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Leo Burnett Invents Temporary Tattoos that Scan Like QR Codes

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At international tourism expos, competition to attract attention from foreign tourists is high—and most vendors still rely on flyers to get the message across.

So, the Tourism Authority of Thailand came up with a different way to ensure people walked away remembering them: The Tattoo Flyer, a series of temporary tattoos in a variety of styles that can be scanned like a QR code.



The Sailor Jerry-style tattoos were created with different personalities in mind—sophisticated, creative, street-style—so anyone could find something they liked. When scanned, they drive users to a series of videos that promote different aspects of Thailand.

Created by Leo Burnett, the campaign went live at the CITM Shanghai Expo in Thailand and, the agency claims, is responsible for a 42 percent rise in Chinese tourism directly after the expo. Tattoo flyers will be rolling out at other tourism expos in the year to come.


These Wrecked Toy Cars Found in Cereal Boxes Send a Sobering Drunk-Driving Message

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It's always so much fun to get a little toy inside your cereal box! Until that toy is a mangled vehicle reminding you of the dangers of drunk driving.

Canadian agency Rethink pulled off a clever stunt for advocacy group Arrive Alive on Ontario college campuses. It handed out free samples of Arrowhead Mills cereal to students with an unpleasant surprise inside—little wrecked cars, seemingly from accident scenes.



The stunt was timed to breakfast because of one key piece of data: In fact, it can take up to 12 hours after your last drink to reach zero blood alcohol level. In other words, just because you slept, doesn't mean you're sober.

It's a pretty simple message that doesn't take a decoder ring to figure out. There's also something nice about targeting college students with a child's toy—with the implicit suggestion that they're still kids in many ways, and probably not as responsible as they think.

Check out more images from the campaign below.

Ad of the Day: Rob Lowe Brings His A-Game in These Funny Ads for Fox NFL Sunday

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Rob Lowe is no longer playing lesser, cable-cursed versions of himself to for DirecTV. But he does star in a spate of fun new promos for Fox NFL Sunday, his brand of choice for watching football. Both now and in the future. Potentially as a hologram.

In one of the ads, Lowe riffs on the origin of the Fox NFL Sunday theme, which was supposedly composed by one Ed Vogel, who works in the network's accounting department. "Hold on to your dreams—and your day job," Lowe tells the viewer. (Pretty solid advice.)



In another spot, Lowe activates a hologram of 69-year-old New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin. After admiring his distinct look, Lowe wonders how he'll look at that age, then conjures up a hologram of himself—gray along the temples and seductively simpering in a bomber jacket that brings to mind Top Gun (in other words, he'll look better than Coughlin, probably because Lowe's job is to be pretty and charming ... and Coughlin's job is to yell at football players all day long).



In short, the more absurd the spots get, the better they are. (Hank Perlman at Hungry Man directed the series.) Lowe's musings on the maximum altitude of eagles is a particular highlight. Other clips include nods to the Cowboys and Fox Sports' robot mascot Cleatus, who will presumably outlast Coughlin and Lowe both, barring excess exposure to salt.



Not coincidentally, Lowe also stars in the new Fox comedy The Grinder, which premiered Tuesday.

CREDITS
Client: Fox Sports
EVP, Head of Marketing: Robert Gottlieb
SVP, On-Air Promotions: Bill Battin
VP, Production: Keith Hritz
VP, Creative: Blake Danforth
Creative Director: Josh Nichols
Producer: Lily Lam Ma
Ads: "Eagles Jets," "Sleep," "Theme Music"
Agency/Production Company: Hungry Man
Writers: Allan Broce, Hank Perlman, Loren Tarquino
Producer: Allan Broce
Director: Hank Perlman
Line Producer: Caleb Dewart
Director of Photography: Eric Steelberg
Production Designer: Paul McConnell
Editorial: Beast
Editor: Paul Norling
Producer: Mary Stasilli
Executive Producer:  Astrid Downs
Color:  Bob Cespa CO3
VFX: Method
Executive Producer.: Stephanie Gilgar,
VFX Supervisor: Vernon Wilbert
Music: NFL Films

Doritos Is About to Try a 12-Hour-Long Periscope, and It Should Be Quite Smashing

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Doritos on Thursday will introduce Canada to Doritos Collisions, featuring two types of chips in the same bag—at first, habanero and guacamole. To celebrate, BBDO Toronto has planned a mammoth, 12-hour Periscope broadcast in which all kinds of other collisions will occur—as objects will be fired at each other from cannons, with hilarity surely ensuing.

What kinds of objects? Marbles and porcelain plates. A pie and a baseball. Rubber chickens and a bowling ball. The public is being invited to vote on Twitter for which objects they'd like to see subjected to a cannon-off. At noon ET on Thursday, the Periscope will begin, with the top 12 fan-selected pairings being live-streamed every hour, on the hour.

