In a scandal that may spark déjà vu among observers with a long memory, retailer Lane Bryant is accusing TV networks ABC and NBC of refusing to air a body-positive lingerie ad featuring plus-size models. 

"This Body," created by MDC-owned Laird+Partners, features Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Ashley Graham alongside industry colleagues Precious Lee, Tara Lynn, Denise Bidot and Georgia Pratt, wearing little or no clothing while boxing, breastfeeding and striking poses, delivering confident lines about their curvy bodies. 

Bryant claims the networks rejected the commercial outright. ABC declined to comment to People, and NBC said it simply asked for minor edits as part of a routine review. Lane Bryant denies the latter, and also refuses to make any changes to the creative. 



"We need to do a better job of representing the body," Brian Beitler, CMO of Lane Bryant, said during a South by Southwest panel that AdFreak attended on Sunday. "Our bodies are about what we do and it's not about how we look. ... We don't believe that [body positivity] is just a women's issue, it's a human issue."

It's not the company's first run-in with controversy around its TV marketing. In 2010, the company alleged that ABC and Fox were unfairly restricting the number of times it could air another lingerie ad, also featuring Graham, while ceding passage to similar spots featuring thinner Victoria's Secret models. ("Requested edits" aside, both of Lane Bryant's ads are relatively tame, less about seduction than self-worth, especially compared to other lingerie spots considered too racy for American TV.) 

Last year, Lane Bryant deliberately took aim at Victoria's Secret's messaging with its "I'm No Angel" campaign, also featuring Graham, to the delight of online audiences.

Whether Lane Bryant is an innocent victim here, or deliberately staging a flap for publicity, doesn't really matter. The biases about body type and size that it challenges are already implicit in the vast majority of pop culture. As a relatively loud voice—the brand has more than 700 stores—battling an unbalanced status quo, it deserves all the attention it's getting, especially when the cause it's championing is so personal, and important, to so many.

CREDITS
Client: Lane Bryant
Chief Executive Officer: Linda Heasley
Chief Marketing Officer: Brian Beitler
Assistant Vice President, Marketing: Kathy Quickert
Senior Marketing Manager: Heather McGarry
Digital Director: Richard Ledger
Senior Copy Manager: Chris Frey
Associate Creative Director: Nick Coakley
Vice President, Creative: Mindy Torrey
Vice President, Strategy: Vicki Shamion

Agency: Laird + Partners
Executive Creative Director, Partner: Hans Dorsinville
Senior Art Director: Georgina Rex
Editorial Director: Ranjani Gopalarathinam
Account Supervisor: Lauren Levine
Head of Digital Strategy: Mike Karam
Senior Producer: Alexandra Lunn
Production Associate: Caitlin Phelps
Senior Vice President, Global Print Production: Patrick Kinsella,
 

A week after excoriating Donald Trump with a fake campaign ad decrying his followers as racist, Saturday Night Live turned its attention to Hillary Clinton this weekend—knocking the Democratic front-runner with a less brutal spoof but one that amusingly played up her vulnerability to a surging Bernie Sanders.

What has Hillary learned from Bernie? Let's see…



There was some griping after the Trump spoof that SNL reserves its most vicious attack for Republicans, but Lorne Michaels has long denied that. "People are always looking for [the show] to be on the side of [Hillary] Clinton, and that's not what we do," he told The Hollywood Reporter last month.

And of course, Trump got plenty of airtime as host of the show. 

In one of the most obvious yet still cool examples of cause marketing, Honey Nut Cheerios in Canada is pledging to help find a solution to unstable bee populations—by launching a whole integrated campaign around the issue, including removing its "Buzz" bee mascot from the packaging for a limited time.

"This is the first time in the brand's history that we've taken 'Buzz' off the box," said Emma Eriksson, director of Marketing for General Mills Canada. "One-third of the foods we depend on for our survival are made possible by the natural pollination work that bees provide. With ongoing losses in bee populations being reported across Canada, we wanted to leverage our packaging to draw attention to this important cause and issue a call to action to Canadians to help plant 35 million wildflowers—one for every person in Canada."

The supporting campaign, by Cossette, also includes a new TV spot and online video, a microsite, contesting, consumer sampling and PR. The campaign launches Monday with the online video. Check it out here:



The brand is giving away free wildflower seeds packs and encouraging people across Canada to visit BringBackTheBees.ca and request free seed packs in the mail.

The brand will also be on hand at the Canada Blooms festival, handing out 50,000 Veseys wildflower seed packs to visitors.

"General Mills' decision to draw attention to the issue of declining bee populations marks the continuation of its commitment to purpose-based marketing, which means brands will go beyond traditional statements such as product benefit in order to align with what's really important to consumers," says Cossette chief creative officer Peter Ignazi. "By taking the bold step of removing a well-established brand symbol from its packaging, General Mills is further challenging marketing's conventional thinking to underscore its point."

The BringBackTheBees campaign will run from March to July.

A new virtual reality program McDonald's is debuting at South by Southwest this week has the crowds of tech and agency people immersing themselves into one of the brand's most iconic products: the Happy Meal.

Using an experience built for the HTC Vive, users who visit the McDonald's lounge near the Austin Convention Center can immerse themselves in a world where they're tasked with painting a gigantic Happy Meal box with gobs of virtual reality paint.

Unless they have kids—or have had one of those occasional days where they feel a compulsion to be a kid at heart—it's quite unlikely that the majority of SXSW attendees have recently interacted with a Happy Meal. However, that hasn't stopped around 1,200 people from trying the program. Dale Carman, CCO at Groove Jones, said the goal was using VR to show "the future of fun."

"When I think of McDonald's and fun, I think of a Happy Meal," Carman said. "In my mind, then it was like 'What if we were inside a Happy Meal? What's inside a Happy Meal?' And then it grew from there: We could be inside a Happy Meal. What could we do? And the idea of being at Southby led to this becoming a performance art piece and everyone gets to be a performer. Everyone can be an artist."

This isn't the first VR play by McDonald's. Late last month, McDonald's restaurants across Sweden began distributing Happy Meal boxes that can turn into a VR headset reminiscent of Google Cardboard. The program, dubbed "Happy Goggles," allows users to play a virtual reality skiing game.

"I think with virtual reality we're always looking for experiences for our consumers with emerging technologies and how those experiences can be on the forefront of the new definition of what's fun," said DeLu Jackson, corporate vp of global brand engagement at McDonald's.

