Canadian ad agency Lowe Roche and its Toronto car client Pfaff Auto, last seen orchestrating a sneaky/cool direct mail piece for Porsche, are back with another buzzy project. This time, it's a virtual race for a real Audi A4. Contestants can sign up for the race at PfaffTweetRace.com. The first 10 contestants to add 2,500 new Twitter followers will each win a key. One of those keys will unlock the door to the 2013 Audi—the winner gets a year's free lease on the car and a tuning package worth $5,000, courtesy of Pfaff Auto. The 10 key holders will be invited to a gala event at Pfaff Auto, where the winner of the new car will be revealed. "We wanted to engage true car enthusiasts with a contest that was fun and challenging, with a premium prize, in keeping with both our target and the dealership itself," says Sean Ohlenkamp, digital creative director at Lowe Roche. "The simplicity of Twitter as a social media channel appealed to us. We knew we could make the platform work in an interesting way, and increase Pfaff's digital presence at the same time." If you're interested, you'd better hurry. The race began this morning at 8 a.m. EST. But don't worry—the current leader appears to have added just two new followers. (Oh, and it's open only to Ontario residents 25 and over.) Posters and credits after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: Pfaff Auto, Toronto
Campaign: Pfaff Tweet Race
Agency: Lowe Roche, Toronto
Creative Directors: Dave Douglass, Pete Breton
Digital Creative Director: Sean Ohlenkamp
Art Director: J.P. Gravina
Copywriter: Simon Craig
Producer: Kevin Quan
Account Director: Dave Carey
Account Coordinator: Leo Maia
Technical Lead: Tyler Beggs
Developers: Stephen Hobson, Matthew Gates, Michael McLeod

Fashion's not my thing. I own two pairs of pants, both tan corduroys. And I'm hopeless when it comes to Spot the Difference games. As a kid, I'd squint at the image on the left, then the one on the right, perspiration stinging my eyes as I searched for minor variations. I'd always miss some ridiculous detail, like one cow having no udders, or all the people in one picture having two heads. Anyhoo, Louis Vuitton and Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama have joined forces for a new fashion collection, and they're promoting it in window displays and a pop-up store at London's Selfridges with a variation on Spot the Difference. Blogger Bip Ling stars in two 60-second clips draped in Kusama's polka-dot Vuitton fashions while prancing around an artsy set, as bad poetry (also by Kusama) plays on the soundtrack. It's a sendup of the pretentious world of style, I guess. If you can spot five discrepancies between the clips, submit them to @LouisVuitton_UK (with the hashtag #LVKusama) by Sept. 7. to win a copy of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, illustrated by Kusama. Because who wouldn't want one of those, right? After two visits from IT and an assist from AdFreak's summer intern, I managed to get both videos playing in different windows at the same time. Lemme see … Left, right, left, right … Sorry, I tried. To me, they look identical, each as cloying and insufferably tiresome as the other. Second clip, and campaign credits, after the jump.

CREDITS
Production Company: White Lodge
Concept, Director: Ehsan Bhatti
Executive Producer: Stephen Whelan
Producer: Louise Gagen
Production Design: Mikey Hollywood
Styling: Bay Garnett
Hair, Makeup: Katy Nixon
Model: Bip Ling

The lyrics to Eddie Money's 1977 song "Two Tickets to Paradise" sound a lot like a promo for a Club Med sweepstakes. But it's car-insurance brand Geico that dug up the croon-rocker to star in a new spot, part of a cheeky campaign from The Martin Agency meant to illustrate just how gleeful its rates will make you.

The premise: Money would be happiest running a travel agency, where he could, you know, constantly give out tickets to paradise. You could be even happier than that, thanks to the extra money you'll save by switching to Geico car insurance. The reality: Money nails the washed-up bit perhaps too well, with a crazy-eyed, hoarse-voiced performance that stage-whispers buried sadness as much as it screams joy. Strip away the hey-remember-that-guy joke, and it's just a clever one-liner. Money's character in the ad doesn't really want to be a travel agent. He wants you to sit down and shut up while he sings about taking you (or maybe just his hair) on a romantic island getaway.

