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Get a Real Friend, Because Yours Suck, Say Pedigree's Great Ads for Dog Adoption

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Here's a great little campaign for dog adoption by Pedigree and French agency CLM BBDO. Because a dog really will be your best friend, and a loyal one—unlike human best friends, who are constantly letting you down.

Click the ads to enlarge.



CREDITS
Client: Pedigree
Client Representatives: Philippe Mineur, Yann Aubourg
Agency: CLM BBDO
Campaign: "Add a Real Friend"
Art Director: Anthony Lietart
Copywriter: Sébastien Duhaud
Creative Director: Matthieu Elkaïm
Agency Representatives: Laurent Duvivier, Mélanie Marchand, Romain Bruneau, Alisson Cotret
Art Buyers: Marie Bottin, Sacha Pereira Da Silva
Photographer: Alex Murphy
PR: Lauren Weber


Is This Strange Russian Ad With a Man Drowning the Perfect Metaphor for Social Media?

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If you saw a man drowning on social media, would you save him? That's the metaphor at the heart of this bizarre ad for Mainpeople, a new Russian app designed to make charity more central to social media.

In the spot, half a dozen people stand on a dock watching and yammering while some poor guy flails around and swallows half the lake.

The cast of characters nicely skewers a range of clichés—there's the paranoid conspiracy theorist, the smart-ass teenage boy, the cutesy teenage girl, the grown nerd spouting advice and statistics, the smarmy professor praising other countries, the indignant rich woman who blames the government.

Eventually, a sleazy contextual advertiser shows up and elbows his way into the conversation—flanked by two models in bikinis and rubber ducky life preservers (which are pretty awesome, I wouldn't mind having one).

Nobody, though, can be bothered to actually lift a finger to help. And at the end of the parable, it's clear, if not explicitly shown, that the victim actually drowns. (Though, in a clever bit of editing, an alternate reality shows the app quite literally saving him—someone pushes a button on it, and another man pulls him out onto the dock.)

Click the CC button for English subtitles.



The clip is, in a vacuum, amusing, playing on the perhaps too-obvious truth that there's a lot of self-indulgent noise on networks like Facebook (and presumably VK), not to mention in a lot of the conversations anyone's ever had about anything.

As for the apparent point—that people should be talking less and doing more to end suffering, broadly defined—it's hard to argue the merits, but the mechanics are pretty fuzzy. There's already no shortage of opportunities to donate to various causes via Facebook, for those who want them. Mainpeople's website seems to suggest the app will streamline the process, making it easy to donate even when posting about unrelated subjects, and increasing the visibility of posts that come with a contribution (because it's always smart to appeal to everyone's vanity).

The brand's name itself refers to people who are actually doing the heavy lifting of the charity work, and the app is supposed to let lazier types help simply by putting their money where their mouth is.

But even downloading another app seems like a lot of work.

CREDITS
Production: Stereotactic Moscow
Script: Pavel Karykhalin, Michael Lockshin
Director: Michael Lockshin
Directorof Photography: Ivan Lebedev
Executive Producer: Pavel Karykhalin
Producers: Natalie Yurchenko, Lev Maslov
Composer: Oleg Karpachev

Adweek's Top 5 Commercials of the Week: March 27-April 3

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OPI and Volvo led the way this week with two fascinating and innovative visual campaigns. We also got another mean-tweets PSA, a comical spot about urine leakage, and Neil Patrick Harris' latest faux-weary pitch for Heineken Light. Check out all the work below, and vote for your favorite.

Here's What the Bible Would Look Like Full of Product Placements

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Advertising veterans George Logothetis and Graham Clifford are celebrating Easter in a bit of a blasphemous way this year by unveiling The Product Placement Bible—a tongue-in-cheek (or at least turn-the-other-cheek) website that imagines verses of scripture sponsored by some of the world's top marketers.

Placing products into TV shows and movies is commonplace. This satirical project takes the concept to its logical extreme by inserting marketing messages, logos and products into the most popular and widely read publications ever written, not counting the Ikea catalog.



The results are amusing—and Logothetis, a copywriter, and Clifford, a designer, hope you aren't offended.

"It's a not-so-subtle reminder for us to preserve our most sacred institutions," they said in a statement. "There's a time and a place for marketing messages, and it shouldn't be in our most revered work of scripture. We came up with this far-fetched idea, sensed its potential as a content platform, and simply followed it to its logical conclusion. We mean no harm to anyone and want people to know that this is nothing more than a parody intended to be laugh out loud entertainment. And, of course, serve as a cautionary tale."

