Today's toy ads aren't perfect—the one for Kackel Dackel is disturbing in its own way—but at least they don't give you nightmares. The one below, for Remco's 1971 toy Baby Laugh-a-Lot, is not something your kids ever need to see. The horror-movie style editing and the deranged voiceover certainly don't help. In fact, the only thing more frightening than Baby Laugh-a-Lot might be Baby Laugh-a-Lot with her batteries running low.

Saturday Night Live alumnus Bill Hader has teamed up with T-Mobile to become the brand's first spokesperson in several years not to wear a bright pink dress. The spots, directed by Adam & Dave of Arts & Sciences, advertise a new program called Jump, which does away with the crazy multi-year wait times for phone upgrades—a $10-a-month fee lets you upgrade twice a year. The spots, created by Publicis, show Hader in unfortunate but familiar situations like dropping his phone in a urinal, trying to dry it out in some rice, getting one-upped by someone with a better phone, having it squished by a large mustachioed man, and getting stuck with a phone that won't hold a charge. Hader is funny, but even funnier is Brian Huskey of Swagger Wagon and Sonic commercial fame, who delivers his usual awkward deadpan brilliance.

The premise of Ikea's "One Room Paradise" music video seems straightforward: As a little girl plays with her dollhouse (doll apartment complex, to be precise), the dolls come to life and give us a glimpse of their happy existence in a small but perfectly (Ikea-furnished) single-room home. But before you can say "Ektorp," the girl's fantasy world becomes infinitely more complicated.

After initially appearing to be a sort of Barbie Dream Apartment situation—a pretty plastic doll wakes up in the morning, opens her closet full of trendy shoes, gets dressed in a pink tracksuit—the story veers, intentionally or not, into social commentary. Instead of giving us a single gal or typical nuclear family, the main players reveal themselves to be a single mother and her son (and, occasionally, grandmother). While it's refreshing (and commendable) that Ikea's version of a family doesn't necessitate a happily married mom and dad, there's something unquestionably off-putting about the entire narrative—especially considering it's supposedly taking place in a child's imagination.

For one thing, the story is set to a song about creating a "one-room paradise" with "the man I love." In that context, the very close mother-son relationship—he dabs her tears when she cries at a movie, and cooks her breakfast in bed after she comes home drunk from a late night of partying—starts to look a tad unhealthy. (It's probably safe to assume Aretha Franklin wasn't singing about her child in the original version.) And the image of a mother doll stumbling through the door after having a few too many drinks will probably raise a few eyebrows, too. (No judgment when it comes to human mothers, but have you ever seen Barbie under the influence?)

Most unsettling of all is the unavoidable uncanny-valley aspect that comes from having the dolls portrayed not by toys shot in stop-motion, but by actors wearing doll masks. The plastic-faced human bodies, contorted into doll-like positions—fingers stuck permanently together, elbows slightly bent—are more creepy than playful. (For an extra dose of creep, watch the "behind the scenes" tour of the apartment, in which the mother doll is voiced by a gruff-voiced man.)

On the bright side, if you can get over the initial feeling of unease, there are some great organizational tips in there!

CREDITS
Client: Ikea
Agency: Mother, London
Director: Megaforce
Production Company: Riff Raff
Producer: Cathy Hood
Agency Producer: Ellie Gibb
Colour Grading: Paul Harrison
Flame: Judy Roberts
Post Producer: Justine White
VFX: Finish & Mathematic
Editor: Joe Guest @ Final Cut

David Fincher's Calvin Klein commercial starring Rooney Mara exists in a dreary, dreamless dimension beyond banality and cliché. It occupies a zone so soullessly stylized that "style" loses all meaning … a wasteland so unironic that irony screams for release, only to go unheard. This 60-second black-and-white spot introducing CK's Downtown fragrance plays like an unfunny parody of its putrid genre—yet it's very real, which makes irony scream all the more. In other words, it's like every other pretentious, faux-artsy perfume and fashion commercial. Maybe more so. Fincher previously directed Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network. "Runaway" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs plays on the soundtrack. The ad features puppies, buses, rain, subways, earbuds and a press conference. A lot of stuff happens in slow motion. Mara cracks a smile, which The Huffington Post seems to think is a big deal. I'm not sold on the name of the perfume, either. How does downtown usually smell? In my experience, it stinks. Print ad below the video.