Earlier spots in the series do a better job of hitting the right tenor. A bodybuilder wears an unimpeachable grin (and not much else) while directing traffic—a funny and insightful visual gag—and old-timey comedian Gallagher gets credibly giddy while doing his trademark watermelon-smashing thing at a farmer's market. A fourth spot goes a more fantastical route, with an amusing but not quite laugh-out-loud scene imagining Christopher Columbus's cackling reaction to modern nautical technology.

That, along with the other spots, honors Geico's longtime and hard-to-contest position that people like saving money—and quirky, chuckle-worthy ads.









CREDITS
Client: Geico
Agency: The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.

Terry Crews, the somewhat lesser known but infinitely louder and more muscle-y Old Spice guy, is back with a raucous new project for the men's care brand—Old Spice Muscle Music. In the Vimeo video below, Terry's muscles are all hooked up to musical devices—snare drums, bass drums, tom-toms, tambourines, guitar, bike horn, woodblock, even a "flame sax" set of three saxophones. When he flexes each muscle, an instrument plays—flex them all furiously, and you get a symphony of muscle-y sound. The video is just one piece—when it finishes, you can use your keyboard to play, and even record, some special Muscle Music of your own. The campaign is a collaboration between Old Spice, Wieden + Kennedy, director Tom Kuntz of MJZ, editing house Mackenzie Cutler, effects specialists The Mill and Vimeo. Credits after the jump.

CREDITS
CLIENT
Old Spice
Project: Old Spice Muscle Music

AGENCY
Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Jason Bagley, Craig Allen
Interactive Creative Director: Matt O’Rourke
Copywriter: Andy Laugenour
Art Director: Max Stinson
Director of Interactive Production: Pierre Wendling
Senior Interactive Producer: Mike Davidson
Account Supervisor: Jordan Muse
Director of Broadcast Production: Ben Grylewicz
Audio Engineer: Charlie Keating
User Experience Designer: Jake Doran
Creative Tech Lead: Billy McDermott
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman
Media Team: Kelly Muller, Kerry Antos, Lisa Feldman

PRODUCTION COMPANY
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Tom Kuntz
Line Producer: Suza Horvat
Executive Producer: Scott Howard
Director of Photography: Chris Soos
Production Designer: Andrew Reznik

EDITORIAL
Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Erik Laroi
Assistant Editor: Brendan Hogan
Producer: Tatiana Vasquez

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisors: Phil Crowe, Nick Tayler
Flame Artists: Tara Demarco, Chris Knight, Sarah Eim, Gareth Parr, Billy Higgins, Glynn Tebbutt
Visual Effects Producer: Ari Davis
2-D Lead: Nick Tayler

MUSIC, SOUND DESIGN
Composer, Sound Design: Daedelus

MEDIA PARTNER
Media Partner: Vimeo
Vice President, Creative Director: Blake Whitman
Production Lead: Abby Morgan
Development Lead: Ryan Hefner
Development Partner: Wildlife

After the fake Mentos commercial we enjoyed yesterday, it's time for the real thing—a new print campaign by The Martin Agency for Mentos Pure Fresh gum. Four new ads have been produced for specific magazines, with their content mirroring that of the publications—with Mentos inserting itself into the otherwise unsavory situations and making the product pitch. "Look, we have gum!" the ads cry. (They "spotlight the juxtaposition between the innocent quirkiness of Mentos and the not-so-innocent content of the ads," the agency tells us.) The ad above will run in Maxim. Three more ads are posted after the jump. "Wardrobe Malfunction" and "Pants" will run in InTouch, People and Us Weekly, while "Streaker" will appear in ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated. Credits also posted after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: Mentos
Agency: The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.
Executive Creative Director: Joe Alexander
Creative Director, Copywriter: Mike Lear
Associate Creative Director, Art Director: Dustin Artz
Senior Art Producer: Cindy Hicks
Executive Print Producer:  Jenny Schoenherr
Senior Strategic Planner: Kevin Rothermel
Senior Account Executive: Stephanie Shaw
Account Executive: Beau Brown
Photographer: Todd Wright
Talent: modelogic [Wilhelmina]
Creative Imaging: Alice Blue

"The playground is open," says Google, and the Nexus 7 is just the toy for kids who want to spend the day outside, presumably sitting by the spiderweb-encrusted jungle gyms and monkey bars, staring unblinkingly at their hi-res, 1280-by-800-pixel, Corning-glass screens.