Videographer Shin Sugino will capture the action, and the videos will be posted later in slow motion on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Look for the Periscope link on Doritos Canada's Twitter page on Thursday.

Keystone Light Hired Chuck Testa to Shoot a Commercial, and It Went Horribly

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You remember Chuck Testa—the California taxidermist who became famous after Rhett & Link made a ludicrous local commercial for his business in 2011 (the spot ended up getting 16 million views). We haven't seen much of Chuck in the past few years, but now he's finally resurfaced—in a comical campaign for Keystone Light.

The beer is launching a campaign timed to hunting season called "The Hunt for the Great White Stone," which features a scavenger hunt of sorts involving special Keystone Light cans. To promote it, agency Olson Engage approached Testa—a specialist in dead animals if ever there was one—to do a commercial. But instead, they ended up producing a faux behind-the-scenes video in which Chuck proves comically inept on set as a spokesman.



"Our partnership with Chuck Testa started out of a desire to create a pretty simple commercial," Franco Davis, the fictitious director of the fictitious Keystone Light spot, said in a nonfictitious statement. "While that did not go even remotely according to plan, what we got was still something pretty special … I suppose."

"I'm so excited to be working with Keystone Light," added Testa. "The commercial shoot went great. Not the biggest fan of the director Franco, and neither were the animals, but I think we got something real special for Keystone Light."



The packaging stunt is pretty interesting. The Great White Stone is an elusive white can hiding in select orange multipacks of Keystone Light from September through November. Fans who find the special cans are encouraged to stack standard orange hunting cans and those featuring white antlers on top of it—to create a mount—and post a photo of it to Keystone Light's Facebook page.

Below, check out the original Rhett & Link spot with Testa.

Samsung Is Sending One Person to a Tibetan Monastery for 100 Days to Watch TV in Peace

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Hey, monks, keep that chanting down, I'm trying to watch Empire!

As if binge-watching your favorite TV show weren't enough of a religious experience, Samsung is taking it to new heights with a promotion called "The Catch-up Grant." Devised by DDB Stockholm, it will send one lucky winner to Thiksey, a Tibetan monastery in the Himalayas, more than two miles above ground, where he or she will get to watch TV for 100 days on Samsung's new SUHD with a 65-inch curved screen. (There's also a stipend, and the residency begins in November.)



"We thought it'd be fun if you would get paid for watching TV, just like a job, for a full year," DDB creative director Daniel Mencák tells AdFreak. "But we realized people would just do other stuff, so then we decided it would have to be at a place where you would do nothing else. And where the worldly distractions would be far, far away."

The competition is open only to folks from Nordic nations, and it runs through Oct. 4. Eight finalists will be chosen based on video submissions about how much trouble they're having keeping up with all the great TV out there. The final round in Stockholm will include lie-detector tests to determine if applicants really have been missing their favorite shows.

There will also be eye exams—for corrective lenses, if necessary—to ensure the winner can enjoy the Samsung SUHD's picture quality in all its 4K glory. But mostly participants will answer questions and a client-agency jury will make the final selection. Naturally, DDB will document the proceedings, including the mountaintop stay, so the whole world can binge-watch the binge-watching at their leisure.



Why a monastery? Mencák says other lonely locations were considered—Siberia, a lighthouse, even a maximum security prison—but "all of them lacked the spiritual part that the Tibetan monastery had." (Hmm, the prison has possibilities. Especially for catching up on Orange is the New Black or revisiting Oz.)

"The grantee will be able to watch whatever," Mencák says. Maybe the monks would enjoy catching up on Monk, now that it's been off the USA Network for a while. For me, nothing could beat watching all nine seasons of Family Matters over and over for 100 days straight.

Advice for the winner: Stock up on binge-worthy snacks ahead of time. Otherwise, if you run out of chips, dip and cocktail wieners, you'll have to trek 11,800 feet down a mountain to the bodega and back up again.

CREDITS
Brand: Samsung
Clients: Henrik Lethagen, Marketing Manager CE; Pernilla Viberg Category Marketing Manager CE
Agency: DDB Stockholm
Creative: Daniel Mencák
Business Director: Jessica Morales
Account Director: Rebecca Jerndahl Tepavac
Account Managers: Ulrica Carlsson, Ulrika Sörensen
Planner: Patrick Wilkorsz
Digital Designer: Erik Sigblad
Digital Designer: Martin Ruben
Digital Director: Andreas Fabbe
Digital Account Director: Katarina Mohlin
Graphic Designers: Tor Westerlund, Sebastian Reinbring, Steven McDonald
Digital Production Company: Acne Production
Production Company: Mastiff
Director: Brennan Stasievicz
Executive Producer: Kristian Beer
Producer: Mats Olsson
Photographer: Adam Uhl
PR Agency: Wenderfalck 

If You Can't Leave Your Agency Job at Night, at Least Get Yourself a Proper Desk-Bed

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Everyone knows that ad people, along with other white-collar employees everywhere, are working longer hours and losing productivity to fatigue. But what's the solution?

