Deutsch did some fun out-of-home work recently for Purdy—the Sherwin-Williams professional painting supplies brand—showing the versatility and accuracy of its paintbrushes in action.

The really eye-catching execution advertises Purdy's XL brushes, which can paint on practically any surface. To communicate this, the agency used XLs to paint over a billboard-size section of an ordinary New York City street—covering materials including brick, glass, wood, metal and plastic.

Among the objects that got a coating of bright yellow: a trash can, a newspaper stand, a bicycle, delicate flowers and even a pigeon. (Yes, it's fake. Don't go torturing actual NYC pigeons with your Purdy brushes.) And while this execution is visually reminiscent of OBI's famous German work from 2014, the message is different.

 
A second execution—which went up in Cleveland, where Sherwin-Williams is based—advertises Purdy's Clearcut series of brushes, which offer extreme precision. To demonstrate that level of intricacy, Deutsch used the Clearcut to paint the brand's message in between the bricks on a wall.

Great job on both ads.

CREDITS
Client: The Sherwin-Williams Co.
Brand: Purdy
Contact: Ian Gresham
Senior Vice President of Marketing, Diversified Brands
Agency: Deutsch
Executive Creative Director: Menno Kluin
Creative Directors: Sam Shepherd, Frank Cartagena
Project Manager: Marea Grossman
Art Director: Ilana Wolstein
Art Director Intern: Sudarshan Waghmare
Copywriter: Fanny Josefsson
Copywriter Intern: Joy Chakravorty
Associate Design Director: Brian Gartside
Director of Print & Art Production: Sarah Manna
Designer: Belen La Rivera
Producer: Heather Black
Set Design: Latisha Duarte
Retoucher: Brian French
Editor: Aaron Schillinger
Shoot Location: Brooklyn, NY & Cleveland, OH
Additional Credits:
Group Account Director: Tyler Helms
Account Director: Lisa Chad
Account Supervisor: Mark Donohue

Specs
Name Detavio Samuels
Age 35
New gig President, Interactive One and One Solution/OneX
Old gig President of GlobalHue
Twitter@detavio

Adweek: You've launched a branded content studio that targets black consumers. What is different about marketing to this demographic?
Samuels: In an ideal world, the story will come out of culture that will be relevant for more than just people who are of African-American ethnicity.

Stories that are coming out of black content and lifestyle are hot right now. If you look at things like Unsung, Empire and Blackish, you can see that those stories are very popular. Black culture has always been hot, but now it has a platform that maybe we haven't seen in the past. Content is not just relevant for black people—it's relevant for mainstream culture.

Why is black culture particularly hot right now?
When you look today at things like social media and the whole digital landscape, what's happening is people are uncovering some of these trends in neighborhoods like New York, Atlanta and Miami more quickly [than in the past].

I also think America is experiencing a different kind of openness. We're further from a post-racial society than a lot of people would have liked to say before everything happened in Ferguson and Baltimore, but there is a different level of openness.

I think that's especially true as you make your way through generations. So, people like millennials are open to being influenced by different cultures.

Give me an example of a brand that you've worked with to do that.
We're trying to create content that's right. And then because we sit on top of the only multichannel media platform in the African-American space, we have an incredible system to distribute the content.

If you take Walmart for example, we shot a celebrity cooking show that was rooted in remixing traditional black meals. Those long-form pieces lived natively on HelloBeautiful.com. The whole thing was about remixing fresh ingredients because Walmart was trying to promote their fresh food.

When you came to HelloBeautiful.com to look at any of this content, we controlled the skin [around the video]. And before you watched the two-minute native advertisement, you saw a 30-second Walmart brand spot. If you clicked on it, it took you to Walmart.com where other videos lived as well.

What buzzwords are you sick of hearing?
We need to differentiate between influencers and celebrities.

There's a lot of celebrities who have large footprints, but they're not really active, so they don't get the same kind of an engagement of someone who maybe isn't as popular but has a very loyal following. Anytime we hear brands [saying] that they want to partner with influencers, we're always trying to distinguish between influencers that are popular or someone who can help drive engagement.

You've also worked in global marketing for Johnson & Johnson's medical equipment. What did you learn on the brand side that you're going to apply to your new gig?
I've now been on the brand, agency and media side.

One of the biggest challenges in media is that there are so many people between the brand and the media company, so you don't always hear what brands are looking for. Having been on the inside, I know what they're looking for.

Everyone on my team has come from either the brand side, an agency or an agency and media company. I'm looking to make sure that people have a diversity of experience in terms of their lens, which we then use to deliver marketing work, because I think that's what will make us unique.

Soccer fun fact: A "clásico," which originally referred to a Real Madrid vs. Barcelona game, now means any game between fierce rivals within the same country—like Manchester United vs. Liverpool—making them highly anticipated national events. 

On Feb. 7, France's clásico will take place between Olympique de Marseille (OM) and Paris Saint-Germain. To build hype for the game, cable network Canal+, which has had exclusive rights to the broadcast for the last 20 years, released a new ad called "The Fan."

Created by BETC, the spot is so much more than your garden-variety soliloquy about the personal significance of the sport in the life of a die-hard OM follower.

This story has a twist. Watch the full, unspoilered version below. 



The poor guy works in stadium security.

That means he can never watch the matches happening right behind him, on the same field he's standing on ... that is, until the day his daughter—who, if her dad's anything like the sports fans in our family, probably gets short shrift attention-wise—uses Canal+ to help him witness a long-cherished moment for the first time. 

"Some games you just can't miss," the ad concludes, and the smile that lights our fan's face up is priceless. It's the smile of the dedicated, dogged and downtrodden devotee getting his payoff.

But it's also the redeeming smile of our jocular, middle-aged dads, who, after decades of career fidelity, have poured all of their human passion into something that everyone else in the family might consider pointless, or just not worthy of so much energy. (For my dad, it's boats. Boats in bottles. Boats at boat shows. And the lonely forgotten boat of Joe DiMaggio, still sitting in our home dock.)

Sports ads are probably best characterized for stoking the contagious emotions of fans and shining a spotlight on an underdog. In this sense, "The Fan" fits neatly in its genre. But it also refreshes with smart use of drama, comedic timing and tiny twists that refocus interest ... and are, incidentally, the key selling points of Canal+ in France, which easily invites comparison to HBO.

Solid work here; it's almost enough to make us want to watch dudes kick balls.

Are you going all in with a TV buy on the Super Bowl without a proper accompanying data-driven digital strategy to really take advantage of that flood of viewer interest? If so, you're not going to have a very happy Sunday, says Adobe.

