If a whole 60-second commercial consisting of clips of gum being chewed sounds boring, then watch this. For Trident, Johannes Leonardo teamed up with director / photographer Britton Caillouette of Farm League to capture over 60 pieces of content of humans and animals simply chewing, then put them together with an awesome soundtrack (an original track from boutique music collective Ski Team) to make this original spot. It’s all part of a campaign by the brand to make gum “cool” again, as part of a wider strategic project by parent company Mondelez
“When Mondelez noticed that gum sales were down, they wanted to boost the whole category. Because advertising and innovation had made gum clinical and utilitarian, they needed an idea that made chewing cool again. So instead of selling gum, we sold an attitude. Based on the insight that there’s too much talking going on and gum stops you from yapping, we decided to bring Silent back. We did so by documenting what we called The Chew Life, a generation of people who don’t feel the need to talk. Who chew instead. The Chew Life was launched during the SuperBowl 2014 (in Nashville).”
Marvel has created a site called The Bent Bullet, a promotional website and video that weaves X-Men mutants in with a JFK conspiracy theory, blending the real and fictional in a quasi sort of alternative history genre getup.
A new viral site promoting the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past has hit the web: The Bent Bullet, which explores President John F. Kennedy’s assassination — with an unfamiliar twist.
According to The Bent Bullet site, which went up last night, Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald — with the help of Magneto (played in his young incarnation by Michael Fassbender in the movie), who allegedly used his powers on Oswald’s wild shots to ensure the president’s death. This, it seems, will be the incident that splits the X-Men timeline, triggering the dystopian Days of Future Pastuniverse, in which mutants have been rounded up in internment camps and systematically exterminated with the aid of robotic Sentinels.
But has Magneto been falsely accused? Fictional journalist Harper Simmons seems to think so — and both Magneto’s own testimony and circumstantial evidence point to Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) committing the assassination while disguised as Oswald, then slipping away and leaving the real Oswald to take the blame. However, it’s unclear whether she did so on Magneto’s orders, or acted autonomously following a schism in the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Like the rest of what we’ve seen of Days of Future Past, the movie’s take on the trigger event is based very directly on the comic, with some major modifications. In the original story, the assassin was Mystique, leading an autonomous brotherhood — but her targets were Charles Xavier, Moira McTaggart, and hardline anti-mutant senator Robert Kelly, whose cinematic counterpart died in 2000′sX-Men and was later impersonated by Mystique.
To find out just how closely the rest of Days of Future Past adheres to the comic, will have to wait until flick hits theaters May 23, 2014 — or they’ll have to hope more of these teaser sites are on the way.
The Brand is using Coca-Cola’s rights as an NCAA official Corporate Champion to tie-in March Madness with its new ‘It’s Not Your Fault’ campaign. Part of the brand’s umbrella ‘Enjoy Everything’ initiative, this new light-hearted, fun creative celebrates ‘guys-being-guys’ as the soft drink brand aims to connect male bonding to college basketball’s end-of-season national championship.
The campaign takes a lighthearted and comedic approach to say that with Coke Zero you can Enjoy Everything in life. “It’s Not Your Fault” also celebrates guys-being-guys. The Enjoy Everything campaign has evolved on the notion of owning quintessential guy moments of bonding and camaraderie, from sports and entertainment to humor, gaming and music.
“We’re talking to men more overtly with ‘It’s Not Your Fault’,” said Pio Schunker, SVP and Head of Integrated Marketing Communications, North America Group. “We’re positioning Coke Zero as a defender and celebrator of guy enjoyment.
The new campaign rolls out during NCAA® March Madness® debuting a 30-second television advertisement entitled March Madness.
The narrative’s message is simple – it’s not your fault you can’t do anything but watch basketball during NCAA March Madness – and the work has been created in partnership with creative agency Droga5 New York, media agency Starcom MediaVest Group, Turner and the NCAA.
Follow up commercials within the campaign also include Gumbel, Schedules, Emotions, Scholastics, History, Statistics and Technology
Another strand of the campaign sees Coke Zero partner with talk show host Conan O’Brien: the TV chat star, whose evening show will move from LA to Atlanta for selected programmes during the tournament and will be sponsored by the soft drink, will appear in a bespoke Coke Zero TV spot towards the culmination of the competition and the brand’s “It’s Not Your Fault” campaign will link with the show. Coke Zero is also backing a Conan music series with performances in Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta. Andy Richter, the Conan sidekick, will emcee them. Big name musicians are also set to headline the ‘Conan Coke Zero Music Series’ on the ‘Road to the Final Four’, while Coke Zero and Conan are also co-creating a bespoke ‘It’s Not Your Fault’ promotional spot.
The campaign is also running on the official March Madness Live mobile app, in-game broadcast enhancements and a funny Slideshare Presentation.