Some have suggested letting them go home at day's end to sleep in real beds like adult human beings with dignity. But clearly the real answer is actually NL Studio's nap desk.

It's no secret that naps improve alertness, motor function and problem-solving skills. NL Studio designed a convertible work desk with a cot at the bottom. It's a sleek, modern piece of furniture, made from solid and lacquered wood, white leather and metal, and it's probably more comfortable than a roll-out or Murphy bed.

What it represents about work creeping into more and more of the average employee's personal life is much less comfortable. Similar products already exist in the tech industry, where "work as a lifestyle" has caught on (consider Google, whose offices are outfitted with resting pods, among other relaxation tools).

I can see ad agencies falling into this trap, too, but hopefully at least they'll spring for the NL Studio desk instead of whatever the hell this thing is.

Via PSFK.

Even Zombies Find Sexually Transmitted Diseases Horrifying, Particularly in Omaha

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Omaha, Nebraska, trends curiously high for STD rates. So, to lower instances of infection, Get Checked Omaha is doing its part to get people more interested in sexual health with videos like the new "STD Zombie."

Check it out here:



Yes, a rampaging zombie refuses to eat a local woman until she gets tested.

Are we weird for noticing the gender situation here before anything else? Is it possible to mansplain after death? Anyway, while we've been sick of zombies for years now, this video admittedly uses them well. They're a relevant comparison to STDs, and really, STDs are probably worse. You can kill a zombie as long as you have bullets, crossbow or sword. Herpes is much more stubborn.

Serve Marketing has done plenty of work in this area before, including a series of gnarly billboards in Omaha.

CREDITS
Agency: Serve Marketing
Creative Director: Gary Mueller
Director: Michael McCourt
Copywriter: Evan Stremke
Editor: John Elmendorf (Wonder Wonder)
Music + SFX: Peter Batchelder (Independent Studios)
Producer: Terri Burmester
Account Executive: Heidi Halperin


How 2 Creatives Made It Easier for English Speakers to Pronounce São Paulo's Street Names

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Worried about how you'll get around on your next trip to Brazil?

Seeing how much trouble tourists have pronouncing Portuguese street names—which is crucial even in major cities like São Paulo, where just 15 percent of taxi drivers understand English—a creative team from two separate agencies came up with "Universal Signs."

Isobar copywriter Mariana Albuquerque and Publicis art director Leandro Amaral affixed stickers to street signs indicating how to pronounce them, more or less phonetically. If you still aren't sure, you can scan the QR code to hear an automated voice do it.



The voice draws from Google Translate, which isn't great at capturing all the nuances of language. So the team "taught" the app to do it properly, by spelling the word in ways that force the automated voice to enunciate like a Brazilian. (Because how else are you ever going to learn how to say "Jabacoara"?)

The full explanatory video appears below.

This Sexy Bra Ad Got 16 Million Views, but Not for the Reasons You'd Expect (SFW)

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The element of surprise is always useful in advertising storytelling, and this Thai commercial for Wacoal Mood bras certainly brings the unexpected—which has helped the spot tally almost 16 million views on YouTube.



The spot, from Bangkok agency CJ WORX, was actually made a couple of years ago, and ad blogs like Ads of the World posted it back then. But it's making the rounds again this week, and still getting a pretty polarized reaction in the YouTube comments.

CREDITS
Client: Wacoal Mood
Agency: CJ WORX, Bangkok, Thailand
Executive Creative Director: Saharath Sawadatikom
Creative Director: Chutima Sriaranyakul
Copywriters: Kritkhanin Sornchan, Soranut Papungkornkit
Production: Songmue Productions

David Droga and Lorraine Twohill Talk Mobile, VR and Logos That Don't Make You Vomit

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David Droga and Lorraine Twohill had plenty to say about mobile marketing and the advent of virtual reality at their Advertising Week session Wednesday. But first they discussed Google's logo redesign—which Twohill helped to oversee as svp of global marketing—and how it turned into a more taxing experience than she'd expected.

Flipping a switch to have the new logo roll out globally all on the same day turned out to be a more complex task than anticipated for the engineers. But even more worrying, Twohill said, was whether the public would embrace the new mark.