"Google, how far is Earth to the moon?" the adorable little girl in this new Mullen ad asks her tablet. And despite the scrambled diction of the not yet fully verbal child, a soothing female voice answers her exactly, knowing not merely what she has said but what she means.

Not to be picky, but this little lady is a sight more active than most of the digital-age kids I've met. We have a nephew who throws books across the room because the pictures don't move. If only all kids were like this little spaceship-ready towhead, with her DIY rocket and her instant access to frequently correct Wikipedia explanations of astrophysics.

Oh, fine, it's a cute ad. Director Frederic Planchon has done a great job keeping things looking a little home-video-ish but still composing every shot beautifully. And who doesn't like Curious George? (Kids with tablet computers, that's who!) The messy fort and the astronaut helmet and the cauliflower clouds over the Nexus 7 food-house are terrific, although the whole thing looks a little like a science project you know for a fact your neighbor's kid did not put together all by herself. (Neil Armstrong's death inadvertently makes the ad more poignant, that's for sure.)

Google's advertising for this particular product has been intense—it's given the Nexus 7 a homepage ad today, which happens very rarely, and it's far and away the biggest Google.com placement it's ever given one of its products, with the tablet sticking its attractive head up through a slit "cut" in the page.

Affordable, low-end tablet computers, of course, are not the endgame, even at a company with as much ready cash as Google. With the possible exception of the iPad, many are sold below cost to consumers (I'm including marketing costs here), with the profit coming from the higher-end models (there's an 8GB Nexus 7—that's the $199 version—and a 16GB version, priced higher) that cost roughly the same amount to make but have more processing power.

Now, here's Werner Herzog reading a different Curious George book.



Mullen's previous Nexus 7 spot, from July:


CREDITS
Client: Google
Brand: Google Nexus 7
Spot: "Curious"
Agency: Mullen (San Francisco) + Google
Chief Creative Officer: Mark Wenneker
Group Creative Director: Paul Foulkes
Associate Creative Director/Art: Jeff DaSilva
Associate Creative Director/Copy: Jon Ruby
Copywriter: Jamie Rome
Art Director: Ryan Montgomery
Executive Director of Integrated Production: Liza Near
Executive Producer: Zeke Bowman
Associate Producer: Vera Skuratovsky
Content Creator: Emile Doucette
Strategy: Tara Inskip, Kay Pancheri, Laila Hannallah, Hannah Hewitt
Production Company: Anonymous
Director: Frederic Planchon
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Producer: Paul Ure
DP: Kasper Tuxen / Martin Ruhe
Editorial: ps260
Editor: JJ Lask
Assistant Editors: Ned Borgman / Matt Posey / Colin Reilly
Senior Producer: Laura Lamb Patterson
VFX: Brickyard VFX
Lead VFX Artist: Geoff McAuliffe
Executive Producer: Kirsten Andersen
Music: Squeak E. Clean Productions
Audio Post: Soundtrack
Sound Design/Mixer: Mike Secher

Australian brewer Carlton Draught's long history of stupid-funny advertising continues this week with "Beer Chase," its latest faux-epic spot from Clemenger BBDO. The new :90 is a cops-and-robbers tale that cuts pretty quickly to the chase—although, amusingly, it's one that takes place entirely on foot. (Because what are you going to do, drink and drive?) It's basically the boozer's version of Saturn's famous old "Sheet Metal" spot, backed by an appropriately cheesy '80s anthem. "We used some poetic license with the locations so they would match your expectations of a classic car chase," said Ant Keogh, Clemenger ecd. Carlton Draught's previous hits include a notoriously big ad from 2005 and the slow-motion masterpiece from 2010. Credits after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: Carlton Draught
Spot: "Beer Chase"
Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne, Australia
Creative Chairman: James McGrath
Executive Creative Director: Ant Keogh
Copywriter: Richard Williams
Art Director: Anthony Phillips
Executive Producer: Sonia von Bibra
Production Company: The Sweet Shop
Director: Steve Ayson
Production Company Executive Producer: Wilf Sweetland
Production Company Producer: Cindy Kavanagh
Cinematographer: Greig Fraser
Production Designer: Robbie Freed
Offline Editor: Jack Hutchings, The Butchery
Final Grade: Edel Rafferty, Method
Online Editor: Nicholas Ponzoni, Fin Design & Effects
Sound Design, Music Arrangers: Byron Scullin, Cornel Wilczek
Music Supervision: Karl Richter, Level Two Music
Music Track: Thunder in Your Heart
Planning Director: Michael Derepas
Planner: Sam Mackisack
Managing Partner: Paul McMillan
Account Director: Nick Cohen
Account Manager: Brendan Taylor

