Never underestimate the promotional power of feel-good fan service.

More than 100 fans were featured out of a whopping 1,500 total submissions for this Pitch Perfect 2 promo. Together they created a worldwide dance party as the premiere for Ester Dean's song "Crazy Youngsters," an original song that appears in the movie.

The video also functions as a fun game of Spot the Social Media Celebrity, pairing YouTube stars alongside cast members, and Vine stars alongside DJs. All told, more than 20 influencers are in the video. See if you can spot DJ Flula, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, the Gregory Brothers, Sami Slimani, Lana McKissack, Carly Cristman, the Wassabi Brothers, Gabrial Valenciano, Will Pecarro, Kyle Hatch, Jamie Pine, MikeJerry and Vine stars Princess Lauren and AmyMarie.



The nearly four-minute music video was created by Portal A. It's a lot of good, clean fun for a sequel whose inciting incident is flashing Rebel Wilson's vagina at the president of the United States.

CREDITS
Client: Universal Pictures
Created by Portal A
Director: Kai Hasson
Executive Producers: Zach Blume, Kai Hasson, Nate Houghteling
Producers: Jacob Motz
Associate Producer: Jenny Leaf
Project Manager: Kalli Sandberg
Editor: Arturo Morales

On Tuesday, Domino's flooded its Twitter feed with a heap of tweets written almost completely in pizza emojis. They looked like sentences. They were even punctuated. Not only that, but Domino's had the gusto to respond to people curious about the stunt with—what else?—pizza emoji-filled tweets.

Perplexing? Sure. Annoying? A little. A promotion? Of course.

Starting May 20, Domino's customers will be able to order pizza via Twitter. You can hook up your Twitter to your online Domino's account, and with a quick pizza emoji tweet at the brand, you'll have an order on the way.

So, what better way to promote this than to confuse one's consumers? Lots of people seemed to get into it, though, and JCPenney even briefly joined in the emoji-only banter.



"We wanted to start a conversation about why Domino's has gone emoji crazy in the lead-up to the emoji announcement," says Matt Talbot, vp and creative director of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the agency that handles Domino's creative business. He explained that the tweets were modeled after real tweets the brand usually sends to customers.  

"There's no decoder machine to work back to the true answer of the text, though," he said. 

Check out more from the the pizza emoji takeover below.

If you're relying on your local barista to talk you through life's challenges, stop right now, says this amusing video for a text/video-chat counseling service called In Your Corner.

The spot was written and directed by Pete Marquis and Jamie McCelland, who are perhaps best known for making HelloFlo's "Camp Gyno" and "First Moon Party" ads. It features a barista named Theresa, who is an amateur advice-dispensing "baristapist"—a portmanteau combining barista and therapist.

To say Theresa is an inept counselor is putting it mildly.



We caught up with Marquis and McCelland to find out more about the project.

AdFreak: How did this project come about? Did you know the company beforehand?
Jamie McCelland: Bea [Arthur], the founder of In Your Corner, had seen our work with HelloFlo and reached out to us. And when you get an email from someone named Bea Arthur, you respond. She wanted to take the stigma out of therapy through humor.

Pete Marquis: We hadn't heard of the company before, but we sat down with Bea and loved her vision for the brand. Offering therapy via video chat and text opens the door for so many people to get expert help, even lazy people like us.

Where did the idea for the Baristapist come from?
Marquis: The idea came from the insight that people are hesitant to seek actual, professional therapy, but still get it from everywhere—their friends, relatives, their hairstylist, even the barista. And that's when advice can be the absolute worst.

McCelland: We wanted to show what unprofessional advice can look like, and ultimately emphasize that In Your Corner offers professional, expert help, which is way better.

What was the scriptwriting like?
McCelland: Theresa the Baristapist is a barista who believes her true calling is therapy. We thought of her as a Jane Lynch-like character—as self-important as she is delusional. We wanted to have fun with the idea that she's giving unlicensed advice with no accountability or concern for anyone's long-term mental health.

The actress is pretty great. Where did you find her?
Marquis: Casting for this role was way too easy. Alex, the actress, was the first one to come into the audition, and she blew us away. Bea wanted to stop the casting then and there—we didn't, but we could have because Alex set the bar extremely high. She channeled that character frighteningly well, and her improv was incredible. A lot of the stuff she made up on set ended up in the cut, which was something we always hope for. We could not have been happier with her performance.