This presentation offers a detailed exploration into all the reasons why man is unable to do anything but watch basketball during the NCAA tournament… View the presentation on Slideshare: http://CokeURL.com/nl4t
“Coke Zero has experienced quarter after quarter growth and success, and we hope to see this campaign continue the momentum. ‘It’s Not Your Fault’ is launching in a big way through universal guy assets like NCAA March Madness and a co-branded promotional spot with CONAN,” said Andy McMillin, VP, Coke Trademark, North America Group. “Coke Zero brand attributes are well established, now it’s time for the brand to make the next big leap to connect with its drinkers. The brand definitely is evolving.”
Advertising Agency: Buzzman, Paris, France CEO / Creative Director: Georges Mohammed-Chérif Art Director: Louis Audard Copywriter: Tristan Daltroff Art Director Assistant: Clément Séchet Year: 2013
TNT TV Channel – Dramatic surprise on an ice-cold day
Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume Modem, Brussels Creative Director: Geoffrey Hantson, Katrien Bottez Copywriter: Dieter De Ridder Art Director: Ad Van Ongeval Production Company: Czar Director: Koen Mortier Year: 2013
Fantastic Delites – How Far Would You Go?
The Delite-o-matic is an interactive vending machine that dispenses free packs of Fantastic Delites simply by pushing a button hundreds of times or by performing challenges. The Delite-o-matic was put out on the streets to prove that because Fantastic Delites taste so good, people will go to incredible lengths to get their hands on them.
Advertising Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Australia Creative Director: Karl Fleet Digital Creative / Art Director: Oliver Prenton Digital Creative / Copywriter: Matt O’Grady Year: 2012
TNT TV Channel – Big Red Push Button
To launch the high quality TV channel TNT in Belgium we placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text “Push to add drama” invited people to use the button.
Advertising Agency: Duval Guillaume Modem, Brussels Creative Director: Geoffrey Hantson, Katrien Bottez Copywriter: Dieter De Ridder Art Director: Ad Van Ongeval Production Company: Czar Director: Koen Mortier Year: 2012
Coca-Cola – Happiness Truck
A Coca-Cola delivery truck is converted into a happiness machine on wheels delivering “doses” of happiness in the streets of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Where will happiness strike next?
Advertising Agency: Definition 6, Atlanta Year: 2011
“This represents an unprecedented experiment in hiper-individualizing a commercial print publication” Nick Gillespie, Editor-in-Chief of Reason, in the June 2004 issue
Monthly libertarian magazine Reason pulled off the ultimate in customized publishing when its 40.000 subscribers received their June 2004 copy with a satellite photo of their own neighbourhood on the cover and their house circled in red. On the back cover readers found adverts customized to them and their neighbourhood. The stunt accompanied the magazine’s cover article about the power and importance of databases to customize information.
When the 40,000 subscribers to Reason, the monthly libertarian magazine, receive a copy of the June issue, they will see on the cover a satellite photo of a neighborhood – their own neighborhood. And their house will be graphically circled.
On one level, the project, sort of the ultimate in customized publishing, is unsurprising: of course a magazine knows where its subscribers live. But it is still a remarkable demonstration of the growing number of ways databases can be harnessed. Apart from the cover image, several advertisements are customized to reflect the recipient’s particulars.
Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason, said the magazine, with an editorial mission of “Free Minds, Free Markets,” used the stunt to illustrate the cover article about the power and importance of databases.
“Our story is man bites dog,” Mr. Gillespie said. “Everybody, including our magazine, has been harping on the erosion of privacy and the fears of a database nation. It is a totally legit fear. But they make our lives unbelievably easier as well, in terms of commercial transactions, credit, you name it.”
Rodger Cosgrove, president of Entremedia, a direct marketing firm and a member of Reason’s board, assisted in coming up with a program that allows the subscriber list to be integrated with satellite photographs. He also worked with Xeikon, the manufacturer of the printer that made the endless customization possible.
“They were interested in showing what this technology could do,” he said, “and we were interested in demonstrating the power of databases to customize information.”
The cover article, written by Declan McCullagh, suggests that while databases can lead to breaches in privacy, it allows Dell to provide instant credit to computer buyers, grocery stores to stock goods that their customers want, and mortgage lenders to keep their rates down.
“It’s obvious that databases provide enormous benefits to modern life,” said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “We could no more operate without computer databases than we could without electricity.”
“That doesn’t mean that there aren’t still some serious debates to have about government databases,” he added, “including the monitoring of the general American public under John Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness program and the passenger profiling that has gone on.”
In some respects, Reason’s cover stunt is less Big Brother than one more demonstration that micromarketing is here to stay. “My son gets sports catalogs where his name is imprinted on the jerseys that are on the cover,” Mr. Rotenberg said. “He thinks that’s very cool.”
