Prankvertising, which was all the rage a few years back but lately has been on the wane, returns with a vengeance in this potent drunk-driving PSA for nonprofit We Save Lives. 

Created by Bravo/Y&R Miami and Paraná Films, the three-minute web video, "Reflections From Inside," features footage shot in two disparate locations—the men's bathroom of a bar in Los Angeles, and the RMC Correctional Facility in Lake Butler, Fla.

Yes, previous ad pranks have surprised folks in public restrooms. And several have used mirrors as primary props. Ultimately, however, those stunts were revealed as brand builders, touting high-tech wares, horror movies and the like. 

Here, the tipsy bros gazing into the bathroom glass to check their look are in for a seriously sobering experience. 

Watch the clip below: 



As in most prankvertising, nothing is quite what it seems. Though the man in the mirror, Kris Caudilla, really is serving a 15-year sentence for the vehicular manslaughter of a police officer, he doesn't actually interact in real-time with the bar patrons. 

Live broadcasting from prisons is prohibited, so the looking-glass footage was shot in advance. Through clever editing, however, Caudilla appears to have conversations with the guys he urges to avoid driving drunk and find safe transport home. (Neither agency nor client would disclose whether the patrons were warned in advance that something strange might happen at the bar.) 

"We started by reaching out to about 10 corrections departments across the country" and searching through DUI manslaughter cases, agency creative director Federico Hauri tells AdFreak. "Our outreach led to a dialogue with Kris Caudilla, and it soon became clear that he had deep regrets and remorse that he felt would be important to share." 

Indeed, Caudilla adopts the perfect tone; he's low-key and genuinely affecting as he tells his story: "One night, I was drinking out with friends … got in the car, drove … killed somebody. The man I killed was a police officer. He had four children, a wife, and I took him away from them. I made the choice to drink. I made the choice to get in the car. You don't have to make that choice."

The mirror serves as a potent reminder that every day, for the rest of his life, Caudilla will have to face the horror of his actions. 

"He was perfect—so natural," says Candace Lightner, founder of both We Save Lives and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "I was a bit concerned about how my victim followers would feel when they saw this video, but they have been phenomenal, even sharing and commenting."

Another inmate considered for the video was nixed because "the prison wanted us to get permission from the victim's family before they would allow us to film the convicted driver," Lightner says. "I talked to the family at length, but the mother wasn't amenable—completely understandable."

The men's-room scenario "grew out of an insight that most people drinking and driving think it will not happen to them," especially men 25-34, Hauri says. "We thought it would be very powerful for our target to see a real-life example of someone who was convicted of DUI manslaughter." 

This marks the second time in recent weeks that prison inmates have appeared in provocative PSAs. It's less intense and polarizing than the Polish Red Cross campaign in which convicted murderers are seen taking first-aid classes while in prison.

Still, We Save Lives tells a compelling story in a powerful way. Hopefully viewers will take time for some serious reflection and make smart choices when faced with situations where they might be tempted to drive after having a few too many. 

Just in time for 4/20 (the unofficial holiday for lightin' a blunt), French biscuit maker Granola is taking on the munchies.

"Late Night Drama" is an ad for Granola Night Assistance, which will enable late-night fridge-rovers to score a Granola bar, wherever they may be, between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. through the month of April.

Created by agency Marcel, the operatic ad features youths engaging in nighttime shenanigans of varying weirdness, only to be stopped in their tracks by the dreaded rumbly in their tumblies. Trippily enough, the ad reveals that the background music is sung by a cartoon stomach on TV ... just before a disembodied hand of God penetrates the night sky to offer our hungry heroes a giant Granola bar.

No, we're not high. But the creative team probably was!



"Big nights call for big munchies," the ad concludes, before pushing #NightAssistance, which will be available throughout the French market. (This might not seem like a big deal to you, but finding food in France at night is like pulling teeth out of the mouth of a live shark. While stoned.) 

It's not totally clear how #NightAssistance works—probably because it isn't nighttime yet. There's a section on the website where you can find Granola bars for sale based on your city and what day it is, as well as a "talking" stomach that you can chat with, which so far has just said things like, "Go back and live with your mom." (We're assuming he'll be more useful when night falls.)