The company on Monday released the latest amusing spot in its ongoing "Do you know what your marketing is doing?" campaign from Goodby Silverstein & Partners. This one centers on a sad-sack CMO on Super Bowl Sunday, who has bought time on the big game, and is watching it all unfold—along with the beginning of the end of his marketing career—in a bar. (Either this guy doesn't have a family, or any friends, or he's been such a cranky-ass stress case these past few weeks that no one wants anything to do with him tonight.)

It should go without saying that it doesn't go well. The spot, after all, pushes Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions, which give marketers the tools for online measurement and activation to go along with a TV buy. 

Adobe has punked the Super Bowl for a number of years now, going back to 2013, when it unveiled a GS&P spot the day after the game, showing a chimpanzee and a horse humorously questioning the value of a Big Game buy. But in fact, Alex Amado, Adobe's vp of experience marketing, tells Adweek that the company isn't anti-TV advertising at all.

"This spot isn't 'anti-TV advertising,' it's 'pro-data,' " he says. "We're big fans of TV advertising, especially around key events like the Super Bowl, as it remains one of the few ways to get truly massive reach at a very focused moment in time. But those moments have become so expensive that marketers need to make their TV ads part of a broader marketing strategy that is heavy on digital, appropriately targeted, and ultimately driven by data."

Amado adds: "Our message this time was really, 'If you aren't using data and insights to drive your marketing, it's just a gamble.' "

This is evident from the very first frame of the spot, when our doomed CMO is holding what looks like a poker chip and he fidgets restlessly at the bar. The dismayed reaction of his fellow bar patrons, at the end of the spot, to what sounds like a Caribbean-themed cream cheese commercial is pretty perfect.

"This ad is saying that any marketing investment that isn't informed by data could be an unnecessary gamble with your company's money," says Amado. "Marketers today have access to more data and insights than ever before, but they need to be disciplined about harnessing it and understanding what it's telling them. With this ad, we're reminding marketers to 'look at the data' to gain meaningful insights before they run any big marketing plays—and that they're ready to take advantage of the brief attention and focus a big ad placement will give them, or else they just might risk losing in the Big Game."

Simon Bruyn, copywriter at GS&P, says the spot serves as a warning.

"We all know how expensive the Super Bowl has become for advertisers, yet so often brands buy up media without understanding if it actually makes sense for them," he says. "Given the high stakes, we wanted to remind marketers about the Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions available to help them with their big decision, and possibly save them a ton of money, and embarrassment."

The spot is running online, particularly on sites where content and commentary around the Super Bowl ad will be featured. It will get a heavy paid push across online channels including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. And it will also get a few national and local U.S. market TV placements, including Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Saturday Night Live and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

CREDITS
Client: Adobe

Spot: "The Gambler"

Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Creative
Partner: Rich Silverstein
Creative Directors: Will Elliot, Patrick Knowlton
Art Director: Andrew Livingston
Copywriter: Simon Bruyn

Production
Director of Content Production: Tod Puckett
Senior Producer: Benton Roman

Account Services
Account Director: Theo Abel
Account Manager: Chelsea Bruzzone
Assistant Account Manager: Aliza Niewood

Brand Strategy
Group Brand Strategy Director: Bonnie Wan
Brand Strategist: Etienne Ma

Communication Strategy
Director of Communication Strategy: Christine Chen
Group Communication Strategy Director: Dong Kim
Senior Communication Strategists: Caitlin Neelon, Victoria Barbatelli
Communication Strategist: Tara Hughes
Junior Communication Strategists: Catherine Kim, Elyse McAvoy

Research, Analytics
Group Research, Analytics Director: Margaret Coles
Research, Analytics Director: Cassi Husain

Business Affairs
Business Affairs Manager: Heidi Killeen

Production
Company: Reset
Director: J.C. Chandor
Managing Director: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Producer: Greg Schultz
Director of Photography: Masanobu Takayanagi
Production Designer: Noel McCarthy

Editorial
Company: Work Editorial
Editor: Rich Orrick
Assistant Editor: Arielle Zakowski
Executive Producer: Marlo Baird

Telecine
Company: Company 3
Colorist: Tom Poole

Visual Effects, Finishing
Company: Method Studios
Lead Flame: Aidan Thomas
Executive Producer: Robert Owens
Visual Effects Producer: Jennie Burnett Fischer

Music
Company: Butter
Composers: Max Schad, Andrew Sherman
Executive Producer: Annick Mayer
Creative Director: Andrew Sherman

Sound Design
Company: Stimmung
Sound Designer: Gus Koven
Producer: Kristina Iwankiw
Executive Producer: Ceinwyn Clark

Mix
Company: Lime
Mixer: Rohan Young

There's been a somewhat surprising scarcity of animal-themed Super Bowl teasers—and actual spots—this season. (RIP, Budweiser puppy.) But Honda and RPA have rounded up some talented sheep to help change that.

The automaker on Monday released its 2016 Super Bowl spot, advertising the 2017 Honda Ridgeline, coming this spring. And one feature of the truck in particular will have prospective buyers—and barnyard animals everywhere—singing its praises. Quite literally.

See the spot, directed by Hungry Man's Bryan Buckley, here:



Yes, the new Ridgeline, has a truck-bed audio system that uses so-called "exciters" to turn the whole bed into a giant outdoor speaker. Honda is pushing that single feature in the Super Bowl campaign, including the 60-second spot in which sheep belt out Queen's "Somebody to Love," choir style, when the farmer isn't around.

"It's a very unique feature," Honda's avp of marketing, Tom Peyton, told Adweek last week in an interview. "Nobody else has it. And it's a little tough to communicate—although we will in some advertising later this spring, when the truck's at the dealers. It's not actually speakers. It's 'exciters' that makes the whole bed a speaker. It's pretty cool. … It would make a great tailgate vehicle."

That particular Queen song got a nice revival in December, when Jordan Smith performed it on NBC's The Voice in December. But Peyton also deadpanned: "It was the only song the sheep knew."

The humor is broad and cartoony, which Peyton says is just right for the environment. "We aren't the first come out with dogs or horses or puppies [on the Super Bowl]," he says. "But it is the one property where people truly tune in to see the commercials. And this is certainly playing to that type of content they're looking for."

Honda has only sat out a couple of Super Bowls over the past decade, and Peyton says it remains a solid investment if you have something special to sell.