It's been said virtual reality might be the ultimate empathy machine, allowing people to see through the eyes of others and better understand their struggles. A new campaign by Amnesty International U.K. and San Francisco design and technology agency Junior visits a people and place most in need of that empathy—in a stunning VR experience showing the effects of the Syrian government's barrel bombing of its own country.

The website 360Syria.com went live overnight and features a self-guided VR tour (viewable on the web or on VR headsets) that shows the stunning devastation in the city of Aleppo and elsewhere. Amnesty and Junior created the campaign with a group of Syrian media activists from Aleppo called Lamba Media Production.



The experience, titled "Fear of the Sky," makes brilliant use of 360-degree photography, narration, sound recordings, WebGL 3-D graphics and videos to show the lived reality on the ground where these bombs have fallen. 

Featured scenes include a school playground in the residential neighborhood of Ansari Sharqi and a vegetable market in Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr district. The narration is unspacing in its assessment of the bombings as an atrocity and a war crime. 

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a virtual reality experience is worth a whole book," said Amnesty International U.K. director Kate Allen. "Many of us might think we know what's been happening with the Syrian government's barrel bombing of places like Aleppo, but viewing these apocalyptic scenes from 360-degrees provides a new level of understanding."

"VR is the next frontier of mass digital experience, but the applications and cost of the gear are too far out of reach for all but the most technically savvy audiences," added Robbie Whiting, co-founder of Junior, a Project: WorldWide agency. "WebVR is a great democratizing force enabling any user with any device to have a fully immersive experience, headset or not."



This is hardly the first use of VR to illuminate the Syrian tragedy. (The United Nations and ABC News are among the organizations that have done VR recording there.) Nor is it Amnesty's first VR experiment in the country. The group has been using VR headsets on the streets of England since last year to show people 360-degree views of what's actually happening in Syria—part of a street fundraising campaign the nonprofit says has been very successful.

The 360 Syria campaign, though, will reach vastly more people, particularly since it's optimized for web as well as VR headsets. It's also incredibly well crafted, with easily navigated sections and content curated and organized for clarity, not volume.

"The devastation in Syria is heartbreaking," said Zac Rolland, technology lead at Junior. "Our challenge was to find the most compelling and accessible way for technology to help the world understand and experience what is happening on the ground. WebVR does just that."

Specs
Current gig Co-president, Mindshare Content+ Entertainment N.A.
Age 39
Twitter @gymanago

Adweek: What was it like to transition from TV to becoming a creative guy in a media agency?
Greg Manago: When I started at Mindshare in the beginning [2005], it was all under this rubric of branded entertainment. [Mindshare's chief content officer and I] always hated that—what is it? What's happened over the past 10 years is as content has become so important in media plans and the marketing mix our group evolved. We always look at ourselves as a content and production group inside a media agency. Having never worked in an ad agency we didn't understand how they traditionally worked—with a copywriter and art director going off and coming back with the idea. In the TV world it's more collaborative. We staffed our group with people who had different backgrounds: technologists, digital natives, strategists, people from social and of course people who are traditional TV producers.

How is content developed at Mindshare?
To an outsider, being a creative who sits inside a media agency might seem like a "what's going on" kind of moment. But for us it all comes down to collaboration, collaborating internally with the stakeholders within Mindshare who do amazing work on a daily basis and externally with different agencies, PR, social, digital, creative and partners like our media partners, content technology partners and production companies. We look at the world through that lens. People say if you're a hammer everything looks like a nail. We try to be a tool box and look at the problem and say, "What is the right way to address that problem?" and come up with some great content. It's really helped us come up with different out-of-the-box content.

How are you scaling Mindshare's content studio to better respond to clients' need for real-time content?
What's evolved is the group does everything from short, flat content to Vine videos, Instagram stuff, TV commercials, long-form content to an off-Broadway play. We did a longer format, an almost two-hour documentary. What we've formed is a content studio now where we can do any or all of that together. The real-time piece is something new where we have the ability to work not only with our own internal capability, but also with partners that make it possible to create content in real time, in a reactive way based on what's going on with culture.

How do you break through to a younger audience with branded content?
You have to make sure it doesn't seem like "branded content." They're very sophisticated about marketing and many are digital natives so they're used to seeing content from brands in channels they like. With TRESemmé we shot native Snapchat videos at Fashion Week to target them. Working with influencers is also important in getting millennials to engage, and we've done that on a couple campaigns recently, including one for Lipton.

What kind of client demand are you seeing?
It used to be we would be approached by a client who wanted to take a risk, had a little extra money and wanted to make some noise. Now most clients have a content strategy, most clients know what they want to do with content whether it's working with partners, coming up with original content or figuring out how content in social is going to break through, or a mix of all three of those. The thing that has changed is how they want to use us. It used to be, "Let's go to these guys because we need some great original content." We still get those calls, but we also get calls now about reactive content, social content, working with influencers. We've had to grow our capabilities and our skill set to deal with that. As our team has grown that's only natural.

This story first appeared in the March 14 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Specs
Who (L. to r.) Creative director Mark Jarecke, design director Mike Lee and strategy director Elizabeth Stafford
What Digital design studio
Where New York

Brands as diverse as Bobbi Brown, Bon Appétit and CBS Sports don't share much in common, but when they wanted to create immersive digital products sure to wow consumers, they all turned to the same place: New York-based design agency Four32C. Founded in 2009 by two Condé Nast Digital alums—creative director Mark Jarecke and design director Mike Lee—the indie firm has built a reputation for creating websites, apps and more that offer seamless user experiences. Four32C's longtime relationship with designer Vera Wang has most recently produced a redesigned website with a custom CMS that allows customers from 20 countries to shop for everything from bridal dresses to bedding on a fully responsive platform. "We have great clients, and I think that comes from the fact that we come from an editorial background," said Jarecke. "We don't make microsites that are meant to be disposable; we spend a lot of time getting into the brand's culture so we can make something that's really unique and special for them."

  

  

 

This story first appeared in the March 14 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Here's a weird idea. For ROC Live Life Loud, Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo worked with Shareability, which co-owns the speaker and headphone brand with him, to engage in an odd game, more or less based on the fatigue of fame: Tea vs. Photo.

The video's link-baity title is enough to instill pride in BuzzFeed: "CRISTIANO RONALDO was just going out for tea and this happened ..." It depicts Ronaldo sitting down at an outdoor café for tea—except between each sip, he's interrupted by a barrage of fans who want photos with him.

The fans start as a stream and grow in number when they observe his receptiveness. He manages each interruption with admirable patience (because by sip No. 2 it would have been reasonable, human even, to go all Naomi Campbell on everybody).

One either side of the screen, a leaderboard shows how many times he drinks his tea versus how many photos he takes. Before he ever gets to his fifth sip, well, check it out ... 