Carlton Draught
Chief Marketing Officer: Andy Gibson
General Manager of Marketing: Andrew Meldrum
Senior Brand Manager: Alastair McCausland
Assistant Brand Managers: Kirt Daunt, Laura King

Media Agency: Mediacom
Group Director, Client Communications Planning: Shaun Briggs
Director, Client Communication Planning: Brett Elliot
Client Communication Planner: Michael Bradley

New Zealand, also known as "the Canada of Australia," is famous for a few specific things: sheep, Sauvignon Blanc and as of the last decade, The Lord of the Rings. This year, the first installment of yet another Tolkien book-turned-film, The Hobbit, hits theaters, and New Zealand isn't letting the opportunity to eke out a bit more Middle Earth-inspired tourism go to waste.

Despite its title, "100% Middle-earth," the campaign doesn't just appeal to the ComicCon crowd. In fact, it's not especially Tolkien-esque at all, save for a brief tour of New Zealand's famous Hobbit holes. Rather, the new 60-second spot—from Whybin\TBWA and Curious director Darryl Ward, and narrated by Sir Ian Holm himself (aka, Bilbo Baggins)—attempts to highlight the country's most "magical" aspects. These include the "four-legged creatures that swim," "wizards that turn water into wine" and "metal hawks that soar." Sounds much more enticing than "horses," "vintners" and "helicopters," doesn't it? (The spot is also running in an extended version online that clocks in at more than two minutes.)

So, even if you're more into fine wines and sandy beaches than Gollum and Gandalf, you'll probably find something to enjoy in New Zealand. And if you're one of those die-hard fans who can't wait to see Bilbo hit the big screen this December, go ahead and imagine that those mountain statues are really "protected by gods."





CREDITS
Client: Tourism New Zealand
Agency: Whybin\TBWA, Sydney and Auckland
Executive Creative Director: Andy Blood
Executive Creative Directors: Matty Burton, Dave Bowman (TBWA, Sydney)
Creative Director: Craig Farndale
Digital Creative Director: Ross Howard
Copywriters: Ryan Price, Lucy Morgan, Andy Blood, Tammy Keegan
Art Directors: Cece Chu, Craig Brooks, Andy Blood
Designer: Chris Lewis
Head of Strategy: Hristos Varouhas (TBWA, Sydney)
Senior Planner: Julie McIver
Agency Producer: Jackie Clark
Group Head: Natasja Barclay
Account Director: Mandy Eckford
Senior Account Manager: Julia McKee
Account Executive: Lynlee Smith

TBWA\Digital Arts Network for newzealand.com website:
Creative Director: Mark Zeman
Account Director: Stephanie Creasy
Project Manager: Louise Leitch
Senior Designer: Jonathan Mead
Production Specialists: Andrew Zen, Nigel McHardy
Developers: Sam Kwan, Patrick Li

Production Company: Curious
Director: Darryl Ward
Film Company Producer: Andy Mauger
Film Company Executive Producer: Matt Noonan
Directors of Photography: Lachlan Milne, Darryl Ward
Editor: Tim Mauger
Music Composer, Producer: Dave Whitehead, White Noise Ltd.
Music Engineer, Producer: Mike Gibson, Munki Studios
Audio Post: Digital Post & Factory Studios
Audio Engineer: Clive Broughton
Re-Recording Mixer, Cinema Versions: Mike Hedges, Park Road Post
Colorist: Pete Richie, Toybox
Online: Nigel Mortimer, Curious