"You only make the trip to the big game if you have a message that is noteworthy," he says. "And we firmly believe our return to the midsize truck market with a new, restyled Ridgeline is a great opportunity to get that message out. And we certainly think an investment in the Super Bowl is worthwhile." 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

CREDITS
Client: American Honda Motor Co.
Title: "A New Truck To Love"

Agency: RPA
EVP, CCO: Joe Baratelli  
SVP, ECD: Jason Sperling  
Creative Director/Art: Brent Singer  
Sr. Art Director: Matthew Pullen  
Sr. Art Director: Amy Servidea  
Sr. Copywriter: Chris Bradford  
Sr. Copywriter: Audrey Attal  
SVP, Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff  
VP, Executive Producer: Isadora Chesler  
Sr. Producer: Eva Ellis  
VP, Director of Business Affairs: Maria Del Homme  
EVP, Management Account Director: Brett Bender  
VP, Group Account Director: Adam Blankenship  
VP, Management Supervisor: Cathy O'Gorman  
Account Supervisor: Jacob Gentry  
Account Executive: Chris Varela  
Account Executive: Christina Contreras  
SVP, Group Strategic Planning Director: Christian Cocker  
Associate Director, Strategic Planning: Nargis Pirani  
Sr. Strategic Planner: Elissa Murch  
Program Manager: Melissa Heitman  
 
Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Bryan Buckley
Executive Producer: Mino Jarjoura
Director of Photography: Scott Henriksen
Producer: Emily Skinner
Production Designer: David Skinner
Costume Designer: Michelle Martini

Editorial: Union Editorial
Editor: Jim Haygood
Managing Partner: Michael Raimondi
Executive Producer: Lisa Johnson
Executive Producer: Joe Ross
Assistant Editor: Drew Johnson

VFX & Design: The Mill
Executive Producer: Leighton Greer
Sr. Producer: Chris Harlowe
Production Coordinator: Mary Hayden & Samantha Hernandez
Shoot Supervisor: Robert Sethi, Felix Urquiza & Glyn Tebbutt
Executive Creative Director: Phil Crowe
Creative Director: Robert Sethi
2D Lead Artist: Glyn Tebbutt
3D Lead Artist: Felix Urquiza
Animation Lead Artist: Blake Guest
Animation Supervisor: Jacob Bergman
2D Artists: Ben Smith, Ashley Forbito, Jake Albers, Jale Parsons, Peter Sidoriak, Sam Evenson, Tommy Smith
3D Artists: Matthew Fuller, Justin Murphy, Philippe Moine, Matthew Kavanagh, Dave Vander Pol, Richard Bailey, Alice Panek Temp, Tracie Cotta, Jason Jansky, Tamara Garabedian, Jenna Kind, Ziye Liu, Katie Yoon, Anthony Thomas, Majid Esmaeili, Sean Comer, Steven Olson, Martin Rivera
Matte Painting: Andy Wheater, Gillian George

Color: The Mill
Executive Producer, Colour: Thatcher Peterson
Colour Producer: Diane Valera

Production Coordinator, Colour: Jackson Rodgers
Colorist: Adam Scott

Music: "Somebody to Love"
Written by Freddie Mercury
(c) 1976 Queen Music LTD.
All Rights controlled by EMI Music Publishing, administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Performed by Queen.
Courtesy of Hollywood Records.

Re-Record & Sound Design: Beacon Street Studios
Executive Producer: Adrea Lavezzoli

Mix: Lime Studios

Re-recording Mixer: Dave Wagg
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan 

Hyundai squeezes not just one but—by our count—13 Ryan Reynolds into the first of its two in-game Super Bowl commercials, which rolled out online Monday. And to go along with the celebrity spot, the second spot features another big-game staple: talking animals.

See both spots, created by Innocean Worldwide, here:

"Ryanville" is the stronger of the two ads, and makes good use of its celebrity subject, with perhaps a sly implicit commentary on celebrity obsession generally. It advertises the 2017 Hyundai Elantra and its Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection technology. It was directed by Peter Berg of Pony Show Entertainment and features the song "Whatta Man" by Salt-n-Pepa featuring En Vogue.

A 30-second version of "Ryanville" will air during the second quarter of Sunday's game.

The other spot, "The Chase," directed by Aaron Stoller of Biscuit Filmworks, will air in the first quarter. It features a comically urgent use of the voice-activated Blue Link Remote Start feature on the Elantra—and some amusing bear banter to cap it off.

Hyundai will also air two 60-second spots during CBS's pre-game show on Sunday. "Better" follows a boy from birth to adulthood as he strives to make the world a better place. And "First Date," which will air in the pre-kick time slot, features Kevin Hart using Hyundai's Blue Link Car Finder feature to make sure his daughter gets home safely.

Berg also directed "First Date." "Better" was directed by Fredrik Bond of MJZ Productions.

The creative across the four spots is intentionally varied. "[Super Bowl Sunday] is a day that you need to be out in front, and there needs to be a universal truth in your ads, and you need to give something for everyone," Tim Blett, COO at Innocean USA, told Adweek last week.

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

CREDITS
Client: Hyundai
CMO: Dean Evans,
Sr. Manager Advertising: Monique Kumpis

Agency: Innocean Worldwide

"Ryanville"
CCO: Eric Springer
GCD: Barney Goldberg
CD: Bob Rayburn
AD/CD: Shane Diver
CW/CD: Max Godsil
DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED PRODUCTION: Carol Lombard
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Nicolette Spencer
PRODUCER: Jimmy Romero
HEAD OF ACCOUNT SERVICES: Marisstella Marinkovic
GROUP ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: Michelle Agnew, Nicole Timerson
ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR: Allison Morrissey
MEDIA: Ben Gogley, James Zayti
HEAD OF STRATEGY: Frank Striefler
PLANNING DIRECTOR: Kathleen Kindle
PM: Suzanne Cheng
BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Lisa Nichols

"The Chase"
CCO: Eric Springer
GCD: Barney Goldberg
CD: Bob Rayburn
ACD AD: David Mesfin, Chris Lynch
ACD CW: Nick Flora
DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED PRODUCTION: Carol Lombard
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Brandon Boerner
PRODUCER: Melissa Moore
HEAD OF ACCOUNT SERVICES: Marisstella Marinkovic
GROUP ACCOUNT DIRECTOR: Michelle Agnew, Nicole Timerson
ACCOUNT SUPERVISOR: Allison Morrissey
MEDIA: Ben Gogley, James Zayti
HEAD OF STRATEGY: Frank Striefler
PLANNING DIRECTOR: Kathleen Kindle
PM: Suzanne Cheng
BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Krista Horn

What a difference a year makes. In 2015, the NFL used its Super Bowl commercial time to talk about domestic violence. This year, it's celebrating domestic bliss.

The league's new Super Bowl campaign, from Grey New York, launched Monday with a long-form music video based on a fun bit of trivia—that winning cities see a rise in births nine months after a Super Bowl victory. The video features actual Super Bowl babies—from the now 49-year-old offspring of 1967 Green Bay Packer fans to Seattle Seahawks toddlers born in 2014—singing a version of Seal's "Kiss from a Rose," with new and comical lyrics.