A couple of minutes in, Ronaldo begins rubbing his face, looking visibly agitated. But besides tossing in a few moody—but still tolerant—comments (notably about the people actually working at the café, who join the fray), he poses for every last pic.

He even gets the chance to ask whether a woman who works at a nearby perfume store received his latest fragrance (to find out she hasn't). And through it all, a pair of ROC Live Life Loud headphones remains perched on his shoulders. 

Probably the weirdest thing about the video is how willing people are to dive in for a shot—one guy even comes up from behind, startling Ronaldo slightly—before abruptly leaving, sometimes while he's still talking to them. Even before social media, there's always been something about proving you've been near someone—or something—famous that makes the proof more socially valuable than the person or thing itself. 

Still, it's an interesting contrast to Ronaldo's viral Shareability video from last year, in which he's disguised and passes through Madrid utterly unnoticed, even as he skillfully kicks a soccer ball around. (He also did a holiday video with them.) 

But the guy stays unmeltingly cool.

"It's good seeing that people admire my job, that people like the way I am … it's good, I feel good. It's good seeing that I'm a good player," he concludes with a smile. 

Anti-virus compay Norton has released a fascinating new documentary on the world of bulletproof hosting—providing server space to clients with little or no oversight on the content—and the hazards the practice can present to people online. 

It's one of those cryptic technical subjects the average browser wouldn't normally consider, but which remains an important part of the Internet security ecosystem. Imagine a crop of unscrupulous middlemen who effectively facilitate and profit from cybercrime ... without experiencing the same degree of pop-culture villainization afforded to hackers and scammers. 

At some 22 minutes long, the surprisingly nuanced, news-style commercial is a real commitment for viewers, but a rewarding one. "The Most Dangerous Town on The Internet," the second episode in the brand's series, looks at how such services—which promise maximum privacy and protection—use various techniques to evade responsibility.

That might mean locating servers on an offshore platform in international waters, or storing data in theatrically secured nuclear bunkers in the Netherlands while splitting it across multiple legal jurisdictions ... or disappearing from office space in Malaysia when complaints about the business stack up, and starting fresh elsewhere. 



Bulletproof hosting services aren't intrinsically evil; legitimate entities need high-end security as well (for example, a facility that once famously served spammers is now home to a firm that counts governments among its clients, though which governments—and how benevolent they are—is unclear). And CloudFlare, a company that protects ISIS sites and Anonymous sites from cyber attacks, appears as one more dubious player in an environment defined by chaos and gray areas.

British journalist Heydon Prowse hosts the video, framed as an investigation, and brings the right amount of catty gravitas to the proceedings. One of the most incriminating, or at least revealing, moments comes when the team tries to penetrate Ecatel, a data haven located in the Hague, and an encounter with someone in the building becomes heated. 

Director Daniel Junge, who won an Academy Award for his 2012 film Saving Face—about acid attacks on women in Pakistan—helms the camera deftly. References to, and spokespeople from, outfits like Wikileaks and Anonymous add broader touchpoints. 

Created by Grey San Francisco, the series makes for a smart strategy. By tying the personal yet abstract threat of cyber attack to physical places and faces, Norton effectively communicates its understanding of these complex problems (and presumably how to help protect against them).

It's nice to see the "Most Dangerous" series find its stride after the first episode (below) launched last year, which was compelling but melodramatic: It focused on Râmnicu Vâlcea, a Romanian town known as "Hackerville" for its high concentration of cybercrime, and high-profile cyber criminals from the country, and was heavier on the sales pitch.



The root idea in the latest ad is still to peddle fear and moral outrage—but then again, this is also the case for many newscasts, so it really does fit right into the genre.

CREDITS
Client: Norton By Symantec
Spot: The Most Dangerous Town On The Internet
Agency:  Grey San Francisco
Chief Creative Officer: Curt Detweiler
Creative Director: E Slody
Art Director: Nei Caetano, Bryan Evans, Tatum Cardillo
Copywriter: E Slody, Marcus Petterson
Agency Producer: Robert Lazarus

Production Company (location): HēLō (Los Angeles)
Director: Daniel Junge
Director of Photography A: Wolfgang Held
Director of Photography A: Jed Klemow
Editor (person & company): Blake Bogosian (Beast San Francisco)
Assistant Editor (person & company): Steve Greenberg (Beast San Francisco)
Music/Sound Design (person & company): Gunnard Doboze
Principal Talent: Heydon Prowse

Forget about the Thought Police … here comes the cable company!

Big Cable is portrayed as a dystopian, soul-sucking force (not a big stretch there) in "Escape," the first TV spot for Sony's PlayStation Vue from Venables Bell & Partners.

As the minute-long ad opens, a dull ochre haze hangs over the land. The grim silence is punctuated by the tinny din of loudspeakers hawking new cable bundles to residents of a drab housing tract. Cable trucks roam the streets like hungry sharks seeking prey.

So, it basically looks a bit like Albuquerque … on a good day.

Our hero refuses to play a losing game, though. Rather than renew his cable contract when his TV orders him to "COMPLY!," he goes on the run—with white-capped cable guys in hot pursuit. In a cute bit, the all-seeing corporate call center coordinates his pursuit, announcing, "This escape may be monitored for quality assurance."

Just as capture seems certain, a manhole opens and our hero descends into darkness and makes his way toward … freedom? Schenectady? Watch the clip to find out:



"One of our goals was to create a hero that our target could relate to," Tyler Hampton, creative director at VB+P, tells Adweek. "Gamers are always fighting a system of some kind in their gameplay, and we wanted to recreate that feeling in the spot. People are tired of the status quo and the feeling of being stuck, so there was a rich emotional vein to tap into. As well as identifying the problem, we wanted to lead them to the solution in a gamer way. A secret tunnel was a natural." 

The spot retains the futuristic flavor of PS Vue's past work from former agency Johannes Leonardo, taking the sci-fi themes in an edgy new direction. Overall, it's a satisfying, cinematic ride from Park Pictures director Lance Acord (the man behind Apple's "Misunderstood," which won the 2014 Emmy Award for best ad, and many other hits.)

And if "Escape" falls a tad flat at the finish, devolving into sheer predictability, well, what did you expect? This is a commercial, after all. It's not like cable guys are going to catch up and shove the guy's head inside a set-top-box filled with rats until he agrees to sign a new contract. That only happens in real life.

