Hasta La Creative!

Netflix has done quite a bit of clever marketing in its recent past, from the minimalist teasers for House of Cards to its fake listings for shows featured in Arrested Development.

The streaming service’s newest oddity is part of the promotion for BoJack Horseman, an upcoming Adult Swim-ish show about a talking horse who’s fallen on hard times after the demise of his 1990s sitcom. 

The promo site is designed to perfectly mimic not just a ’90s GeoCities page, but also to autoplay the theme song from BoJack’s defunct sitcom, Horsin’ Around. (Think of it as Full House and Charles in Charge meets Mr. Ed.) 

We have to wonder: How long did it take to make this look so convincingly stupid? I mean, the little sub-window with a pair of scroll bars that lead to a “dead” image—that’s hard to do these days! The mouseovers that make the font size inflate? Literally years have been spent trying to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen. So hats off to the fine folks in the marketing department at Netflix for briefly un-fixing the Internet. 

The series, starring Will Arnett (obviously), Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie and Aaron Paul, will premiere on Aug. 22, Netflix announced today.

And now, the opening theme to Horsin’ Around. You’re so, so welcome.

Winning the prestigious annual designation of being the first brand to launch a national broadcast campaign for the holiday is Best Buy. Teaming with AOR CP+B, the duo have decided that the best way to delude people into putting a Microsoft Surface on their wish lists with the help of four celebrities reading parodies of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” whilst mugging for the camera. If you were watching the World Series on Sunday, these may already look a bit familiar.

Up to bat first are Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph, former co-stars on NBC’s troubled sitcom Up All Night or, to the vast majority of Americans who never heard about that show, “that guy from Arrested Development” and “that girl from Bridesmaids and SNL.” Both consistent show-stealers no matter what project they’re working on, neither phones in their performances for these spots, even though the scripts may be a bit lacking.

The issue with both of these comedic talents is that they completely make these spots. Now, this isn’t a bad thing. But whenever the camera breaks from them to focus on the spot’s holiday shopping subject, I lose total interest in these ads. In other words: Any time they’re not on camera, I’m completely tuning out until they come back. This may just be my experience, as I’m a big fan of both actors, but we’ll see if upcoming spots in the campaign starring LL Cool J and Jason Schwartzman suffer from the same issue. Still, cheers to Best Buy for getting Arnett and Rudolph on board.

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After less than a year away, Clemens Brandt has rejoined the fold at BBDO New York to serve as director of digital operations, reporting to director of integrated production Dave Rolfe and chairman/CCO, David Lubars. Last we heard, Brandt left BBDO last summer for a gig at B-Reel, specifically for the production company’s B-Reel Products division, where he served as executive producer in its New York office.

During his first stint at BBDO NY, which lasted approximately 18 months, the returning exec served as a VP/interactive executive producer on campaigns including the Will Arnett-starring holiday effort for AT&T and the Nokia Lumia 920. Prior to initially joining BBDO, Brandt served as an interactive producer at W+K London for three years.

We’ve been told that Brandt officially assumed his new role at BBDO NY this week and will now oversee the agency’s digital production, in-house digital studio (K5) and general BBDO digital operations. In a statement, Rolfe tells us, “We are very fortunate Clemens has returned. He’s the perfect guy to help steer our day-to-day approach toward better digital fluidity and integration. Connecting technology to idea and vice versa, getting the right teams in place and strengthening our digital production and tech staffing.”

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