A 60-second version, directed by Lance Acord and Chris Wilcha of Park Pictures, will air during the third quarter of Sunday telecast on CBS. A number of 10-second teasers will introducing the featured Super Bowl babies. (Additional profiles of the babies and their families will live at youtube.com/nfl.) 

The NFL and Grey worked to find Super Bowl-induced offspring from eight championship teams in all. (The others were the Dallas Cowboys, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.) Seal himself makes a cameo, standing on a hilltop overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge with the 1989 Super Bowl babies of the 49ers.

"For 49 years, our fans have rallied around their favorite teams on Super Bowl Sunday and passed their pride and passion down to the next generation," said NFL CMO Dawn Hudson. "We are excited to celebrate our football families by shining the spotlight on Super Bowl Babies, those fans born into a lifelong love of their team and the game."

"I was honored to be part of one of the biggest sporting events on the planet and to work with the NFL on such a fun family campaign," Seal said in a statement. "An event like this brings so many people together, and to have a song I wrote 25 years ago still be so loved is very special for me." 

The lyrics are a bit tough to make out here and there, so check them out below:

"Super Bowl Babies" lyrics

Ba dada da da da da da da, bada da

What makes the Super Bowl so Super? A day we adore.
It is a day, so super, it's why we were born.

And in the end
When our team won
Mom and dad looked at each other
One thing led to another that night

[We're all] Babies,

It all happened on the night that a Super Bowl was played, ooh

That's why we're here singing this sweet serenade
And now Super Bowl Fifty is here

There's so much reason for cheer tonight

Ever since we were in diapers, we've watched every game
Cheering so loud. We goo-goo'd. We ga-ga'd. We waaaaah'd
[babies crying]
Baby! We were all just little twinkles, twinkling in our daddy's eye
Til that Super Bowl Sunday night

And when at last

Nine months have passed

They welcome to the world, us newborn baby boys and girls

[We're all] Babies,

It all happened on the night that a Super Bowl was played, ooh
A day when history and our families were made
And now Super Bowl Fifty is here
So much reason for cheer tonight

We're all Super Bowl Babies, oh yeah
We're all Super Bowl Babies, oh yeah

When there were no more jalapeno-chili-bacon chicken wings
Mommy and dad, they cuddled. Canoodled. All night. Baby.
On that night our moms and dads were so filled with desire
[filled with desire]
Here we stand, a baby choir.

[We're all] Babies,

It all happened on the night that a Super Bowl was played, ooh

That's why we're here singing this sweet serenade
And now Super Bowl Fifty is here

So much reason for cheer tonight

Ba dada da da da da da da, bada da Ba dada da da da da da da, bada da
And now Super Bowl Fifty is here
So much reason for cheer tonight

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

CREDITS
Client: NFL
Creative Agency:  Grey NY
Chief Creative Officer: Andreas Dahlqvist
Executive Creative Directors: Leo Savage and Jeff Stamp
Group Creative Director: Joe Mongognia
ACD/Copywriter: Patrick Conlon
Art Director: Will Gardner
Location Production: Park Pictures
Directors: Lance Acord and Chris Wilcha
Executive Producer: Townhouse23
Executive Producer: Misha Maher
Assistant Producer: Scott Cohen
Editorial Exile, Kirk Baxter and Nate Gross
Music/Sound Design by Human

Squarespace is prepping a bizarre, ambitious and probably hilarious second-screen experience for the Super Bowl this Sunday—getting Key & Peele to do a livestream of video commentary for the duration of the entire game, with one major problem: They don't have the rights to talk about the game at all.

The Comedy Central pair will be in character as Lee and Morris, aspiring sportscasters from Atlanta who want to comment on the big game. "They've pooled their resources together and set up a website on Squarespace for the live broadcast, with one massive oversight—they don't have the rights to talk about the actual game. They decide to move forward with the plan anyway," says a press release announcing the stunt.

Squarespace tells Adweek that most if not all of the livestream will be improvised by the comedians, although a creative team will be on hand should the need for more content arise. All in all, it's a pretty exciting move that could be popular come Sunday. 

Check out the pair's faux press conference about the project here:



Lee and Morris will also star in Squarespace's in-game Super Bowl commercial, created by Anomaly. That spot will be "about how Squarespace brings Lee and Morris' dreams to life in a hilarious and creative way," the website maker tells us.

The live commentary will happen at squarespace.com/realtalk."It's sure to be a strange, hilarious, and totally improvised evening with two of the greatest acts in comedy today. This once-in-a-lifetime event will never again be aired in its entirety," Squarespace says.

More teasers below. 

What is love? 

Teleflora poses this question at the start of an affecting Valentine's Day film, created by the (aptly named) Wonderful Agency. The work treats us to a two-minute montage featuring folks of various ages, races and sexual orientations cherishing the people they love. 

The main focus is on romantic intimacy. Diverse couples go on dates, snuggle under covers, celebrate their shared lives and even suffer the pangs of separation. But the ad also shows other kinds of love, such as a mom cuddling her baby, and kids bonding on a playground. 

The narration employs disparate voices—old, young, male and female—to great effect. For example, the line "You're my best friend" is spoken by a child during a playground scene, then a few seconds later by a woman she cuddles with her lover in the early-morning light. Using the same words in different contexts underscores the notion that all types of love are essential to the human condition, as do sequences with lesbians, seniors, a gay wedding and a deaf couple who express their feelings in sign language. 



Some might dismiss this approach as merely jumping on the social-issues bandwagon, but politics aside, it's a smart move for a brand whose stock in trade is delivering floral messages of affection that must be as inclusive as possible. (Necco's Sweethearts candy took a similar tack in its Valentine's campaign.) 

While less of a tear-jerker than Teleflora's viral Mother's Day video, "What is Love?" ultimately scores by answering its own question as well as possible. "Love," we're told at the end, "is our greatest gift." Now, that's truth in advertising!  

Props to director Cameron Dutta and editor Tamara Meem for building to an emotional payoff that's not the least bit sappy, and for keeping the sales message mostly in the background. A shorter version of the clip, shown below, is less satisfying. The flower imagery, and by extension, the Telflora pitch, is more intrusive, and the narration, which made the extended cut so special, is missing.



Breaking today on YouTube and Facebook, the work is part of a broader seasonal campaign that includes a free Teleflora Love Note Concierge service, with experts on hand from Feb. 3-12 to help customers compose messages for their Valentine's Day bouquets.

Sometimes, we all struggle to speak from the heart. 