CREDITS
Client: Sony PlayStation
SVP of Marketing and Head of Playstation Network: Eric Lempel
Senior Director, Americas Marketing: Nancy Kim
Senior Manager, Product Marketing: Lynda Chen
Manager, Product Marketing Lori Kackenmeister:
Associate Marketing Specialist Michele Ewing:
Director Corporate Communications At Playstation, Karen Auby:
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners
Chairmain: Paul Venables
Executive Creative Director: Will McGinness
Creative Director: Tyler Hampton
Associate Creative Director: Alex Rice
Copywriter: Chris Bull
Director of Integrated Production: Craig Allen
Agency Senior Producer: Emily Moore
Production Company: Park Pictures
Director: Lance Acord
Director of Photography: Lance Acord
Executive Producer: Caroline Kousidonis
Line Producer: Tracy Broaddus
Editing Company: Exile
Editor: Kirk Baxter
Assistant Editor: Grant Hall, Jess Baclesse
Post Producer: Toby Louie
Editorial Executive Producer: CL Weaver
Editorial Head Of Production: Jennifer Locke
Music House/SFX: Walker
Composer (Escape): Judson Crane
Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Licensed Track (Resistance A-Team Version): "The A-Team Theme"
Music by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter:
© 1983 EMI April Music Inc., Dar-Jen Music, Marbo Music, SJC Music.  All Rights for Dar-Jen Music and EMI April Music Inc. administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
VO Casting: Sound + Fury
Mix: Lime
Mixer: Jeff Malen
Mix Producer: Susie Boyajan
VFX Studio: a52
VFX Supervisor: Patrick Murphy
Head of 3D: Kirk Shintani
CG Supervisor: Adam Newman
2D VFX Artists: Patrick Murphy, Matt Sousa, Steven Wolff, Hugh Seville, Cameron Coombs, Mike Vaglienty, Christel Hazard, Richard Hirst, Dan Ellis
3D Artists: Adam Newman, John Balcome, Manny Guizar, Jose Limon, Joe Chiechi, Mike Bettinardi
Matte Painting: Dark Hoffman
Flame Assistants: Gabe Sanchez, Kevin Stokes
Roto Artists: Tiffany Germann, Cathy Shaw, Robert Shaw
Production Coordinator: Kelly Noecker
VFX Producer: Michael Steinmann
Executive Producer: Patrick Nugent
Design Studio: Elastic
Design Art Director: Mike Calvert
Designers: Mike Calvert, Jon Forsman
Animator: Peter Murphy
Design Producers: Jenny Bright, Catherine Yi
VFX/Design Head Of Production: Kim Christensen
Design Executive Producer: Belinda Blacklock
Design Managing Director: Jennifer Sofio Hall
Head of Brand Management: David Corns
Brand Director: Elaine Chu
Brand Manager: Gillian McBrayer

The Federal Trade Commission's decision to crack down on Lord & Taylor today for failing to reveal its relationships with paid promoters may change native ads and influencer-driven social media marketing as we know it.

In short, social media no longer translates to a free lunch. Ron Urbach, chairman of Davis & Gilbert LLP, summarized the central challenge: "Advertisers need to remember that they cannot delegate their responsibility to publishers or other parties," he told Adweek. "It is the advertiser who must ensure compliance. How does an advertiser comply in a world of real-time social and digital advertising?"

Lord & Taylor just learned the answer to that question the hard way. In March 2015, it scored a social media coup after 50 Instagram stars wore the same dress on the same day, and the item in question quickly sold out.

Closer examination, however, revealed that none of those influencers disclosed the fact that the brand had paid them to wear the dress as part of a coordinated effort to promote its spring line. Nylon magazine even ran a full article and an Instagram post featuring the item, leading Adweek to question whether the campaign had blatantly thumbed its nose at FTC disclosure rules regarding sponsored content.

The answer was a resounding yes. Today, the FTC brought its regulatory hammer down on Lord & Taylor, settling charges it brought against the company for deceiving customers in the first enforcement action under its new native advertising guidelines, which went into effect in December 2015.

Mary Engle, the FTC's associate director for advertising practices, told Adweek, "Like you, we saw the buzz in the media about how Lord & Taylor had run this campaign and paid influencers without disclosing that this was advertising, so we investigated."

"There was no indication that this was paid content in Nylon," Engle said, adding that the FTC wants to make sure businesses understand that its 2009 endorsement guidelines also apply to paid social media campaigns.

As senior attorney Lesley Fair wrote in a blog post, "Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Lord & Taylor can't falsely claim – expressly or by implication – that an endorser is an independent user or ordinary consumer."

UPDATE: Lord & Taylor provided a statement to Adweek regarding the FTC's decision. In it, the company writes, "Lord & Taylor is deeply committed to our customers and we never sought to deceive them in any way, nor would we ever. In the FTC's consent order announced today, there is no finding of wrongdoing whatsoever." Lord & Taylor claims that it took "immediate action" when observers raised concerns about the campaign in question, adding, "We cooperated fully with the FTC's inquiry into the marketing of this dress and have of course agreed to uphold the current version of the guidelines."

Experts believe the decision will weigh heavily on the future of native ads. "This was the perfect storm for the FTC in that it encompassed the two hottest issues in social media: compliance with endorsement guides and the newly issued native advertising guide," said Linda Goldstein, chair of the advertising, marketing and media division at New York law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips.

"From the FTC's perspective," she added, "it was a good case to bring in that it was not about how or where disclosures were made but the fact that they were not made at all."

The company will now be forced to launch an internal monitoring program. Engle said Lord & Taylor "has to submit a report to the FTC that demonstrates how they're complying with the order."

"The commission can periodically ask for additional evidence," she added.

"This action sends a very clear message to the marketing industry that the FTC is watching native ads and will pursue enforcement actions where necessary disclosures are not made," Goldstein said. She called the news "a warning sign" and noted that companies like Lord & Taylor may face significant fines if they repeat such offenses.

"I would not minimize the impact of the order on Lord & Taylor or any other business because it does operate as something of a noose around the neck of the business," she said. "They will have to be uber compliant in the future in ensuring that their campaigns comply with the provisions."

Urbach said, "With native advertising becoming even more important, I predict that this case is the first of more to come."

Engle agreed, saying, "I think we will continue to be active in this space. We have had a steady stream of investigations. For example, we handled a case with Deutsch L.A. working for Sony, which had employees tweet about the Sony Playstation that they were promoting without disclosing that they were paid employees."

Most such cases end without the FTC taking formal action, but the specter of possible punishment remains. Goldstein said, "This is a wake-up call to the industry and all players in the native advertising ecosystem. Having to implement a comprehensive monitoring program along the lines set forth in the order in a world of social media, which by its nature is difficult to control, can be a challenging task for a company."

