Virtual reality is great for getting closer to things. And for so many young people, it doesn't get much better than getting close to celebrity athletes and superheroes.

72andSunny's new Samsung campaign has plenty of both, thanks to the client's stable of star atheletes and its partnership with Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron. The centerpiece is a two-minute VR experience for the Galaxy S6 and Gear VR Headset in which you're placed dead center in the middle of a battle between the Avengers and Ultron robots.

Adweek previewed the impressive VR experience last week. (It will be available for download later today at the Oculus Store.) Those without a Gear headset can still get an approximation of it, though. The YouTube video below was designed as a 360-degree experience—if you watch it on an Android device, you can move the phone around in all directions and see difference parts of the room as the action unfolds:



For the 72andSunny creatives, it was a nice way to continue to experiment in the burgeoning VR space. "It's kind of like looking at a sculpture instead of looking at a photograph," partner and executive creative director Bryan Rowles said. "You have to make sure everything is moving and interesting at all times."

The larger campaign, themed "We Are Greater Than I," is part of the Galaxy S6 launch globally and is built around the idea of teamwork. That's a theme for Samsung across its sports and entertainment projects, and it's a theme of The Avengers as well—thus, the partnership was nice conceptual fit.

72andSunny also made two cinematic films for the campaign, in which four celebrity athletes and two superfans are recruited to be Avengers themselves. The athletes include official Samsung endorsers Lionel Messi, surfer John John Florence and cyclist Fabian Cancellara—as well as  Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy (who isn't a Samsung athlete but who got the gig mostly because wears a Hulk Under Armour compression shirt under his football jersey).

Check out those films here:

"We didn't want the films to be dead ends," said Rowles. "That's where the virtual reality experience came about. You get to experience this campaign, not just watch a film about it."

The third piece of the campaign extends to the real world, as Samsung is distributing 1,000 briefcases globally that will have a Galaxy S6 in it, plus the VR goggles with the Avengers VR experience preloaded on the phone.

Many more people will see the films than experience the VR. But Jamie Park, head of experiential marketing at Samsung Mobile headquarters in South Korea, tells Adweek that even limited reach with the VR can have a remarkable effect.

"We've seen a growing interest from studios around the additive experience VR can deliver to fan engagement," Park said. "We have been partnering with other brands to help create VR storytelling content, and you will continue to see more of that in the future. We believe that a single great experience can create an enormously positive impact that will help strengthen both brands and build long-term customer loyalty."

Stan Lee gets more than a bit part, for a change, in this great Audi tie-in to The Avengers, as he plays the part of the world's greatest cameo actor. It's a piece of pitch-perfect fan service tailor made for Marvel junkies who delight in wondering which cameo role Lee will play in every Marvel film. After all, as the Audi spot says, "When it comes to small roles, Stan Lee is the biggest."

The video, by San Francisco agency MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER, is probably so on point because it's directed by a comic book junkie: Kevin Smith, who also has his own cameo role here as "Hockey Fan," an enthusiastic student at Stan Lee's Cameo School.

In other words, Kevin Smith is directing Stan Lee directing Kevin Smith (specifically directing him to be a paperboy).



The ad also features additional amusing cameos by Tara Reid, Michael Rooker, Jason Mewes and Lou Ferrigno. And the Audi S8 has its own cameo at the start and end of the short film. It's even credited.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron will feature the Audi R8, Audi TTS and Audi A3 Cabriolet as the automaker continues to be Tony Stark's car of choice. Even better, Audi is releasing exclusive footage from the movie online, bookended with Audi ads, of course. 

Though the spot it great and has racked up 1 million views in two days, it doesn't tell us anything about Stan Lee's next appearance. Which leaves us with the breathless question: Which piece of insignificant dialogue will Stan Lee rattle off this time?

And will he get to wear a jaunty hat?

Every 20 seconds, a family in Sub-Saharan Africa loses a loved one to unsafe drinking water. Deutsch took that brutal fact and made a gorgeous, bittersweet campaign for the Water Is Life charity—getting Ethiopians to pose for their first family portraits, which could also be their last.

Award-winning photographer Neil DaCosta took the photos. The print ads, each with a call to action, will run in Bloomberg, The Economist and Forbes, among other magazines.

"Most people go into these rural areas of Ethiopia, snap a picture of the tribes and then leave," said Water Is Life president Kristine Bender. "This is the first time anyone has physically printed, framed and given them a family portrait. You could see the gratitude on their faces. Knowing we are making a difference by capturing an important moment in their life, the project's goal isn't just to give family portraits, it's to keep these families alive."



More images and credits below.