CREDITS
Client: Teleflora
Executive Vice President, Head of Marketing: David Dancer
Senior Director, Consumer Marketing: Danielle Mason

Agency: Wonderful Agency
President: Mike Perdigao
SVP, Digital: Brien Grant
Group Director of Experiences: Andres Conde Broadcast Producer: Matt Conrad
Creative Director: Frances Perez
Associate Creative Director: Meghann Bass
Senior Digital Artist: Mike Hand

Production Company: Whitelist
Whitelist Producer: Jennifer Glynn
Director: Cameron Dutra
AD: Jesse Hays
Director of Photography: Niko Wiesnet
Production Designer: Tye Whipple
Editor: Tamara Meem
Executive Producer: Jerad Anderson

Post Production: Velem
Derek Hansen – Colorist
Summer McCloskey – Colorist Producer

In this quirky PSA, Deadpool tells you to tweak the tomatoes before you go cucumber-crazy. Still don't get it? He can be clearer: Touch yourself tonight. 

Deadpool took a moment out of his busy movie marketing promo schedule (involving holding beauty pageants, making fun of Australians, and running for El Presidente) to give men a fireside chat about an issue so critical it affects even himself: testicular cancer. 

The film is out Feb. 12, so the marketing has hit full swing. What's surprising is how scattershot, tongue-in-cheek, and meta it all is. There is essentially no difference between the fourth-wall-breaking character of Deadpool and Ryan Reynolds, the actor who plays him (that's why half of the collateral is released as much on Reynolds' social pages as on the actual movie pages). Of course, the strategy fits the character of Deadpool perfectly, but there's still this feeling of Are they really going to do that with their marketing dollars?



Yes, apparently. Case in point: This PSA for the most common cancer in males 15-35 (basically the people who'll be sitting around us during the Deadpool premiere). Deadpool actually caring about the health and well-being of his audience is the last thing you'd expect ... which is why it's perfect.

Is it movie marketing? is it a PSA? Is it both? Have they decided that cause marketing is the only way to get Facebook shares? What is even happening?

Who cares? Enjoy the testicle puns, check your spuds, and check out the follow-up video below, made just for the ladies. 

Celebrities star in a new PSA campaign to increase pet adoption, with a slight twist: The stars in question are two dogs and a cat, all shelter animals before their respective rises into the spotlight.

Bento, better known as Keyboard Cat of YouTube fame, appears in the series, alongside popular Instagram personalities Hamilton Pug, who is incredibly chill, and Toast, the tongue-lolling fashionista spaniel (a Cavalier King Charles, to be precise).

The anthem ad below introduces all three without their characteristic trappings before unveiling their true identities. Each also gets a standalone video featuring their humans, and a closer look at their stories.



Appearing under the umbrella title "Start a Story. Adopt," the ads—created pro bono by J. Walter Thompson—come from the Shelter Pet Project, a venture of The Ad Council and animal advocacy groups Maddie's Fund and The Humane Society of the United States. With help from donors, the campaign will run across TV, radio, print and outdoor, as well as online, with opportunities for viewers to share their own adopted pet stories. 

Ultimately, the groups hope to eliminate the need to euthanize pets for whom shelters can't find homes. Creatively, the idea is so perfect—cute, Internet-famous cats and dogs pleading online for the lives of other cute cats and dogs—that it's hard to believe it hasn't been done before (though there's no shortage of adoption ads that shamelessly feature cute animals). 

To be fair, though, it does play to the lowest common denominator: Its message is essentially "Adopt an adorable shelter animal so you can make it a celebrity!" That doesn't have the heartstring-plucking substance of U.K. organization Battersea, which leveraged the life-saving benefits of pets, or the humor of a Las Vegas shelter whose faux infomercials marketed pets as exciting multi-use creatures.

But the new campaign is perhaps the most deviously appropriate way to pitch a celeb-obsessed American audience. And for what it is, it stands as a legitimate, lighthearted way to get people to care, and could lead to some happy stories—even if they are more prosaic.

The individual pet clips appear below:

It was a plum role he might have eventually discussed at length with his fellow thespians on Inside the Actors Studio. But alas, James Lipton's chances at the biggest commercial stage have been unceremoniously dashed—according to this amusing TurboTax Super Bowl teaser from Wieden + Kennedy. 

W+K's meta Super Bowl campaign for TurboTax pokes fun at celebrity endorsements, teasers and teasers for teasers, beginning with "Someone Else," a 60-second spot that rolled out Tuesday (directed by Knucklehead's Ben Gregor)—showing the 89-year-old Bravo personality arriving for a meeting about a commercial for which, he believes, he has secured the leading role.



Alas, his dreams are destined to melt away, like the ice-cream cake he so thoughtfully brought with him. Just who the "Someone Else" is who will actually star in TurboTax's commercial on Sunday remains a secret. But expect more shenanigans along the way.

TurboTax will run a 30-second spot on Sunday in its third straight Super Bowl appearance. 

Lipton has done ads before, notably in a 2009 PSA campaign from LG and Young & Rubicam encouraging safe texting among young people; and a 2011 effort for Toyota in which he pondered what the plural of "Prius" might be. 

"Nicolas is about to have an accident. He will die in a few minutes."

Agency La Chose Group took a slightly different route in dramatizing the impact a collision can have on the people involved in a new spot for France's DSCR (the Road Circulation Security Delegation). Directed by Bruno Aveillan, "Shockwave" takes us past the victims of the crash, Nicolas and Sophie, and introduces us to the ones left unseen. 

The work makes elegant use of slow motion to extend the crunch of metal and cascade of glass to a length that transforms an unlucky instant into a macabre ballet. But instead of focusing on the drama of the moment, the people you see flying through the debris, faces contorted in anguish, are not Nicolas and Sophie at all—they're the loved ones who will be hurt by the crash for years afterward. 

Watch the unspoilered version below, an AdFreak exclusive for international markets:

You likely gathered from the top of this post that Nicolas does not make out well, but Sophie doesn't walk away unscathed. She literally can't. "Sophie is meeting her boyfriend. She will wake up in a hospital bed ... but her legs won't," the narrator says. 

Once the fates of this pair are defined, the kaleidoscope of living casualties begins to turn. "Nicolas's father will be the first to hear about his son's death. He will not smile again." The ad goes on to describe the heartbreaking reaction of his grandfather and his wife: The pregnant, anguished woman glides across the screen, surrounded by a menagerie of glass. 

As for poor Sophie? Her father "will sacrifice everything to make her walk again. Her mother will be haunted by the memory of her first steps." You'll also learn that her boyfriend will eventually propose, but that she will refuse ... out of love. 

For those of you who know—and have been inspired by—a paraplegic in your life, the tone here can almost ring self-pityingly tragic; she did, after all, get the better end of this star-crossed deal. But all this is told in service of a point we don't always consider when buckling up at day's end: "Between each victim of a car crash, there are victims of life. Road safety. All affected. All concerned. All responsible." 