Check out more examples below.

This Bank Found a Way for Men to Browse Pinterest Without Feeling Ashamed

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How tough is it to scout for pillow shams and window treatments, Mr. New Homeowner, while keeping your manhood intact? Extremely difficult, if not downright impossible, on chick-dominated Pinterest.

FirstBank of Lakewood, Colo., wants to help you unleash your inner Martha Stewart while disguising the whole House Beautiful jag as a much more manly exercise. Just download a browser extension—themes include sports, meat and power tools—and "manoflage" your Pinterest page. So, while you're actually considering color schemes and area rugs, it'll appear to nosy friends or co-workers that you're shopping for drill bits or ogling raw beef. Instant stamp of approval from anyone mired in gender stereotypes!



The digital campaign comes from ad agency TDA_Boulder, and its intro video will run as paid pre-roll on sites like Hulu and YuMe. There's a dedicated man-o-flage.com site for the free software, which is also available at the App Store.

Decorate to your heart's content, dude.

Clever McDonald's Ads Show Classic Characters Getting the Best Deliveries Ever

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Here's a simple and fun McDonald's campaign from Leo Burnett Dubai promoting the fast-food chain's delivery service, showing various characters receiving exactly what they love in a McDonald's bag. (Not McDonald's food, mind you, though you get the point.)

And that's a key that the robot is getting, people. A key.

Via Adeevee.

More ads and credits below.



CREDITS
Client: McDonald's
Agency: Leo Burnett Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Executive Creative Director: Andre Nassar
Creative Director: Rondon Fernandes
Art Directors: Daniel Salles, Robison Mattei, Victor Toyofuku
Copywriter: Wayne Fernandes
Head of Art: Bruno Bomediano

Ad of the Day: Fixodent Helps a Lion Get His Bite Back in This Amazing Short Film

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There are so many reasons why this Fixodent project might never have been made. Maybe it's too ambitious. Or it's off-brand. Or it has nothing to do with the real applications of the product.

Fortunately, the Procter & Gamble denture-adhesive brand wasn't overly concerned with that stuff. It went ahead and produced "Saving Aslan" anyway—a remarkable project that shows how even the most unglamorous products can produce compelling branded entertainment if they commit to it, and are open to embracing something bigger than their own specific mission.

Here, the challenge was imposing indeed.

A 9-year-old white lion in the Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa had lost his teeth prematurely. Richardson and animal dentist Gerhard Steenkamp wanted to help. Fixodent got involved, through Saatchi & Saatchi Italy, and they got director Sven Harding to film the operation that gave Aslan his bite back.



It's an intense and emotional film. And perhaps most remarkably, the Fixodent messaging at the end doesn't feel tacked on. Indeed, it seems natural—and will likely make the viewer feel like Fixodent understands the emotional and physical impact when humans lose their teeth as well.

In short, it shows compassion in an ingeniously grand way, allowing a workaday (even perhaps shameful) product to completely transcend its own image. For a campaign that would have been easy to say no to, that's a resounding yes.

CREDITS
Client: Fixodent (P&G)
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Milan, Italy
Director: Sven Harding

Waiting for Pitch Perfect 2? These Girls Singing About Leg Hair Will Tide You Over

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There's still about a month before Universal Pictures' Pitch Perfect 2 opens. But don't worry, aca-awesome fans, here are some fetching young things with bright smiles, legs for days and great voices to enjoy in the meantime.

And like the original sleeper hit from 2012, there's a dash of camp in this song-and-dance video, which doubles as a promotion for the May 15-debuting sequel and an ad for Schick and Skintimate brands.

The movie's stars don't appear—instead, it's a college a cappella group called Basic Pitches—but actress Brittany Snow will be involved in a larger tie-in campaign that includes product placement in the flick, new product launches, contests and giveaways.



The video comes from JWT New York, Adam Shankman (Hairspray, Rock of Ages) and Oscar-winning cinematographer Mauro Fiore (Avatar), with cheesy lyrical twists that turn Icona Pop's "I don't care—I love it" into "My leg hair—I shaved it" and the diva theme "Bang, Bang" into an ode to bathroom selfies and personal grooming.

That's how you rock your legs, ladies.