Still Photography: Fraser Clements, Match Photography

The attack of the 40-foot hamsters has worked really well for Kia, with the automaker now regularly picking the big screen as the place to debut new ads for the Soul "urban passenger vehicle." This weekend, moviegoers at AMC, Regal and other major multiplexes will get the first peek, before TV viewers do, as Kia's affable rodents time-travel to an 18th century opera house and proceed to get busy. They rock the audience of white-wigged Amadeus extras with some remixed electronica and a dance show. The music in this ongoing campaign, via David&Goliath, is nearly as important and memorable as the pudgy anthropomorphic stars. In this case, it's an Axwell remix of "In My Mind" that sets up an epic hamster stage dive and gets the aristocracy's rumps shaking. (Weren't those guys into the minuet?) Anyway, it's furry good fun. Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Kia Soul
Spot: "Bringing Down the House"

Agency: David & Goliath
Chief Creative Officer: David Angelo
Executive Creative Director: Colin Jeffery
Senior Copywriter: Greg Buri
Senior Art Director: Basil Cowieson
Executive Producer, Managing Director: Carol Lombard
Executive Producer: Paul Albanese
Managing Partner, Client Services: Brian Dunbar
Group Account Director: Brook Dore
Account Director: Justin Manfredi
Account Supervisor: Nancy Ramirez
Director of Strategic Planning: David Measer
Strategic Planner: Steven Garcia

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Carl Erik Rinsch
Director of Photography: John Mathieson
Executive Producer: Kate Leahy
Producer: Margo Mars
Choreographer: Natricia Bernard
Production Design: Petr Kunc
Costume Design: Rebecca Hale
Hair, Wig, Makeup Design: Kirstin Chalmers

Editorial: Cut+Run
Editor: Steve Gandolfi
Managing Director: Michelle Burke
Executive Producer: Carr Schilling
Producer: Christie Price

Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld

Postproduction: Method
Executive Producer: Stephanie Gilgar
Producer: Mike Wigart
Visual Effects Supervisor: Andy Boyd
Visual Effects Coordinator: Marisa Bursteen
Compositing Supervisor, Flame Lead: Patrick Ferguson
Lighting Lead: Brian Burke
Tracking Supervisor: Fabio Zapata
Matchmove Supervisor: Lauren Rogers
Animation: Chris Perkowitz, Matt Hackett, Will Kistler

Music, Sound Design: Musikvergnuegen
Audio Mix: Lime
Mixer: Loren Silber
Executive Producer: Jessica Locke

Using a T-shirt to access the Internet sounds pretty far out to me. C'mon, that's as unlikely as being able to (what's the cool word all the kids use?) surf the Web on a cellular phone or some sort of portable tablet-like device. But the prototype of an Internet-enabled, 100 percent cotton T-shirt does exist, complete with a 1024-pixel LED screen, a headphone jack to share songs from iTunes and a tiny digital camera. London fashion house CuteCircuit, which specializes in futuristic (what's that hip word I'm hearing everywhere?) threads, handled the shirt design as part of the "Leave an Impression" campaign for Ballantine's whisky. In clips produced by Work Club, tshirtOS is touted as the logical digital extension of the classic tee, which is itself described as "the original canvas for personal expression." (That's so true! I've worn only "Keep on Truckin" shirts since '79.) The launch video has almost 500,000 YouTube views in a month, but the follow-up, called "T-Shirt of the Future," with more than 1.3 million views, is the real gem. It follows the sublimely silly, somewhat surreal adventures of two dweebs who take tshirtOS out for a night on the town. It plays like a retro-cyber mashup of Weird Science, Max Headroom and The Young Ones, '80s references I'm sure are instantly familiar to all. (Anthony Michael Hall deserved an Oscar. He was robbed!) Will such a fantastical shirt ever be mass produced? If it is, I'll take an XXL—which isn't my size but my bandwidth preference.

This week, a tablet computer became a child's playground, Eddie Money went from rock 'n' roll to bittersweet, and Jack Bauer executed some moves in the kitchen (presumably after saving the president).