The portraits—click to enlarge:

The print ads—click to enlarge:

CREDITS
Client: Water Is Life
President: Kristine Bender
Email: kristine@waterislife.com
Agency: Deutsch New York
Chief Creative Officer: Kerry Keenan
Executive Creative Director: Menno Kluin
Creative Directors: Sam Shepherd, Frank Cartagena, Julia Neumann
Art Director: Brittany Rivera
Copywriter: Kevin Meagher
Photographer: Neil DaCosta
Design Director: Juan Carlos Pagan
Designer: Brian Gartside
Retoucher: James Cullinane
Director of Integrated Media: Karen Benson
Director of Integrated Production: Joe Calabrese
Director of Digital Production: Suzanne Molinaro
Asst. Digital Producer: Libby Carespodi
Print Producer: Donald Odell
Producer: Joe Pernice
Post Producer: Francess Tom-­‐Sahr
Senior Editor: Eric Grush
Editor: Pete Slife, Marcus Land
Digital Designer: Alex Miller
Developer: Shane Akins

Twenty seconds into Opperman Weiss' new 90-second anthem spot for Chobani, it's clear something is amiss. A family in the countryside, caked in mud, trudges through fields, but Mom and Dad aren't talking. They're a farming family, but this isn't your typical farming-themed commercial, even though it opens with the almost clichéd amber waves of grain.

"This is a modern American story," Chobani CMO Peter McGuinness told Adweek on Friday. "It's a family, and we don't know what happened with them. Something happened that involved the kids. And then they work through it as a family. And they come out of it stronger and better and closer."

Here is the anthem spot:



The point is, Chobani doesn't see a pretend world—the world of most yogurt commercials. It sees the real world. And when viewers see the authentic, real-life moments in the ads, they may be more inclined to believe the realness of the brand.

It's an approach that almost turns Chobani into a lifestyle brand—if you buy the lifestyle here, you well may buy the products, too.

The spot features an original song written for the brand by artist and producer Eef Barzelay, who also appears in the spot. The song's refrain is, "To love this life is to live it naturally." The tagline itself is "Love this life," and "it's the intersection between the brand and our products and the role they play in people's lives," says McGuinness.

The 90-second anthem rolled out online Friday morning and will break in theaters Friday night before showings of The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It will also run on TV during a number of show finales this month, supported by a pair of :30s featuring the same family.

You can see those :30s here:

"We kind of went from how our yogurt is made to how our yogurt makes you feel," McGuinness adds. That kind of lifestyle play wouldn't work for every food brand, but "we think we have the authentic credibility to play in this space," he adds.

Chobani is also debuting new packaging to show the real ingredients inside each cup.

Check out the print work and credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Chobani
Founder: Hamdi Ulukaya
Chief Marketing and Brand Officer: Peter McGuinness
Director of Brand Communications: Jessica Lauria
Brand Manager: Danielle Palmer

Agency: Opperman Weiss
Art Director: Jeff Weiss
Copywriter: Paul Opperman
Executive Producer: Mark Johnston
Managing Director: Julian Shiff

Production company: RSA Films
Director: Laurence Dunmore
Executive Producer: Marjie Abrahams
President: Jules Daly
Line Producer: Michele Abbott
DOP: Brendan Galvin

Editorial: Bug Editorial
Editor: Andre Betz
Executive Producer: Caitlin Grady

Music: Duotone
Executive Producer: David Leinheardt
Creative Director: Jack Livesey
Producer: Giovanni Lobato
Musical Talent: Eef Barzelay
Songwriter: Paul Opperman

Telecine: The Mill
Head of Production: Sean Costelloe
Colorist: Fergus McCall
Color Producer: Natalie Westerfield

Audio Post: Heard City
Executive Producer: Gloria Pitagorsky
Mixer: Cory Melious

VFX: Blacksmith
Executive Producer: Charlotte Arnold
2D Lead: Daniel Morris
2D Artist: Iwan Zwarts

No one wants to dwell on time spent in the bathroom, and toilet paper that's done its job well is easily—and best—forgotten.

But Quilted Northern, a brand forever condemned to bathroom humor, is out with six new spots from Droga5 about the plight of those bathroom accoutrements fated to bear witness, over and over again, to the ill-made products of even the most banal human existence.

There's "Daddy Gator," a reptilian ship captain—a child's toy—perpetually landlocked with his eyes fixed on the john. There's "Little Miss Puffytail," a porcelain rabbit with a similarly distasteful vantage, who wants nothing more than for someone to put her out of her misery. There's "Sir Froggy," the toilet paper holder, who's never flown anywhere, but boy are his arms—and eyes—tired.

Perhaps the best is "Great Grandpa Thaddeus," whose noble visage some ungrateful and spiteful descendant has poised in a most undignified position overlooking the family throne. The "Birds" on the wallpaper are similarly doomed, save one that's been liberated by an even worse outcome. The sixth and last spot returns to child's play with "Conductor Randy," a figurine forgotten underneath the radiator—and a more unfortunate friend.

Based on Quilted Northern's research that people only remember toilet paper when it doesn't work, the campaign's sales pitch—it's so good you'll forget it, but please keep it in mind because of these silly ads—borders on convoluted. But it works well enough, in the end, because they actually are pretty amusing and memorable.

It is a bit surprising that the brand, though, opted against making a stand-in for the Charmin bear one of its tortured animals. Nobody, try as they might, can forget that guy.