In his editor’s note describing the magazine’s database package, Mr. Gillispie left open three spots – commuting time, educational attainment and percentage of children living with grandparents – so he could adapt his message to individual readers. Mr. Gillespie said that the parlor trick could have profound implications as database and printing capabilities grow.
“What if you received a magazine that only had stories and ads that you were interested in and pertained to you?” he asked. “That would be a magazine that everyone would want to read.”
To generate a buzz leading up to the season premiere of Parco PI on the American network Court TV (now truTV), a show that revolved heavily around the subject of adultery, a campaign was conjured up that – at first glance – looked like every cheating man’s worst nightmare. A fictitious character called Emily seemed set on exposing her husband’s adulterous ways for the whole world to see and having her revenge. In a blog Emily drew readers into the story of how she came to realize that her husband was cheating on her. Within several days, the blog had received over a million hits and Emily was getting requests for media appearances at a national level. The narrative laid the foundation for a series of billboards on which Emily declared “Fourteen Days of Wrath” against her cheating husband, Steven. Four of the Fourteen Days of Wrath were actual staged events in New York City. When Emily threw out her cheating husband’s belongings, the drama was captured on a hand-held camcorder and uploaded to video-sharing sites.
The campaign as a whole was covered by over 200 news sources on-air, online and in print.
From New York Times. By Julie Bosman (July 24, 2006)
It was the pitch-perfect vengeful Dear John letter, blown up on a billboard in the middle of Manhattan by a furious and apparently deep-pocketed spouse.
“Hi Steven,” it began, cheerily enough. “Do I have your attention now? I know all about her, you dirty, sneaky, immoral, unfaithful, poorly endowed slimeball. Everything’s caught on tape. Your (soon-to-be-ex) Wife, Emily.”
The billboard created interest, and not just from an unfaithful Steven. A booking agent from “Good Morning America” sent an e-mail to Emily inviting her on the show. British Glamour wanted to make her the subject of a feature article.
But when pictures of the billboard proliferated on Gawker, Defamer and other blogs, readers quickly dug in. One fact soon emerged, thanks to camera phone pictures: the billboard was identical to others in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Chicago. Someone else discovered that Emily was keeping a blog, thatgirlemily.blogspot.com, detailing Steven’s infidelities. More digging showed that one Emily blog entry was oddly similar to a synopsis for an episode of “Parco P.I.,” a reality show on Court TV.
Another “source” sent an e-mail to Gawker suggesting that Court TV was behind the signs, pointing out that it was a viral marketing campaign to promote one of its programs. Mystery solved.
The bad news for viral marketers who use these kind of devices: executives at Court TV said they did not really want to be discovered so quickly. The good news is that even after the ruse was discovered, people visited the Emily blog, pushing it to one million hits by the end of Thursday. A fake surveillance video on the blog, supposedly from a private eye capturing Steven holding hands with his paramour, hit YouTube and became one of its most-viewed videos. Did it even matter that Emily was fictitious?
“Emily is really an amalgam of all of us who have been cheated on,” said Marc Juris, general manager for programming and marketing at Court TV. “Clearly, this really resonated with people.”
Whether it resonates into higher ratings for “Parco P.I.” is another matter. The “Emily” ruse was originally intended to be a stunt to help promote the start of the show’s new season on Aug. 15, but Court TV’s marketing group liked the idea so much that they made it a large part of the campaign. The second phase — ads for the show to be stamped over the original billboards — was to start next Monday, but Court TV moved it up to July 26 after all the attention.
Mr. Juris was still marveling: “It’s like a flash investigation took place, and within 24 hours we were busted.”
Advertising Agency: Amalgamated NYC, USA Copywriter: Tommy Noonan Copywriter: Jon Yasgur Account Manager: Judy Goldfarb Creative Director: JASON GABORIAU Creative Director: Doug Cameron Year: 2006
Though he was not the first artist to create an image of Santa Claus for Coca-Cola advertising, Haddon Sundblom’s version became the standard for other Santa renditions and is the most-enduring and widespread depiction of the holiday icon to this day. Coca-Cola’s Santa artworks would change the world’s perception of the North Pole’s most-famous resident forever and would be adopted by people around the world as the popular image of Santa.
In the 1920s, The Coca-Cola Company began to promote soft drink consumption for the winter holidays in U.S. magazines. The first Santa ads for Coke used a strict-looking Claus. In 1930, a Coca-Cola advertised with a painting by Fred Mizen, showing a department store Santa impersonator drinking a bottle of Coke amid a crowd of shoppers and their children.
Not long after, a magical transformation took place. Archie Lee, then the agency advertising executive for The Coca-Cola Company, wanted the next campaign to show a wholesome Santa as both realistic and symbolic. In 1931, the Company commissioned Haddon Sundblom, a Michigan-born illustrator and already a creative giant in the industry, to develop advertising images using Santa Claus. Sundblom envisioned this merry gentleman as an opposite of the meager look of department store Santa imitators from early 20th century America.