Urbach said, "Marketers have to be wary because this proves the point: The FTC is out there and watching."

"Perhaps at some point we will have a good level of compliance so we don't have to take such actions," said Engle. But as all brands, advertisers and publishers know, we do not live in such a perfect world.

Talking animals are a reliable comic advertising staple that Lowe's is embracing, with a twist, in its new campaign from BBDO New York, which introduces a new theme, "Make Your Home Happy," and hopes in part to hook millennials who are buying their first homes.

The twist is that the animals are plastic household objects like lawn ornaments and refrigerator magnets. The first three 15-second spots rolled out Tuesday, with more ads, including :30s, expected soon.

Check out those first spots here:

Marci Grebstein, a former Food Lion and Staples exec who joined Lowe's as vp of advertising last summer and was promoted to CMO in November, told Adweek that the home-improvement chain is moving from more practical, how-to style ads to more emotional messaging in the new work.

"We've been very good at helping customers find solutions to a project need," she said. "Now we want to drive a more emotional connection." The humorous work is also designed to appeal to an emerging customer base of younger and more diverse consumers while not alienating older, established customers.

Grebstein said the messaging is grounded in what she called "proof points," which give consumers real reasons to shop at Lowe's. For example, one spot focuses on Lowe's one-year guarantee on plants, easing the fears of homeowners who might be worried that trying to garden without much knowhow is a wasted investment.

BBDO helped the brand work on strategic positioning before even getting around to the creative, Grebstein said. When time came for a creative approach, agency and client tested several concepts before settling on this one.

The voice actors improvised a number of lines during the recording sessions, and so Lowe's made alternate versions of the spots for social that will look different than the TV work.

Fans of Lowe's "Fix in Six" Vine videos and its "Hypermade" Instagram videos will also be pleased to hear that the brand is prepping more innovative social work that will break in April. Grebstein described those kinds of engaging videos as "educating with a bit of entertainment." 

Guys suck when it comes to skin care. Either they do nothing for their skin at all—leaving it dry, chapped and cracked—or they try to use moisturising products on the market, which leave them feeling greasy and gross.

Well, Dollar Shave Club claims to have the answer—a new skincare line called Big Cloud (kind of an odd name, though "Dollar Skin Club," which sounds like an adult establishment, would have undoubtedly worse). And it's introducing the line with some comically awkward ads showing how guys generally can't win with skin care, whether they try or not.

Check out six new spots below, along with an animated anthem. 

The ads were created in-house by DSC's eight-person creative team and directed by the Spielbergs—aka, writer/director/actor Alex Karpovsky (best known as Ray on HBO's Girls) and graphic designer/musician Teddy Blanks.

This is the first time DSC multiple videos for a product other than razors. The goal is to help DSC's 3 million members think more about their skin and start caring for it in a way that doesn't leave them oily or greasy.

Adweek spoke to Alec Brownstein, creative director and vice president of creative for Dollar Shave Club, about the new campaign.

Tell me where the "People Notice" idea came from.
We always start with a truth. Always. In this case, the truth is that when it comes to protecting your skin, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. If you don't use anything to protect yourself, your skin looks dry, chapped or burnt—and people notice. If you do use one of the products in the market to protect yourself, you end up looking like a shiny mess—and people notice. The strategy that led to the ad positioning is the same as the strategy behind the creation of the products themselves: You can protect your skin without compromising.

Did you always want to go with comedy, in keeping with the DSC brand?
Comedy is definitely a part of our DNA, and there's a lot of fun to be had in the situations that arise from greasy or chapped skin. That being said, Big Cloud is a serious brand with very high-quality products. That's why we decided to have fun establishing the need for Big Cloud, but treat the products themselves with respect.

There's a "grossness" factor to the videos here. Is it ever a concern that people come away mostly remembering the ickiness, versus the product?
Most guys do nothing to protect their skin. In fact, they don't even know they're supposed to. Instead of trying to scare guys into taking better care of themselves, we decided to illustrate the funny—and sometimes gross—consequences of not protecting skin or protecting it with inferior products.

Casting is a big part of this. How did you find these folks?
So much of the performance in this campaign is nonverbal, so we set out to find actors and actresses who had great physicality. Our director team, the Spielbergs, tapped into their network of indie film actors, and we landed on some fantastic talent.

Is there added pressure on these ads, given you're venturing beyond razors?
We want all of our ads to work. As with all of our products, we're fortunate that the Big Cloud products are actually really, really good. It's easier to develop ads for products that deliver on their promise. We're confident that this campaign will resonate with our millions of members, and they'll love the Big Cloud products as much as we do.

CREDITS
Agency: Dollar Shave Club In House
Creative Directors: Alec Brownstein and Matt Knapp
Copywriter: Alec Brownstein
Art Director: Matt Knapp
Senior Producer: Matt Sausmer
Agency Director: Raechelle Hoki
Project Manager: Christine Melloy
Designer:  Stephanie Lindgren
VFX: Peter Quinn
Business Affairs: Ingenium

Directors: Spielbergs / Washington Square Films
Line Producer: Alicia Van Couvering
DP: Zachary Galler
Editor: Benjamin Moses Smith

Animation: The Craft Shop
Score by: John Vella Music

Color: Company 3
EP: Rhubie Jovanov
Producer: Alexis Guajardo
Colorist: Bryan Smaller

Mixing: Beacon Street Studios
EP: Erin Reilly
Mixer/Sound Designer: Rommel Molina
Assistant Mixer: Aaron Cornacchio

Finishing: Beast LA
EP: Astrid Downs
Producer: Mary Stasilli
Online Artist: Adam Svatek
Online Assistant: Nick Chartrand

Men, as a general rule, aren't exactly thrilled to eat green lunches. Denmark's most popular brand of liver pâté, Stryhns, runs with that stereotype in this amusing ad—in which male workers sit down to eat lunches evident packed by their spouses, and soon freak out completely when they see the grub.

It would spoil it to give much more away, so check out the spot first:



Liver pâté to the rescue! 

The ad was made by agency Anew and production company M2Film, which is perhaps best known for making the most epic ad ever for public-transport buses. AdFreak spoke with M2Film producer Jan P. about the Stryhns work.

"From the beginning of the project, we were aware that it would be essential that the the audience felt that the alarm sound for each character was credible for their personality," he says. "The sound should feel like their voice, and it should match each person perfectly. Because of that, we decided to do a lot of postproduction before we went into shooting."