CREDITS
Client: Energizer Personal Care – Schick Hydro Silk, Schick Intuition and Skintimate
Project Name: Schick & Pitch Perfect 2 present "Ready, Shave, Shine"

Agency: JWT New York
Executive Creative Director: Sarah Barclay
Creative Directors: Matt Zavala, Suyin Sleeman
Copywriters: Erin Copithorne, Kate Carter
Head of Production:  Lisa Setten
Executive Producer: Jason Way
Director of Music: Paul Greco
Music Producer: Matt Nelson
Account Team: Claire Capeci, Ariel Stern, Erik Wagner, Amy Achenbaum, Angela Gonzalez
Client Team: Charles R. King, Camilla Medeiros, Kathleen Shanahan, Mike Sherman, Christine Engelhardt, Stefanie Weintraub, Anne Eddinger

Director: Adam Shankman
Production Company:  Independent Media
Editing House:  PS260 (Editor – JJ Lask)
Colorist: Tim Masick @ Company 3
Music House:  Wojahn Music and Sound Design
Audio Engineer - Tom Jucarone @ Sound Lounge
Media Agency: MEC


SNL Gloriously Spoofs Scientology in This Hilariously Spot-On Music Video

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A five-minute 1990s-era Scientology sing-along video doesn't need a parody to be funny. But that hasn't stopped Saturday Night Live from making one anyways—and the results really don't disappoint.

Everyone's favorite crazy celebrity cult is enjoying (or not) a renewed place in the popular consciousness, thanks to the buzz around the HBO documentary Going Clear. So is everyone's favorite kitschy decade, thanks to BuzzFeed. That means NBC's live sketch comedy show was able to topically spoof the clip, which resurfaced online in 2011.

There's ample opportunity for skewering. The lyrics include excellent couplets like "Religion and science intertwined/aliens live inside of our minds." Pop-up annotations list the sinister fates of faces gleefully bobbing on the screen. Bobby Moynihan shines as L. Ron Hubbard.



Titled "Neurotology Music Video," it's packed with references that will tickle anyone who's been following the scandal around the church—even if the reality is unsettling. (Anyone who hasn't been keeping up can find an excellent, hefty primer in the 2011 article "The Apostate," by Lawrence Wright, who went on to write the book Going Clear, on which the HBO documentary is based.)

It's too bad SNL couldn't also work in an extended parody of Tom Cruise raving about how great it is to be Tom Cruise, the Scientologist. Though in that case, it's hard to imagine anything beating the real deal.

Apple Watch Gets a Series of 'Guided Tour' Videos Showing You Exactly How It Works

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Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump …

Will your heart beat faster for the Apple Watch after you've previewed its hotness in four "guided tour" videos the company posted on Friday?

Probably. Especially if, like me, you're counting the seconds until April 24, when the high-tech timepiece goes on sale, and you can finally use it to send a pulse signal—that's your heartbeat—to other wearers of the device.

That feature is among many explored in the "Digital Touch" and "Messages" tutorials. "Faces," meanwhile, is all about customizing the home screen. (Add the current temperature or a calendar—go nuts!)



In addition to these clips, each running less than two minutes, there's a nearly five-minute "Welcome" overview. It's chock full of information, including details on how to use various interactions—like swiping up or down on the screen—to access apps and control content. Apple even explains why some technologies that work for its iPhones, such as pinching to zoom, are impractical on a watch display—hence the need for a "digital crown" dial, which you can use to manipulate magnification, among other things. (More Apple Watch videos are on the way. Topics include "Phone Calls," "Maps," "Music" and "Siri.")



Of course, the company discussed a lot of this stuff during its March product announcement, and the watch has been widely profiled in the press, so there are no stunning revelations. Even so, the guided tours concisely cover a great deal of material and serve as both practical how-tos and effective advertising.

In fact, given the nature of the product in question, such detailed demonstrations seem especially on point. The company bills the watch as its "most personal device yet," designed to engage the tactile senses in novel ways and function almost as an extension of our physical selves. That sounds grandiose, but consider: Along with heartbeat messaging, it monitors your pulse rate, "taps" you when messages arrive and springs to life when you raise your wrist (going dark when you reverse the gesture).

That's a fairly high level of casual intimacy—of human/machine rapport. Fittingly, these videos transcend product specs and glossy style pitches to give users a feel for the technology and explain how it can touch their lives.

Ad of the Day: Chevy Frightens and Amuses Real People in Great Focus-Group Ads

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Even the best prank ads can sometimes leave you wondering: Were those real people or actors?