In "Shed the Monster," the brief, pleasingly silly film below, some guy in a brutish latex mask—he looks like Geico's caveman—grunts a lot in pissed-off fashion, as all of life's little challenges conspire to get him down.

Discovering an empty milk carton in the fridge, and no car in the garage, he grabs his bike and angrily peddles to the market. (Note how he signals and stops at the stop sign. Good monster!) But along the way, his tension—and beastly makeup—start to fade. By the time he arrives at his destination, he looks and feels human again. (It'll be tough getting those groceries home without a bike basket, but whatever.)



Evan Fry, creative development chief at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and photographer Jamie Kripke crafted the video, about the transformational power of cycling, to promote People for Bikes, an enthusiast organization.

"I know this will sound corny and pretentious as hell," Fry tells AdFreak, "but ever since I was a little kid, cycling in one form or another has been my therapy, my church, my athletic pursuit, my trusted friend and my main vehicle for growth."

With that in mind, Fry and Kripke concocted a shaggy-man story that portrays biking as a therapeutic activity for the harried masses.

"I've always felt that jumping on a bike, no matter how long the ride, really does help you 'Ride away the grrrr,' " says Fey. "It's awesome to see it resonate with so many folks. For a dot-org to get that many views—32,000 in a month on YouTube—and shares without any paid media to speak of, it is really gratifying."

See the behind-the-scenes story of the spot here.

CREDITS
Writer/Director: Evan Fry
Writer/Director/DP: Jamie Kripke
Producer: Corey Bartha
Monster: Darin Toonder
Edit: Beast
Editor: Sam Selis
Producer: Erin Dykman
Executive Producer: Ron Rendon
VFX/Online Artist: Jim Reed
Colorist: Dave Ludlam
Executive Producer, Color: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer: Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
2D Lead: Tim Robbins
VFX Producer: Kiana Bicoy
VFX Coordinator: Jillian Lynes
Music: Beacon Street Studios
Composers: Andrew Feltenstein & John Nau
EP/Head of Production: Leslie DiLullo
Mix and Sound Design: Beacon Street Studios
Mixer: Mike Franklin
Assistant Mixer: Aaron Cornacchio
Monster FX: AFX Studio
Producer: Kate Vadnais

Heidi Klum is a renowned entrepreneur. But she hasn't really had a business idea that's—how should I put this?—really, really silly. Until now.

In a delightful new spot for Wix.com—a follow up to the company's Super Bowl ad that featured NFL players following their dreams—the Project Runway star is desperate to find another great business idea. She bounces dud after dud off her agent, played again by Entourage's Rex Lee, but her optimism doesn't waver.



We won't spoil what Heidi lands on (let's just say it's cheeky) but like previous iterations of the #ItsThatEasy campaign, the winning idea—and the losers—have fully working websites.

The spot was directed and produced by Frank Samuel, Jeff Reed and Lauren Bayer of Committee LA, in collaboration with San Francisco creative team Jeff Huggins and Andrea Janetos.

If you don't have time to watch this whole new commercial for Volkswagen Trucks, you can just skip to the end for a quickie version—no matter where you are in the story—and it will still make sense.

Go here to check it out.

It's a merciful approach that all brands should probably mimic in all commercials, given this is the age of skip-happy Internet viewers. But Brazilian agency AlmapBBDO created the ad specifically to reinforce VW's claim that its rigs, like the ad, are themselves customizable. In that context, the video slider at the bottom of the website might be the best part—it takes the shape of a truck that just keeps getting longer and longer.

The story itself—spoilers ahead—is about a young truck driver who runs into an ex-girlfriend at a market. Told in a stilted monologue, it's a bit like a Mad Lib with a single punch line—structured into clauses so you can jump to the last scene at any point, by clicking a button in the lower right hand corner. But the last words are always "My grand-aunt."

That makes for some odd combinations, like "I satisfied my hunger eating… a taco made by… my grand-aunt." It also makes for some surprisingly dark outcomes for a big advertiser—like skipping the part about the taco and delving straight into ancestral cannibalism. There's at least one notable hidden variation—hit the button at certain times, and the grand-aunt is a goateed, shirtless young man, instead of a little old lady.

