsta kitten.

“Peter is a natural narrative storyteller and has a sixth sense about comedy, whether its improv or scripted,” comments David Mitchell, Managing Director, RSA Films.  “That’s complemented by his in-depth technical knowledge of filmmaking and producing. He can direct huge stunt pieces or massive special effects with the same expertise as he can two people on a simple white psych being funny. He’s a great addition to the roster and a versatile resource for our advertising clients.”

“I grew up as a fan of not just Ridley and Tony’s feature film work, but also their incredible advertising work,” Atencio comments. “They almost single-handedly made commercials cooler, funnier and more visually impressive. That legacy – that advertising was something that could be as equally culturally defining as feature films – continues today. I want to follow that same set of guidelines: How do we make advertising cool, funny, engaging and impressive?”

Among today’s upper echelon of comedic storytellers, Atencio directed all 55 episodes of “Key & Peele,” which Rotten Tomatoes praised for its “effortless ability to balance absurdity with thoughtful social commentary” and called an “endlessly inventive sketch series” at the end of its five-season run in 2015. He learned a lot from the experience and continues to draw from it. “The most important takeaway was harnessing the right energy on set to allow the comedy to happen organically,” he relates.  “As someone who is meticulous about planning and prep, it was very eye-opening to be a part of a show where we often threw out the script in favor of something much funnier we’d find on set. I try to incorporate that flexibility into what I do now. I’m still meticulous, but filmmaking is an organic process, and it’s best to embrace that – particularly when it comes to comedy.”

Atencio also enjoys commercial projects where he gets to do things film and TV work would not normally allow. He points to Tomcat “Trebuchet” (Barton F. Graf), a “stunt” for Tomcat deer repellant which trebuchets a variety of artificial forest animals straight up into the air and out of a garden, as one example, while his Pepsi Max “Test Drive 2” spot – with Jeff Gordon pranking auto journalist Travis Okulski – is another. “That ‘Test Drive 2’ spot is probably the most memorable experience for me, because it’s not often that a multinational corporation gives you the go-ahead to plan and execute a kidnapping and high-speed car chase with a NASCAR champion driver who’s in disguise as an ex-con.”

His experience working at a high level in both advertising and entertainment enables Atencio to offer brands and agencies the best of both worlds. “I pride myself on having a distinct vision, but being easy to collaborate with,” he says. “That means having great communication throughout the whole process, so that no one is surprised by what’s happening.  On set, I prefer a relaxed and jovial atmosphere, as I find that it usually results in better performances and stronger results. When a spot is intended to be funny, I’m always happy to help pitch jokes throughout the process, and I tend to incorporate a fair amount of improv into my plan for the shooting day. There’s nothing better than going in with a tight idea and a strong script, and then making it even funnier with some experimentation on the day. Even the best comedy writing in the world gets stronger when it lives and breathes inside the world we’ve created on set.”

Atencio is repped for television and film projects by UTA and managed by Peter Principato at Artists First.

ABOUT RIDLEY SCOTT AND ASSOCIATES

Founded by Ridley and Tony Scott in 1968, RSA Films has, for 50 years, been one of the world’s leading commercial production companies. RSA has created a legacy of excellence in commercials, music videos, features, television, branded content, VR and beyond that has expanded over the years to sister companies Scott Free and Black Dog Films. Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Shanghai, RSA has a roster of over 70 directors, including Ava DuVernay, Sam Mendes, Paul Feig and Jake Scott. RSA has received numerous Cannes Lions, EMMY, BAFTA, AICP, CLIO, MTV and MVPA Awards since its inception. RSA Films is a Ridley Scott Creative Group company.

As hurricane Dorian, a terrifying cat 5, pummeled the Abaco and Grand Bahama islands in the Bahamas people searched social media for news. Unfortunately for brands, that’s when their ads appeared as promoted tweets in their feed.

Now, we all know that “programmatic buying” as someone dubbed it means that nobody actually placed this ad in this poor context – but it doesn’t matter to the viewer at all. Having Coke cheerfully talking about waves when your searching for news about the islands that were literally underwater due to Dorian, is quite distasteful. “Anytime is the best time to start a wave” No, chief, this ain’t it.

Island-inspired tweets ready to be promoted when people are talking about the beautiful tropical islands don’t look so great right now either. All we need is a bathing suit and floaties? The international airport on Grand Bahama in the Bahamas and many communities and towns were literally submerged. We’re going to need more than floaties, Hilton.

Once again, we know that these ads aren’t planned to show up between tweets showing extremely dramatic news regarding hurricane Dorian, but they are targeted by geography and keywords same as always, you would think that advertisers knew to have a “shut it down” button ready for emergency situations like this by now. 