CREDITS
Client: Quilted Northern
CMO: Douwe Bergsma
General Manager, Tissue: Vivek Joshi
Senior Brand Director: Jason Ippen
Senior Brand Manager: Ann V Anderson
Senior Marketing Director, Brand Center; Shari Neumann

Campaign: Designed to be Forgotten

Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Creative Directors: David Gibson, Nathan Lennon, Mike Long, Alex Lea
Art Director/Copywriters: Molly Jamison, Eric Dennis
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Head of Broadcast Production Ben Davies
Senior Broadcast Producer: Anders Hedberg
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director: Matt Springate
Senior Strategist: Nick Maschmeyer
Head of Communications Strategy: Colleen Leddy
General Manager/Head of Account Mgmt: Susie Nam
Group Account Director: Brett Edgar
Account Director: Michael Arani
Account Manager: Jasmine Moesel

Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Bennett Miller
Executive Producer: Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody, Shannon Jones
Producer: Suzie Greene Tedesco
DP: Adam Kimmel

Editorial: Exile
Editor: Conor O'Neill
Assistant Editor: Rex Lowry
Executive Producer:  CL Weaver
Producer: Denice Hutton

Post Production: Method NY/Atlanta
Flame Artists: Mike Wardner, Glen Bennett, Jay Tilin
Head of Production: Jennifer Hargreaves
Producer: Natalia Wroble

Music: Adelphoi ("Daddy Gator," "Great Grandpa Thaddeus," "Sir Froggy," "Conductor Randy" Adelphoi, "Birds")
Composers: Jamie Masters, Andrew Sherriff, Ashley Bates, Stephen Patman
Producers: Jonathan Watts, Lotte Bowser

Music: Manners McDade ("Little Miss Puffytail")

"You save a dog. A dog saves you."

That's the poignant message of "First Days Out," a four-minute online film for Pedigree by Almap BBDO in Brazil that follows Joey and Matt, two former inmates who begin to turn their lives around after they adopt rescue dogs.

Joey, who served 12 years for armed robbery, finds the world transformed, and in some ways unrecognizable, after his release. At first he's alone, confused and frightened about his future, but a trip to the pound changes everything.

"Having a dog with me in this house was so much better," he says. "Sadie became my family." Soon, he's training kennel dogs for adoption.

Matt, who served two years for burglary, is initially estranged from his father and reluctant to connect with others. At one point, he draws a heartbreaking parallel between his own life (inside and out of prison) and the lives of the dogs in the animal shelter: "They all looked kind of sad, just like I was—just caged in." After adopting Jeanie, he feels as if his "future's bright again," and he starts going on job interviews and brings the dog to meet his dad.



The immensely moving documentary, directed in a relaxed, naturalist style by Ricardo Mehedff via Hungry Man, is part of Pedigree's new "Feed the Good" campaign, its first global push in several years.

"By nourishing the lovable innocence in every dog, Pedigree helps feed the good they bring to the world," explains Leonid Sudakov, CMO of Mars Global Petcare.

That same theme informs all campaign elements, which include TV, print, online, in-store and social media. Of course, interpretations will vary. For example, a 30-second spot by Colenso BBDO in Australia, titled "Good Fight," feels more like a typical "commercial" than "First Days Out." Still, its quirky take on an a street fight about to happen is far from typical pet-food ad fare.

We chatted about "First Day Out" with Mehedff and his brother Alex, who produced it.

AdFreak: "First Day Out" sort of takes the "cute puppy" commercial in a fresh, more meaningful direction. Can you speak to that a bit?
Alex: Advertising is moving into this new territory of content storytelling. A more emotional engagement. With this in mind, we need to approach the narrative of the film differently. The creative [idea] behind this film is just brilliant. That moved us in a big way to get involved and tell a moving story.

Anytime you move away from the "typical" creatively—and hats off to the agency for this brilliant idea—it becomes a golden strategy. We're happy to have been able to deliver up to par with the idea. We hope it will move people, engage emotionally with the audience … and place the brand in a very special place.

Take me through the process of putting the project together.
Alex: The process is just deep character research, where you cast real people and see what they can bring to the story. You definitely need a couple of weeks. If you rush this phase, you're dead in the water.

Ricardo: We started nationwide, and were able to get many candidates. Some were inmates who had participated in dog training programs while in prison. This is how we found Joey. He'd done 12 years, and in the last four, he got into the dog training program that, in his owns words, changed his life. When he got out, he was truly alone, and since he spoke so well about dogs, Pedigree helped him adopt a dog for himself. And the incredible thing is, you could really see the change in his spirit and mood. Sadie really brought a smile to his face. The job he got as a dog trainer was directly related to his experience in the dog training programs in prison.

Matt never had any contact with dog training programs in prison. He was just a kid going through a rough patch with his father and having a hard time getting adjusted to life on the outside. Pedigree suggested that he adopt a dog and see what would happen.

What were the biggest challenges in making the film?
Ricardo: We found many other good characters in our research, but were limited to only shooting two of them. Then, shooting in a way that could capture the emotion and truth of their stories and experiences. I found that the best way to do this was to shoot them in the most naturalistic way, with as little interference as possible.

What surprised you most?
Ricardo: How the dogs really helped these guys. I thought it would be strong, but their connections were really intense.

From the first day I met Joey, he was always a very serious, soft-spoken guy. He was really nice, but very quiet. Almost never smiled. Sometimes I would kindly ask him to smile, but it just didn't look right. The moment he adopted Sadie, he became a different person, a natural smile formed. This guy truly loves dogs. And his facial expressions show this.