Many of the hundreds of TV commercials aired each day are just blips on the radar, having little impact on the psyche of the American consumer, who is constantly bombarded by advertising messages.

These aren't those commercials. 

Adweek and AdFreak have brought together the most innovative and well-executed spots of the week, commercials that will make you laugh, smile, cry, think—and maybe buy. 

Video Gallery: Top 10 Commercials of the Week

We've written before about how technology marketers like to use conspicuously analog props in their advertising, to give the virtual experiences they're selling more of a tangible reality. Google is the best example of this. But Sony has been doing this quite nicely, as well—most notably in last spring's global stop-motion Xperia spot directed by Wes Anderson.

Now, McCann Worldgroup is back with another tactile, homemade effort for the Xperia tablet. The 60-second spot, called "Frames," is breaking now in global markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Shot all in one take by Partizan director Augustus Punch, it features a long camera pullback through what's clearly a warehouse, back through three giant tablet frames that function as stages for the action. The three frames represent the different experiences that the Xperia offers—surfing the Internet, playing games and watching videos. Actors perform little scenes in each one: A guy takes a photo of a dancer and posts it on Facebook; ninjas play a fruit-slashing game (Fruit Ninja is an actual game, it turns out); and most notably, a '60s astronaut saves a woman from a B-movie monster, as a glowing spaceship descends.

The spot certainly maintains the playful vibe of the Anderson ad, and if it's a bit less on the magical side, it likewise doesn't just relate but embodies the notion of technology meeting imagination. The downside of these kinds of spots is that the viewer first has to figure out what's going on, and then how the metaphor relates to the product. This two-step process is more work than a simple product demo would be—see Apple's early iPhone and iPad work for tech advertising that's heavily skewed toward the latter. But there's a richness in the homemade approach that holds up on repeat viewings, and there's something to be said for somewhat more theatrical ad treatments in the tech space.

The tagline casts the Xperia as "a place for your imagination to play." It's a product that lets the agency play, too.



CREDITS
Client: Sony Xperia
Spot: "Frames"

Agency: McCann Worldgroup
Co-Chief Creative Officers: Tom Murphy, Sean Bryan
Vice President, Group Creative Director: Mat Bisher
Vice President, Senior Art Director: Vi Luong 
Associate Creative Director: Colin Ilsley
Senior Broadcast Producer: Minnie Tran
Vice President, Senior Art Producer: Wendy Leahy
Business Manager: Ken Krausgill
Vice President, Business Partner: Lauren LaValle
Account Supervisor: Michael Tsang

Film:
Production Company: Partizan
Director: Augustus Punch
Editing: Fluid
Visual Effects: Framestore
Senior Vice President, Executive Music Producer: Peter Gannon
Music: Kishi Bashi
Sound Design: Joseph Fraioli
Sound Mix: David Wolfe
Editor: John Piccolo
Visual Effects Artist: Tom Leckie

Print:
Photographer: Hugh Kretschmer
Retouching: Gloss Postproduction

Dodge might not actually be able to travel a thousand years into the future to harness the best technology for its cars, as it pretends to do in this new Dart spot from Wieden + Kennedy. But it is able to achieve something that's somewhat magical in its own right—making a 30-second commercial feel like a :60. A handful of ad campaigns every year find a fresh structure that helps the message really stand out—DirecTV is one this year, and this Dart campaign is another. You would think the rapid-fire visuals and hurried voiceover might be off-putting in a TV landscape that's already busy enough. But the whole thing is witty and playful enough to be consistently entertaining. Plus, it's good to see, in the brief glimpse we are given into the future, that Chuck Norris wasn't right about his thousand years of darkness. (Of course, that could mean Romney wins, which you may or may not find comforting.) See the previous :90, plus full credits for the new spot, after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: Dodge
Spot: "How To Make the Most Hi-Tech Car"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Aaron Allen / Joe Staples / Michael Tabtabai
Copywriter: Matt Rivitz / Justine Armour /Jared Elms
Art Director: Tyler Magnussen / Devin Gillespie
Executive Producer: Corey Bartha
Production Assistant: Kirsten Acheson
Account Team: Thomas Harvey / Lani Reichenbach / Corey Woodson
Executive Creative Directors: Mark Fitzloff / Susan Hoffman
Agency Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Christopher Riggert
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Line Producer: Youree Henley
Director of Photography: Greig Fraser