Overall, it's an intriguing approach, but maybe a little too eager to be inventive, with a takeaway that seems more about the copywriting team's ability to write a cascading script than about the product's benefits. It was nice for them to include an eject lever, but if the idea is to get the message in quickly, and extend the entertainment for those who want it—Geico's simpler approach takes the cake.

Plus, it has a better dog.

Via PSFK.

This week's collection of best ads includes four comedies and one very special Thai tearjerker. Check out all five spots below and vote for your favorite.

For sunglasses company Tens, making an eye-catching ad was imperative. But in a world of sleek and sexy ads all looking to break through, how do you stand out? You go analog.

Tens, a six-person Scottish company whose sunglasses have special lenses to make the world look like a Polaroid picture, transports us to the land of '80s infomercials in the spot below. Shot on both digital and analog cameras (the company nabbed an old-school VHS camera on eBay for $20)—with a ton of work done in post—the ad plays on people's love of nostalgia, wavy VHS lines and all.



"If you're an older brand that has this kind of heritage, you couldn't just go out and make something like this. It would be too much in contrast to the brand," Tom Welsh, Tens co-founder and the director of the ad, told Adweek.

"This ad fits into our brand ideology. Our sunglass lense makes everything feel nostalgic, and we wanted to use that thinking in our advertising and branding ethos." 

The striped patterns on dresses, shirts, tunics and sweaters become prison bars—with small, sad faces peeking through—in this Brazilian campaign against child labor.

Lew'Lara\TBWA created the print ads for the Abrinq Foundation, which is affiliated with Save the Children, in the style of high-fashion magazine spreads. Each one features a single line of copy, such as, "A dress shouldn't cost a childhood." Brazilian model Caroline Ribeiro appears in some of the ads, which were shot by top fashion photographers.

#Dress4Good is the hashtag, and the public is encouraged to post "positive fashion-foward images" on Instagram. According to the agency, the initiative is not intended as an attack on the fashion industry per se, but is designed to spread the message that "child labor crimes are closer to the consumer than they might think."

The work is similar in theme and execution to "What's Behind," a recent public-service effort from Brazilian human-rights group Cepia (though Abrinq's use of stripes—note how the kids' fingers clutch at them in desperation—really drives the point home).

Ultimately, both campaigns do a fine job of encouraging consumers to dig beneath the surface and find out what's really going on.

CREDITS
Agency: Lew'Lara\TBWA
Client: Abrinq Foundation - Save the Children
Campaign Title:
CCO: Manir Fadel
Executive Chief Creative: Felipe Luchi
Copywriter: Gabriel Sotero
Art director: Rodolfo Fernandes
Art Buyer: Ale Sarilho, Sabino and Caio Lobo
Image treatment: Arms Image
Photographers: Jacques Dequeker, Jayro Goldflus, Henrique Gendre, Daniel Klajimic and Gil Inoue
PR: Bia Ribeiro
Client: Victor Alcântara da Graça, Yeda Mariana Rocha de M. Pereira e Denise Maria Cesario

Bobblehead Bret Michaels sure drives a hard bargain. Must be the frozen stare and the defiant stance. You should probably take him along on your next car-buying venture. You want the leopard-print steering wheel cover, don't you?

The former Poison frontman trots out his cheeky sense of humor, along with his ceramic mini-doppelganger, for a digital video series promoting Nissan's commercial vehicles. The shorts are a follow-up to a campaign that launched last summer featuring Michaels in the Arizona desert surrounded by Nissan trucks, pyrotechnics, bandana-clad crash test dummies and hot chicks.

The work, from TBWA\Chiat\Day, also introduced the look-alike bobblehead that has since become a fan favorite. The agency, responding to Twitter and Facebook requests, just launched five "BobbleBret" videos, taking the doll off the dashboard. Michaels' power ballad version of the sappy Lionel Richie/Diana Ross duet "Endless Love" returns as the melodramatic soundtrack.

Among other unlikely scenarios, the new snippets show BobbleBret's silent negotiating skills at a Nissan dealership and his rock-star-sized tantrum in a green room. No brown M&Ms, he said!

Find all the videos at NissanToughLove.com.