In this strange ad by Made Movement for Stonyfield, a woman with an Oompa-Loopa-ish complexion and a deeply annoying voice asks her lunchroom friend if she ever wonders about pesticides. Stonyfield fans like myself will recognize that a similar question is contained inside every yogurt container. But our protagonist gives it a good ponder anyway, and we are transported into her mind's eye. A farmer and his son are seen petting a cow, when three neon-colored dweebs wearing costumes that say "Pesticide" hop the fence to cause trouble. So, the Stonyfield farmer breaks out his kung-fu and defeats his brightly colored enemies by employing more cowbell. According to the release, "While most opt for a slick, stylish approach and keep verbiage vague such as 'Pure' or 'Natural,' this high-energy, color-saturated spot highlights Stonyfield's commitment." Indeed, it does look like someone vomited highlighters on it. And it does stand out in a category full of real cows in realistically colored fields. I guess Stoneyfield is finally going for the stoner crowd.

CREDITS
Client: Stonyfield

Agency: Made Movement
Chief Creative Officer/Partner: Dave Schiff
Chief Design Officer/Partner: John Kieselhorst
Chief Digital Officer/Partner: Scott Prindle
Creative Director: Claire Wyckoff
Cheif Strategy Officer: Graham Furlong
Art Director: Marybeth Ledesma
Writers: David Satterfield, Claire Wyckoff
Consulting Head Of Integrated Production: Chris Kyriakos
Junior Integrated Producer: Isaac Karsen
Visual Effects Company & City: Ingenuity Engine, Hollywood CA
Music Company & City: Beacon Street Studios, Venice, CA
Composer: Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau
Sound Design Company & City: Soundelux
Editorial Company & City: NO6, Santa Monica

Business Manager: Jennifer DeCastro
Vp Account Production: Rachael Donaldson
Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Jim Hosking
Executive Producers: Kevin Byrne, Dan Duffy
Line Producer: Leora Glass
Director Of Photography: Marten Tedin

Editor: Dan Aronin
Assitant Editor: Doug Scott
Executive Producer (Editorial Co): Crissy DeSimone

Lead Flame: David Lebensfeld
Visual Effects Producer: Oliver Taylor
Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Siggy Ferstl

Sound Designer: Harry Cohen
Audio Finishing: Lime Studios
Audio Engineer: Sam Casas

Here's an airport stunt from Heineken that truly embodies the brand's adventurous spirit. Twice this week, Wieden + Kennedy in New York set up a board at JFK's Terminal 8 and dared travelers to play "Departure Roulette"—changing their destination to a more exotic location with the press of a button. They had to agree to drop their existing travel plans—without knowing the new destination first—and immediately board a flight to the new place.

On Tuesday, a man played the game and ended up going to Cyprus instead of Vienna. (He had been planning a six-week visit with his grandparents, but soon learned he would be headed to Cyprus on a 9:55 p.m. flight. Heineken gave him $2,000 to cover expenses and booked him into a hotel for two nights.) W+K set up the board again on Thursday, and brought cameras along to document the gameplay. The game is inspired by "Dropped," the new Heineken campaign that launched a month ago from W+K Amsterdam in which four men are sent to remote destinations and film their adventures. We should have footage from Thursday's event next week. For now, Heineken should set this up in the Moscow airport. There's a guy there who would welcome any chance to fly to oblivion.

Here's a customer-service story that will be music to your ears. Someone on the Spotify team created a custom playlist yesterday thanking user Jelena Woehr for some positive feedback she gave the music service. The titles of the songs spelled out the message "Jelena/You Are Awesome/Thanks a Lot/For These Words/It Helps Me/Impress/The Management." The gesture was a big hit with Woehr, a community manager for Yahoo's Contributor Network. "Oh my god," she wrote on Facebook with a screenshot of the playlist. "Spotify customer care is ADORABLE." It's hard to tell whether this is a common thank-you trick for the Spotify team, but it's especially impressive in this case considering her first name isn't exactly common. "I'm still just mindboggled they found a song titled 'Jelena,' with the J and everything," she says. It's yet another example of how small gestures to customers can go a long way these days, whether you're fixing a broken cheeseburger for a girl with autism or replacing a boy's missing ninja.