"When you work on something like that for months, you're just petrified and terrified," she said. "Even though a logo feels like a small thing, it's actually a very big deal, because this is a very loved brand. And logo changes don't necessarily always land very well. So, we were petrified that the world was just going to universally vomit when we put this thing out there. Thankfully, they didn't. We got a very nice response. We lived through it and survived, but it was stressful."

"I like that that was the benchmark. Did the world vomit or not? Job done," added Droga, whose agency, Droga5, has worked with Google on advertising for many of its brands, including Android.

For those who don't like the tilted "e" in the new logo (The New Yorker grumbled that the letter appears to be "showboating"), you can blame Ryan Germick, the leader of the Google Doodle team.

"There was a lot of angst internally about changing this logo," said Twohill. "Ryan wrote to us and said, 'Could you at the very least tilt the 'e,' so it's smiling?' So, that's Ryan's 'e.' "

Droga, meanwhile, said he loved the new logo (not surprisingly, perhaps, as Twohill is, after all, his client). "I feel like the coolest guy you know just discovered a tailored suit," he said.



With the logo love out of the way, the pair moved to the topic of mobile advertising—in Google's case, its campaign to get people to use its mobile app; and in Droga5's case, how to create compelling advertising in the medium.

One of Google's biggest tasks has been getting iPhone users (i.e., those not on Android) to not only download the Google app but also to use it regularly.

"We used to be good at marketing a URL. We've had to become extremely good at marketing apps," said Twohill. "Now, in my search campaign, over 40 percent of my spend is mobile advertising. Not digital, just mobile—to reach people when they're on their iPhones and encourage them to not only download the app but then go back in and use it."

Still, mobile spend alone wasn't enough.

"When we did mobile advertising, people would download the app," she said. "But when we turned on all the other assets of digital marketing plus offline, a combination of integrated marketing, that got them to not only download but go back into the app and engage with the app—because we were showing them ways to use it."

Droga said that for creative agencies, mobile is less about the content or the canvas, and more about the context.

"It's a bit of a reeducation," he said. "We always think about things in glorious canvases, on big screens. But as consumers, we consume most of it in our palms. You can't be too subtle in it. We talk a lot about context. We're an industry obsessed with the storytelling side of things, the content. And then we got obsessed with the canvas. Is it going to be on television? Is it print? And now the canvas is mobile. But what we really need to think about is the context. The context is where and when the person is consuming it—location, time of day. We're an industry that used to celebrate the fact that we created this thing. And now, what happens to it and where it is in the environment is as much about the idea as possible."

Also, the personal nature of it is promising but perilous, Droga added.

"The more personal it is, the more our industry and brands run to it because we think we've got this captive audience," he said. "But what was offensive online is even more offensive in your hand. That's why we have to be tactical about it. How do we make it more rewarding? How do we show some restraint?"

Droga5 and Google have worked together for years, and have learned plenty from each other, the two executives said.

Droga has admired Google's nimble creativity and speed to market. (Twohill said the company hires "athletes" to make this happen, and is much more comfortable these days rolling out things like Google Doodles that respond to breaking news—e.g., the water-on-Mars doodle this past week.) Meanwhile, Google—which was starting down this path already—has learned from Droga to even more fully embrace emotion is its advertising.

"That's been a journey for us, too, frankly," Twohil said. "We used to create very rational stuff outlining the key features of a product. Often the product manager would be in the ad. But it didn't make people feel anything. We've thought about that a lot."

As evidence, Twohill showed Droga5's "Friends Furever" spot for Android, with the found footage of different animals playing together, which was a huge hit—at almost 20 million YouTube views.



"Your natural desire is to create something from scratch," said Droga. "But this spot probably created more love in my household than anything I've ever created. It was a challenge to the way we create things. It was found footage that we put the strategy around. And I was always the one standing up and rallying against UGC, to be honest."

Droga also discussed Under Armour, and how his agency—in addition to the celebrated TV spots—has used technology in interesting ways for that client, including a shoelace customizer online.

"If someone is giving a shit about a shoelace, that might be a better media spend and a more impactful message than a 60-second television ad," Droga said. "And I don't have an allergy to TV ads. I love great television. But think about what they're getting out of it. We're only scratching the surface, our industry. If we can find our storytelling in more complimentary ways with the technology, I think it's just going to get better and better."

That was a segue into the next hugely promising intersection of content, canvas and context—how brands will use virtual reality.

Twohill spoke on the subject first, and discussed Google's recently launched "Expeditions" program, which brings the Google Cardboard VR kit to schools, and allows students take VR field trips to exotic places without ever leaving the classroom.



Droga agreed the sky's the limit for VR, even if its applications for brands are still unclear.

"It's unbelievable," he said. "No one's cracked it yet as far as how we're doing to do it beyond a tactical thing or a cynical use of it. But I'm obsessed with getting this right. A friend of mine made me watch something recently on Vrse.works. If you've seen it, it's unbelievable. I cried. I literally cried. All is was was showing a refugee camp in Syria. And I'd never seen it like that. … I don't have the code for how we're going to do it, but it makes me so excited."