That isn't a problem in Chevrolet's entertaining new campaign, which includes what so many other prank campaigns with real people bafflingly omit—big, blaring on-screen text confirming these are indeed "Real people. Not actors." And these particular real people are in for the some of the more surprising and amusing—and in the end, enlightening—focus-group experiences ever.

Seven videos feature a wide range of ordinary, unsuspecting people who get lightly punked by the focus-group leader, a likable guy who takes things just so far—then reveals the point of his shenanigans. The ads feature zombies, a killer clown, firemen, puppies, a session with painfully personal questions and many other conceits—all to promote some aspect of Chevy's various models.



Four videos feature only adults, and are the best of the bunch. Three others include kids, and are less successful. One feels actually mean (moms are asked to pick one child to ride in a  safe car, and one to ride in a less-safe car), and two others are about using on-board wifi to keep kids quiet with iPads (a topic that always brings its own baggage—or maybe I'm just bitter because my kids get car sick with the iPad).



Overall, though, it's a very fun campaign that manages to breathe new life into the tired old focus-group parody approach, and the prank genre as well.

Combined with Chevy's #BestDayEver YouTube stunt on April Fools' Day, it seems the automaker is generating real momentum—good timing with the positive buzz around the new Malibu, introduced last week.

CREDITS
Client: Chevrolet
Agency: Commonwealth/McCann

Inspiring Nike Golf Ad Shows How Rory McIlroy Grew Up Idolizing Tiger Woods

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In "Ripple," the latest Nike Golf ad, we witness the journey of a way-back-when Rory McIlroy, following the career of his idol, Tiger Woods.

The young boy watches Woods play, puts his posters up in his room, and experiences his own victories and losses as he plays the game himself. The film culminates with a scene of current-day superstar McIlroy teeing off after Woods at the start of a round.

Created by Wieden + Kennedy, the spot is lovely and inspirational. It's also not the first time McIlroy and Woods have appeared in a Nike Golf ad together. This follows the funny and very popular "No Cup Is Safe" spot from 2013, although with a completely different tone.



After signing McIlroy, 25, to a five-year contract in 2013, it's clear Nike wants to position him as the heir to Woods, 39. And McIlroy is showing signs of living up to that hype—he's won four majors now, though of course it's a long way from Woods' 14.

"It's been an incredible journey for me, going from massive fan to competitor," McIlroy said in a statement. "To think that not too long ago I was that little boy watching him on TV to where I am now. It's been a cool journey and I'm very lucky I get to compete with and against him, because he inspired me as a kid and he inspires me now. He's the best player I've ever seen."

CREDITS
Client: Nike Golf

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Chris Groom, Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Art Director: Derrick Ho
Producer: Jeff Selis
Interactive Strategy: Reid Schilperoort
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Brandon Thornton
Media, Communications Planning: Alex Dobson, Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey, Rob Archibald, Heather Morba, Ramiro Del-Cid
Business Affairs: Dusty Slowik
Project Management: Nancy Rea
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Line Producer: Vincent Landay
Director of Photography: Nicolas Karakatsanis

Editing Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Peter Wiedensmith
Post Producer: Leslie Carthy
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: Tim Davies
Visual Effects Producer: Will Lemmon

Composer: Ludovico Einaudi
Song: Nuvole Bianche

Digital / Interactive:
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Chris Groom, Stuart Brown
Copywriter: Brock Kirby
Art Director: Derrick Ho
Producer: Jeff Selis
Interactive Strategy: Reid Schilperoort
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade, Brandon Thornton
Media, Communications Planning: Alex Dobson, Jocelyn Reist
Account Team: Alyssa Ramsey, Rob Archibald, Heather Morba, Ramiro Del-Cid
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff
Agency Executive Producer: Ben Grylewicz
Digital Designer: Rob Mumford
Executive Interactive Producer: Patrick Marzullo
Content Producer: Byron Oshiro
Broadcast: Jeff Selis
Art Buying: Amy Berriochoa
Photographer: Luke Delong

Women Need to Get Into Corporate Boardrooms to Close the Gender Pay Gap

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One of the things I'm most proud of is the recent success our industry has had in increasing creative career opportunities for women and in changing persistent gender stereotypes; the progress of The 3% Conference and the announcement of the Cannes Glass Lion are great steps. Moreover, the well-deserved attention for conversation-changing work like P&G's "Like a Girl" and Under Armour's "I Will What I Want" campaigns is testament to the fact that powerful creative and progressive change doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.