CREDITS
Client: Nissan
Marketing Manager: Casey Kilmer
Senior Marketing Manager: Terri Welch
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Executive Digital Producer: Brian Jarmon
Creative Directors: Liz Levy, Jason Locey
Director: Nick Spooner
Production Company: The Sweet Shop
Managing Director: Laura Thoel
Head of Production: Preston Garrett
Line Producer: Breigh Kenley
Editorial: Jump LA
Editor: Patrick Griffin
Editorial Producer: Callie Beckmann
Executive Editorial Producer: Betsy Beale
Director of Photography: Adam Santelli

If you love your job but are bored with your city, maybe you can make like Jonay Sosa and become a traveling adman.

The Spanish copywriter is bouncing around Europe, freelancing at different agencies while he sees the continent and billing the trip as a barter-themed project, "Ideas for Fuel."

A seven-year veteran of Saatchi & Saatchi, he's charging an hourly rate of 10 liters—about 2.5 gallons—of diesel for his van. (Gas prices in European countries tend to be higher than in the U.S., making that the equivalent of $10-20 an hour, depending on the country and exchange rate.)

Since setting off last June, he says he's worked at 19 different agencies, including La Chose in Paris, Jung von Matt in Stockholm and McCann in Bucharest—with stints in Leuven, Helsinki and Amsterdam. Now, he's in London (to which he flew), working at KK Outlet.

According to the project website, he's clocked 14,500 kilometers and 813 beers. Naturally, there's also a blog about the trip, plus an an Instagram stream in which he appears to ink stamp his musings onto walls in various locales, not to mention an open call for loaner showers and washing machines.

And if you don't love your job that much, maybe you can save up and take a proper globe-trotting vacation, like that South African ad couple.

Via Design Taxi.

Lifetime has brought a neat out-of-home advertising trick to the U.S. for the first time to promote its upcoming miniseries The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, starring Kelli Garner.

Garner began appearing Monday on digital ads in eight New York City subway stations. The ads are audio-activated, and whenever a train arrives in those stations, Garner's skirt blows around, as though windswept by the train (a reference, of course, to the famous images of Monroe with her skirt blowing around in The Seven Year Itch—also caused by a draft from a New York subway train).

Lifetime says it's the first marketer in the U.S. to use this audio-sensory technology in the MTA subway. It is reminiscent, of course, of the well-known Swedish subway ads for hair-care brand Apolosophy.

The ads are up in the Grand Central, Union Square, West 4th Street, 86th Street, 14th Street/7th Avenue, Brooklyn Bridge, Fulton Center and 68th Street-Hunter College stations. Lifetime worked on the project with Horizon Media, Control Group and New Tradition.

We spoke to Tracy Lenhart, vp of consumer marketing at Lifetime, about the project.

Where did you get the idea for this? Were you inspired by the Apolosophy ads?
The core of the idea is a fundamental shift in our media strategy. Lifetime is increasingly looking at the utilization of new OOH technologies to bring our creative and campaigns more to life. We were looking for a new, never-done-before [in the U.S.] placement that will shout "premium and popular," and make people stop and take notice and extend their excitement about the campaign onto social media.

Can you explain how the technology works?
The screens are programmed to trigger creative when sound exceeds a pre-set decibel. The initial decibel will be set at 100 dB, a level that would likely only be triggered by a train, considering the environment. We will tune the content so that it works as intended in the field and ensures that the experience is a success.

It ties in quite nicely to the original image of Monroe's skirt being blown around by a New York subway train, doesn't it?
The idea was not necessarily to replicate or capture the original source material, but rather evoke the historic and indelible impression Marilyn Monroe has made on American pop culture.  It was just a matter of finding the right placement and technology.
 
How do expect people will react to the ads?
Shock, surprise and share! We believe this unique experience will get people talking and sharing photos and videos across their social platforms, and, ultimately, excite viewers for The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe.

Groupon sees your Banana Bunker and raises you a Bike Chain Wash and Scrub Kit.

That's the latest phallic-looking product that the deal-of-the-day website has posted on its Facebook page, all but goading fans into making off-color jokes about it. And fans have been more than happy to oblige—with Groupon replying to scores of them, pretending not to know the Bike Chain Wash and Scrub Kit looks like a dude's junk.

It's basically the same schtick as the Banana Bunker post, just with more handjob jokes.

