Hasta La Creative!

Beauty is in the eye of the … um … sorry, I lost my train of thought. While I try to remember how that saying goes, enjoy “The Ugly Couple Song,” a Valentine’s Day music video by RPA for XO Mints.

Unlike Cartier’s pretty posers, who pine for love, XO presents some hairy, less-than-hunky, socially awkward dudes who look like refugees from cover bands and sitcoms. (The guy with the curls resembles “College Ted” from How I Met Your Mother. He’s even got the “spectacles”!) They lip-sync along with the titular ditty, a folky number performed by Run River North, about finding that certain special someone no matter how unattractive you are.

“She’s got a heart that’s bigger than her hair/She might never be a model, but who cares?/She’s one cloud and some wings from being an angel/And who knows, we might make—something beautiful.” (Aww … isn’t that nice? #SomethingBeautiful is also the campaign’s hashtag.)

Frankly, the guys aren’t all that homely, and I expected a wacky payoff, like maybe they’d all marry each other. Instead, the clip stays minty sweet and low-key, gently poking fun at social stereotypes as it invites us to hum along.

Of course, fresh breath as a requirement for romance is also a stereotype. Still, it never hurts, and the brand’s heart is clearly in the right place.

RPA went the musical route with its “The Ugly Couple Song” Valentine’s Day spot for XO Mints.

As you might have guessed from the title, the song celebrates love among the less attractive. “I was never pretty, not even as a child” begins the first narrator of the generic acoustic folk-pop song, as he goes on to describe being put in the back during school photos (even though he wasn’t tall). The song is then handed off to another singer, who says he’s glad he wasn’t taken, since that would have meant missing “the best date in the world.” While the humor never quite hits its mark (or at least is never a laugh-inducing type of funny), and the song is bland musically, the lyrics are kind of sweet (as that line illustrates), which is the real strength of the online spot.

“We want everyone to share XO Mints with someone they love, or with someone they’d like to, because, if they do, as the song says, maybe they can make ‘something beautiful,” said Dan Loritz, co-founder of XO Mints, in a statement. “And this is what we think the message of the song is about too—you don’t have to be a supermodel to make #SomethingBeautiful. We’re aiming Cupid’s arrow at everyone this Valentine’s Day.”

Credits:

Agency: RPA

Chief Creative Officer: Joe Baratelli

Group Creative Director/Copywriter: Jason Sperling

Creative Director/Copywriter: Sarah-May Bates

Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff

Production Company: Bö’s House of Visual Arts

Director: Sarah-May Bates

Producer: Mark Tripp

Director of Photography: Ken Lin

AD/Gaffer: Adam Scheil

Production Assistant: Chris Grimshaw

Original song by Joshua Beeman

Music: “The Ugly Couple Song” performed by Run River North

Recorded at HUM Music

Executive Producer: Debbi Landon

Creative Director: Scott Glenn

Audio Engineer: Dan Hart

Graphics: Logan

Post Producer: Kaori Watanabe

Post Producer: Kevin Miller

Lead Design and Animation: Kristyn Solie

Design and Animation: Amy Wang

Animation: Omer Avarkan

Editorial:  Cut+Run

Editor:  Sean Stender

Head of Production:  Amburr Farls

Executive Producer:  Carr Schilling

Managing Director:  Michelle Eskin

VFX:  Jogger Studios

Creative Director:  David Parker

Telecine Company: Company 3

Colorist: Sean Coleman

With sexual innuendo as skimpy as the :60 ad itself, UK-based Adam & Eve/DDB helps travel site LastMinute.com set the mood ahead of Valentine’s Day by showcasing the “sexy delights of Europe.”

No, we’re not talking about a romantic stroll along the Champs Elysees or a trip through the canals of Venice…it’s more a variety of real-life images illustrating the saucier side of life across the pond.

No cheeky stone is left unturned in this nicely edited, quickly-paced online film, which promotes a “sexy” multimedia campaign that also includes the #LustMinute hashtag, press, CRM, direct marketing work and online components on the Lastminute.com site.

Client: LastMinute.com
Campaign:: Sexy Delights of Europe
Agency: adam&eveddb.com
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Priest
Executive Creative Directors: Ben Tollett, Richard Brim
Creative Directors: Frank Ginger & Shay Reading
Copywriter: Frances Leach
Art director: Christopher Bowsher
Planner: Dom Boyd
Media Agency: Manning Gottlieb OMD
Production Company: cain&abel
Director: Robert Smith

If regular Oreos don’t already put you in the mood for love, maybe try the cookie’s new Red Velvet flavor. The limited-edition Valentine’s Day product stars in a new animated campaign from 360i, and is presented as an awkward aphrodisiac for strangers.

The effects of Red Velvet Oreos might include a woman who looks kind of like a middle-aged Daria sliding her grip up a bus pole to touch the hand of the rocker hunk next to her. (In fact, the whole aesthetic seems inspired by ’90s MTV cartoons.) And let’s just say the dude is not moving his mitt away, either.