But there's a dirty little secret that needs to get higher on our agenda, one that persists in our industry. ICYMI, Patricia Arquette gave it a shout-out at this year's Oscars—the gender pay gap. The reality is that in 2014, women earned 82.5 cents on the dollar to men. It's even worse for women of color. Black women earned 68.1 cents, while Hispanic women earned 61.2 cents.

And lest you assume this doesn't affect your career path, think again. It happens all the way up the economic food chain, in our industry and every other. A Federal Reserve Bank of New York study explored gender differences in executive compensation and found that female execs get consistently less incentive pay than their male counterparts, even after differences in performance, title, tenure and age were taken into account.

Then there's this: If the pace of change in the annual earnings ratio were to continue at the same rate as it has since 1960, it would be 2058 before we reached earnings equality. I don't know about you, but I'm not waiting around for that.

The obvious way to ensure pay equity is to have more women running companies, but as we all know, women currently hold just 5.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEO roles. That means 94.8 percent are held by men.

We know that disrupters and innovators come from the outside. [Writer] Clay Shirky contends that institutions have a vested interest in perpetuating problems to which they are the solution. Think about that. He's saying that it's instinctive for institutions to preserve the problem, and when the status quo is threatened, their goal actually shifts to self-preservation. So it makes sense that the 94.8 percent are not going to initiate the change because the 5.2 percent politely asked them to.

There is another way, and that's by having more women serve on corporate boards, influencing from the top not the bottom. Let's approach the situation like any business challenge begging to be solved by a smart, modern agency. Why should we change the status quo, and how?

Why is it important for more women to be directors? Modern board composition has to include people who naturally connect with main street, not just Wall Street. That means people who are empathetic to and representative of the population that supports the company. That often means women, people of color and people with backgrounds, perspectives and life experiences a little broader than the traditional profile of a corporate director. Modern directors have to understand what people are thinking and feeling today. And since women constitute the majority of consumers and a growing percentage of the labor pool and leadership, it makes sense we would add value in the boardroom. The value of this shift in perspective is priceless, and CEOs should ignore it at their own peril.

So how do we change things? Here's my call to action: Instead of waiting for more male Fortune 500 CEOs to get around to modernizing their corporate boards and considering women directors, let's pivot. Let's get more women to actively pursue those board seats. Let's go out and get ourselves on boards.

Where do you start? First, volunteer for the boards of non-profits, community organizations or schools. There's no shortage of worthy causes that could benefit greatly from your skill set and experience. So figure out what you are passionate about and go serve. Second, stay networked. Third, position yourself. Figure out what you uniquely bring to the party and how that aligns with the needs of a modern board. Finally, think about what you've already done and can continue to do in your career that will best prepare you and position you to serve as a director.

And good news for those of you in this industry. Turns out that the skill set of a good advertising person parallels that of a good independent director almost perfectly. We are trained to parachute into an unfamiliar industry, get up to speed quickly on the key business issues and draw key learnings from analogous categories. We are curious, open and collaborative. We are trained to understand the consumer, and we bring an outside perspective that enables us to separate the important from the urgent. In short, what we do for our clients every day is exactly what a good independent board director does for a public company. 

Karen Kaplan (@karenkaplanHH) is chairman and CEO of Hill Holliday. She started out at the agency as a receptionist in 1982.

Wheaties' Latest Champion Is a Trick-Shot Bowler From the '40s

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Wheaties is cementing its status as the breakfast of old people with a blustery new campaign featuring 1948 footage of bowling star Andy Varipapa, who died more than 30 years ago.

Six black-and-white spots, each 15 seconds long, show Varipapa rolling impressive bowling tricks, while a smug voiceover offers pointers on how much better it is to be a grandpa than some modern-day pansy.



They're charming in a grating sort of way—Varipapa's on-screen persona is great, hammy without being too cheesy. But then one of the spots has to come along and rant about $5 microwave turkey bacon egg-wrap frittata. (Whatever those are. Is that supposed to be a dig at Starbucks? Doesn't Wheaties know McDonald's is the breakfast villain du jour? Also, the whole no-allergies thing makes grandpa seem like some kind of proto-Scientologist).



The ads have been airing on ESPN as part of a sponsorship of a Professional Bowling Association tournament, so it's not much of a stretch that the audience might want to be like Varipapa (high-waisted, pleated pants and all). And he is a nice alternate to higher-profile champions like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, even if the clips take throwback smarm to new heights (cheerful grandpas are, in general, pretty easy to love, even when rough around the edges).