Sundblom turned to Clement Moore’s classic poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (better known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”) for inspiration:
His eyes — how they twinkled! His dimples: how merry, His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry; His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow
The ode’s description of the jolly old elf inspired Sundblom to create an image of Santa that was friendly, warm and human, a big change from the sometimes-harsh portrayals of Santa up to that time. He painted a perfectly lovable patron saint of the season, with a white beard flowing over a long red coat generously outlined with fur, an enormous brass buckle fastening a broad leather belt, and large, floppy boots.
Sundblom’s Santa was very different from the other Santa artworks: he radiated warmth, reminded people of their favorite grandfather, a friendly man who lived life to the fullest, loved children, enjoyed a little honest mischief, and feasted on snacks left out for him each Christmas Eve . Coca-Cola’s Christmas campaign featuring this captivating Santa ran year after year.
As distribution of Coca-Cola and its ads spread farther around the world, Sundblom’s Santa Claus became more memorable each season, in more and more countries. The character became so likable, The Coca-Cola Company and Haddon Sundblom struck a partnership that would last for decades. Over a span of 33 years, Haddon Sundblom painted imaginative versions of the “Coca-Cola Santa Claus” for for Coke advertising, retail displays and posters.
Sundblom initially modeled Santa’s smiling face after the cheerful looks of a friend, retired salesman Lou Prentiss. “He embodied all the features and spirit of Santa Claus,” Sundblom said. “The wrinkles in his face were happy wrinkles.” After Prentiss passed away, the Swedish-American Sundblom used his own face as the ongoing reference for painting the now-enduring, modern image of Santa Claus.
In 1951, Sundblom captured the Coca-Cola Santa “making his list and checking it twice.” However, the ads did not acknowledge that bad children existed and showed pages of good boys and girls only. Mischievous and magical, the Coca-Cola Santa was not above raiding the refrigerator during his annual rounds, stealing a playful moment with excited children and pets, or pausing to enjoy a Coca-Cola during stops on his one-night, worldwide trek. When air adventures became popular, Santa also could be caught playing with a toy helicopter around the tree.
Haddon Sundblom passed away in 1976, but The Coca-Cola Company continues to use a variety of his timeless depictions of Saint Nicholas in holiday advertising, packaging and other promotional activities. The classic Coca-Cola Santa images created by Sundblom are as ubiquitous today as the character they represent and have become universally accepted as the personification of the patron saint of both children and Christmas.
As Joanna Berry, Lecturer in Marketing at Newcastle University Business School, explains: “Whilst Sundblom didn’t invent Santa as the jolly, white haired rotund old man we all now expect, he certainly did more than anyone to imprint that image onto our minds in relation to Coca-Cola in one of the most enduring brand images ever to have been created.”
The world is filled with beautiful moments worth capturing. You just have to see them. Also, buy a Canon Rebel T4i camera and carry it with you all the time. That way, whenever inspiration strikes, you’ll be ready to snap a photo you can save forever. Also, Canon will sell more Canon Rebels.
“Inspired” is a new ad for the brand from Grey in New York features a montage of adventurous photographers braving environmental hazards to get that special shot. The spot does a particularly nice job of portraying the product users as the heroes of the story: their antics are by varying degrees entertaining (trying to outrun a charging giraffe, staring down an irate fishmonger) and stupid-dangerous (climbing to the edge of an icy roof to get a better angle on the kid making snow angels in an empty pool). The resulting pictures are all marvelous, and so is the filming of the spot itself, showing all the right attention to detail—e.g., the birthday girl’s sideway glance when her mom nonchalantly sweeps a bowl off the table to get it out of the frame.
The director, Nicolai Fuglsig, also shot Fallon’s Balls spot. He appears to have an affinity for steep roads and the effects of gravity on unusual objects—in that case innumerable bouncy balls, and in this case a flaming tire. The soundtrack is Rachel Fannan of the California rock group Only You singing a charmingly understated version of the easily mawkish classic “Beautiful Dreamer,” and it’s pretty much perfect for the spot. Canon or someone should probably post or sell the whole song somewhere obvious soon. People are going to want to hear it.
Figuring out how exactly the lofty tagline, “Long live imagination,” ties into an ad about making concrete records of inspiring moments may take a few steps of abstraction. But in the end, it does make sense, and the conceit, with all its overtones of creativity and immortality, is pretty much dead-on for an ad aimed at people who want to be artists. Advertising Agency: Grey, New York Chief Creative Officer: Tor Myhren Executive Creative Directors: Ari Halper, Steve Krauss Creative Directors: Stu Mair, Dave Cuccinello Production Company: MJZ, Los Angeles Director: Nicolai Fuglsig Year: 2012