Finally, Twohill revealed that Droga5 has pitched a VR idea to Google. "Maybe we'll be up here showing it to you this time next year," she said. "It's going to happen."

JetBlue Told New Yorkers to Steal Its Bus-Shelter Ads, and Rewarded Them for It

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Steal this ad. No really, it's fine. No one will yell, "Stop, thief!" And even if they do, you're in the clear.

More than 100 New Yorkers recently took jetBlue up on its offer of free flights and other swag by ripping off 181 bus shelter ads across the five boroughs. They were right there in plain sight—all you had to do was deface public property to get them (though no glass-shattering was required).



It's tough to be discreet with a poster-sized coupon tucked under your arm, but the locals didn't seem to care. And for their boldness, they received round-trip flight vouchers, tickets to New York Jets and Brooklyn Nets games, and free scoops from Blue Marble Ice Cream.

The brand plans to repeat the two-day stunt, designed by agency Mullen Lowe, next week under the hashtag #NYCTakeoff. Some nattily dressed flight attendants might even pop up to congratulate winners before sending them off with a chipper "Buh-bye now!"

CREDITS
Client: JetBlue Airways
Title: #NYCTakeoff
Agency: Mullen Lowe

Creative
Chief Creative Officer: Mark Wenneker
Executive Creative Director: Tim Vaccarino
Executive Creative Director: Dave Weist
VP, Creative Director: Enrique Camacho
VP, Associate Creative Director: Pete Shamon
Associate Creative Director/Technologist: Joe Palasek
Senior Art Director: Pier Madonia
Art Director: Lisa Della Piana
Sarah Schmid: Copywriter
Designer: Han Na Jung
Designer: Alyssa Cavanaugh
Designer: Tony Frusciante

Production
Production Supervisor: Kristine Ring-Janicki
Content Producer: Eric Skvirsky
Editor and Videographer: Nick Brecken
Assistant Editor and Videographer: Jake Stafford
Project Manager: Molly McKeown

Account Management
SVP, Group Account Director: Drayton Martin
VP, Account Director: Meredith Frisco
Senior Account Executive: Vishal Chandawarkar

Copy Editing
Copy Editing Manager: Ashley Rumery

Strategy
Strategic Planning Director: Ellie Gogan-Tilstone
Senior Brand Strategist: Sloane Beaver

Media
SVP, Group Digital Director: Jade Watts
Media Supervisor: Kelly McGowan
Media Planner: Lauren Meyers

PR/Social
SVP, Account Director PR: Jaclyn Ruelle
Account Director PR: Megan Oxland
Assistant Account Executive PR: Kelsey Labrot

Ad of the Day: Pro Jason Belmonte Crushes This Bowling Ad With Amusing Trick Shots

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Bowlmor AMF literally bowls over the competition in this amusing spot from New York agency Concept Farm, starring pro Jason Belmonte, who targets your alternate Saturday night plans and smashes them to bits.

Belmonte is known in part for his skill at trick shots, and they come in handy here. The spot—from directors Ben/Dave (Ben Hurst and Dave Thomas)—is styled as an infomercial, with Belmonte performing never-before-seen trick shots in front of a live audience. Set up on the bowling lane are typical Saturday night scenes—a bar, a restaurant, a nightclub—which Belmonte bowls right through, to cheers from the crowd.



Bowlmor AMF, the largest operator of bowling centers in the world, is targeting millennials with this campaign. Its previous campaign was the first national advertising campaign for a bowling center brand in over 40 years. This one carries the simple message that you don't have to do the same mundane things every Saturday—that you can break your routine for a fun night of bowling.

"The shoot was wild, to say the least," vp of marketing Colie Edison told Adweek. "When the directors saw the boards, they said, 'We've never seen that before.' We knew that was a good sign."

The shoot wasn't without its risks. "Everyone knew that a bowling ball at that speed could easily shatter an ankle," said Edison. "Then came the moment of truth when everything was in place and Jason had to throw … and remember, the goal was to not just crush the scene but to hit a strike. It was then Jason got into the zone, focused and delivered."

Concept Farm had worked with Belmonte before on an ESPN project. "So we knew he was not only skilled on the lanes, but quite comfortable and engaging on camera," said Edison. "We were planning and 'pre-producing' over six months prior to the shoot itself. He had to help us understand what he could physically do with the ball in order to for us to push the boundaries on the creativity and difficulty of the tricks. … Jason was completely involved in the creative process, up for anything, and actually made the tricks harder for himself in some ways. We had to factor in the speed, rotation and trajectory of Jason's throw along with the oil pattern on the lane."