"I was immediately touched by the pertinence and emotional intensity of this campaign when I read the script," Aveillan—known for, among other things, directing this epic Cartier ad—tells AdFreak. "After years of 'trash' communications or fake documentaries [in the sector], I felt this angle had a rare perfection. Road accidents shatter lives and destinies well beyond the accident itself. That's the 'shockwave' effect, which can be so unjust and devastating, and the work's central theme."

"The death rate on [French] roads declined significantly for 20 years, from 10,000 in the '70s to 3,268 in 2013, due to government policy and efficient campaigns," adds La Chose co-founder and creative director Pascal Grégoire. "Unfortunately, in the last two years the curb has risen again," so the goal was to remind the French that this is still an issue. 

"Campaigns with alarming and shocking images have worked very well in the past, but today that's not enough," Grégoire continues. "Our idea was to show that behind every crash victim there are victims in life. ... Because it's symbolic of the accident that could happen to any of us. No one is at fault; it's a 'real' story that we can relate to."

The emotional impact was also a big, and intentional, part of the action. "We can imagine how the members of our family, our friends and colleagues, would feel if this were to happen to us," says Grégoire. "Rather than showing shocking images, we prefer an emotional shock."

"From the start of the project, I thought of these films as 'mental projections,' " Aveillan adds. "I mixed multiple shooting and postproduction techniques to produce a specific atmosphere, somewhere between a dream—I'd even say a nightmare—and reality. But like in a dream, where the brain works by associating ideas like a collage, I used classic photography techniques to choose strong images, particularly in terms of depth of field. This results in shots that are both powerful and symbolic, with emotional resonance. That's what gives the campaign its strong, specific aesthetic." 

Thankfully, the shooting wasn't always so somber, as Grégoire can attest. "Everybody was wearing earphones because Bruno Aveillan likes a very quiet set—but we were shooting right next to the glass-shattering workshop!" he reveals, adding, "We used trampolines for nearly all the shots, and one of the world's best trampoline champions is part of the cast."

The work will appear on TV and in theatres, with support from billboards and radio. A couple of images from the shoot appear below. Just imagine a giant trampoline somewhere out of view.

CREDITS

Client: Road Circulation Security Delegation
Execs: Emmanuel Barbe, Laurence Derrien-Lallement, Laurence Dudal, Laetitia Moch, Laurence Thonnon

Agency: La Chose
Creative Director: Pascal Grégoire
Copywriter: Charles Flamand
Copywriter/Art Director: Alexandre Fort, Guillaume Ganty
TV Producer: Nicolas Buisset
Planning Director: Eric Tonc Cuong, Céline Bonnefond
Executive Account Supervisor: Eric Tong Cuong, Pascal Grégoire, Eric Zajdermann (Anatome)
Account Supervisor: Pamela Taconet, Gloria Amzallag, Marina Flammier
PR/Director of communication: Barka Zerouali

Production: QUAD Group
Director/Director of Photography: Bruno Aveillan
Executive Producer: Martin Coulais
Postproduction Manager: Nathalie Aveillan/ Fix studio

Sound Production: THE
Music: Mirwais

Skittles on Tuesday joined the parade of brands releasing their full Super Bowl ads early, unveiling its 30-second spot starring Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

The spot, which will air during the second quarter, was inspired by the apparent trend of Skittles fans making things (pictures, recipes, stop-motion films, etc.) out of the rainbow-colored candies. (Yes, it's a thing.) The ad shows Tyler checking out a portrait of himself made of Skittles—and he's not too thrilled.



It remains to be seen whether Super Bowl viewers will be thrilled by the spot, from DDB Chicago. (This is the brand's first "Taste the Rainbow" spot featuring a celebrity.) 

But the campaign does give fans a shot at a more tactile offering: If a rainbow appears over San Francisco on Sunday, the brand will give away 100,000 free packs of Skittles to fans who use the hashtags #SkittlesRainbow and #Contest prior to kickoff.

To promote this weather-related promotion, the brand had Carolina Panthers star Luke Kuechly and Denver Broncos star DeMarcus Ware do weather forecasts on real local newscasts this week. 

Diet Coke is embarking on a fun new packaging stunt in the U.S., using HP Indigo digital printing technology to create millions of completely unique labels—in a campaign appropriately themed, "It's Mine."

Every 12-ounce glass bottle will feature a different design—no two bottles will be the same. A select number of patterns will be seen on 7.5-ounce mini-cans, 8.5-ounce aluminum bottles, 12-ounce and 16-ounce cans and 500-millileter and 20-ounce PET bottles.

This is also the first time Diet Coke is selling a 12-ounce glass contour bottle in the U.S.



If the packaging stunt looks familiar, that's because Diet Coke did the same thing in Israel last year. Importing a successful overseas packaging effort to the U.S. is becoming something of a tradition for Coca-Cola, whose popular "Share a Coke" campaign, with names on bottles, originated in Australia before being used here.

The campaign will be supported by advertising from CAA Marketing, including two 30-second TV spots (one is posted above), digital video, social content and in-store, print and out-of-home advertising. Check out those materials, and lots more designs, below.

"It's Mine" celebrates "the unique love Diet Coke fans have for the brand," according to a statement. "Every Diet Coke drinker is different and unique, and with millions of Diet Coke designs, fans can choose the one they feel is uniquely their own." 

When Priceline wrapped up its first agency review in a decade by sending its business to BBDO last fall, we predicted it would mark a departure for a brand long defined by William Shatner's campy "Negotiator" character. 

We didn't realize how dramatic that break would be.

BBDO's first work for Priceline launches on TV this Sunday during the Super Bowl pre-game with a trio of spots covering a full range of disasters caused by a failure to make last-minute travel plans. Shatner returns—to narrate—but in every other way the work is about as far from previous efforts by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners as it could possibly be. 

In "Cousins," the discount travel company helps a young career woman avoid a situation that could have turned a fun night into a painfully awkward morning after.

 
The new marketing push isn't focused on Paris dream vacations destined to fill Facebook photo albums. "We took a hard look at today's behavioral trends, and they reveal travel's core truth: Travelers take more trips to visit family in places like Rome, Georgia, than trips of a lifetime to places like Rome, Italy," says Priceline CEO Paul Hennessey.

"We feel like we nailed the worst possible thing that could happen as a result of missing any trip," says BBDO executive creative director Chris Beresford-Hill in explaining the concept. "It could happen to anyone." 

The message is that using Priceline makes such scenarios less likely. 