See below.

Adult movies have suddenly become the hot place to put cancer PSAs.

M&C Saatchi in Sydney worked with adult film studio Digital Playground and the Nonprofit Blue Ball Foundation to place an unexpected testicular-cancer PSA inside Game of Balls, an X-rated Game of Thrones parody, last month.

During one of the flick's steamy scenes, actress Eva Lovia—who really should try harder with her porn name—briefly breaks character (such as it is) to demonstrate a cancer check on a male member of the cast. She also tells viewers to visit PlayWithYourself.org for more information. It's stroke of genius, I'd say! (But I say lots of silly things.)

Check out the case study below, which is not explicit but might be a bit NSFW anyway.



So far, 200,000 people have visited the site, and total video views have passed 1.5 million, according to the video. "We're overwhelmed with the amount of feedback we've been getting, from emails to Facebook messages to phone calls from all over the world," says Blue Balls founder Jamie Morgan.

This isn't the first ballsy way of generating exposure for the cause. McCann Lima and PornHub recently dispatched adult performer Charlotte Stokely—now that's a porn-star name!—to show men how to perform self-examinations, and Cancer Research U.K. went all-in with last year's selfie-sock campaign. (There was also DDB Bolivia's breast-check adult clip, though Pornhub has questioned that case study's claims of success.)

In any case, hopefully some of the messaging will rub off on the intended audience.

CREDITS
Client: The Blue Ball Foundation
Jamie Morgan: Founder
Agency: M&C Saatchi
Ben Welsh: ECD
Ant Melder: CD
Josh Bryer: Writer
David Jackson: Art Director
Matt Porter: M&C Saatchi: PR Manager
Jaimes Leggett: M&C Saatchi: CEO
Justin Graham: M&C Saatchi: CSO
PR: Bang PR
Annalise Brown: Managing Director
Peta Frost: Account Manager
Zoe Finlayson: Account Executive
Production: Digital Playground
Jeanette Li: Marketing & PR Coordinator
Jakodema: Director

Any road-safety campaign that uses actual victims in its advertising is bound to be difficult for the families involved. This latest, from Y&R New Zealand, is no exception. Indeed, it's crushingly sad—even if it's also starkly beautiful.

The road-safety charity Brake partnered with Y&R for the campaign, timed to National Road Safety Week in New Zealand. To get people to think about the potential cost of their decisions on the road, the agency took photographs of five crash victims, and using a forensic age-progression specialist, created incredible 3-D models of what they might look like in 2015, years after they died.



Forensic specialist Kevin Darch worked off childhood and family photos to create a current-day artistic impression of each child. Weta Digital then digitally sculpted a 3-D portrait model, with fine detail such as eyelashes, eyebrows, skin tone and texture. The portraits were then photographed for print ads.

The point of the "Living Memories" project, of course, is to physically illustrate exactly what was lost—each person's entire future. It must have been terribly sad for the families to see these models, even though the case study shows them being more intrigued than freshly devastated.

"Meeting the families and presenting them the portraits was a profoundly moving experience, and I hope that this campaign will touch people in a meaningful way," says Lisa Dupre, senior art director at Y&R NZ.

"Road crashes have devastating consequences for families and the effects last a lifetime," adds Caroline Perry, development director at Brake. "The aim with this campaign is to look not only at lost lives, but also lost potential and lost futures. Living Memories has given these five families an opportunity to see what their child might have looked like, and demonstrates to the rest of us the lasting impact that crashes have."

CREDITS
Client: Brake
Development Director: Caroline Perry

Agency: Y&R NZ
CCO / CEO: Josh Moore
Creative Director: Scott Henderson, Seymour Pope
Senior Art Director: Lisa Dupre
Head Producer: Christina Hazard
Account Director: Claire Dooney
Account Manager: Chelsea Dowling
Senior Media Planner: Kylee Davidson-Corrin
Designers: James Wendelborn, Kate Whitley
Executive Digital Producer: Bruce Murray
Digital Producer: Pat Co
Head of Motion Graphics: Michael Frogley
National Ideas Director: Jason Wells
General Manager: Grant Maxwell
Managing Director – Wgtn Tim Ellis

Production
Digital production company: Weta Digital
Editor: James (Squid) Kelly, Pat O'Sullivan
DOP: Will Moore

Partners
Forensic specialist: Kevin Darch
TVNZ: Joanne Mitchell, Briar McCormack
Researcher: Alison Horwood
Freelance reporter: Amanda Miller

Hearing brings a world of joy to people, but it's a sense not everyone is lucky enough to have.