The fur flew, painfully, in Lowe Roche's recent street promo for Toronto's Fuzz Wax Bar. A guy almost completely covered in wax strips walked around town and invited people to tear them from his skin. Cartoon smiley or frowny faces on the strips indicated the level of pain the guy would feel. They were also emblazoned with copy such as "From bear arms to bare arms" and "We'll take the monkey of your back," along with the salon's slogan, "So good, it hurts." Yeee-ouch! Each strip could be redeemed for a 25 percent discount at Fuzz Wax. (Personally, I'd want to keep mine as a hairy, sweat-stained waxvertising souvenir.) Last year, the zany madcaps at Lowe Roche photographed a local dealership's Porsches in people's driveways to create ads targeting those very homes. That was clever, but this body-hair stunt was less creepy and provided an oddly memorable product demo. Congrats to the agency for pulling it off. More photos and credits below.

CREDITS
Project: Street Waxing
Client: Fuzz Wax Bar
Agency: Lowe Roche
Executive Creative Director: Sean Ohlenkamp
Copywriters: Jeremy Richard, Eli Joseph 
Art Directors: Ryan Speziale, Kunaal Jagtianey
Producer: Shannon Farrell
Makeup: Alyssa McCarthy
Account Director: Frederic Morin
Director: Dean Vargas
Postproduction: Motion Pantry

Old Spice had a couple of hits back in April with its "Shower" and "Watermelon" ads for its Fiji Bar Soap. Now, the brand's Swagger Bar Soap gets some play in this amusing spot from Wieden + Kennedy called "Architect." Again, it's a parody of '80s bar-soap commercials, complete with cheese-spirational song lyrics and meaningful brow-sweat-wiping moments … and a comically sideswiping ending. Nice slippy product shot at the end, too.

George Zimmer, who founded Men's Wearhouse in 1973 and served as its CEO and ad spokesman until two years ago, was fired in June by the company's board of directors from his new role as executive chairman because of disagreements over the retailer's future. Zimmer, of course, was a fixture on TV with his gravelly voiced tagline, "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it." Below is the first post-Zimmer spot. It's only 15 seconds long, and it has a charity angle, so it's atypical for the company. Yet you feel Zimmer's absence palpably. That's because, without him, there's no real brand voice left at all, literally or figuratively. Zimmer's ads weren't very special, but he was unapologetic about that. "I apologize to those … who are going into the advertising or marketing business," he told BusinessMakers last year, "but what really drives success, in my experience, is repetition and consistency, not creativity. I think people who are in the [ad] business tend to get more hung up on the creative aspects. They start to think of themselves more as artists and less as businessmen. We have the same problem with tailors, by the way."

Ads about technology can leave you cold, particularly when they try to explain what the technology does. Often, humanity gets lost in the equation, and you end up feeling disconnected from the message.

So, the degree of difficulty was high as Lowe Campbell Ewald set out to advertise General Motors' OnStar car-monitoring system. It could have been a dull affair, but through quick-cutting visuals and an animated voice, the four online ads are surprisingly engaging.

One ad, "Sandman," shows dad wondering if his far-away car is locked as his kids bury him in sand on a beach. An OnStar remote control on his key chain allays his mild concern. Another ad, "Crash," shows a woman swerving into a ditch and getting an audio call from OnStar just a few seconds later. Speed is the message there, as it is in "Joyride," where OnStar helps track a stolen Chevy Silverado and sends a signal to slow the speed of the truck as police move in. 

Director Angus Wall of Elastic leavens the action with cutaways to dogs, a yawning cat, a falcon, even a crab. Visually, he also spells out just how messages get passed back and forth from humans to cars. The images are playful and compliment the voiceover, from actor Rich Sommer, aka Harry Crane on Mad Men.