Unfortunately, they make us want black coffee more than Wheaties.

New Belgium Beer Is Just What the Doctor Ordered (From His Weird Bike-Couch Contraption)

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New Belgium Brewing peddles its Slow Ride Session pale ale in a series of silly Web shorts created by production house Strike Anywhere.

Dr. Don, a mellow therapist with a bushy upper lip, advises patients to relax and enjoy life as he serves them beer during slow rides on a fantastical bicycle-couch contraption. Is this guy licensed? To practice therapy or drive that thing? It's probably best not to ask.



The pleasingly perky films, which began appearing a few months back, top out at around three minutes, and the performances by sketch comedy vets, at times clearly ad libbing, give the spots an extra kick. Ditto the retro elevator/lounge soundtrack (like something from an oh-so-groovy '60s romp) and the rear-projection effects, which are goofy but not intrusive.



Still, it's a thin concept, and after episodes with a bickering couple on their first date, bickering roommates and a millennial bickering with his boomer boss, the comedy starts to fall a bit flat. Also, Dr. Don's chill-out mantra, while on-brand, wouldn't feel out of place for a purveyor of the wacky tobacky. (What exactly are you hopped up on, dude?)

Ah well, it's all about the "mobile therapy couch," which steals the show every time. There's even a laid-back video that shows you how to build one of your own. Alas, the instructions make assembling Ikea furniture look like child's play. (It's also difficult to follow what the hosts are saying in the clip, which was shot outdoors on a windy day.)

After attempting that DIY project, you just might need therapy. Or a couple sixes to take the edge off, at the very least.


Ad of the Day: Honda Just Keeps Driving in This Hypnotic, Looping Ad That Never Ends

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What better way for an automaker to communicate performance, longevity and a never-ending commitment to quality than with an ad that itself never ends?

Honda and mcgarrybowen London have made just that for the 2015 CR-V, following up 2013's gold Lion-winning "Illusions" ad with another spot based on an optical illusion. It's called "Endless Road," and it shows a car on a hypnotic, infinitely looping, spiraling road to illustrate the never-ending quest to create the most advanced CR-V yet. 

Honda, which really pushed the limits of YouTube video with last year's mind-bending "The Other Side" film, also has an innovative YouTube element this time around—when you watch the "Endless Road" on YouTube, it uses real-time data to visually reflect the time of day and weather of your location, wherever you are in the world.

Note: You have to be on the YouTube site to see the never-ending, location-specific version of the spot. You can see a shorter, embeddable version here:



Chris Palmer of Gorgeous directed the spot, with help from digital production company MediaMonks and the set designers at The Magic Camera Company, which created a one-tenth scale model of the road. The soundtrack is "Twisted Nerve" by Bernard Herrmann, from Kill Bill.

Adweek spoke with Angus Macadam, executive creative director at mcgarrybowen, London, about the new spot.

Were you always committed to finding another cool illusion following the success of last year's?
The new CR-V has lots of improvements, but it's basically the same model, so another illusion felt right. The fact that Honda endlessly pushed to improve the CR-V, in so many ways, was what led to our idea for this campaign.

Did you consider various illusions before landing on this one?
No, this was the only illusion we discussed. Our idea was about "endlessness," and this illusion communicated that best.

There must be various ways to communicate the idea of an endless road. How did you discover this idea of circular motion to communicate that?
We knew we wanted an endless piece of film with a looping driving shot. We had a few crude examples of the Droste effect, and knew we wanted to make that work in the real world. Then we started talking to Chris, and he worked out the maths.

It drove him mad for months, but he cracked it. The film looks simple, but it's hugely complicated. Chris originally wanted to shoot on location on a pigtail road. But as we developed a pre-vis, we realized a real location wouldn't give us the control we needed. So Chris suggested a scale model of a pig-tail road.

The film really is seamless. Can you explain technically how it works?
The seamless illusion works because of the mathematics behind what's called "the golden spiral," shifting your view of the scene 180 degrees to reveal a new scene.

Can you talk about the other production challenges?
Jordi Bares, creative director at Glassworks, says it's the hardest thing he's ever worked on. He and Chris developed a pre-vis that we had to perfect on a computer and then translate to model makers. It challenged everyone. Like I said, the film looks kind of simple, but it's incredibly complicated.