He added: "We found the sounds, being aware that on the one hand they shouldn't be too annoying, and on the other hand they should be funny and add to the person's character. Having chosen the sounds, we were able to provide the casting agency with each character's 'voice,' making the casting process a lot smoother."

On set, each actor had an earpiece, so he could hear the sound and be in sync with it. "That's the reason why the sound effect feels so accurate and real, adding some magic to the result," Jan P. says.

CREDITS
Client: Stryhns
Spot: "Food for Men"
Agency: Anew
Account: Mads Duzenius Christensen
Creative Director: Jacob Blom
Production Company: M2Film
Director: Peter Harton
Producer: Jan P.

AdBlock users were probably pretty surprised on Saturday to see actual ads appear—instead of the blank spaces they're used to—in the banner slots on webpages. That's because AdBlock found an ad campaign whose ideology it could get behind.

The occasion was World Day Against Cyber Censorship. To mark the day, AdBlock agreed to partner with Amnesty International to replace regular Internet ads not with blank placeholders but with anti-censorship ads from Amnesty—featuring Edward Snowden, Pussy Riot and Ai Wei Wei, who were also partners on the campaign.

The ads were served to more than 50 million users worldwide, according to the agency behind the campaign, Colenso BBDO in Auckland, New Zealand.

The ads also feature the type of content that would normally be censored in many countries. Indeed, the majority of clicks on the banners—which linked through to full content on Amnesty International sites—came from Russia, a country listed by Reporters Without Borders as an "enemy of the Internet," Colenso BBDO said.



The project might seem like an odd one for AdBlock, which is, after all, dedicated to not serving any ads at all. Gabriel Cubbage, CEO of AdBlock, said as much in a statement for the new campaign.

"People use AdBlock for a number of reasons but ultimately no one except you has the right to control what shows up on your screen, or who has access to the contents of your hard drive," he said. "Not the websites, not the advertisers, not the ad blockers. And not your government, either."

The Amnesty ads are apparently an exception because they argue for much the same thing that AdBlock wants—an Internet free of meddling by authorities. Amnesty and AdBlock just come at the issue from opposite sides: Amnesty is opposed to having wanted content blocked; AdBlock is opposed to having unwanted content served.

Where they overlap is that online ads also allow users' movements to be tracked, which Amnesty also opposes as unwanted surveillance.

"Some states are engaged in Orwellian levels of surveillance, particularly targeting the lives and work of the people who defend our human rights—lawyers, journalists and peaceful activists," Salil Shetty, International Secretary General at Amnesty International, said in a statement. "This continuing development of new methods of repression in reaction to increased connectivity is a major threat to our freedom of expression."

Shetty added: "The world was too lax about the impact of the Internet on privacy and free speech. We now need a radically new approach to protecting online rights, before the next wave of disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence."

The banners were translated into six languages and became a global trending topic on Facebook, the agency said. Cubbage, the CEO of AdBlock, also wrote at length about the campaign here.

DDB Paris debuts its first-ever work with Hennessy, "Odyssey XO," a journey through the different notes of Hennessy X.O. Cognac, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, who also made the films Drive and Only God Forgives.

The piece kicks off with a hand gliding through water before exploring seven different flavor notes, dubbed "chapters" to give it a sense of narrative. From initial sweet notes to the "infinite echo," a moment's sip is stretched into a smoky, seductive and complete universe (probably the same one that Eyes Wide Shut takes place in). 

"The film is a journey through taste, based on the impressions and notes of the Hennessy Comité de Dégustation," DDB Paris executive creative director Alexander Kalchev tells AdFreak. "When we read these notes, we realised that they form a sort of a narrative, with each chapter adding another layer of meaning, both symbolically and in terms of taste." 



The complexity of illustrating flavor in an audiovisual way fueled Kalchev's conviction that Refn was the right guy for the job. Refn, says Kalchev, has an "incredible capability to create images that work on multiple levels, images that you never forget. The result is a dreamscape in which liquid, earth, fire and metal meet, a sensorial experience, rather than just a visual one." 

"Taste is a powerful sense," adds the director. "Experiencing certain tastes creates the sensation of a journey. The complex flavours in Hennessy X.O. excite the palate and offer rich contour and contrast, opening the door to unique experiences."

But who is the ad actually talking to?

"We want to raise desire amongst existing brown spirits drinkers while recruiting a new generation of luxury drinkers," global CMO Thomas Moradpour of Hennessy tells us. "This new generation claims a contemporary luxury mind-set; they'd rather collect experiences than possessions. They look for substance beyond status and badges, value the 'now,' and question the traditional archetypes of success."

There is something to be said of the ad's "experiential" quality, even if that first hand in the opening scene—clearly in formal dress—suggests the audience it's targeting is no different (and perhaps no younger) than the ones it always has. 

But Kalchev doesn't see it that way.

"Hennessy X.O. was considered a drink for experts, one that you need years of experience and expertise to truly savor. It was 'members only,' " he observes. "We decided to challenge this 'exclusive' mentality by creating an ode to the unique taste of Hennessy X.O. We wanted to intrigue, surprise and provoke, instead of teach and explain, to cut through all the premium spirits advertising, often riddled with clichés of success or dusty heritage stories." 

This is certainly no dusty heritage tale. The flickering images of people in elaborate headdresses, or covered in gold and chocolate, contrasted with symbolic all-seeing eyes and gritty scenes of motorcycle riders and labor-worked hands over chains, leaves us with more sensations than a coherent sense of story. To magnify this feeling, a VR experience is also available, directed by Stink Digital's Stephan Wever.

"The film was shot in Cinecittà studios, home of Fellini, a very special place," Kalchev adds. "Shooting with Nicolas was an incredible experience in itself. He is a sort of a medium, with the images that he creates coming from somewhere deep in his subconscious. It was a unique experience, much like the result itself." 

It also marks Kalchev's first major production as ecd of DDB Paris, which should give the industry some indication of what to expect from the agency in the future.

"Odyssey," he says, is "a bold statement from both DDB and Hennessy to run with something so unique. I'd like to see more brave work like this coming out of the agency."

The work launched worldwide last week. Check out the print ads below. Click to enlarge.

CREDITS

Client: Hennessy
Global CMO Hennessy: Thomas Moradpour
Hennessy Brand Director Prestige: Antoine Varlet
International Marketing Manager Prestige : Aurélie Lim
Head of Visual Identity : Khoa Dodinh

Agency: DDB Paris
ECD: Alexander Kalchev
Creatives: Alexis Benbehe, Pierre Mathonat
Head of TV: Sophie Mégrous
Managing Director: Xavier Mendiola,
Associate Director : Marine Hakim
Senior Account Manager : Jessica Ferris
Strategic Planning : Martin Mangez

Production Company: Stink Paris
EP : Greg Panteix
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
DoP : Natasha Braier
Editor : Matt Newman
Sound production: The
Composer: Cliff Martinez

Photographer : Dan Tobin Smith

It's funny. Yesterday for Hennesy X.O., executive creative director Alexander Kalchev of DDB Paris critiqued the premium spirits sector for its "clichés of success" and "dusty heritage stories."

