Hasta La Creative!

Here’s yet another item from W+K today, as the agency has debuted its latest campaign for Old Spice, introducing a creepy new android character.

The new character makes his debut in the 30-second “Soccer” (featured above). When the robotic man goes to kick a soccer ball at the beach, he falls directly onto a sunbathing woman, crushing her ribs. Initially irked by the painful injury, she then notices that he smells amazing. When the android says that he can’t get up, she replies, suggestively “Maybe I don’t want you to.” Coming on the heels of the funny Terry Crews-filled World Cup spot, it’s pretty disappointing. It also marks something of a creepiness trend in W+K’s Old Spice work, with the campaign featuring anthropomorphic hair getting the creepy ball rolling earlier this year. Its “our products will make women want you” message is also vaguely reminiscent of Axe’s strategy of marketing to pubescent boys — the only demographic desperate/gullible enough to swallow such a claim. Either approach is irksome enough on its own, but combined they’re truly troubling. W+K’s latest campaign for Old Spice also features the 30-second online spot “Nightclub,” which takes a similar (but possibly even more ridiculous) approach. We’ve featured it after the jump for any interested parties. (more…)

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W+K New York have a new “This is SportsCenter” spot for ESPN featuring Metallica.

The agency has some fun with the idea that with Mariano Rivera now retired, Metallica doesn’t have a lot to do around the ESPN offices. Metallica looks for other athletes in need of entrance music, with less than satisfactory results, as well as other things to do around the office. Hosts Jay Harris, Scott Van Pelt and Stuart Scott also appear in the spot, which debuts today in anticipation of tonight’s Gillette Home Run Derby. The spot neglects to mention that Metallica still provide entrance/walk-up music for players including Rays reliever Grant Balfour, Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon and White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, but then that would kind of ruin the premise. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Wieden+Kennedy have a clever new spot for U.K.-based mobile provider Three, in which the company makes a timely apology.

The 60-second spot sees Three apologize for the rash of “holiday spam” resulting from the company allowing users to utilize their phone in 16 worldwide destinations without any extra cost for calls. texts or data. Three “thought this was a good thing,” but “failed to consider the consequences: the holiday spam,” says a contrite Three representative. It’s a clever approach, employing dry British humor to let Three brag about their coverage while leveraging a cultural phenomenon anyone can relate to. “Holiday Spam” also manages to be memorable without spending much money (it’s basically just one actor and a series of backgrounds). At the conclusion of the spot, viewers are prompted to visit the campaign landing site at stopholidayspam.com, which includes a heat map of spam levels in various locations. The campaign is also supported by the #holidayspam hashtag, a pretty seamless social integration.

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Wieden+Kennedy New York has rolled out two timely social campaigns for Heineken: “#BrazilianNoShow” and “Like for Love.”

“#BrazilianNoShow,” as you might have guessed, is a World Cup-related campaign. W+K New York and Heineken are “challenging CMOs, bosses, and people across America to give their employees time off to watch a game, with their new challenge #BrazilianNoShow!” The idea followed Team USA’s unexpected win against Ghana in their opening game, but is as relevant as ever following the team’s advancement past the group stage. Since game times coincide with the work day here in the U.S., Heineken CMO Nuno Teles appears (video above) to implore American workers and bosses to play hooky and support their team — after all, this opportunity only comes along once every four years.

“Like for Love” sees Heineken supporting Gay Pride Month by “encouraging consumers to ‘spread love’ through the ubiquitous double tap on Instagram, using six photos of real couples to create an interactive virtual Pride flag right in users’ feeds.” The real couple photos all have a single color background, but create an interactive, virtual Pride flag users’ feeds after they are liked. Stick around for credits after the jump. (more…)

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Old Spice scores another goal with Terry Crews, this time for the World Cup.

The brand would like you to know it’s now available in Brazil, and it’s a good time to tell you that because there’s a rather large sporting event taking place there right now. Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., cranked up its crazy machine and decided to have Crews power drill through the Earth to Brazil, where he meets his Brazilian double and congratulates him on being awesome, spontaneously creating a pineapple in the act.

Someday, they’ll just have Crews scream the whole thing; this time they settle for screaming half. Luckily, Crews’s elongated vowels work great for celebrating a sporting event where people yell “Goooooooaaaaaaal” all the time.

W+K New York unveils the new high-tech SportsCenter set, complete with a few bugs, in the latest in their long-running “This Is SportsCenter” series.

SportsCenter is set to debut their new studio on June 22nd, and the new spot takes place on the set of the 194,000 square foot Digital Center 2. In the 30-second spot, entitled “Universal Remote,” anchor Kevin Negandhi shows off the studio’s capabilities to fellow host Hannah Storm using a universal remote. The button on the remote that’s supposed to control the desk appears to be faulty, however, with Washington Nationals’ mascot Theodore Roosevelt, along with anchors Jay Crawford and Jay Harris, taking full advantage of the unintended and comical consequences. It’s a fun introduction to the new studio that manages to show off some of its new capabilities without taking itself seriously. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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Back in April, we covered “Winner Stays,” part of W+K’s “Risk Everything” campaign for Nike, which feature some of the world’s best soccer talent and clocked in at over four minutes long. Now, with only three days to go until the 2014 World Cup kicks off, W+K is back with an even lengthier effort for Nike.