A second ad, "Baby," concerns a process that many hopeful would-be parents around the world take quite seriously—finding a child to adopt. That often involves overseas travel, and in this case, a Priceline trip helps one couple avoid a very unusual baby indeed. 

 
The third ad in this trilogy of unfortunate events might be the least shocking: It concerns Social Security fraud involving one naive and impressionable "Nana."

 
"Since it was a strategic shift and we are a new agency, we wanted it to feel like a brand new campaign," BBDO ecd Dan Lucey tells Adweek. "But we kept [Shatner] because he's a great narrator and it made sense to have him present in some form; he is still greatly associated with Priceline."

Beresford-Hill adds, "We're moving away from 'The Negotiator,' but if we'd been casting from scratch for voiceover, it would have been hard to find anyone better. The very fact that Shatner is telling the story automatically makes it interesting." 

The campaign will also feature a series of microtargeted Facebook videos. "If your mother's birthday is coming up, you might get served a fake news story about the horrible consequences of not visiting your mother," Lucey says. 

You might also get shamed for taking duckface selfies after skipping Spring Break.

 
The consequences in the 27 videos now live on YouTube range from a man losing all his real and fake friends after failing to meet his brother's new baby to a set of parents punishing their neglectful son-in-law by moving in with him. (There will be bunkbeds.)

"At the end of the day," Beresford-Hill says, "our goal is to make the audience laugh with us. Hopefully the campaign makes everyone feel what we feel." 

In our case, that feeling was: Oh good God, no! 

CREDITS

Agency: BBDO New York
Client: Priceline.com
Titles: "Cousins," "Baby," "Nana"

Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Chris Beresford-Hill
Executive Creative Director: Dan Lucey
Senior Copywriter (Cousins, Baby): Mike Motch
Senior Art Director (Cousins, Baby): Austin Mankey
Associate Creative Director (Nana): Kim Nguyen
Associate Creative Director (Nana): Marques Gartrell
Executive Producer: Tricia Lentini
Project Manager: Amy Orgel
Group Planning Director: Tom Naughton
Senior Director: Ross O'Donovan
Account Director: John Chleborad
Account Manager: Laura McWhorter
Account Executive: Erin Oliver
Business Affairs: Shelly Bloch

O Positive Films
Director: Jim Jenkins
Executive Producer: Ralph Laucella
Line Producer: Marc Grill
Director of Photography: Ellen Kuras
Editor: Ian Mackenzie
Assistant Editor: Mike Leuis
Sound Designer: Sam Shaffer
Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfield
VFX: Schmigital
Sound Mixing: Tommy Juacarone/Sound Lounge
Brand Music: Human
Animation: Sibling Rivalry (Brand animation), Mr. Wonderful (Life Lessons Graphics)

FACEBOOK CREDITS
Agency: BBDO New York
Client: Priceline.com

Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Worldwide: David Lubars
Greg Hahn - Chief Creative Officer, BBDO New York
Executive Creative Director: Chris Beresford-Hill
Executive Creative Director: Dan Lucey
Creative Director: Dan Kenneally
Creative Director: Ryan Raab
Senior Copywriter: Mike Motch
Senior Art Director: Austin Mankey
Senior Art Director: Brian Pinkley
Copywriter: Ricky Johanet
Associate Director, Integrated Production: Joe Croson
Executive Producer: Tricia Lentini
Project Manager: Amy Orgel
Group Planning Director: Tom Naughton
Senior Director: Ross O'Donovan
Account Director: John Chleborad
Account Manager: Laura McWhorter
Account Executive: Erin Oliver
Business Affairs: Shelly Bloch

O Positive Films
Director: Spencer Riviera
Executive Producer: Ralph Laucella
Line Producer: Devon Clark
Director of Photography: Ellen Kuras
Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Mike Rizzo
Assistant Editor: Brendan Hogan
Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfield
VFX: Schmigital
Sound Mixing and Design: Sam Shaffer/Mackenzie Cutler
Animation: Mr. Wonderful

If you're in New York City today, and anywhere near 18th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, head over there before 6:30 p.m. and check out this Oreo mysterious door.

Actually, it's more like a portal.

The Mondelez cookie brand is calling it the "Oreo Wonder Vault." And we're told it's where new Oreo flavors magically appear, as if out of thin air. And indeed, that's apparently what's happening today, when passersby can approach the door and receive brand-new Filled Cupcake Oreos a full six days before they hit store shelves.

The brand explains the sorcery this way: "Media and fans that stop by today will get the chance to personally open an Oreo shaped door and watch their box of Filled Cupcake Flavored Oreo Cookies 'travel' directly to their hands, traversing through a magical world of Oreo flavor."



Oreo gave us more factoids about the Wonder Vault:

• As many as 50 prototype flavors and more than 100 additional ideas can be in the Wonder Vault at any time.
• Usually 12-18 months of creation, including monthly tastings, get us to the perfect, delicious flavor but some flavors spend years in the Vault before they are ready for release.
• We make our initial prototypes by hand. Once we feel confident in the flavor, we create a batch in our bakery and the process goes from there with taste tests along the way.
• We try every flavor of crème coming out of the vault on both chocolate and golden cookies to get to the just-right combination, and we are always experimenting with new ideas to make sure we deliver the most delicious treat possible.
• The limited edition process never stops; we have lots of flavor ideas just waiting to make their way to the world.

We're pretty sure not all of this actually happens in a Wonka-like hole in the wall on West 18th Street. But it makes for a fun little outdoor installation. More pics below. 

Weber Shandwick was the lead activation agency on this, in collaboration with Iontank, 360i, The Martin Agency and Carat.

Chairs are like Facebook. And colorful socks are like Kia.

In one of the more amusing advertising metaphors we've seen in a while, Kia likens its midsize Optima sedan to very colorful socks—in its Super Bowl commercial, starring Christopher Walken, which rolled out online Tuesday in a slightly extended version.

Where the famous Facebook metaphor was overblown and arrogant, Kia's is delightfully self-deprecating. And Walken's comically intense performance, with shades of Captain Koons, will surely be among the most well-liked of any celebrity on Sunday's game.



The spot, created by David&Goliath, starts off with an amusingly dumb pun. A husband enters his "Walken Closet," where we first see an endless wardrobe of beige. Then, out of nowhere, the actor accosts our hero and delivers a speech about people who blend in, and people who stand out.

Eventually, Walken shows the guy the Optima, and delivers the most comically underwhelming line you're likely to see on behalf of any product on Sunday: "It's like the world's most exciting pair of socks. But it's a midsize sedan."

The ad will air in the third quarter in a 60-second version—15 seconds shorter than this one.