Now, Stella Artois may not be premium (despite the chalice), but what we've got here is a play on both the success cliché and the heritage story—except that, far from dusty, it's energetic and super-fun. 

"Be Legacy," a campaign that kicked off last week, will explore different moments of the Belgian beer brand's history. Its opening spot, directed by François Rousselet, recounts the little-known story of Sébastien Artois, its founder. 

Don't expect any period-era hemming and hawing, though. The music is rock 'n' roll, and our young hero first appears giving a barrel full of hops a good, long sniff in a bustling 18th-century market.

"I am Sébastien Artois. Brewmaster. Risk taker," Artois begins valiantly. The weirdness for which Stella Artois is known is muted, but nonetheless present: As he says this, sleepily facing a bathroom mirror (featuring a modern red toothbrush), his reflection leaps out of the frame, grabs his lapels and shouts, "Wake up, Sébastien!"

Watch the full spot here:



The narration is sparing, relying more on the actor's energy and less on heritage loyalty, exempting it from Kalchev's damning criticism of alcohol's boring self-importance (though beer is generally less lofty in its messaging than premium spirits are). 

Basically, Séb finds out there's a brewery for sale and spends most of the spot selling all his worldly belongings (including his dog) to acquire it, starting the brand best known for giving us ads like "Pirate Paper Boat,"—which, like this one, was created by Mother London.

What's great is that there's plenty to see, which will inspire multiple viewings by beer (or just ad) geeks—the red toothbrush, sure; a retro TV set (part of what he sells off a huge carriage); a record shop with a neon sign; and even Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," which didn't exist until nearly 200 years after Sébastien Artois became head brewer at Den Hoorn brewery in 1708 (he would give it his name in 1717).

"What do you want to be remembered for?" Sébastien asks at the end, flanked by his first employees for a company photo. This sets us up for the tongue-in-cheek "Be Legacy" tagline. The website—linked at the top of this article—suggests the next story to tell will be his widow's, Isabella Artois, shown below in a way that would make Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette sick with envy:



We can't wait.

Earlier this year, Stella Artois unveiled an impressive zoetrope made of its signature chalices for "Buy a Lady a Drink," an effort to raise money for clean water alongside Water.org. The earnest work highlighted both Stella's values and its more elaborate, artistic qualities (also characteristic of its messaging), but it's nice to see it return to the kind of storytelling it does best—a cross somewhere between a BBC period series and "Drunk History."

CREDITS
Client: Stella Artois
Agency: Mother
Sound Design: Sam Ashwell at 750mph
Composer: Jamie N Commons
Editor: Joe Guest
Edit Company: Final Cut
VFX Supervisor: Adam Crocker
Producer: Amy Richardson
Postproduction House: MPC London
Production Company: RIFF RAFF Films
Producer: Jane Tredget
Executive Producer: Matthew Fone
DOP: Martin Ruhe
Director: François Rousselet

To bring attention to the awful conditions of the infamous refugee camp in Calais, France, colloquially called "The Jungle," London-based creatives Jason Scott and Joris Philippart listed examples of refugee homes on Airbnb. 

You can't actually book them—in fact, Airbnb has since blocked the listings—but it is meant to funnel donations to the Help Refugees charity anyway. 

Examples of refugee homes in the mock listings, visible at HomesoftheJungle.com, include the Damaged Shack (shown at the top of this post), whose "walls have been reinforced with sleeping bags that have been taken from those who have attempted to make it to the U.K.

Then there's the "Family Home, "a single sheet of canvas held over a frame of sticks and bound together with bits of string and found plastic": 



There is also the Wooden Shelter—"one of the sturdiest homes in the jungle, which should make it harder for police to kick down":



And the cheerlessly international Waterproof Hut, "suitable for big groups":



The idea was to juxtapose these makeshift dwellings with regular Airbnb listings, which would ideally drive people to pay attention and make donations for refugee relief. (The "listings" ranged from £7 a night to £30 a night, or from $9.91 to $42.47.) 

We personally can't tell whether the amount of P.T. Barnum they've applied to this idea is just right or too much. Comfortable people must be hit where they live, but the long-term effects of encouraging pity for refugees, without controlling for paternal condescension, are ugly. 

The refugees are getting enough paternal condescension in France as it is.

Below, an example of how the Family Home looked on Airbnb:

Sequels are tough. Ultimately, they're rarely evaluated on their own terms. The mere existence of a sequel, in most cases, means something noteworthy, and oftentimes excellent, came before. So from the start, there's an unfair standard of comparison. 

Such is the case with "Murilo's First 100 Days."

The three-minute film by ad shop Mood for Huggies Brazil follows last year's viral smash "Meeting Murilo," which told the true story of a sight-impaired woman, Tatiana, who comes to know her unborn son by touching a lifelike 3-D printed model of the baby created from an ultrasound scan.

In the new video, we watch as Tatiana bonds with Murilo, who is now newborn. As in the original, the power of touch is paramount. Here the tactile sensation of skin against skin matters most, and images of Tatiana bathing, carrying and caressing her infant achieve a kind of intense poetic power, much to the credit of director Jorge Brivilati. 

"Huggies believes hugs are essential for your baby to thrive," reads an onscreen message. "Give a hug and you'll see."



While that's a sweet sentiment, and an affecting bit of wordplay given Tatiana's circumstances, it falls a bit flat, especially when matched up against the novel approach and powerful vision of its predecessor. 

The incredible "hook" of the first ad—shots of Tatiana running her fingers along the 3-D printed image of Murilo's tiny, delicate face—was emotionally transcendent. For some viewers, perhaps, such scenes were unforgettable. The sequel, though flawlessly filmed and moving in its way, offers nothing to match such poignant and exhilarating highs. 

"Being able to record these love exchanges between mother and child and the importance of an embrace is a gift for the brand," says Priya Patel, director of the infant-care category at Huggies parent Kimberly-Clark Brazil. 

That may be true. And our take would have been somewhat more positive if "Murilo's First 100 Days" hadn't been a sequel. Unfair? Absolutely.

Alas, what we have here is a fine piece of work—touching, but far from transcendent, and unlikely to be as universally embraced as the original.