I’ll leave you with this one, perhaps not the worst of ads, but then you might remember that there’s a couple of Bacardi Distilleries in the Bahamas. 

If you want to help the people of the Bahamas, early relief efforts are deployed by International medical corps and the  Bahamas redcross are asking people to donate non-perishable goods, baby supplies, bedding, and cleaning items for them to distribute to the areas most affected by Hurricane Dorian using the hashtag #HelpUsHelp. Donating to Team Rubicon will help as they are an international disaster relief nonprofit organization made up of military veterans and first responders, they can help with anything from rebuilding houses to clearing debris and helping organize large groups of volunteers. They went to the Bahamas early to help put up sandbags and board up windows, so they already have people in the country.

Most of social media is now going nuts over a new ad from Dior, featuring Johhny Depp and a couple of Native Americans, one of whom is doing a traditional dance on a mountaintop in the sunset. While that actually looks really cool, the response to Dior’s original tweet (archive) was so strong that they have already deleted it. While Dior has sold “Sauvage” cologne with Depp in the desert before, the Native American element is new and coupled with the French word, people now saw the name as a slur.

Prior ad showed Depp leaving the city and driving out to the desert, where he ceremoniously buries all his jewellery and sheds the city look. The symbolism is that Depp is what the name implies: wild and free. 

Dior explained on Instagram, the ad features a Native American dancerand member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe who goes by Canku One Star, and he is performing the “Fancy War Dance that embodies all the modernity of the Native American culture.” The film, directed by filmmaker Jean-Baptiste Mondino, was made as a “close collaboration” between Dior and Native American consultants from the organization Americans for Indian Opportunity “in order to respect Indigenous cultures, values and heritage.”

This is the full ad. Like the previous commercials for Sauvage, Depp is rebelling alone in the American west, except here he riffs on his guitar instead of burying his jewellery, while gazing at the horizon in closeups or squinting at the burning sun. It may look cool, but I’ll always wonder if it smells like sweat.
 

Dior explains in their release that they were actively trying to avoid this current reaction:

“As soon as we began to evoke Native American imagery and symbols in this new film, the House of Dior, Jean-Baptiste Mondino and Johnny Depp immediately decided to contact Native American consultants who are enrolled citizens of the Comanche, Isleta and Taos Pueblos and the Pawnee Nation.” 

 

Their aim was to : 

“…moving away from clichés in order to avoid the cultural appropriation and subversion that so often taints images representing Native peoples. And so, from the script to the choice of locations via costume making and right down to casting, which they organized themselves, the AIO validated all the elements and symbols linked to Native American cultures.”

They failed, however, because no matter how many actual Native Americans were consulted and hired here, the viewer doesn’t know this just by looking at the ad, so Twitter did what twitter does best and had a fit.
 

What most complainers seem to have in common is that they had no idea the Dior cologne “Sauvage” has existed for many years with Depp as the frontman already. They are interpreting the name as a direct slur directed at Canku One Star, and the elusive young beauty who spies on Depp from behind tall grass. 

Due to the reactions, Dior has removed the campaign from all social media, and are cancelling the September media buy.
 

fr omg the real reason the outrage is flying over they’re head and everybody else’s is beyond me. like sauvage? seriously? why didn’t they just name it redskin!

— tina (@whee7n) August 30, 2019

Reasons why your outrage over the Dior Sauvage ad is invalid and ridiculous:

– Natives participated in the creation of the ad.
– Johnny Depp is part indigenous.
– They did not mock or make fun of the culture.
– It was a homage.
– And finally, the meaning of Sauvage: pic.twitter.com/eqAKDh94Cx

— ?haley? (@sparrabitch) August 30, 2019

Did adding the ‘u’ in Sauvage make this racism but with a French mustache

— Danie Darko (@daniecal) August 30, 2019

Possibly the most amazing thing about this “Sauvage” campaign is that they’re using abuser Johnny Depp as its primary spokesperson because of his “deep ties” to the Native American peoplehttps://t.co/R3kAs2LQLO pic.twitter.com/U8SKlCGh2S

— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) August 30, 2019

For those saying “Sauvage” means savage…if only we had an outlet to look up and translate words fast & efficiently. If only… pic.twitter.com/fJNEGCxMSM

— Comfortably Numb (@PettyBooRubble) August 30, 2019

The decision reflects the growing number of PR-related entries to the competition.

As its new season gets into high gear, the Epica Awards has announced a new PR Grand Prix. The prize will be open to the winners of the PR category as well as other campaigns with a proven high level of earned media coverage, at the discretion of the jury.

The addition brings the number of Epica Grand Prix up to seven alongside Film, Print, Digital, Design, Responsibility and Alternative.