It must be tough not to make this kind of material seem overly manipulative.
Ricardo: That was my goal in making this film. I have a strong background in documentary filmmaking, having worked closely with Eduardo Coutinho, one of the most important doc filmmakers in Brazilian cinema. I direct and edit my films, so that really helps in the storytelling process. As I'm directing, I'm usually editing the film in my head.

This film was about capturing the magic that occurs between man and dog. I knew this magic exists. I just wanted to shoot it in a way that was non-invasive and let their relationship flourish and grow naturally.

CREDITS
Advertiser: Mars
Agency: AlmapBBDO
Title: "First Days Out"
Product: Pedigree
General Director, Creation: Luiz Sanches
Executive Directors, Creation: Bruno Prosperi, Renato Simões
Creation Director: André Gola, Pernil
Digital Creative Director: Luciana Haguiara
Creation: Pernil, André Gola, Fabio Cerdeira,  André Sallowicz,  Felipe Cirino, André Leotta
RTVC: Vera Jacinto, Ana Paula Casagrande, Diego Villas Bôas
Producer: Hungry Man
Managing Partner: Alex Mehedff
Executive Producers: Rodrigo Castello, Renata Corrêa
Direction: Ricardo Mehedff
Photography: Grant Weiss, Mike Alex, Ricardo Mehedff
Line Producer: Mariana Barbiellini
Track: Big Foote
 Editor: Ricardo Mehedff
Postproduction Supervisor: Rodrigo Oliveira
Finishing: Great Studio
Color Grading: Psycho N'Look
Assistance: Fernanda Antonelli, Pedro Fragata, Samantha Kechichian, José Maria Fafe
Planning: Cintia Gonçalves, João Gabriel, Daniel Machado, Augusto Veríssimo, Marília Rodrigues
Media: Flávio de Pauw, Brian Crotty, Fábio Cruz, Juliana Melo, Carolina Pimentel
Digital Media: Kaue Cury, Livia Novaes, Rogério Beraldo
Business Director: Rodrigo Andrade
Approval: Leonid Sudakov, Marina Sachs, Oduvaldo Viana, Fernando Manoel

A high-tech house proves to be far from a "smart home" when two burglars arrive in "Welcome," the latest amusing spot from Tribal DDB in Amsterdam for insurance company Centraal Beheer. The long-running comic campaign is tagged "Just call Apeldoorn," the Dutch city where the client is located.

This minute-long ad is more subtle than previous installments like "Speedboat" and "Self-Driving Car," which relied heavily on slapstick and noisy effects to deliver the message. Still, one key theme—technophobia—is carried over from past work, and once again viewers are promised a nasty future shock if we don't take proper precautions (like buying insurance from Centraal Beheer).



The humor is pleasantly subdued, and the perfectly paced build-up puts us slightly off balance until the satisfying payoff (not payout, however, unless you have Centraal Beheer).

You've gotta love those final scenes, with a cocksure, sweaty Silicon Valley-type hyping his home-control gizmo in a packed auditorium. Good luck with that IPO, Einstein!

As the world oohs and ahhs over Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, Oreo is here to remind you that all babies are special, whether or not they're born into royalty. A nice message from The Martin Agency to the one demographic that can't even chew solid food.

Most food brands prefer their family advertising to be wholesome, hopefully mirroring the product, and leave the quirkiness to candy brands on a sugar high. But Droga5's first campaign for Johnsonville upends that tradition—with ads that celebrate family in its most comically unusual forms.

Among the oddball characters we meet in four new spots are a mobster neighbor; a grandmother who's actually a male drifter; and the most amusing man-child we've seen in a while. The point is that Johnsonville sausage brings people together and makes them family, whether they are or not.

The casting and acting have to be top notch in a campaign like this. And for the most part, they are—the man-child is a high point in particular. (The mobster is my least favorite of the bunch.) The tagline is, "We don't make sausage. We make family. And sausage."

The spots are timed to the beginning of summer grilling season, but the client wanted the message to go well beyond that—indeed, the desire to branch out and highlight its other sausage products led to the creative approach.

The goal was to "translate the emotional connection and passion our consumers have for our brand and from grilling brats, and build awareness for Johnsonville beyond brats," says Fabian Pereira, vp of marketing for Johnsonville.

"Johnsonville owns grilling, and that's great, but they also have a lot more to offer. Or at least a lot more sausage to offer," says Scott Bell, group creative director of Droga5. "We needed an idea that could just as easily talk about making pasta with Italian sausage or brunch with breakfast sausage. That's how we landed on the idea that when you're sharing Johnsonville, you're family. It doesn't matter if you're sharing brats at a tailgate or sharing a meal at Sunday night dinner, that act of sharing sausage forges a bond. A bond we refer to as sausage family."

Bell adds: "Homer Simpson said it best when he said, 'You don't make friends with salad.' We think he'd agree that you can do better than just make friends with sausage. You can make family."

Johnsonville is also planning some other fun stuff for the year, including a Brat Signal app and a "Bratfast in Bed" Father's Day campaign that encourages families to surprise Dad in bed with sausage and beer.