In telling stories each lasting less than a minute, Wall, who has won Oscars for film editing (on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network) and Emmys for title sequencing (on Game of Thrones and Carnivale), is clearly in his element.

The "Connected by OnStar" campaign, which also includes radio and print ads and social-media outreach, will run through December. It marks the first campaign for OnStar since 2010, when brand spending exceeded $70 million, according to Nielsen.

CREDITS
Client: OnStar
Director of Insights and Brand, OnStar/Global Connected Consumer: John McFarland
Advertising Manager, OnStar/Global Connected Consumer: Kelly Shon

Agency: Lowe Campbell Ewald
Creative Director: Michael Stelmaszek
ACDs: Jim Millis, Nancy Wellinger, Kevin Omans
Account:  Laura Thornton and Jeff Bratton (leads), Amy Raubolt, Bryan Bush, Crystal Czupinski
Planning: Anne Feighan
Production: Mary Ellen Krawczyk

Production Company: Elastic
Director: Angus Wall
Director of Photography: Eric Tremmel
Live Action Producer: Melinda Nugent
Designers: Ekin Aklin
Executive Producer: Jennifer Sofio Hall

VFX Studio: a52
2D  Lead VFX Artists: Andy Bate, Andy Barrios
2D Artists: Matt Sousa, Brendan Crockett
Colorist: Paul Yacono
Executive Producer: Jennifer Sofio Hall, Megan Meloth
Producer: Jamie McBriety

Editorial Company: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor:  David Brodie
Assistant Editor: Niles Howard
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Producer: Esther Gonzales

It looks like Rebecca Black finally decided which seat to take—a seat in a Honda. The "Friday" singer just popped up in a Vine video from the automaker—part of a campaign by RPA that sends personalized Vines to Honda fans on Twitter who use the hashtag #wantnewcar.

"We were promised flying cars. I don’t see any… #wantnewcar," wrote Nick Miners. To which @Honda replied: "Hey @nickminers, we don't have those at the Honda Summer Clearance Event. But we have @MsRebeccaBlack!" In the Vine, Black suggests visiting a Honda dealer on Friday—"or whenever."

Check out more of the Honda Vines here.

Hey @nickminers, we don't have those at the Honda Summer Clearance Event. But we have @MsRebeccaBlack! http://t.co/SYKywDClZ5#wantnewcar

— Honda (@Honda) July 15, 2013

In addition to the Vine promotion, the campaign features TV spots in which Honda dealers humorously respond to real tweets. The "Super Fan" spot replies an actual tweet from actor Neil Patrick Harris, who asked for advice on selecting a minivan. Check out those ads, and some print work, below.

CREDITS
Client: Honda
Agency: RPA

EVP, Chief Creative Officer: Joe Baratelli
SVP, Executive Creative Director: Jason Sperling
SVP, Executive Producer, Content: Gary Paticoff
VP, Creative Director: Chuck Blackwell
Creative Director/Copy: Ken Pappanduros
Art Director: Ariel Shukert
Copywriter: Jen Winston
Senior Producer: Fran Wall
Production Coordinator: Grace Wang

Production Company: Recommended Media
Director: Chris Woods
Founder/CEO: Stephen Dickstein
Partner/Executive Producer: Phillip Detchmendy
Partner/Executive Producer: Jeff Rohrer
Producer: Darrin Ball

Editing Company: The Reel Thing
Editor: Lance Pereira
Editor: Val Thrasher
Flame Artist: Moody Glasgow
Executive Producer: Doug Kleckner

Telecine: The Mill
Colorist: Adam Scott

Audio Post: Lime Studios
Mixer: Dave Wagg
Music: Wojahn Brothers

PRINT CREDITS
First insertion date: July 15, 2013

Agency: RPA
EVP, CCO: Joe Baratelli
SVP, ECD: Jason Sperling
CDs: Ken Pappanduros & Chuck Blackwell
Art Director: Suzie Yeranosyan
Copywriter: Jen Winston
Photographers: Civic: Joe Carlson, CR-V: Tony LaBruno, Accord: Springbox, Pilot: RPA CGi, Odyssey: Fulvio Bonavia
Art Buyer: Ginnie Assenza
Production Manager: Stephanie Speights

