Hasta La Creative!

Technology isn’t just sterile and cold and robotic. Oh no! Not at all! Technology can help (eventually) transform our lives for good. I say eventually, because this spot is set in the future. While the story is trying hard to be touching, visually it’s frightening and disturbing as it portrays a society that is so reliant on technology we can’t escape it for one moment. Literally. Don’t believe me? Look:

We open on the mother checking a futuristic tablet. From bed. First thing she does. Then she runs to her sleeping daughter and checks her daughter’s medical fit-bit.
Cut to the cold looming Dell servers tucked deep and far away somewhere, most likely in a concrete building with an air-conditioning bill the size of Romania’s GDP. Then we cut to the dramatic helicopter shot where the new organ in question is being carried in some version of a data monitoring (and data collecting) Igloo cooler to the hospital.
We then cut to the innocuous and happy looking entrance to the children’s hospital where our courageous patient rushes to a giant touch screen to say hello to the friendly cartoon! The friendly cartoon actually serves to check her in because of course at this point in the future, there are no middle class jobs left– buh bye receptionist. The courageous daughter pops the balloon and presumably the touch screen’s or hidden NFC reads her medical fitbit-like device and then the words “Hello, Amy,” pop up. It happens quickly, so you might not have noticed it the first time.
We then cut to the doctor who waves his hand to turn on a Dell version of Google glass. He then proceeds to analyze what looks like a hologram heart, or a heart that’s been encased in a clear laser disc.
We cut to the waiting room, with the inevitable Man On Smart Phone on the left side of the frame. This scene also contains the only real moment of believable humanity in the spot so far. Note how the mother has her feet on the seat cushion and her shoes off. The exhausted look on her face. I’d be exhausted from technology ruling my every moment, too.
Cut back to the doctors’ playing with the laser discs of hearts and the umpteenth time we see the Dell logo (this time in reverse reflection).
We then end on the mom (who so far seems like the only parent really interested in her kid’s health as the dad is just there to take up space) putting her ear to her daughter’s new heart where she can hear it for the first time. I imagine that in doing so, the heart (which in my mind has been implanted with more data tracking software) is sending cutaneous waves straight through the daughter to her ear canal, gauging her emotions, so it can then serve up the appropriate native advertising through the daughter, like a ventriloquist dummy or child possessed.
And the first words the daughter says are these: “Here are ten more medical miracles that will restore your faith in humanity.”

From the bottom up, Koodo’s new platform is mobile-optimized, engineered from the digital world to the traditional, hearkening to how people now predominantly consume their content. In developing the platform, Camp Jefferson’s creative exploration started with the most important screen in people’s lives — the mobile phone — and was inspired by the ‘bite-sized’ content people seek out and want to share. The result was a brand platform that references the responsive grid-based thinking of the digital realm, that’s highly flexible and can be sliced and diced in different ways, and easily deployed across a range of media. “Choose Happy” will be an enduring platform with work rolling out consistently over the next few years.

“A light went off when we realized that our client’s product could be our main media vehicle,” said Paul Little, Executive Creative Director at Camp Jefferson. “This lead us to create a platform that was built to work in the way we consume media on our smartphones. In essence it’s a tiled, modular system that can be assembled into anything — from multiple units that become TV commercials to individual pieces that act as content to be shared and enjoyed on social channels.”

“You wanna spend three bucks on liquid doubt, be my guest” quips our bleach ambassador and SNL alumni Nora Dunn. Like in “Toilets” and “Stains”, Nora explains that “Bleach means clean”, while with those others… We’re not so sure. “This one has flowers”

The ad campaign sets out to help consumers overcome the widespread belief that bleach-based cleaners aren’t for everyday use. Dunn’s knack for deadpan humor acts like a diversion against all of the gimmicks in the cleaning aisle, positioning Clorox Bleach as the original badass cleaner.

Michael Kenneth Williams, who played Omar on “The Wire,” returns to Flatbush, Brooklyn and reflects on his rough upbringing, how it made him who he is today. There’s a parallel between that process of becoming who you are, which doesn’t happen overnight, and 1800 Tequila’s aging process, which also doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a thin parallel but it’s there.

In Cancelled, a short film directed by Eva Michon for the fashion brand Ace&Jig, a young model arrives in L.A. to learn that the video she was supposed to shoot is not happening. So, she decides to spend some quality time…with herself.

Set to a Canadian pop singer Sean Nicholas Savage’s sparkling ballad Naturally, the video follows the young woman (played by performance artist Alexandra Marzella) as she relaxes at her hotel, visits Venice Beach and Griffith Park, and disregards a series of text messages from her friends.

“I liked the idea of ignoring the world and spending time with yourself,” says Michon, who is represented for advertising assignments in the U.S. by Accomplice Media.
Michon shot the film, with cinematographer Drew Bienemann, in a single day, working in a loose, improvisational manner. “Ally is very natural on camera,” says Michon of working with Marzella. “The whole experience was a lot of fun.”

Cancelled screened at the trendy boutique Mohawk General Store in Silver Lake, where Ace&Jig designers Cary Vaughan and Jenna Wilson introduced their fall line. It made its online debut on Style.com as part of its Video Fashion Week and has also been featured in New York Magazine’s In the Cut.

The video is Michon’s second for Ace&Jig. Her early video House Guest centers on a young woman who experiences a series of minor mishaps while housesitting for a friend.

The boys are back in town! These guys may be middle-aged, corduroy-wearing, latte-sipping dads but with tickets at low prices they can put the band back together. In the suburbian garage they can rock their rock star moves and relive the garage band glory days. Pleas stay in the garage, guys.

Vlade Divac, the Serbian NBA legend known for his performance on the LA Lakers and Sacramento Kings in the ‘90s and early 2000’s. Vlade is the first of many NBA personalities to be featured as voices and rolled out on the Waze app in the coming months.

The cast of “Matilda the Musical” take their act out of the theater and onto the streets in an exuberant performance of “When I Grow Up.” The results are “pure joy,” “pure genius.”

“Today the struggle is real, but I’m just like: Worth it” – oh these party hard suburban moms are not to be messed with. Do not miss Blessed and “Turnt”. Also, if you’re older than 18 you might need a dictionary app or babelfish of some sort. One thing is clear though, if these moms are pre-gaming with the girls & swiping right for the delivery guy and “twerking hard at a foam party”, they might know a thing or two about the best Hefty Red Party Cups.

“On April 20th, we will introduce the BRRR-ito. And you’ll see why 4.20 will be exactly like 4.20.” So says Ben & Jerry’s the hippie-ice cream makers who are quite obviously targeting the stoner-munchie demographic with this Apple “1984” advertising spoof. Why not, Apple 1984 has been homaged before, selling everything from kids toothbrushes to dolls targeted at little girls so why not ice-cream? As soon as you feel your product is “revolutionary” in its category, you can parody the 1984 and thus not be revolutionary at all with your advertising. In this version of the 1984 story, our heroine delivers an ice-cream to the TV which is showing you a bland ice-cream sandwich. When the TV explodes, the stoners who were watching it, numb, smile and nod approvingly – then presumably they took another hit from the bong.

Does this mean that the two scoops of ice cream, drizzled with fudge and topped with cookie crumbs, rolled up in a soft and chewy waffle wrap is going to be $4.20? Because man, that sounds totally worth it and please let that be the price.