Irresistible cookie romance could also strike at the checkout counter, or 35,000 feet above sea level (because someone couldn’t resist a nod to the Mile High Club). In other words, Red Velvet Oreos are like the Axe of cookies. (Its advertising is just—appropriately—quirkier and more subtle than most of the body spray’s.)

There are six spots in total, with a new one rolling out each day this week. The brand says they’re meant for people who aren’t psyched about Valentine’s Day. That makes some sense, because while Red Velvet Oreos might be a dubious gift, it’s perfectly appropriate to shame-eat a pack while sitting alone at home watching rom-com marathons while everyone else is paired off and having a good time out on the town.

And whether or not Red Velvet Oreos will actually get you laid, one thing is for sure—more people should carry fanny packs with cookies in them.

CREDITS
Client: Oreo
Senior Associate Brand Manager: Kerri McCarthy
Senior Associate Brand Manager: Elise Burditt
Senior Brand Manager: Lauryn McDonough
North America Director: Janda Lukin

Agency: 360i
Chief Creative Officer: Pierre Lipton
Group Account Director: Sandra Ciconte
Group Creative Directors: Aaron Mosher, David Yankelewitz
Art Director: Kelsie Kaufman
Copywriter: Jessy Cole
Associate Producer: Ethan Brooks
Senior Producer: Amanda Kwan
Account Director: Josh Lenze
Senior Strategist: Maggie Walsh
Account Manager: Megan Falcone
Community Manager: Sarah Wanger
Community Supervisor: Namrata Patel

Production Company: Shadowmachine (LA) http://www.shadowmachine.com
Executive Producers: Alex Bulkley, Corey Campodonico
Director/Producer: Jed Hathaway
Lead Animator: Sapphire Sandalo
Animator: Iana Kushchenko
Animator: Sean Nadeau
Character Designer: Matt Garofalo
Background Designer: Emilio Santoyo
Storyboard Artist: James Gibson
Animatic Editor: Peter Keahey
Sound Design: Pendulum Music (Ryan Franks, Scott Nickoley
Commercial Rep: Honky Dory (Gisela Limberg, Ali Tiedrich)

Coca-Cola loves smart, bossy vending machines. It loves them so much, it helped turn them into an entire marketing category.

This year, the brand brought back its Valentine's Day edition, further escalating the arms race to develop manipulative beverage dispensers.

Actually a virtual vending machine projected on a wall, this iteration would only appear for couples, helping single people feel even worse about being alone. According to the case study video (which, of course, is the real point of activations like this one), the machine also personalized sodas by putting the couple's names on cans.

But the core concept is pretty much a rehash—back in 2012, another Valentine's Day Coke Machine only dispensed sodas to couples who would prove they were together by necking in front of it. So refusing to even show the new machine to solo passersby is really just an extra twist of the knife. Seriously, just look at the poor chump staring at the blank wall, at the end. No soda for you, lonely boy.

If any unexpected flames of love start flickering in Paris for Valentine's Day today, the Cupid-shot lovesick fools will be ready. That's because the Flower Council of Holland (an industry group that helps florists build their businesses) has installed 1,500 cute little red boxes that are modeled after emergency boxes—but contain single red roses. "In case of love at first sight, break glass," the boxes say. It's a cute idea, and not as dangerous as it sounds. The "glass" is actually cellophane. Agency: Kingsday.

CREDITS
Agency: Kingsday, Amsterdam
Production Company: Chocolat Rouge Films Parijs
Client: Flower Council of Holland

Brands both expected and unexpected are advertising for Valentine’s Day, using a variety of promotions both online and in person.

Judging from FTD's Valentine's Day ads, maybe love does mean having to say you're sorry after all.

Four 60-second spots by Epsilon Chicago, designed to illustrate that "FTD says it best" for next week's holiday, put couples on a shiny red sofa that's more hot seat than love seat. They bicker about how the guys botched V-Day last year by giving the gals inappropriate gifts (or none at all), when a bouquet or basket from FTD would've worked wonders.

In the best of the bunch, feathers fly. "I got her a parrot," brags our would-be Romeo. "He got me a freaking parrot," his lady-love moans. The guy says, "Oh my gosh, it is so cool … it's majestic … it's regal." She replies, "It's dirty … it stinks … it bites."

These ads don't bite—they're amusing and well acted—but they do feel dated. The rhythm and style recall late-'90s/early-'00s sitcoms, with bird-brained guys and whiny women over-obsessing about their relationship woes. And why do we get youngish white hetero couples each time?

Surely, in 2014, Cupid's raised his aim.

Advertising Agency: Digital Republic, Cairo & Dubai Creative Director: Karim A. Yusuf Copywriters: Mohamed Ghazy, Ahmed Safi Art Director: Karim A. Yusuf Head of Accounts: Ismail Ternawly Senior Digital Media Consultant: Hassan Daoud Senior Social Media Consultant: Ahmed El-Sadek Social Media Specialist: Nadine Sayegh Director/Editor: Mohamed Khaled Via [mediaME]