CREDITS

Client: Kimberly-Clark - Huggies
Agency: Mood
Title: Os primeiros 100 dias de Murilo
Creative Directors: Bruno Brasileiro, Felipe Munhoz and Rafael Gonzaga
Creation: André Félix, Bruno Brasileiro, Felipe Munhoz and Rafael Gonzaga
Convergence: Luis Constantino and Sabrina Tito
Customer Service: Fábio Meneghati and Camilla Lojudice
Media: Eduardo Lellis
Planning: Daniel Rios e Fabricio Natoli
RTV: Rita Teófilo and Thiago Campos
Producer: La casa de la madre
Executive Producer: Paulo Geraissate
Customer Service: Paula Ferrari
Director: J. Brivilati
Director of Photography: J. Brivilati
Art Director (Producer): Thais Trolize
Editing: Douglas Gomes
Audio Producer: Lua Nova
Conductors: Thomas Roth and Teco Fuchs
Customer Service: Tiago Armani
Sound Design:  Lua Nova team
Client Approval:  Lizandra Bertoncini, Maria Eugênia Duca, Priya Patel and Simone Simões

Would Iggy Pop drive an Audi?

If the seminal proto-punk rocker got one free for lending his 1973 head-banger "Search and Destroy" to the soundtrack of the automaker's new campaign from Venables Bell & Partners, then, yes, he probably would.

"Intelligence is the new rock and roll" is the tagline for the work, which touts the 2017 Audi A4, playing up the car's performance, design and technology features.

"The idea of equating rock 'n' roll with the new world of technology felt very fresh to us," Loren Angelo, director of marketing at Audi of America, tells AdFreak. "These inventors and thinkers are the new disrupters. They are the people we all want to be. What's more rock 'n' roll than that?"

Check out the cascading images, set to Iggy's throbbing beat, in the :60 anthem here:



Hmm … mostly footage of the A4, a band playing and shiny tech stuff. Plus a Wired magazine cover, a high-school football game and what looks like a Mars probe landing. Sort of a random mix, and standard quick-cut approach, though well shot by Park Pictures director A.G. Rojas, and impressively propelled by the choice of music.

The next spot illustrates that much of the technology used in Audi Pilotless Vehicles also powers the A4:



That driverless car is pretty cool, and the straightforward voiceover helps focus the message (which, frankly, drifted a bit in the previous commercial).

Finally, playful visuals emphasize how Audi's cutting-edge tech provides a personal touch:



"Today's cultural icons are pushing boundaries with ideas," says Angelo. "Music has always had the power to create culture, and now, so does technology."

Fair enough, though the whole rockin' car thing has been done before, most famously by Cadillac and Led Zeppelin. Likewise, Iggy's "Search and Destroy" worked better for Nike. (At least Audi spared us from more commercial choruses of the man's awesome but overused "Lust for Life.")

All in all, while the A4 itself may encompass rad innovations, the campaign feels a tad too generic and familiar. That leaves Audi, for all its sonic swagger, miles away from punk and stalled in the middle of the road.

See some :15s from the campaign below.

CREDITS
Audi/A4 "Rock And Roll" :60/:30:
Client Name: Audi of America
Brand: Audi
Spot Names: Rock and Roll
Air Date: 3/14/16
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners
Executive Creative Director: Paul Venables, Will McGinness
Creative Directors: Erich Pfeifer, Tyler Hampton
Associate Creative Directors: Matt Miller, Matt Keats
Art Director: Daniel Ieraci
Copywriter: Tyler Hampton, Craig Ross
Director Of Integrated Production: Craig Allen
Agency Executive Producer: Mandi Holdorf
Production Company: Park Pictures
Director: AG Rojas
Director of Photography: Bradford Young
Executive Producer: Mary Ann Marino
Line Producer: Valerie Romer
Editing Company: Final Cut
Editor: Rick Russell – Rock and Roll and Pilotless; Crispin Struthers – Touch, Faster, Horsepower, Intelligent Statement
Colorist: Gregory Reese
Music Company: n/a
Featured Song: Search and Destroy by Iggy Pop and the Stooges
Music Supervisor: n/a
Sound Design: 740 Sound
Executive Producer: Scott Ganary
Sound Design Producer: Jeff Martin
Lead Sound Designer: Chris Pinkston
Final Mix : M Squared
Mix Engineer: Mark Pitchford
VFX: The Mill
VFX Producer: Chris Harlowe
VFX Supervisor: Gareth Parr
Head Of Brand Management & Client Services: David Corns
Brand Director: Chris Bergen, Justin Pitcher
Brand Supervisors: Justin Wang, Ally Humpherys
Brand Managers: Oliver Glenn, Faire Davidson
Assistant Brand Manager: Brianne Jones
Project Manager: Talya Fisher, Leah Murphy

Audi/A4 "Touch", "Pilotless", "Faster", "Horsepower", "Intelligent Statement":
Client Name: Audi of America
Brand: Audi
Spot Names: Touch, "Pilotless", "Faster", "Horsepower", "Intelligent Statement"
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners
Executive Creative Director: Paul Venables, Will McGinness
Creative Directors: Erich Pfeifer, Tyler Hampton
Associate Creative Directors: Matt Miller, Matt Keats
Art Director: Daniel Ieraci
Copywriter: Craig Ross
Director Of Integrated Production: Craig Allen
Agency Executive Producer: Mandi Holdorf
Production Company: Park Pictures
Director: AG Rojas
Director of Photography: Bradford Young
Executive Producer: Mary Ann Marino
Line Producer: Valerie Romer
Editing Company: Final Cut
Editor: Rick Russell – Rock and Roll and Pilotless; Crispin Struthers – Touch, Faster, Horsepower, Intelligent Statement
Colorist: Gregory Reese
Music Company: n/a
Featured Song: Search and Destroy by Iggy Pop and the Stooges
Music Supervisor: n/a
Sound Design: 740 Sound
Executive Producer: Scott Ganary
Sound Design Producer: Jeff Martin
Lead Sound Designer: Chris Pinkston
Final Mix: M Squared
Mix Engineer: Mark Pitchford
VFX: The Mill
VFX Producer: Chris Harlowe
VFX Supervisor: Gareth Parr
Head Of Brand Management & Client Services: David Corns
Brand Director: Chris Bergen, Justin Pitcher
Brand Supervisors: Justin Wang, Ally Humpherys
Brand Managers: Oliver Glenn, Faire Davidson
Assistant Brand Manager: Brianne Jones
Project Manager: Talya Fisher, Leah Murphy