Spotify recently took a trip to Puerto Princesa, Philippines, with hearing aid manufacturer Starkey Hearing Foundation, to deliver hearing aids and free music to poor communities. This emotional spot from Night Agency and Tool director Alec Helm highlights a few of those stories.

The four-minute video introduces us to three different deaf people by showing short snippets from their everyday lives. While the stories differ, the common theme through all of them is family.

First, we meet Eugene, a 28-year old who has been deaf since he was a baby. Then there's Isagani, a father of three children who play music he wishes he could hear. And teenager Jessa Mae is the daughter of a fisherman, but has never heard the ocean.

The ad takes a sappy turn once Spotify and Starkey Hearing Foundation hook the three up with hearing aids. And then the music kicks in to show how it makes life more enjoyable.

"Make music change _________," reads the tagline at the end—with the blank filled by phrases, one after another, like "dancing with your friends," "time with your kids," etc.

While the ad clearly plugs Spotify, it's also a nice reminder how deafness affects a wide range of people. As part of the partnership with Starkey Hearing Foundation, people can also donate money online. For every $100 donated, one person receives hearing care.

CREDITS
Client: Spotify
Agency: Night Agency
Production Company: Tool
Director: Alec Helm

For those who couldn't get enough of Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard in their hit Samsung Galaxy Tab S holiday ad, the hyper-cute Hollywood couple—married in real-life—have returned for an encore, this time plugging the company's high-tech home appliances.

In a minute-long spot, the actors—known for Parenthood (Shepard) and House of Lies (Bell), among other projects—are planning a big dinner party. And naturally, Samsung's refrigerators, ranges, dishwashers, washing machines and vacuum bots prove invaluable. A 30-second commercial focuses on their efforts to clean an infant's toy bunny using Samsung's Activewash Top Load Washer.

McKinney created the ads, and Tucker Gates directs in a suitably off-the-cuff, relaxed style.

Bell and Shepard also appear in a nearly 10-minute behind-the-scenes/interview clip. That's right—10 minutes! Highlights come when Bell says Samsung ovens are "almost like Transformers" because of their dual-temperature functionality (sorry, Optimus Prime) and Shepard briefly discusses his involvement in the upcoming feature-film reboot of '70s highway-cop series "CHiPS" (give Erik Estrada a cameo!).

Throughout the campaign, Bell and Shepard are adorably affable, showing off the time-and-labor-saving technology with effortless élan, perfectly cast as bubbly brand ambassadors for the millennial generation.

The 90-second version of their holiday spot got 13 million YouTube views, so clearly the work is connecting with its audience. Still, the couple's cuteness is, at times, so overwhelmingly insufferable that I kind of wanted to stick my head inside that snazzy Samsung fridge and bash my brains in with the door.

Last summer, Russia imposed a full embargo on food imports from the European Union (as well as the U.S.) in retaliation for sanctions over Ukraine. This left authentic European food merchants in Moscow in a bit of a bind.

But one Italian grocery store there, Don Giulio Salumeria, kept selling its real Italian food—and came up with a bizarre out-of-home stunt to advertise to consumers without tipping off the police.

With help from agency The 23, the store developed a unique outdoor ad that could recognize police uniforms. Whenever the cops would appear, the ad would cycle out of its rotating display—in essence, physically hiding from the authorities.



The agency insists this was a real stunt. And if so, it is clever and amusingly weird. After emailing the case study all over the world, though, I'd think twice about answering the door when the Moscow police come knocking.

CREDITS
Client: Don Giulio Salumeria, Moscow
Owner: Giulio Zompi
Marketing Director: Anna Ipatova
Agency: The 23, Krasnogorsk
Creative director: Evgeniy Shinyaev
Creative director: Mikhail Tkachenko
Technology Director: Alexander Selifonov
Account Supervisor: Vera Kriulets
Director Of Photography: Nikolay Shinkarenko
Technical Assistant: Valeriy Oreshnikov

Boy, howdy, have things changed."