CREDITS
Client: Johnsonville
Vice President, Marketing: Fabian Pereira
Group Marketing Director: Jim Mueller
Group Marketing Director: Ryan Pociask
Agency: Droga5 NY
Creative Chairman: David Droga
Chief Creative Officer: Ted Royer
Group Creative Director: Scott Bell
Senior Copywriter: Ryan Raab
Senior Art Director: Dan Kenneally
Chief Creation Officer: Sally-Ann Dale
Head of Broadcast Production: Ben Davies
Executive Broadcast Producer: Jesse Brihn
Global Chief Strategy Officer: Jonny Bauer
Group Strategy Director: Aaron Wiggan
Senior Strategist: Nick Maschmeyer
Senior Strategist: Candice Chen
Communications Strategy Director: Brian Nguyen
Group Account Director: Dan Gonda
Account Director: Chris Einhauser
Account Manager: Kate Tyler Monroe
Production Company (Live Action Shoot): Arts & Sciences
Director: Matt Aselton
DOP: Corey Walter
Executive Producer: Marc Marrie
Managing Director: Mal Ward
Producer: Zoe Odlum
Production Company (Food Shoot): Schrom
Director: Michael Schrom
DOP: Michael Schrom
Executive Producer: Carl Sturges
Production Supervisor: Andrew Greenberg
Food Stylist: Rick Ellis
Editorial: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor (Family Favors, Misunderstood, Grandma): Ian Mackenzie
Editor (Stay At Home Son): Nick Divers
Assistant Editor: Mike Leuis
Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld
Producer: Biz Lynskey
Postproduction: The Mill
Executive Producer: Jeremy Moore
Producer: Andrew Hamill
Lead Flame Artist: Ilia Mokhtareizadeh
Flame Artist: Brandon Danowski
Flame Artist: Emily Bloom
Sound: Mackenzie Cutler
Mixer: Sam Shaffer, Marc Healy

Seeing ultrasound images is a special part of most pregnancies, but women who are blind, of course, don't get that experience. So, Huggies Brazil approximated it for one visually impaired woman by 3-D printing a sculpture of her unborn child that she could touch.

Ad agency Mood worked on the project with 3-D printing firm The Goodfellas.



"As a brand, Huggies considers each moment of this new phase in the lives of many women—the maternal role," says Priya Patel, birector of baby care at Kimberly-Clark Brazil. "Huggies believes that such protective embrace and bond help babies grow up happy."

CREDITS
Client: Kimberly-Clark / Huggies
Agency: Mood
Creative VP: Valdir Bianchi
Head of Digital: André Felix
Creative Director: Bruno Brasileiro, Felipe Munhoz, and Rafael Gonzaga
Creation: André Felix, Bruno Brasileiro, Felipe Munhoz, Rafael Gonzaga, and Ricardo "Brad" Correia
Artbuyer: Rita Teofilo and Thiago Campos
Project Manager: Rafael Coelho
Client Services: Fabio Meneghati and Andrei Sanches  
Digital Media: Mariana Costa and Sabrina Titto
Planning: Daniel Rios and Rafael Martins
3D Production: the goodfellas
Graphic Production: Julio Coralli and Dayane Souza
Post-production: Byanca Melo 
Photographer: Lucas Tintori, Rodrigo Westphal Galego, and Fábio Kenji
Soundtrack: Lua Nova - Conductor Fred Benuce
Producer: La casa de la madre
Stage Director: Jorge Brivilati
Screenplay: André Castilho
Client approval: Lizandra Bertoncini, Maria Eugênia Duca, Priya Patel, and Simone Simões
Public Relations Agency: Edelman Significa and Giusti Comunicação

Audi Ireland has decided to directly address the stereotype that women are bad drivers in a Twitter campaign that aims to undermine that perception.

The automaker last week posted a series of images that appeared to make fun of women drivers—including scenes of poorly parked cars and men in passenger seats looking terrified. The tweets were tagged #womendrivers.

But the tweets also contained links, and it turned out they pointed to stories of women being real drivers in fields like technology, science and sports.

If a woman wants to drive… don't stand in her way! #womendrivers#fail#audihttp://t.co/NmIe4yd8i9pic.twitter.com/3Aouhz6ekU

— Audi Ireland (@audiireland) April 27, 2015

Nice job, lady! Check out these #womendrivers#audi#funnyhttp://t.co/EqS8q8Nj4apic.twitter.com/WxjZs3On14

— Audi Ireland (@audiireland) April 27, 2015

It's an interesting idea, and a bit surprising that an automaker would even tackle an issue with such obvious pitfalls. The problem, as some have pointed out, is that you have to actually click on the links to realize Audi isn't just being negative and weird. (The automaker has been posting an explanatory video on Twitter, too, though of course it's easy to miss individual tweets.)



So, is a campaign like this clever, or maybe not such a good idea after all?

Agency: Atomic, Dublin. Via Design Taxi.