Draftfcb stages a spirited, brand-centric schoolyard game of "Yo Mama" to tout Kmart's free back-to-school layaway plan in this new commercial. "Yo mama get that hoodie at Kmart?" "Yeah, dawg." "Well, yo mama must have cavities, 'cuz that hoodie is sweeeeeeeet!" "Oh yeah, well, yo mama's like a tasty cheese plate, 'cuz she saved a bunch of cheddar on them Kmart jeans!" Etc. Some commenters claim the spot perpetuates stereotypes, or else they object to the street slang. I don't think this ad merits that level of sociological scrutiny. Unlike Kmart's previous silly spots, "Ship My Pants" and "Big Gas Savings," this new effort doesn't seem destined to generate millions of YouTube views. (It's topped 80,000 in its first week.) Still, the kids earn high marks for their enormous energy and over-the-top line deliveries. They elevate material that might have flunked out otherwise. "Ship My Pants." Ha! That never gets old!

This isn't the first time hot naked women have been painted like objects in advertising. It isn't even the first time hot naked women have been painted like cars. But this ad for the Fiat 500 Abarth Cabrio involves hot naked women, so we'll talk about it anyway. This little stunt by The Richards Group involved a whole tribe of naked circus performers, dancers and contortionists, along with one heck of a good body painter. Mashable thinks some people might consider it another example of objectification of women. Well, yes. It turns women into an object. And yet, it flows seamlessly from the Fiat brand promise and the other work The Richards Group has done for the automaker. Remember the great Super Bowl spot where they personified a Fiat by turning it into a tempestuous Italian woman? Now they turned a bunch of women into a Fiat, suggesting, in keeping with the same subtext of a bazillion other car ads, that buying the car will get you hot, naked women. At least they did it with far more style and art than slapping a woman on there like a hood ornament. I should also give them credit for the tagline, "Made of pure muscle," which suggests, at least in some way, that these ladies are actually to be admired for their strength more than their beauty. And that almost, kinda elevates it.

You're sitting at home, trying to unwind in front of the tube after a long day at your challenging white-collar job, and you hear a voiceover. "This is water." But it's not exactly David Foster Wallace's metaphor for adult life.

It's a new commercial for Rust-Oleum's NeverWet, in which all liquid behaves, according to the copy, like "you've never seen." That is, unless you've already watched the brand's gone-viral infomercial, which features viscous substances like mustard and chocolate sauce rolling off a white T-shirt without leaving a spot behind.

The TV spot, from mcgarrybowen in Chicago, brings more traditional advertising melodrama, and much higher production values, to the same jaw-dropping visual effects seen in the low-budget product demo—but somehow with less impact. Directed by Backyard's Nick Piper, the ad goes to great lengths to show juice sliding in slow motion off a wooden table, and mud slipping in slow motion off a leather boot—all thanks to the spray-on product's "hydrophobic" qualities. And, no doubt to the client's delight, it uses the product name like a hammer, pounding away at the viewer's consciousness, in the hopes of being the one thing that does stick. "NeverWet … NeverWet … NeverWet …"

Despite the agency polish, the spot, with fewer than 1,000 YouTube views, feels less convincing than the more awkward yet more authentic online commercial, which has racked up some 4 million. Given the highly dubious nature of the product's proposition—science defying nature in a way that seems like snake oil, even if it's not—the nonchalance of the chemists in the viral ad is more powerful than the refined, heavier-handed sales pitch of the :30. Perhaps they should have cut a 20-second version of the infomercial, added a URL at the end, and used the extra money to buy more airtime.

As it is, the TV spot's message might just slide right off the audience.