Editorial Company: Joint Editorial
Editor: Kyle Valenta
Post Producer: Ryan Shanholtzer / Jennifer Giannettoni
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

VFX Company: Method Studios
VFX Supervisor: Ben Walsh
Flame Artist: Claus Hansen / Cary Welton / Thomas Downs
VFX Producer: Ananda Reavis
Executive Producer: Robert Owens

Music+Sound Company: Stimmung
Sound Designer: Gus Koven
Song (if applicable): “No Church in the Wild” by Jay-Z/Kanye West
Producer: Ceinwyn Clark

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Mark Meyuhas
Producer: Jessica Locke

Tom Brady and UGG were always a perfect match, if only because people always muttered the brand name, inadvertently, when they heard he was endorsing it. Still, the pairing doesn't seem as weird as it once did, in the wake of the passable 60-second spot from last year, which was interestingly shot. Now, M&C Saatchi in Los Angeles is back with a new 60-second Brady commercial. In it, the New England Patriots quarterback makes playing football look like nothing—literally so, as he throws an invisible ball around with a kid in an airport. This is one of those ads where you're not really sure what's going on. Is it supposed to be the kid's daydream? If so, that could be made clearer. It's timely, though, given the recent rise of Invisible Obama. (Plus, Brady has been winning a lot of imaginary Super Bowl rings lately.) The agency tells us the kid was a huge Brady fan, but didn't know his idol would be in the ad, so that's cool. After the jump, check out the accompanying print ad, a behind-the-scenes video from the TV set, and a time-lapse video of a giant Brady wall going up at 34th Street and 8th Avenue in New York.

Following a pretty disastrous campaign starring Ashton Kutcher, which was sunk by complaints of racism, Popchips is back with one of the more inoffensive endorsers around: Katy Perry. In four new print ads, she makes a fake-boobs joke, pretends to be a vampire, and generally hams it up in the most bubblegummy way possible. The campaign is by Zambezi in Los Angeles, which apparently dodged responsibility for the Kutcher spots. Three more ads, plus credits, after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: Popchips
Agency: Zambezi, Los Angeles
Founder, Executive Creative Director: Brian Ford
Creative Director: Kevin Buth
Associate Creative Director: Madeleine Grandbois
Photographer: Arthur Belebeau
Chief Executive Officer, Popchips: Keith Belling
Senior Vice President, Marketing, Popchips: Brian Pope

Taylor Swift and Kanye West, whose fracas at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards remains one of the most pathetic incidents in TV history, are reuniting at the 2012 VMAs, which take place tonight—at least in the promotional department. Swift and West are two of five acts anchoring the network's 30-second promos for the show. Postproduction studio Click 3X, led by creative director Mark Szumski, worked with MTV on the spots. "MTV asked the artists to collaborate on the promos specifically in the selection of the imagery," says Szumski. "Once the artists narrowed down what they liked, it was up to Click 3X to then create original content for the holographic mandalas around their heads." Swift and West may not get a chance to reprise their animosity tonight, however—as the rumor is that West has pulled out to be with his girlfriend, Kim Kardashian, at some perfume promotion in New York.

Three more spots, and credits, below.

CREDITS
Client: MTV
Director: Micah Perta
Senior Design Director: Thomas Berger
Copywriter: Paul Wig
Producer: Kris Walter

Postproduction: Click 3X
Executive Producer: Rob Meyers
Creative Director: Mark Szumski
Senior Art Director: Miguel Hernandez
Editor: Jeremy Baumann
Senior Animator: Kuni Chang
Animators: Matt St. Ledger, Adam Yost
Flame Assistant: Liz Berdt

The Grim Reaper is always a solid standby in advertising, and now he gets auto-pomorphized in this new Prestone campaign from The Richards Group in Dallas. In the new spot, the Reaper is an imposing black tow truck, biding his time in his rat-infested hovel for the next stalled engine or ice-covered windshield. Prestone products, the ad says, help drivers cheat the death of their cars by keeping them running in top condition. "The Reaper is humorous, fun work that shines a light on Prestone as the hero of the auto industry," says Chuck Schiller, brand creative at Richards. "It's incredibly relatable to today's consumers and the real threats they face on the road. We're excited to help solidify Prestone's reputation as the leading antifreeze/coolant."



Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Prestone
Spot: "The Reaper"
Agency: The Richards Group
Chief Creative Officer: Stan Richards
Group Creative Director: Chuck Schiller
Art Director: Benji Vega
Copywriter: Andria Kushan
Agency Producer: Peggy Moore
Production Company: Recommended Media
Director: Henry Hobson

Regular viewers of ESPN know John Clayton as a brainiac NFL analyst. In fact, he's a disgusting slacker who never left home. It's amazing what you learn from the "This Is SportsCenter" ads. The spot, which is being hailed as perhaps the best commercial ever by YouTube viewers—i.e., disgusting slackers who actually do live at home—was done by Wieden + Kennedy in New York.
     UPDATE: "This spot gives viewers a chance to peek behind the curtain," Clayton says in a statement. "I'm glad we're finally able to end the speculation and focus on what looks to be a fantastic NFL season." The ad will make its TV debut this Monday during ESPN's Monday Night Football double-header season opener.

Whether it was a rusty old clunker or a shiny new convertible, everyone has a special place in their heart for their first car. (I'm still convinced that Saab is the greatest automaker in existence, bankruptcy be damned.) Now, Honda, not a particularly nostalgia-inducing name in the automobile world, is trying to tap into that "first car" sentiment by taking us back through the brand's history.

In addition to a Facebook page, Pinterest board and hashtag encouraging people to get wistful about their #FirstHonda, the company has produced the spot below from ad agency RPA, which tells the heartwarming story of one particularly Honda-obsessed man: California resident Tim Mings. His first car was a Honda N600, the first model the company produced for the U.S. market. His love of that funny-looking little vehicle led to a hobby, and eventually a career, restoring old N600s. His crowning achievement as a Honda aficionado came when he located and purchased N600 serial No. 1—the very first Honda imported into the U.S. in 1969.

Listening to Mings wax poetic about the N600, like other car geeks would about an old Chevy or Ford, somehow makes the brand seem a little less foreign and a little more warm and fuzzy. And while the generic-looking, modern-day Honda line probably won't make anyone say "awww," you can't deny the 1969 N600 was pretty damn cute.

But who knows. Someday, you might be getting teary-eyed about your 2010 Civic.



CREDITS
Client: Honda
Agency: RPA, Santa Monica, Calif.
Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer: Joe Baratelli
Senior Vice President, Group Creative Director: Jason Sperling
Vice President, Creative Social Media Director: J. Barbush
Vice President, Associate Creative Director, Art: Luis Ramirez
Social Media Writer: Jenaca Holmes
Intern: Randall Head
Agency Executive Producer: Gary Paticoff
Agency Senior Producer: Mark Tripp

Director: Mark Tripp
Director of Photography: Stephen Carmona

Editorial: Butcher
Editor: Teddy Gersten
Executive Producer: Rob Van
Color: Zac Dych

Music: Beacon Street Studios
Mixer: Paul Hurtubise

It can be difficult for brands to know how—and how often—to respond to people on Twitter. Some limit their interactions to pressing customer-service needs. Others reply enthusiastically (if sporadically) to praise, while ignoring criticism. Some don't bother replying at all. Australian brewer Carlton Draught seems to have come up with a pretty sound, if somewhat daunting, position on the matter for its @CarltonDraught account: Respond to absolutely everyone, and try to be as friendly and personal as possible about it. This is a decent strategy that the brand seems to have followed for more than a year. But it's gotten tougher of late, as the @ mentions have been pouring in following the YouTube success of the brand's epic new "Beer Chase" commercial below (which some are calling the best beer ad of the year, if not the decade). Things have slowed down since last week, but in the first few days, the brand responded to literally hundreds of messages per day, almost always personalizing it with some sort of quip, and frequently signing off with an amiable "Cheers." This surely goes over well with its target, but is it worth the effort—particularly as the volume becomes unmanagable? How do your brands handle @ replies?