That's Colonel Hardland Sanders, 35 years after his death at age 90—but reincarnated in the form of ex-SNL star Darrell Hammond—weighing in on modern culture in Wieden + Kennedy's first advertising for KFC, on its 75th anniversary.

The Colonel, the face of the chicken chain and always a valuable asset, is front and center in the major new campaign. He places the needle on an old LP in the introductory spot, which tells you exactly where this is going: The old Colonel is here to riff on the differences between the old days and this crazy new world of millennials—in ads frequently punctuated by an exaggerated chuckle that Hammond has come up with.



It's an interesting approach, getting a comedic actor to play your most classic icon. And the first spots are notable not just because of the Colonel's return but because of the concerted oddness of the execution.

In the minute-long "Bucket in My Hand," the Colonel walks down a clogged highway, around an empty baseball stadium and up to a swimming pool lifeguard—handing out chicken and singing an off-kilter anthem with lyrics that frequently don't rhyme. In the 15-second "America's Favorite Music" ad, he raves about mandolin music.



The goofy humor is clearly meant to drag the Colonel into the modern age, without completely sacrificing his legacy. Even Hammond's stock quotes are a mix of reverent and tongue-in-cheek.

"In my line of work I've been able to do impressions of a lot of interesting people. But Colonel Sanders? He was a really fascinating guy," Hammond says in a statement. "His lifelong entrepreneurial spirit and integrity are two things that drew me to him. He never gave up. It's an honor to bring to life such an iconic figure … and it doesn't hurt that KFC is paying me in chicken (which, at the time sounded like a good idea, because I was very hungry that day)."



The TV spots will break next Monday. The campaign extends to web, social media and in-store experiences. The digital work includes a new KFC.com and ColonelSanders.com (the latter includes the Hall of Colonels, an interactive digital experience that tells Sanders' life story). There will also be new menu items, packaging and store designs.

"The Colonel has always been at the core of everything we do here at Kentucky Fried Chicken," says Kevin Hochman, KFC's U.S. CMO. "The 75th anniversary is the perfect time to give him back to the people and remind everyone of what we're all about."

Packaging:

 
Store design, exterior:

 
Store design, interior:

 
CREDITS
Client: KFC
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.

—Spot: "State of Kentucky Fried Chicken Address" :45

Agency: W+K Portland
Creative Directors: Karl Liberman, Eric Baldwin
Copywriter: Karl Liberman
Art Director: Eric Baldwin
Producer: Hayley Goggin,
Production Assistant: Nicole Kaptur
Interactive Strategy: Mike Davidson, Teresa Lai
Social Strategy: Matt Hisamoto
Strategic Planning: Britton Taylor, Lizzie Hanner
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Jess Monsey, Jesse Johnson, Kristin Postill, Alexina Shaber
Business Affaires: Alicia Willet/Karen Crossley
Project Management: Chenney Gruber
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Joint
Director: Karl Lieberman + Eric Baldwin
Executive Producer: Patty Brebner
Line Producer: Shelli Jury
Director of Photography: Eric Edwards

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Nick Davis
Post Executive Producer: Leslie Carthy

VFX Company: Joint
Exec Producer, VFX: Alex Thiesen
Nuke Artist : Zack Jacobs
Smoke Artist: David Jahns
Executive Producer, Color: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer : Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Colorist: David Ludlum

Music+Sound Company: Walker
Composer: N/A
Sound Designer: Noah Woodburn
Song (if applicable):  'Keep on the Sunny Side'
Producer: Abbey Hickman + Sara Matarazzo

Mix Company: Joint
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Producer: Sarah Fink

—Spots: "Bucket in My Hand" :60, "Pool Dip" :15, "Traffic" :30, "Baseball No Hitter" :30, "Baseball-Talkin About" :15

Agency: W+K Portland
Creative Directors: Karl Liberman, Eric Baldwin
Copywriter: Matt Mulvey
Art Director: Lawrence Melilli
Producer: Hayley Goggin,
Production Assistant: Nicole Kaptur
Interactive Strategy: Mike Davidson, Teresa Lai
Social Strategy: Matt Hisamoto
Strategic Planning: Britton Taylor, Lizzie Hanner
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Jess Monsey, Ken Smith, Jesse Johnson, Kristin Postill, Alexina Shaber
Business Affaires: Karen Crossley
Project Management: Chenney Gruber
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer: Doug Halbert
Line Producer: Andrew Travelstead
Director of Photography: Tim Hudson