CREDITS
Client: Rust-Oleum
Spot: "Never Seen This"
Agency: mcgarrybowen, Chicago
Creative Directors: Ned Crowley, William Cannon, David Claus
Head of Production: Lisa Snyder
Agency Producer: Tracy Tran
Production Company: Backyard Productions, Venice, Calif., New York
Director: Nick Piper
Director of Photography: Neil Shapiro
Producer: Anton Maillie
Executive Producer: Kris Mathur
Editorial Company: Optimus, Chicago,
Editor: Aaron Porzel
Editorial Producer: Tracy Spera
Postproduction: Chemical Effects, Santa Monica, Calif.
Postproducer: Jennifer Mersis

The new man-in-a-furry-suit-and-big-ass-jeans incarnation of Smokey Bear is all about huggin' and lovin' strangers he meets in the woods. These days, who isn't? (Well, OK, Purity Bear for one.) Draftfcb in Los Angeles created this integrated Smokey campaign for the Ad Council and the U.S. Forest Service, and as always, the goal is conveying information on how to prevent forest fires. There are TV and radio spots, as well as print, outdoor and digital elements, including the hashtag #SmokeyBearHugs. Past versions of the iconic bear—and there have been many since the character was introduced in 1944—would cry,nag, lecture or simply stare down campers while brandishing a shovel to make a point about fire safety. (The recent CGI Smokey was a preachy douche.) Now, Huggy Smokey Bear literally embraces those who act responsibly, holding them lovingly in his ursine arms. At least he doesn't grin and bare it. The hugees mostly look uncomfortable and make weird faces. Perhaps they're mortified to be in such goofy PSAs.

CREDITS
Campaign: Smokey Bear/Wildfire Prevention

Client: The Advertising Council
Senior Vice President, Group Campaign Director: Michelle Hillman
Vice President, Campaign Director: Amy Gibson-Grant
Campaign Manager: Ricki Kaplan
Assistant Campaign Manager: Kristin Ellis

Client: U.S. Forest Service
Fire Prevention Program Manager: Helene Cleveland
Acting Fire Prevention Program Manager: Gwen Beavans

Client: National Association of State Foresters
Director of Communications: Genevieve O’Sullivan

Agency: Draftfcb, Los Angeles
Chief Creative Officer: Eric Springer
Executive Vice President, Executive Creative Director: Michael Bryce
Senior Vice President, Group Creative Director: Jeff Maerov
Copywriter: Nick Micale
Art Director: Patrick Moore
Vice President, Executive Producer: Thomas Anderson
Producer: Jeffrey Perino
Executive Vice President, Group Management Director: Yolanda Cassity
Vice President, Management Director: Leila Cesario
Account Executive: Jennifer Levin

Production: Park Pictures
Directors: Terri Timely (Ian Kibbey, Corey Creasy)
Creative Consultant: Lance Acord
Executive Producer, Owner: Jackie Kelman Bisbee
Executive Producer: Mary Ann Marino
Head of Production: Anne Bobroff
Producer: Valerie Romer

Editing: Butcher
Editor: Teddy Gersten
Assistant Editor: Leah Turner
Producer: Chrissy Hamilton
Executive Producer: Rob Van

Effects: D Train (Smokey)
Creative Director: Ben Gibbs
Effects Supervisor: Jan Cillers
Producer: Shelby Wong
Coordinator: Chelsea Brewer

Effects: Alterian (Smokey)
Creature Effects, Smokey Suit Designer: Tony Gardner

Pretty much out of nowhere, Dick's Sporting Goods has suddenly been coming up with some of the most impressive sports-related commercials, uh ... I'm going to go with "ever," actually.

This new football commercial, and the previous baseball spot, both made by Anomaly and director Derek Cianfrance, are little masterpieces of between-play tension that use only the space most other sports ads leave out.

The point is blindingly obvious, but only once it's made: This is where the teamwork happens. The quarterback calling the plays. The coach sending players in and out. The furious guard on the offensive team shouting at his defensive counterpart, "Next play! Next play!" It's reminiscent of the actual process of playing football in a way that few ads—hell, few movies—really are. And it reminds you what's so much fun about the whole process: the rush you get right before you try to do something you've been planning for a while; the nervous high of hearing somebody yell for the snap. It's most of what we actually remember from the sport, as opposed to the long runs or the great kicks.