What did Chris Palmer bring to the table on this project?
Chris held it all together. A lot of people didn't understand what we were making or how it worked. Chris was insistent that we should do this the hard way. There were loads of easy ways we could have created a film that sort of looked endless. But Chris made sure we did it properly, making something truly seamless.

Why did you want to personalize the YouTube to the viewer's location? And was that technically challenging?
We could have just ran the endless film on YouTube and people would have understood it. But we wanted to do something a bit more rewarding for anyone having a look.

How does all this come together to communicate the Honda brand promise?
Honda doesn't stop at OK, good or even great. The team there keeps going to make things better, and they never, ever stop.

Check out the behind-the-scenes video below.



CREDITS
Client: Honda
Agency: mcgarrybowen, London
Executive Creative Directors: Angus Macadam, Paul Jordan
Creative Team: Charlotte Watmough, Holly Fallows
Planner: Michael McCourt
Agency Producer: Sian Parker
Business Director: Alice Tendler
Film Production: Gorgeous
Director: Chris Palmer
Executive Producer: Rupert Smythe
Editor: Scot Crane
Postproduction: Glassworks; FaTiBoo
Flame: Lewis Saunders
Creative Director (3-D): Jordi Bares @ Glassworks
Colorist: Seamus O'Kane @ The Mill
Digital Production: MediaMonks
Executive Producer: Wouter Smit
Producer: Rodrigo Alberini
Creative Directors: Jon Biggs, Alex Danklof
Project Manager: Sylvia van der Leen
Audio Production: Munzie Thind @ Grand Central
Music: Twisted Nerve Main Theme
Composer, Arranger: Bernard Herrmann

Cooper Hewitt Reopens on the Upper East Side With Ads Tweaking Other NYC Neighborhoods

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There's always something fun about site-specific ads in New York City. The richness of every neighborhood makes the place especially promising for that kind of outdoor work, as 72andSunny's Google ads last year reminded us.

Now, Wieden + Kennedy in New York has done a fun campaign for the recently reopened Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum that points the rest the city—perhaps counterintuitively—to the Upper East Side for world-class design.

"When the thrill of fashion models finally wears off, we've got this enameled porcelain collection you should probably come see," say ads going up in the Meatpacking District, for example. "There are no croissant-doughnut hybrids in our design museum, but we do have things that were really popular once, and then the trend completely moved on, and then some other new things came along and took its place," say the ads in SoHo.

The ads will appear on the Upper West Side, Lower East Side, Chelsea, Meatpacking District, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, the West Village, SoHo and the Upper East Side itself (where ads take a shot at the Guggenheim).

"Put simply: Leave your neighborhood and come to ours!" says David Kolbusz, executive creative director at W+K New York.

Check out some of the creative below. Click the images to enlarge.

Dear Kate Wants to Hear About Your First Time, But It's Not What You Think

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Underwear brand Dear Kate is hoping to make "my first period" stories something to celebrate—or at the very least, something that isn't shameful.

In its newest video, women tell stories about their first time (getting their period, not having sex, but that's the Oh Henry! reveal behind the first 30 seconds). The three-minute spot, directed by Mary Harron of Process, includes stories of horror ("Oh shit, this is where I'm going to die") and confusion ("For two days, I just kept throwing out my underwear"), and the copy invites viewers to upload their own "my first period" stories.



"Our goal with the film is to reframe the moment of getting your period so it's just as talked about and has just as much cachet as the time you first had sex, if not more," says Julie Sygiel, Dear Kate's founder. "We want to make sure it's not embarrassing or shameful to experience or to talk about. That's the main goal with this film."

The goal to destigmatize periods is a good one, I think, and is reminiscent of HelloFlo's "Camp Gyno" spot from 2013. People reminiscing about their first times (having sex or getting their periods) might not necessarily take off at happy hour, but it's nice to think we're not stuck in the rut of commercials featuring women wearing white on the beach and mysterious blue liquid.

The spot lines up nicely with the products Dear Kate features—underwear with built-in lining and stain-releasing fabric. Which would have been nice to have when I was 13 and sitting in history class.

Ad of the Day: Dirty Dishes Don't Have to Rule Your Life in These Delightful Ads for Soap

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Modern life is riddled with dirty dishes, and Finish wants to help.

A new 40-second, rapid-fire ad created by Wieden + Kennedy London for the dishwasher soap (owned by Reckitt Benckiser) runs through the various types of human activities that might make a mess of plates, bowls and glasses—and it turns out pretty much all of them do.