Driving Miss Ditsy. Check out these #crazy#womendrivers#audihttp://t.co/Od9BwnTY1epic.twitter.com/EDFOwueSaW

— Audi Ireland (@audiireland) April 29, 2015

Crazy women drivers! You'll never guess what happened next!!! #funny#audi#womendrivershttp://t.co/Ac2NI3v0xspic.twitter.com/Yuomy5LeQa

— Audi Ireland (@audiireland) April 29, 2015

Watch out! Women driving! #womendrivers#audi#toofunnyhttp://t.co/XTaYXGcU2vpic.twitter.com/GwpGgIIlsd

— Audi Ireland (@audiireland) April 28, 2015

Caution women behind the wheel!! #funnystuff#audi#womendrivershttp://t.co/rGb07YF6MSpic.twitter.com/fEXODIBUdC

— Audi Ireland (@audiireland) April 28, 2015

How much is that doggie on the billboard?

Barley, the pixelated pooch in question, appears to follow shoppers around East London's Westfield Stratford mall in OgilvyOne's "Looking for You" campaign, designed to promote pet adoption for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

A chip secretly placed in leaflets handed out to shoppers triggers the canine's capering, enabling him to follow the shoppers from one digital board to the next.

"Battersea rehomes animals all over the U.K. and beyond, and this could help encourage people to choose to rescue a dog," says Carly Whyborn, head of operations at Battersea. "We're using innovative technology in a way that has never been seen before, and we hope more of our abandoned animals find loving homes because of it."



OgilvyOne worked on the project with Framestore, RFIDiom and Exterion Media. The two-minute campaign video was produced by Creation Company Film.

A couple of years back, the agency crafted a similar, much-praised digital outdoor campaign for British Airways. Called "The Magic of Flying," it featured billboards that showed a boy pointing at actual BA flights as they passed overhead. (The signs also disclosed flight numbers and destinations.)

The Battersea concept is more basic, yet firmly on-brand, a simple high-tech tug at the heartstrings to remind Brits of the life-changing magic adopted pets can bring to their lives.

Barley has already found a new owner, but Battersea and other rescue organizations have plenty of dogs and cats that would happily follow you home for real.

We've seen a few different Tinder hacks from marketers, but here's an interesting one that gets at the heart of the dark side of relationships.

An organization called Women in Distress created fake profiles on the popular dating app for three different "abusers." As users swiped through their photo albums, the guys went from nice to nasty, eventually going to far as to throw a punch.

The Bravo/Y&R creatives "liked" every woman's profile they encountered in the first four weeks, so even if a woman simply liked the man's photo without seeing his whole album, she was prompted to look at the album when the "match" chat window opened.



The point, says ad agency Bravo/Y&R, is that even nice guys can become violent fast, and that women need to "look for help at the first sign of things turning ugly."

There are certainly a few problems with the execution. The guys look a little cartoonish in the images. Plus, the whole thing is a bit spammy—and the lack of a trigger warning might be problematic. Still, it's well intentioned and might get Tinder users thinking about what they really want out of a relationship.



CREDITS
Client: Women In Distress
Project: Tinder Beater
Agency: Bravo/Y&R, Miami
Chief Creative Officer: Claudio Lima
Art Director: Gabriel Jardim
Photographer: Mauricio Candela
Motion: Fernando Lancas

Hallmark's "Put Your Heart to Paper" campaign featured interviews with people who didn't know their moms were watching. Now, Tempur-Pedic has hit it big with the opposite—interviews with moms who didn't know their kids were watching, and didn't know they were about to get a very nice surprise.

It's not tied together as simply or as obviously as Hallmark's campaign, but this spot does a reasonable job of pointing out how little moms get to sleep, and showing some very happy moms lolling around on the product.



RPA made the ad, which tries to tell moms, "You're important. Sleep like it." And it's actually based on some pretty interesting research. In a Tempur-Pedic survey of 1,000 moms, 87 percent of them said they're kept up at night by family concerns, finances, jobs and wondering if little Timmy is going to need braces.

In case you were wondering what Mom really wants for Mother's Day, 40 percent of moms said waking up from a good night's sleep and spending a whole day with their families, while another 30 percent said they'd prefer to sleep late and enjoy breakfast in bed.

So, if your mom is having sleepless nights, consider getting her a bed for Mother's Day. It might not be the coolest or most affordable option, but it's still way better than a vacuum.

CREDITS
Client: Tempur Sealy
Title: Moms: You're Important

Agency: RPA
EVP, Chief Creative Officer: Joe Baratelli
SVP, Executive Creative Director: Jason Sperling
SVP, Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff
VP, Creative Director: Alicia Dotter Marder
Jr. Art Director: Dennis Haynes
Jr. Copywriter: Megan Leinfelder
VP, Director - Content: Mark Tripp
VP, Director of Digital Production: Dave Brezinski
Sr. Digital Producer: Ana Ponce
Digital Production Coordinator: Kristin Varraveto

EVP, Management Account Director: Tom Kirk
VP, Account Director: Rebecca Mendelson
Account Supervisor: Amanda de la Madriz
Supervisor, Digital Content Strategy: Joanna Kennedy

Production Co: Bö's House of Visual Arts
Director: Mark Tripp
DP: Stephen Carmona
Producer: Tracy Chaplin
Production Designer: Kristen Vallow

Editorial: Butcher Post
Editors: Teddy Gersten/Nick Pezzillo
Assistant Editor: Amy Rosner
Executive Producer: Rob Van
Post Producer: Alexa Atkin
Lead Flame Artist: Moody Glasgow
Telecine Company: The Mill
Artist: Adam Scott
Executive Producer: Thatcher Peterson

Audio Post Company: Lime
Audio Post Mixer: Dave Wagg

Casting: Cornwell Casting
Casting Directors: Jason Cornwell, Damon Collazo, Sandra Petko
Casting Producer: Tina Eisner

Everyone loves a good long-copy print ad. And here's a clever one from FCB Lisbon for Harmony Condoms that stretches out the phrase "Oh my God" into an impressive 1,000-word sentence. The tagline: "Looong-lasting pleasure."