This new creative is part of a three-year, overarching brand campaign that aims to establish Saturday night as "Bowling Night in America."

The new campaign will span TV and digital, including ESPN and Bravo as well as Hulu and YouTube. The campaign launches today, and spots will air throughout the fall in both 30- and 60-second units.

This Very Scientific Ad for a Water-Filtering Faucet Vows to Remove Little Jobbies From Your Wawa

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Ads for water-filtering technology always get so serious with their scientific demos, putting the viewer to sleep in the process. But here's one for Pfister's Clarify faucet, with Xtract Filter Mode by GE, that actually proves to be quite amusing—by making fun of the category's typical jargony mumbo-jumbo. Fun work from Nurture Digital.



CREDITS
Client: Pfister
Co-branding with: General Electric
Agency/Production Co.: Nurture Digital, Culver City, Calif.
Creative Director: Nick Lange
Art Director: J.C. Molina
Copywriter/Director: Nate Smith
Producer: Val Chepurny
D.P.: Topher Osborn
Production Manager: Jazmine Rodriguez
Production Coordinator: John Sabbatelli
Location Sound Mixer: Eric Bautista
Post Supervisor: Liam White
Editor: Oscar Fernandez-Baca
Animator: David Ortuno
Engineer: Thomas Boykin
Color Correction: Deluxe, Burbank, Calif.
Colorist: Kelly Reese
Media Agency: Chango, Toronto

Here's Another Hilarious Ad That Tries to Get People in Denmark to Have More Sex

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Danish travel agency Spies Travel is once again trying to convince the country's citizens to have more sex—by taking more trips. (Traveling, you see, makes couples more intimate, according to research.) But while the company's memorable 2014 ad had a patriotic theme—urging Danes to travel, and thus have more sex, and thus have more babies, and thus boost the country's low birth rate—the amusing new spot takes a different approach.

Instead of "Do it for Denmark," the new rallying cry is "Do it for Mom."

The whole premise is a bit convoluted and pretzel-like, but the two-and-a-half-minute spot explains it pretty well—in a fun, comedic visual style. And it has a very clear call to action: Moms who want their grown children to have babies can take advantage of the "Spies Parent Purchase" and send their child on an active holiday—so they can finally have the grandchild they've always wanted.



CREDITS
Client: Spies Travel
Agency: Robert/Boisen & Like-minded, Denmark
Strategist: Søren Christensen
Creative Director: Heinrich Vejlgaard
Art Director: René Sohn Kammersgaard
Account Manager: Gitte Andersen
Film production: Gobsmack Productions
Producers: Christina Bostofte Erritzøe, Cille Silverwood-Cope
Director: Niels Nørløv
DOP: Bastian Schiøtt
Editor: Simon Borch
Visual Effects: Magnús Sveinn Jónsson
Sound design: Lars Bo Kjær / AudioLounge
Creative Director: Joakim Norman
Interactive Developer: Ramiro Espada
Project Manager: Jakob Elm
Nordic Account Manager: Rasmus Mikkelsen
Account Director: Mads Bech Larsen
Consultant: Cecilie Valentin


David Beckham Stars in a Sweeping, Surrealist, Fellini-Inspired Short Film for Belstaff

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Brit clothing brand Belstaff partnered with LEGS director Geremy Jasper to bring us "Outlaws," a lush 15-minute epic-for-the-web featuring David Beckham, Katherine Waterston, Cathy Moriarty and Harvey Keitel.

Richly produced, the tragic and surrealist romance mixes Spanish and English, black-and-white with color, 1950s Mexico with a modern-day lone wolf (Beckham), and circus performers with biker gangs.



Beckham, whom Jasper says was involved from the beginning, stars as our Mysterious Drifter. Haunted by the readings of a blind Tarot card reader, he motors across the desert as a gang of bounty hunters gives chase. He eventually finds himself in an all-night cinema, which is playing a Fellini-style film about a beautiful trapeze artist (Waterson). In a surrealist twist, Beckham discovers he is also in the film, as her love interest and savior.

(It is not mentioned whether the intermission also screened Beckham's H&M underwear ad, where he's also on the run, for different reasons, and which embarrassed him so much he had to leave the room when it aired during the Super Bowl. The bounty hunters would've had him then!)



Art follows reality: The two end up on the run, with the megalomaniacal circus master (Keitel) sending bikers after them, wedding the movie's end to this short film's beginning. 

"Harvey… goddamn," Jasper says of Keitel's involvement. "I couldn't believe it. He was interested in the world I was trying to create and could not have been more of a mentor for me. To collaborate with someone like Harvey Keitel, who is a true blue hero, is something I can't put into words."