The deliberately grandiose concept could easily feel like an overreach for a mundane product, but the execution is brisk enough—with enough rich detail, quirky absurdity and clever insight packed in—to actually be kind of delightful, like when a shellshocked new father is beset by a gang of floating, filthy baby bottles.

It also shows W+K's knack for punching up the emotional significance of even dull brands with beautifully shot spots. "Dishes," directed by Riff Raff's Megaforce, feels a bit like a cross between W+K London's hypnotizing work for Lurpak butter and the Portland mothership's slice-of-life campaign for Target from a few years back.



It probably helps that the Finish idea is loosely based on the fundamental truth that everyone has to, you know, eat. But it should resonate particularly with anyone who's ever looked at a stacked sink after a hearty meal and thought, in a moment of extraordinary laziness, "Really? Again?"

The voiceover's kicker, "Every dish, every time," drives home the point that the product will leave you freer to focus on what matters, rather than living elbow deep in pots and pans.

A second new ad takes a similar quick-cut approach, from the narrower perspective of a single glass. It's also full of deft touches that tell smaller stories within the bigger one. (If the vessel is hosting a party on Saturday, it's helping cure heartburn on Sunday.) The payoff—keeping glasses shiny—is less ambitious, and less rewarding, but clear enough.

The odds of that glass surviving long enough for it to matter, though, are pretty slim. And it's not really worth wondering where dishes go when they die.



CREDITS
Client: Finish
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, London
Creative Directors: Carlos Alija, Laura Sampedro
Creatives: Erin Swanson, Cal Al­-Jorani
Executive Creative Directors: Tony Davidson, Iain Tait
Agency Executive Producer: Danielle Stewart
Group Account Director: Nick Owen
Account Director: Francesca Purvis
Head of Planning: Beth Bentley
Planning Director: Paul Coleman
Planner: Tom Lloyd
TV Producer: Genevieve Sheppard
Assistant TV Producer: Chloe Roseman
Creative Producer: Monika Andexlinger
Interactive Producer: Silvan Schreuder
Production Company: Riff Raff Films
Director: Megaforce
Executive Producer: Matthew Fone
Line Producer: Jane Tredget
Director of Photography: David Ungaro
Editing Company: Final Cut
Editor: Joe Guest
Execuive Post Producer: Gemma Humphries
Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: Hitesh Patel
Flame Artists: Andrew Wood, Gary Driver
Visual Effects Producer: Alex Candlish
Titles, Graphics: Jon Harris, George Adams
Music, Sound: Siren, Factory
Composer: Alex Baranowski
Producer: Sian Rogers
Mix Company: Factory
Sound Design: Jon Clarke, Neil Johnson, Anthony Moore
Producer: Rebecca Bell

Dove's Latest Film Makes Women Choose If They Are 'Beautiful' or 'Average'

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Over the past decade, Dove has had a laser focus, challenging women's concepts of beauty and championing "real women" to see themselves as beautiful. The brand has received overwhelming praise for its work. But at times its ads can feel treacly, even cloying.

This is one of those times. 

In the new spot below, Dove asks women all over the world to walk through doorways labeled "Beautiful" and "Average." Throughout the three-minute short film, women who originally choose the "Average" label lament doing so—and eventually decide they should have chosen "Beautiful."



Let's unpack this. Sure, many women may have low self-esteem, and asking them to embrace a positive attribute like "Beautiful" can help buoy the way they see themselves. Fine. And yes, this fits in with Dove's general messaging.

But the fact that the brand has a good-or-bad, this-or-that idea of beauty, without any gray areas, is problematic.

Here's the thing: Someone doesn't have to be beautiful to matter, or to value themselves. This spot's concept is more complicated than it seems, too—forcing women to put themselves into two distinct categories and positioning "Average" as a negative concept.

People, women especially, are keenly aware of how the world sees them. It is likely that some of the women who walked through the "Average" door see themselves as beautiful, but knowing that cameras were on them, did not want to appear immodest.

Beyond that, Dove's focus can be a detriment. At this point, most people are aware of what Dove has been doing to challenge how people understand beauty and how it is tied to self-worth. But why not branch out at this point? Why not challenge other notions of women's self-worth, and tie that to personal care?

At any rate, the new campaign comes across as unnatural and doesn't have the same convincing narrative arc that many of the brand's more successful initiatives do. 

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