Epica Awards editorial director Mark Tungate said: “Over the years we have evolved from an advertising award into one that embraces every facet of creative communications. In terms of entries we’ve seen an increase in the number of PR campaigns, as well as PR agencies, so it seemed appropriate to give the discipline its own big prize.”

Many of the journalists on Epica’s jury write about PR. Given their metier, they also have an instinctive feel for the subject. Epica defines PR operations as “campaigns in the field of press relations, public affairs, crisis management, lobbying, community and influencer management, financial communications and stakeholder relations”; as well as “projects and activities specifically devised to generate earned media”.

“We know that great ads sometimes generate earned media, but this is a prize for campaigns with PR strategy at their heart,” Tungate added.

The Epica Awards are open for early bird entries until August 31. The closing date is October 7. 

“Turn to the Nerds” launched last summer, and it was designed to introduce the NerdWallet brand as a friendly, approachable resource – and showed this with shouting giant text landing in everyday situations. This campaign opens it up, because we all have “Money Questions”, but we don’t often get great answers from the people around us. The first spot in the campaign shows all the money questions we asks ourselves, be they big or small.

This is the first campaign to launch under the leadership of Nerd Wallet’s first-ever Chief Marketing Officer, Kelly Gillease, whose appointment was just announced. “NerdWallet has a team of passionate Nerds that work to answer the personal finance questions people have most – from which credit card is best for me, to how to shop for my first home,” Gillease said. “In our new Money Questions campaign, we highlight how NerdWallet helps to get you the information you need – in an easy-to-understand way – so you can make the best financial decision for you.”

When asked about the new work, ARGONAUT Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Hunter Hindman, said: “We’re really proud of where we’ve taken the “Turn to the Nerds” platform over the last year and the “Money Questions” work is some of our best yet. It’s overwhelming for people to know where to go with their money questions. With this campaign, we have been able to distill all of what NerdWallet does down to a simple, compelling human benefit that can live seamlessly across both NerdWallet products as well as our varied media touch points.”

Client: NerdWallet

CMO: Kelly Gillease

Director of Brand Marketing: Alison McGlone

Brand Marketing Manager: Erin Albertson

Associate Brand Marketing Manager: Vivian Chen

NerdWallet Creative Director: Rob Nikzad

NerdWallet Head of Copy: Christina Cartal

Agency: ARGONAUT

Chief Creative Officer:  Hunter Hindman

Group Creative Director: Rob Calabro

Copy Writer: Chris Kessler

Art Director: Sean Grimes

Creative Director: Ryan McLaughlin

Copy Writer: Austin White         

Producer: Mark Tobin                                              

Producer: Daniel Odishoo

Group Brand Director: Rebecca Kallman

Brand Manager: Lindsay Igoe

Brand Manager: Chris Remy

Directors Bureau

Director:  Sam Holst

Cinematography:  Nigel Bluck

Production Company: The Directors Bureau

MD/Executive Producer: Lisa Margulis

EP/Head of Production: Elizabeth Minzes

Line Producer: Kali Niemann

Cut+Run SF

Editor | Pete Koob

Assistant Editor | Lori Arden

Producer | Cassandra Guardado

Executive Producer | Deanne Mehling

Jogger SF

Creative Director | Andy Brown

Flame Artist | Matt Trivan

Online Producer | Caylee Banz

Executive Producer | Deanne Mehling

Roger Credit List:

Executive Creative Director: Terence Lee

Executive Producer:  Josh Libitsky

Head of Production:  Liz Catullo

Director of Business Development:  Anne Pendola

Producer:  Fayna Sanchez

Designers:  Tina Hung, Kevin Jan

2D Animators:  Tina Hung, Kevin Jan, Jeremie Carreon

Director: Mishka Kornai

Cinematography:  Galo Olivares

Production Company: Whitelist.tv

Executive Producer: Jerad Anderson

Head of Production: Matt Griffo

Line Producer: Mark Conley

Production Service Company (Mexico City):  Tonic

Editorial: Beast SF

Editor: Tim Brooks

Assistant Editor: Jed Stuber

Colorist/Flame Artist: Dave Burghardt

Executive Producer:  Tracy Coleman

Brickton might seem like a domineering font that spells things out with aplomb. It has bold characters and pointy serifs, but upon closer inspection, there are curves, corners and the arches are chamfered. 

Adding to its versatility, Brickton has a layered font system that lets you superimpose styles. Use Brickton Regular and Brickton Lines on top of each other to create a design with text that has an inline style to it. Or use Brickton Ridge for another type of line style.

Adland: In making this font, were you looking to solve a specific problem that you’ve had?

Daniel Feldt: This started out as a custom font as per request from a client who was looking for a bold display font for a packaging project.
This was maybe two years ago and the project never got any further than the initial sketching phase. 