Full ad below, via Adeevee.

Click to enlarge.

CREDITS
Client: Harmony Condoms
Agency: FCB Lisbon
Creative Directors: Edson Athayde, Luis Silva Dias
Art Director: Eduardo Tavares
Copywriter: Viton Araújo

Lately, Honda drivers have been going nowhere fast. And their strange travels have yielded some memorably unusual advertising.

First, the automaker took us on a CR-V journey that wouldn't end. Now, in "Feeling," Wieden + Kennedy London radically slows down various Civics as they cruise through city and country. In this nearly frozen world, engineers attend to every conceivable aspect of the ride, from arranging raindrops, birds and butterflies outside the cars' windows to manipulating drivers' hands on the steering wheels and gear shifts.

"One of the most important things for Honda engineers when designing a new car is that it feels great to drive," W+K's Max Batten tells Adweek. "We thought this would be a good story to tell for the Civic." Thematically, he adds, "this campaign is about linking the Civic to those split-second moments where driving can be so satisfying."



Impeccably shot by Johnny Hardstaff via RSA Films, with impressive effects from MPC, the ad is initially disorienting, even a tad creepy. (Unhand me, engineer!) Still, it rewards repeat viewings with great details like a magnificent horse romping ridiculously s-l-o-o-o-l-y in a field beside one of the cars.

"We wanted to create a world that draws the viewer in and rewards them for noticing all the details in the storytelling," says Batten. "The surreal quality is something we really liked."

Production was no picnic. "It involved a huge amount of planning," Batten says. "All the action was shot in layers, which were combined at MPC. The frozen elements were created using a combination of slow-motion filming and CGI. The shots had to be incredibly precise, and Johnny did a fantastic job bringing it all together."

Ultimately, "Feeling" and other recent Honda films like "Endless Road," "Illusions" and "The Other Side" follow the roadmap for offbeat, memorable excursions—something the brand established a dozen years ago with its trend-setting "Cog" commercial.

"It's always good to shake things up, especially in a category that's rife with clichés," says Batten. "One of Honda's strengths is that they want to make work which stands out."

CREDITS
Client: Honda Europe
Agency: Wieden & Kennedy London
Creative director: Scott Dungate
Copywriters: Ben Shaffery, Max Batten
Executive creative directors: Tony Davidson, Kim Papworth, Iain Tait
Agency executive producer: Danielle Stewart
Group account director: Nick Owen
Account director: Alex Budenberg
Account manager: Maria Kofoed
Head of planning: Beth Bentley
Planning director: Martin Beverly
TV producer: Michelle Brough
TV production assistant: Tom Dean
Production company: RSA Films
Director: Johnny Hardstaff
Executive producer: Kai Hsiung
Line producer: Annabel Ridley
Director of photography: Martin Ruhe
Editorial company: Work Post
Editor: Art Jones
VFX company: MPC
VFX supervisors: Adam Crocker, Anthony Bloor
Flame artist: Adam Crocker
VFX producer: Dionne Archibald
Lead 3D: Anthony Bloor
Colorist: Jean¬Clément Soret
Music and sound company: Nate Connolly, Mutant Jukebox
Sound designer: Sam Ashwell
Sound studio: 750mph
Producers: Shervin Shaeri, Mutant Jukebox
Mix company: 750mph
Mixer: Sam Ashwell
Producers: Sam Robinson, Mary-Ann D'Cruz

Coca-Cola isn't just a soft drink. It's an essential part of the human experience—the key to true happiness—says a grand new ad from the brand in Europe. So, suck up your laziness and bootstrap yourself some soda.

The 70-second anthem by Ogilvy & Mather Amsterdam (it's the office's first work for the brand) introduces a new theme, "Choose Happiness," and continues Coke's tradition of casting itself as synonymous with joy. But it takes a more aggressive tone than usual. Not only can you be happy, you should be happy, right now, and all you have to do is reach out and grab it. That Coke, right there on the shelf, that is.

Set to a song and rap by Amsterdam-based HT, the spot (plus a more exhausting, full-blown branded music video, complete with an indecipherable hook) argues that happiness is a choice. Which is sort of true in some contexts, but is also oversimplified advertising-speak.



The broad-reaching argument rests in large part on urging you to consider all the dandy things your hands can do. They can make beats, and hold jump ropes, and give hugs. (Incidentally, Coke would also like you to know your hands can make the shape of Coke bottles, if you join them together with other hands.)