Before the credits roll, our hero briefly reunites with his love interest—sans sad-clown makeup—in the real world. She is modernized and, judging by the jut of her jaw and sassy new lipstick, life-hardened.

The conclusion shouldn't come as a surprise for those who know the genre. Or you can take a cue from the narrator: "The Outlaw knows no home. He haunts the highways like a Leather Ghost. Waiting for her to return. In vain."

"I was knocked out by Katherine Waterston's performance in Inherent Vice and had to get her for the trapeze artist," said Jasper. "We got lucky because she responded to the whole vision."

The film is packed with winks to a diversity of influences: Gritty, drama-saturated old Westerns, La Strada by Fellini, and, of course, Freaks by Tod Browning. If you're an American Horror Story fan, the Freak Show season will resonate especially; its vibe has that same sinister, old-meets-new approach to the enigmatic world of traveling circuses. And we're pretty sure Conchita Wurst inspired the lounge singer (shown below). They've got that same sultry sadness going on—complete with beard!



"For me, it's a very personal film, and I've been waiting more than a decade to be able to tell this kind of story with this kind of visual style," Jasper says. "Belstaff were looking to make a short film starring David, and they loved the story, so they joined forces with LEGS and supported me wholeheartedly in what I wanted to do creatively."

LEGS co-founder Adam Joseph—who also serves as managing director and executive producer for "Outlaws"—added: "Across everything LEGS does, there's a consistent combination of the classic and the avant-garde at play that keeps pushing us all forward." 

Check "Outlaws" out below. It's also featured on Belstaff's website, where the brand is offering behind-the-scenes glimpses of the film premiere, and the chance to win one of three signed leather jackets worn in the film.



CREDITS
Production Company: LEGS Media
Director: Geremy Jasper
Executive Producers: Adam Joseph, Tom Berendsen
Creative Director (LEGS): Geremy & Georgie
Producer: Paul Laurens
Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor : JD Smyth
VFX Company: Significant Others
VFX supervisor - Dirk Greene
Color: Color Collective
Colorist: Alex Bickle
DP: Michael Ragen
Original Music (LEGS): Geremy Jasper & Jason Binnick

Wes Anderson Meets the Addams Family in This Beautifully Crazy Ad for an Optician

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You've never seen an optician ad that's anywhere near as wild as this one.

Washington, D.C., agency Design Army created the spot for Georgetown Optician, and it's just a crazy mix of wry humor, gorgeously weird design and loopy narrative. The inspiration is clearly Wes Anderson, with some Addams Family thrown in—just in time for Halloween!



Design Army generated the concept and storyboard, cast the actors and voiceover talent, provided direction for costuming, designed the set and built the props, and oversaw everything from video style to postproduction color grading. There are also print ads showcasing the quirky characters.

The agency says the goal of the campaign is to give Georgetown Optician "a uniquely creative, ownable feel—with shareable original content—that helps the company position itself as an arbiter of style and taste."

Print work and credits below.



CREDITS
Client: Georgetown Optician
Agency: Design Army
Chief Creative Officer & Creative Director: Pum Lefebure
Creative Director: Jake Lefebure
Art Director: Mariela Hsu
Art Director: Sucha Becky
Editorial Director: Holly E. Thomas
Designer: Gabriela Hernandez
Copywriter: Mark Welsh
Production Coordinator: Margaret Wedgwood

Director & Cinematographer: Dean Alexander
Editor: David Grossbach
Color Grading: CVLT NYC
Assistant Camera: Jonny Myer
Digital Tech: Andrew Becker
Gaffer: Mark Hutchinson
Key Grip : Eddie Homan
Grip/Electric: Jason Hubert
Grip PA: Jenna Richardson

Hair & Makeup: Dale Johnson
Hair & Makeup Assistant/Manicurist: Holly Burnham
Wardrobe Styling: Michelle Onofrio
Wardrobe Stylist Assistant: Sophia Rubsamen

Actor - Dad: Larry Campbell
Actor - Teen Daughter: Hallie Hutchinson
Actor - Teen Son: David James
Actor - Young Son: Gage Gunderson
Actor - Young Daughter: Cathryn Short
Voice Over Talent: Donnie
Special Guest: Troy the Beagle

Food Styling: Sidra Forman
Pastry: Leslie Poyourow, Fancy Cakes by Leslie
Props: Amanda McClements, Salt & Sundry

A Special Thanks To:
Modelogic Mid-Atlantic
Stacie Vanchieri
T.H.E. Artist Agency
Lynda Erkiletian
Elizabeth Centenari
Sondra Ortagus
Justin A. Batoff
Jeremy Batoff
Henry Wright
Sophie Lefebure
Chloe Alexander
The Voorthuis Family

Are Jonathan Glazer's New U.K. TV Promos Hypnotizing or Just Plain Bizarre?