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Steve Sprinkel
Post Producer: Lauren Pullano
Post Executive Producer: Alex Thiesen

VFX Company: The Mill
Exec Producer, VFX: Sue Troyan
Sr. VFX Producer: Dan Roberts
Production Coordinator: Mary Hayden
VFX Supervisor: Phil Crowe
Lead Flame Artist : James Allen
2D Artists: Tim Davies, Jason Bergman, Steve Cokonis, Andy Dill, Kevin Flores, Gareth Parr, Tim Robbins, Lisa Ryan, Stefan Smith, Glyn Tebbutt
Matte Painters: Gillian George, Itai Muller, Lynn Yang
Executive Producer, Color: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer : Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Colorist: David Ludlum

Music+Sound Company: Walker Music
Composer: N/A
Sound Designer: Walker Music  on Bucket In My Hand :60/:30 ONLY
Song (if applicable): Bucket In My Hand (re-record of Ivor Cutler 'Donut in my hand') All other spots, 'Keep on the Sunny Side' production performance from Mandolin Band on set day of shoot
Producer: Abbey Hickman + Sara Matarazzo

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Sam Casas + Matt Miller
Producer: Susie Boyajan

—Spot: Mandolin Spots

Agency: W+K Portland
Creative Directors: Karl Liberman, Eric Baldwin
Copywriter: Matt Mulvey
Art Director: Lawrence Melilli
Producer: Hayley Goggin,
Production Assistant: Nicole Kaptur
Interactive Strategy: Mike Davidson, Teresa Lai
Social Strategy: Matt Hisamoto
Strategic Planning: Britton Taylor, Lizzie Hanner
Media/Comms Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Jess Monsey, Ken Smith, Jesse Johnson, Kristin Postill, Alexina Shaber
Business Affaires: Karen Crossley
Project Management: Chenney Gruber
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Imperial Woodpecker
Director: Stacy Wall
Executive Producer: Doug Halbert
Line Producer: Andrew Travelstead
Director of Photography: Tim Hudson

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Steve Sprinkel
Post Producer: Lauren Pullano
Post Executive Producer: Alex Thiesen

VFX Company: The Mill
Exec Producer, VFX:: Sue Troyan
Sr. VFX Producer: Dan Roberts
Production Coordinator : Mary Hayden
VFX Supervisor: Phil Crowe
Lead Flame Artist : James Allen
2D Artists: Tim Davies, Jason Bergman, Steve Cokonis, Andy Dill, Kevin Flores, Gareth Parr, Tim Robbins, Lisa Ryan, Stefan Smith, Glyn Tebbutt
Matte Painters: Gillian George, Itai Muller, Lynn Yang
Executive Producer, Color: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producer : Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Colorist: David Ludlum

Music+Sound Company: Walker Music
Composer: N/A
Sound Designer: Walker Music  on $5 Dollar Phillip  :30 + :15
Song (if applicable): Down By the Bay  ($5 Dollar Phillip :30 + :15)
Producer: Abbey Hickman + Sara Matarazzo

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Sam Casas + Matt Miller
Producer: Susie Boyajan

What better way to sell foot-care products than with an entire magazine for and about feet?

Hansaplast, a Beiersdorf-owned band-aid brand, is launching a line of creams, deodorant and antiperspirant called FootExpert. To promote the products, agency Being created Feet Mag, a luxury publication designed with heavy paper that can be easily turned by one's feet, and large print that you can enjoy from an eye-to-foot distance (for those unable to lift the book close to their faces using only their toes).



The magazine is packed with foot-themed stories about art (by the likes of Renoir, Gauguin, Delacroix and Manet) and fashion, with sassy pictures of women playing cards and blowing kisses with their own feet. There are even foot horoscopes (with advice like putting on rubber boots to prepare for the coming storm).

Check out a copy of the magazine here. (PDF link)

It's a fun way to draw attention to a decidedly dull subject, certainly more noteworthy than buying ads in a well-established beauty magazine. But it doesn't seem right to make your feet do all that extra work—even in the name of leisure.

Via PSFK.