"There are a few special moments in one's career. Those times when you find yourself in an interesting place, making something you never thought possible, with someone you never thought you'd meet," David&Goliath chief creative officer Colin Jeffery said in a statement. "Being in a closet with Christopher Walken and 600 pairs of beige slacks was definitely one of those moments."

The spot is Kia's second straight celebrity Super Bowl success, following 2015's Sorento spot with Pierce Brosnan, which Adweek deemed one of the top five ads of the game.

Walken, 72, has done plenty of ads before, including this 2013 series of award-winning spots for Danish clothing brand Jack & Jones, in which he played the world's weirdest tailor. 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

CREDITS
Client: Kia Motors America

Agency: David&Goliath
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo
Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery
Chief Digital Officer: Mike Geiger
President: Brian Dunbar
Chief Strategy Officer: Seema Miller

Creative Director: John O'Hea
Creative Director: Brandon Davis
Art Directors: Shaun Wright, Mike Cornell
Copywriters: Joe Shaner, Andy Sciamanna
Senior Digital Art Director: Bernice Chao
Senior Digital Art Director: Matt Koulermos
Senior Designer: Katherine Ahn
Director of Creative Services: Frannie Rhodes
Senior Project Manager: Kemit Ray

Director of Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese
Executive Broadcast Producer: Christopher Coleman
Director of Art Production: Andrea Mariash
Senior Print Production Manager: Elisa Atwood
Digital Producer: Justine Kleeman

Managing Director: Jeff Moohr
Account Director: Gordon Gray
Account Executive: Annelise Lorenzo
Digital Account Director: Jeanann Grubbs
Digital Account Supervisor: Sarah Kirsch

Planning Director: Andrew Lynch
Senior Planner: Ed Gibson
Senior Digital Strategist: Rachel Fletcher

Director, Business Affairs: Rodney Pizarro
Business Affairs Manager: Camara Price

Product Information Manager: Russ Wortman
Product Information Manager: Mark McNaul

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Matthijs Van Heijningen
Director of Photography: Joost van Gelder
President: David Zander
Senior Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins
Producer: Donald Taylor

Editorial Company: Cut+Run
Editor: Steve Gandolfi
Assistant Editor: Sean Fazende
Managing Director: Michelle Eskin
Executive Producer: Carr Schilling
Head of Production: Amburr Farls

VFX: MPC
VFX Creative Director: Paul O'Shea
VFX Senior Producer: Karen Anderson
VFX Producer: Abisayo Adejare
VFX Senior Compositor: Mark Holden
Grade: MPC LA
Color Executive Producer: Meghan Lang
Color Associate Producer: Rebecca Boorsma
Colorist: Ricky Gausis

Music & Sound Design: Stimmüng
Composer: Cyrus Melchor
Sound Designer: Gus Koven
Creative Director: Rory Doggett
Executive Producer: Ceinwyn Clark

Mix: Margarita Mix
Sound Engineer: Nathan Dubin

Audi unleashed its 2016 Super Bowl ad on Wednesday, and it's destined to have one of the most talked-about soundtracks of any commercial on the game—"Starman," the 1972 track by David Bowie, who died last month at age 69.

The classic Ziggy Stardust song was enjoying a renaissance even before Bowie's death. It was played in full during a sequence of Ridley Scott's space film The Martian. And Bernie Sanders has been using it on the campaign trail.

The song brings great energy to the Audi spot, too, which tells the story of a retired astronaut who rediscovers his passion for life—and powerful machines—when his son lets him drive the 2017 Audi R8 V10 Plus.



Venables Bell & Partners created the ad, directed by MJZ's Craig Gillespie. It will run in the first quarter of Sunday's game. Audi released a :60 as well as an extended :90 (above) online Wednesday morning. 

The 2017 R8 is the fastest and most powerful Audi ever made, the brand says, with a top speed of 205 mph and a zero-to-60 acceleration of 3.2 seconds. That's not quite rocket speed, but it gives the spot its aspirational hook, expressed as a space theme. 

This is Audi's eighth Super Bowl ad, and the second to feature the R8. 

• For more Super Bowl 50 news, check out Adweek's Super Bowl Ad Tracker, an up-to-date list of the brands running Super Bowl spots and the agencies involved in creating them.

CREDITS
Client: Audi of America
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners
Executive Creative Director: Will McGinness
Creative Directors: Tyler Hampton, Erich Pfeifer
Senior Art Director: Rich North
Copywriters: Rus Chao, Paul Venables
Director of Integrated Production: Craig Allen
Agency Executive Producer: Mandi Holdorf
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Craig Gillespie
Director of Photography: Masanobu Takayangi
Executive Producer: Emma Wilcockson
Producer: Martha Davis
Editing Company: Final Cut Editorial
Editor: Rick Russell
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld, CO3
Music Company: Agoraphone
Featured Song: "Starman" by David Bowie.
Music Supervisor: Dawn Sutter Madell
Sound Design: 740 Sound Design
Executive Producer: Scott Ganary
Sound Design Producer: Jeff Martin
Lead Sound Designers: Chris Pinkston, Rob Marshall:
Final Mix : Formosa
Mix Engineer: John Bolen
Visual Effects: The Mill
Visual Effects Producer: Ben Sposato
Visual Effects Supervisor: Gareth Parr
Head of Account Management: David Corns
Account Director: Chris Bergen
Account Supervisors: Ally Humpherys, Alexis Lovett
Account Managers: Oliver Glenn, Faire Davidson
Assistant Account Manager: Bri Jones
Project Manager: Talya Fisher

After having great success on last year's Super Bowl with Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi, Snickers has gone with Willem Dafoe and Eugene Levy for this year's spot—which rolled out online Wednesday.

The spot, from BBDO New York, imagines if Marilyn Monroe had been feeling hungry while shooting The Seven Year Itch in 1955—the film which featured her now-iconic scene with her skirt blowing around over a New York City subway grate.

Grumpy Marilyn is played, as many had speculated since the teaser, by Dafoe (last seen in the Super Bowl playing the devil himself in Mercedes-Benz's lavish 2013 spot).



Levy's cameo at the end feels a bit tacked on, and matching the humor of last year's spot was always going to be a tall order. But this installment still satisfies.

"I have to admit playing a Hollywood bombshell is a new challenge for me," Dafoe said in a statement. "But as a huge fan of Marilyn Monroe, I just couldn't resist the opportunity to take a walk in her shoes and famous white dress."

Snickers brand director Allison Miazga-Bedrick added: "Super Bowl 50 is a celebration of this game's amazing history, so we wanted to bring our A-game with a new 'You're Not You When You're Hungry' commercial that's appropriately epic. It doesn't get much bigger—or better—than combining one of the most legendary moments in movie history from the iconic Marilyn Monroe with some modern day icons of our own."