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The U.K's Channel 4 is rebranding, and the results are bizarre but stunning.

A series of new idents—short video signatures to air on the network—feature natural but surrealistic scenes. In one, rocks fall from the sky to disturb a lush forest landscape. In another, a masked person performs some kind of ceremonial dance inside a cave. In a third, a small army of men in white protective suits harvest chunks of mysterious blue rocks from a cliff they've demolished.

Directed by Jonathan Glazer, they evoke a hypnotizing blend of The Twilight Zone and National Geographic—or maybe just a heavy dose of David Lynch à la Twin Peaks. They also seem vaguely reminiscent of some of MTV's older idents, absent its heavy branding.



In fact, Channel 4's logo, a nine-block piece designed by Martin Lambie-Nairn in 1982 and used since, is notably missing from footage (save for a small silhouetted version in the lower right corner—and references to pieces of the logo scattered throughout the footage).

In other words, the spots are memorable—and quite unusual for the format—but highly abstract, in a way that, upon repeat viewing, seems likely to cast the network as the destination for people who want weird, intriguing but perhaps opaque television.

Then again, that's more or less exactly what the brand seems to want. Chris Bovill, joint head of Channel 4's in-house creative agency, described breaking down the more formal logo as "liberating," reports the Independent."The blocks are free to demonstrate our remit; to be irreverent, innovative, alternative and challenging."

Adam Sherwin, a media reporter at the newspaper, pegs the broader effort as "either a bold reinvention of a middle-aged brand, or a marketing brainstorm too far."

Channel 4 is not abandoning its logo altogether—retaining it for use in other promotional materials. But, typography geeks rejoice, the rebrand also includes two new fonts—named Chadwick and Horseferry, after the cross streets of network's offices—for use on-air and in advertising materials.

Aardman Animates Interviews With the Elderly in Funny, Charming PSA About Loneliness

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Nick Park's animated stop-motion short Creature Comforts was one of Aardman Animations' greatest triumphs, winning an Oscar in 1990 for its hilarious clay animals talking about being in a zoo—using audio of real interviews with British people talking about the same subject.

Now, Aardman has done a PSA in a similar style for a U.K. group called Bristol Ageing Better—to illustrate the elderly's experiences of social isolation and what they can do to be less lonely. The animation is much simpler, but it's got the same kind of charm.



"Hearing the voices of older people in Bristol talking about loneliness helped us to understand just how easy it is for people to become lonely," says Heather Wright, executive producer at Aardman. "They gave us real stories that touched our hearts and minds. Our job was simply to bring them to life in a memorable way while addressing what is undoubtedly a serious issue for us all."

"We wanted to reach out in a fun way to people who may not be in contact with anyone else, and invite them to contact us," added Judith Brown, deputy chair of BAB. "Aardman used the voices of local people, and I think the film is brilliant, and will help people to be less lonely."

Jackie Prescott, one of the volunteers whose voices were used for the animation, said: "I was excited and very comfortable with it, it was lovely, it was really fun." Joan Owens, whose voice was also used, added: "If I can make people laugh I'm happy and I think if we can laugh with older people we'll live longer."

Check out the original Creature Comforts film here:

A NICU Nurse Meets the Babies She Saved in This Viral Tearjerker From Kleenex

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In "Tiny Miracles," an emotional video timed to Neonatal Nurses Day, Kleenex reunited a NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) nurse with the children whose lives she saved at birth. With lots of tiny hands, itty-bitty scrunched-up faces, and newborn photos, the whole thing is designed to make you bawl like a baby.

Working in the NICU is emotionally draining. As nurse Renee, the star of this piece, points out, they never know if the babies will make it through the shift. Nonetheless, she's carried on tirelessly at the WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta, Ga., for the last 33 years.



To surprise this miracle worker, Kleenex showed Renee a short video in which tearful parents express gratitude for her love and care. Then a bevvy of parents and children from the video enter the room for an emotional reunion.

It's part of an online series created by VIMBY, in partnership with the Facebook Creative Shop, for Kleenex's "Someone Needs One" campaign, which notably includes another story that went viral: the one with Chance the wheelchair-bound dog.

Since going live on Sept. 15, "Tiny Miracles" has received almost 2.5 million views on YouTube and more than 2 million more on Facebook. It's probably safe to say Kleenex has sold a few boxes of tissues since to keep up with the waterworks.

CREDITS
Client: Kleenex
Agency: VIMBY, Facebook Creative Shop
Executive Creative Director: Adam Reno
Producer/Director: Carrie Stett
Director of Photography: Jesse Aragon
Production Company: VIMBY
Editor: Nick Varley
Media Agency: Mindshare
Kleenex AOR: VSA

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