The spot deserves credit for including moments that aren't totally pollyanna—there's a lover's spat, and even a pseudo-political statement encouraging protest. But it's also a bit divorced from reality. If you have a hard time smiling with a face full of pepper spray, try washing that down with a Coke—it might settle your stomach, too.

Naturally, what Coca-Cola really means by "Choose Happiness" is that you should choose among the red, green, black and white versions of its product. The branding at the end of the spot includes four bottles—representing Coke's Classic, Life, Zero and Diet offerings—part of a new European strategy to lift the profile of the smaller brands by attaching them to marquee advertising.

That may or may not work, but the creative approach in the anthem spot stems from a familiar problem for any soda marketer: It can't pitch the product on the grounds that you actually need it, so it has to manufacture your desire as well. This is how you should be living, the ad says, in an overbearing, if still somewhat convincing, attempt to lift millennial spirits by pandering to vain conceptions of empowerment.

The extended version:

CREDITS
Client: Coca-Cola
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Amsterdam
Chief Creative Officer: Ogilvy Darre van Dijk
Sr. Copywriter Ogilvy: Jesse Ridder
Sr. Art Director Ogilvy: Jurriaan van Bokhoven
Agency Producer Ogilvy: Pirke Bergsma
Client Services Director Ogilvy: Annelouk Kriele
Account Director Ogilvy: Frouke Vlietstra
Director Caviar: Arnaud Uyttenhove
Executive Producer Caviar: Eva van Riet
Producer Caviar: Lynn Bernaerts
Producer Caviar: Neil Cray
DOP: Dimitri Karakatsanis
Editor the Whitehouse: Martin leRoy
Editor Gentlemen's Club: Will Judge
Editor Kapsalon: Brian Ent
Colourist Glassworks: Scott Harris
Colourist Glassworks: Matt Hare
Flame Glassworks: Kyle Obley
Nuke Glassworks: Jos Wabeke
Executive Producer Glassworks: Jane Bakx
Producer Glassworks: Christian Downes
Sound engineer Wave: Randall McDonald
Music Ogilvy: Darius Dante
VO: Haris Trnjanin (HT)
Client Coca-Cola: Guido Rosales

A tiny cocktail bar in Barcelona has won best of show at The Dieline Awards 2015, honoring the world's best packaging, for its gin bottles showing swimmers cavorting in the stuff.

Barcelona design studio Dorian made the bottles for Bar Pesca Salada, an old fish shop converted into a maritime-themed gin-and-tonic bar. Each bottle features a man appearing to swim in the gin—and it becomes a visual game as the bottle empties.

Dorian also screen-printed the images on the bottles, rather than using a transparent label.



See the rest of the Dieline winners here.

Here's a nifty invention for people brave enough to eat McDonald's—the new "BagTray" from DDB Budapest.

It is, as it sounds, a bag that's also a tray. Just tear off a tab at the bottom of the brown paper bag, pull off the top and watch the whole thing turn into a cardboard tray that will reduce the odds of spilling your oversized soda all over the back seat of your car, or your laptop, or the lawn where you're having a picnic (though surely the ants would love that).

Hopefully, you also won't have to worry about the grease from your fries soaking through a flimsier vessel and dumping its golden payload on the floor, ruining your day and staining your property (though odds are there's enough oil packed in there to eat through foamcore).



The product name is more or less perfect, clear and direct but also just the right amount of silly. It helps that the graphics in the demo video are charmingly twee, in a corporate sort of way—even if the willfully quirky ukelele-and-whistling-and-handclaps soundtrack wants so badly for you to be happy that it might make you claw your ears off instead.

Regardless, whether you're a mom feeding her kids while shuttling them around (though she's still pretty blasé about tilting the whole thing) or a cool kid just hanging out with your friends on your skateboard (are teenagers really that polite these days?) or a busy business executive cramming in lunch at your desk (that guy totally looks like he works at the ad agency), it's clear the BagTray is the bag/tray for you.

Whether the tool actually works is probably a different question. And it's also not clear whether you can use one without going to Hungary, which sort of undermines the whole convenience factor.



CREDITS
Client: McDonald's
Agency: DDB Budapest
Chief Creative Officer: Péter Tordai
Head of Art/Art director: Guilherme Somensato
Copywriter: Vera Länger, Giovanni Pintaude
Illustrator: Adrián Bajusz
Product Designer: Márk Dávid, András Bálint
Animation: Réka Horányi, Anita Kolop
Business Director: Judit Majosi
Account/Producer: Rozália Szigeti
Promo film: Somnium Studio

Mother's Day has become one big cryfest for advertisers—a time to see how choked up they can make viewers. That kind of sentimentality is fine, when communicated well, but there's definitely weep fatigue setting in. Which is why this Samsung ad, "#TextsFromMom," is a such a breath of fresh air.

The R/GA spot looks at how your mom probably uses text messaging—or rather, misuses it. The whole thing is pretty funny, and nicely pokes fun without getting too mean. And it sticks the landing by reminding you that you shouldn't be texting with Mom at all this Sunday.



You'll also notice that some of the moms' phone numbers are visible in the spot. If you dial them, you get to hear what they have to say in their voicemail messages.

You can also show off your mom's funniest texts using hashtag #TextsFromMom for a chance to win a Galaxy S 6 edge.