Like the baseball ad, this spot is done in a single, Robert Altman-style take, with volume coming up on the players as they pan in from the right, yelling encouragement at each other and threats at the other team. Unlike the baseball spot, it's louder, it's busier, and best of all, it contains absolutely no music. The closest thing we get to a dominant sound, in fact, is the QB screaming for the snap at the end and then the empty noise over the branding.

Kudos to agency director. This here is a 40-yard pass.

CREDITS
Client: Dick's Sporting Goods

Agency: Anomaly
Chief Creative Officer, Partner: Mike Byrne
Creative Director: Seth Jacobs
Creative: Taylor Twist, Mike Warzin
Executive Producer, Head of Production: Andrew Loevenguth
Producer: Matt Flaherty
Business Director: Damien Reid
Account Supervisor: Ji You

Production Company: Radical
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Executive Producers: Frank Scherma, Donna Portaro, Tommy Turtle
Head of Production: Cathy Dunn
Production Supervisor: Rebecca Deelo
Director of Photography: Peter Deming
First Assistant Director: Mark Frishman
Art Director: Timmy Hills
Costume Designer: Jim Mancusso
Casting, Football Supervisor: Mike Fischer

Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Biff Butler
Executive Producer: Eve Kornblum
Producer: Melanie Gagliano

Postproduction: Company 3
Telecine: Tom Poole
Executive Producer: Tara Dowd
Visual Effects, Flame: Framestore
Executive Producer: James Razzall
Senior Producer: Graham Dunglinson
Visual Effects Supervisor: Alex Thomas
Visual Effects, Comp Supervisor: Sharron Marcussen
Computer Graphics Supervisor: James Dick
Flame Artists: Raul Ortego, Tom Leckie

Sound Design: Trinitite
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich

Sound Mix: Sound Lounge
Mixer: Rob Sayers

Music: Soup Music
Music Composer: Andy Huckvale
Track Name: "Sawtooth"

Thirteen, a PBS station in New York City, continues to insist that its programming is better than the dreck you find elsewhere on cable—by inventing more bogus ads for reality shows that don't exist. Back in May, the NYC office of CHI & Partners rolled out posters for three such shows. And now, it's got three more for your guilty pleasure—Clam Kings, Long Island Landscapers and Meet the Tanners. I'd probably watch all of them, or at least pause, intrigued, on my way up the dial. "The fact you thought this was a real TV show says a lot about the state of TV," the promo say abruptly, just as you're getting drawn in. The tagline is, "Support quality programming," and the campaign is using the hashtag #TVgonewrong.

The only thing scarier than a 12-foot-tall Colin Firth in a British lake is a 40-foot-long dragon skull washed up on a British beach. Beachgoers in Dorset were surprised to come across the latter on Monday—as a skull the size of a London bus suddenly appeared on Charmouth beach, part of Dorset's Jurassic coast, famous for its dinosaur fossils.

Alas, it's not a real dragon skull—it's an ad from movie and TV streaming service BlinkBox, which is celebrating the arrival this week of the third season of HBO's epic Game of Thrones on its site. It took a team of three sculptors more than two months to design, construct and paint the skull, which was dreamed up by Taylor Herring, the same PR company that built the giant Mr. Darcy earlier this summer.

The skull—perhaps the coolest Game of Thrones-related marketing since the dragon-shadow newspaper ad—was inspired by the scene in the series when Arya Stark discovers a dragon skull in the dungeons of King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms.

More images below and here. Via Copyranter.

StockLogos recently suggested that Wendy's sneakily put the word "mom" in the Wendy character's collar in the chain's new logo—to subliminally associate the brand with motherly cooking and the "safe and loving environment" of home. In short, Wendy's says nope. "We are aware of this and find it interesting," Denny Lynch, the company's svp of communications, tells the Huffington Post."We can assure you it was unintentional." That's all well and good … but her hair still looks like a grassy knoll, and I could swear those freckles spell out "Paul is dead," more or less, if you look at the logo while jumping up and down and squinting. Her eyes kind of follow you around, too, all menacing and killy. That's it—I'm switching to Burger King.