Like “Winner Stays,” the new spot, entitled “The Last Game,” features some of the best players in the world — only this time they’re animated and voiced by voice actors. The over five-minute long “short film” tells the story of a scientist who creates clones of the great players which remove risk-taking in favor of efficiency and decision-making abilities. The results on the game are disastrous, turning it into a complete bore. Brazilian legend Ronaldo decides to do something about it, and gets together a team of superstars, all now leading “normal” lives, to take on the clones in a sudden death match.

Somehow the lengthy “The Last Game” doesn’t feel as long as its predecessor. While the trend of calling long ads “short films” is a touch ridiculous, W+K comes closer to earning that title than most do with “The Last Game,” which, in addition to some fine animation, has a plot that convincingly tells a story that viewers (especially children) may actually feel compelled to follow to its conclusion. While “Winner Stays” felt like an idea drawn out past the point of effectiveness, “The Last Game” actually uses all of its extended run time in service of a story. Whether or not it’s the most effective way to market Nike, the results are certainly entertaining. In addition to the full-length online spot, the campaign also includes 30-second trailers and athlete-specific teasers, and will run for six weeks. We’ve got a full list of credits after the jump. continued…

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Coca Cola’s ad strategy basically comes down to bombarding you with joy and togetherness, and a new animated spot from Wieden + Kennedy continues that tradition.

A boy bumps into a girl and lets go of a red balloon he’s carrying, so he can catch the Coca-Cola she drops, because what better way to charm in a Coke commercial than to save a Coke. The camera follows the balloon as it rises past the windows of a brick building, peering into a range of shared family milestones and moments, all, naturally, including little red-wrapped bottles of sugar water.

Couples are, variously, moving in together; holding a tea party with their young daughter; visiting their college-aged son; cooking and dancing together; and celebrating their fifty year anniversary. All the while, singer-songwriter Wendy Colonna croons in the background about finding happiness in a pair. It’s the slightest bit reminiscent of Up, but mostly an adorable and incredibly efficient bit of storytelling that’s right in the brand’s wheelhouse.

Coca-Cola is no stranger to animated ads (e.g., the Polar Bears and Happiness Factory) or twee soundtracks, and it’ll never stop pumping viewers full of bubbly feelings until they forget—or just stop caring—that the product isn’t really that good for them, even if the brand does occasionally mix in a little sass.

We’re only 16 days away from the start of the World Cup. And ESPN—which will present all 64 matches of the quadrennial tournament across the ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC networks—released its latest teaser commercial on Tuesday, this one devoted to the time warp that happens for viewers around the world every four years.

The spot, by Wieden + Kennedy in New York, feels like the beginning of an action movie, where the team is getting together before a big heist—except here, we’re seeing how different people around the world are getting ready for the World Cup. And wherever they are in the world, day or night, they’ll be setting their countdown clocks to Brazil time.

The spot moves seamlessly from metropolis to metropolis, with business executives, children, fisherman, etc., getting ready for the event. It opens on a favela rooftop in Rio and goes around the world—to a pub in England, a social club in Ghana, a fishing boat off Spain, an apartment in Russia, a car heading to Tehran, a bar about open at dawn in Japan, an office in Seattle, a family barbecue in Mexico and a research station in the Andes—before returning to Brazil.

“Every 4 years the world has one time zone,” says the end line. (That follows a spot earlier this month that said, “Every 4 years the conversation starts again.”)

Thanks to our longitudinal proximity to Brazil, Americans will see the matches at exceedingly humane hours, with kickoffs generally scheduled for noon, 3 p.m. or 6 p.m. ET. That’s a lot better than other recent World Cups—in particular, the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea, whose daily slate of matches began at 2:30 a.m. and wrapped up shortly after breakfast.

CREDITS
Client: ESPN

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Creative Directors: Brandon Henderson, Stuart Jennings, Gary Van Dzura, Caleb Jensen
Art Director: Mathieu Zarbatany
Copywriter: Andrew Jasperson
Producer: Luiza Naritomi
Executive Producer: Temma Shoaf
Account Team: Casey Bernard, Katie Hoak, Alex Scaros

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer: Doug Halbert
Line Producer: Terry Shafirov
Director of Photography: Corey Walter

Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor: Jeff Buchanan
Assistant Editor: Geoff Hastings
Post Producer: Beth Fitzpatrick

VFX Company: MPC
Senior Producer: Matthew Loranger
Production Asst.:
Lead Flame Artist/Creative Director: Gigi Ng

Mix Company: Heard City
Mixer: Philip Loeb
Producer: Sasha Awn

Music Company: Travis + Maude
Creative director: David Wittman
Producer: Kala Sherman

Here's a first for Coca-Cola—a TV commercial comprised entirely of short video clips made by fans (aside from some very brief animations).

The spot, produced by Wieden + Kennedy and set to premiere during Wednesday's season finale of American Idol, came out of a contest announced a few months ago. The brand invited teens to submit short video clips sharing what it feels like when they take a sip of Coke. The best clips, they were told, would be featured in a national Coca-Cola TV ad.

Coke got some 400 submissions, and chose 40 for the final cut. The clips in the ad come from all over the world—from Brazil to Salt Lake City to Jacksonville, Fla.

The spot, titled "This Is AHH," will air this week on teen-focused networks including The CW, MTV and Adult Swim. It's part of a teen campaign called "The AHH Effect," now in its second year.