Adland: What visually inspired you for this?

Daniel Feldt: The obvious inspiration is a typeface called Brothers by John Downer. The proportions are quite similar but Brickton is a little bit thinner and has a smoother outer edge on arcs, shoulders e t c as well as a sloping cross strokes and a bit different serifs and angles. Other inspirations came from the original client request that had some refernce photos of vintage packaging. A couple of classic Swedish beer labels as Gränges and Mariestads also server as inspiration. I wanted something that would look great on a can or a bottle or as a label on pasta packaging. I always referred to it as my “pasta font” before starting actual work on it. To also add value and a bit uniqueness to Brickton, make it more of its own thing, I created a couple of styles that can be used together.

Adland: This font can be layered to change how it looks, how did you come up with this concept?

Daniel Feldt: Oh, that’s not a unique concept that was created for this project. Layer fonts and color fonts is a thing that’s been around for a while. I’m using an app called Glyphs to create my typefaces and there you easily create layer fonts by adding masters and instances. You just need to make sure that all the masters share metrics so the different styles align when you superimpose them. With just a few different styles you give the user lots of combinations and options. 

Adland: How long did it take from idea to finish to do this?

Daniel Feldt: Hard to say since it’s been in my mind and in different forms on the computer for a few years. But since I decided to expand the sketches to a useable font with different styles I’d say a couple of months perhaps. 

Adland: Have you used it yourself in a project somewhere?

Daniel Feldt: Nope, not yet. I’ve spent a couple of days creating promos and mock designs with it, that’s always a fun part of the project. 

Adland: Have you seen anyone else use it yet?

Daniel Feldt: It’s just out now, since a day or two. So, not yet. 🙂 

Brickton is now available at MyFonts.

Big Green Egg Europe tasked Fitzroy to develop a campaign to expand the brands market share in Europe. Big Green Egg is the market leader in the ceramic barbecue segment and wants to strengthen its position. In some countries where they are relatively new, like Germany and France, the brands needs to be introduced.

The Big Green Egg is the classic among the kamado’s. And although many copies are made, the quality is still unparalleled. To emphasize this, Fitzroy developed a campaign with “The Evergreen” as the core idea. Because quality never gets old, the Big Green Egg is not subject to changing times.

With one family of three generations getting together, this film shows that times change, but family grilling and get togethers is always there. Just like that egg.

Fitzroy will roll out the campaign in several European countries this year, with the emphasis on digital, print and POS.

Ad agency: Fitzroy

“Hey.”

“Holy shit, it’s Jeremy Renner.”

“Yeah. Look, I know you just rolled up this diner to eat, but lemme borrow your Jeep.”

“Uh. Why?”

“Just lemme do it.”

“You have a tour bus right there. It has your name all over it.”

“Right. Well, you can hitch a ride with them.”

“What’s a road house tour, anyway? Are you pretending you aren’t famous?”

“Just get in the bus. You can come to the show.”

“Get in there? With those people from central casting? One of them just called you “Jer.” Do you really go by “Jer?”

“You’re on the guest list to my show. I recorded music in my house. I even licensed it to this Jeep commercial so I make money, since no one buys songs any more.”

“So let me get this straight. You’re gonna steal our car and then force us to hear you sing? I knew Hollyweird was fucked up but this is beyond fucked up.”

“I’ll give you the Jeep back when I’m done.”

“Fine. Whatever. But listen–PLEASE promise you won’t try to go off-roading in it or get out of the car and start dancing in the sand because I really don’t want you tracking sand in my car. You hear me? No sand in my car. Promise.”

“…”

“Jeremy? YOU BASTARD, IF THERE’S SAND IN MY JEEP, SO HELP ME I’M CALLING THE POLICE. COME BACK HERE, YOU WEIRDO.”

Client: Fiat Chrysler

Agency: DDB

Jeremy Renner stars in this spot featuring Jeremy Renner discovering the desert while Jeremy Renner listens to Jeremy Renner’s music while driving until eventually Jeremy Renner goes to a concert where Jeremy Renner is singing the same song Jeremy Renner was listening to in the car.

Also starring unnamed woman and a barely credited Jeep Cherokee.  Seems like a missed opportunity to have called the vehicle the Jeep Cherokee: Jeremy Renner Edition. 

This takes celebrity advertising to an embarrassing new level as much as it does the ad world’s obsession with the desert. I guess it’s better than Deux Ex merch but not by much.

I think DDB is to blame for this campaign, but it’s hard to say because none of the press releases mentioned the agency, only breathy quotes from Olivier Francois, FCA’s Global Brand President. That and Fiat Chrysler rotates agencies more than most people change underwear. By the time I hit post on this article, they might already be using a different agency.

Credits: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Agency: DDB