The film was directed by Trevor Clarence of Blue Production, and will be supported by Facebook and Twitter activations. 

CREDITS

Mondelez - Granola – Clients
Bertrand Goursolle (Marketing Director)
Matthieu Guignard (Marketing Manager)
Violaine Menard (Senior Brand Manager)
Charlotte Duplantier (Brand Manager)
Thomas Thibord (Brand Manager)
Marcel – Creative agency
Pascal Nessim / Charles Georges-Picot (CEOs)
Anne de Maupeou (Creative Chairman)
Dimitri Guerassimov / Fabien Teichner (Chief Creative Officers)
Jeremie Bottiau (Creative Director)
Geoffrey Masse (Art Director)
Nicolas Mouquet (Copywriter)
Olivier Sebag (General Manager)
Benjamin Taieb (Associate Director)
Vanessa Peronny (Account Executive)
Barbara Cruchet (Project Manager)
Ghislain Tenneson (Head of Planning)
Leoda Esteve (Strategic Planner)
Jeanne Neuschwander (Account Executive)
Raphael Catherin (Social Media Manager)
Lionel Bui (Digital Creative Director)
Samantha De-Biaisi (Digital Art Director)
Louis Da Silva (Technical Director)
Renaud Cacciani (Technical Project Manager)
Cedric Gagnaire (Technical Project Manager)
Charles Coulais / Paul Vanlerberghe / Ando Razafimandimby (Developer)
Vadim Vichniakov (UX designer)
Nathalie Roland / Mélanie Colléou (PR Directors)
Prodigious – TV production
Elodie Jonquille (Tv Producer)
Blue - Production Company
Trevor Clarence (Director)
Kasia Choppin (Producer)
Your Girlfriend – Executive production company
Linda Boggle (Exe. Producer)
Medialab & One More – Post production company
Agnieszka Kozbial (Post-producer Director Medialab)
Benjamin Darras (CEO / Executive Producer One More)
Prodigious – Sound & music production company
Brice Davoli (Composer)
Boris Nicou (Sound & Music Producer)
Carat France – Media Agency
Aline SCAULTZ (Associate Director)
Marion LE BAIL (Senior Consultant)
Ludovic HILAIRE (Deputy Managing Director)
 

Sagami Original Condoms has filmed animal courtship rituals as performed by humans, and the results are both strange and seductive. 

Talented dancers, dressed in the colors of the respective animals, do an amazing job of recreating the hops, wiggles and foot wobbles of our bestial brethren. See how many of the animals you can guess before the reveal at the end. (I only got three.) 



The spot was directed by Greg Brunkalla of Stink, with creative by White Briefs. But it's more than just a great video. You can also visit the website, Act of Love, which has some amazing dancing icons and descriptions for 73 different animals. And if you're really, really into it, buy the coffee table book, Act of Love—billed as the world's only visual dictionary of animal courtship rituals.

But the real question is, why did a condom brand film humans pretending to be animals?

Above and beyond the encouragement to go and do it like animals, Sagami Original seems to have seized upon the realization that love is a verb. As they put it on the site, "Perhaps humans talk too much. We use too many words and misunderstand each other. We think too much and end up feeling afraid. But animals don't worry over their decisions. They act out of need and express themselves instinctively. This is pure strength, and primal love. Whether human or animal, loving means taking action."

And if you're getting some action, you're going to need some condoms.

Distracted driving is a serious problem. But while the stats are staggering—3,100 dead and 424,000 injured in crashes involving distracted drivers in the U.S. in 2013—they remain just numbers, without much visceral pull.

SR22Agency.com wanted to change that—to show distracted driving in real time. So, it set up cameras over I-95 in Florida, filmed for 20 minutes and examined the footage to see how many drivers weren't fully focused on the road.

Some 2,151 cars were filmed in all. Check out the disturbing footage here.



It's a pretty great experiment. And the way it's been shot and edited, making the road look like a raceway—which, let's face it, it is, however insulated you feel going 70 in your glassed-in vehicle—has a chilling effect.

Here are the numbers from the experiment: Of the 2,151 total drivers, 185 of them (8.6 percent) were distracted. Of those 185 drivers, 81 percent were talking on the phone; just over 9 percent were texting; more than 6 percent were eating; and more than 3 percent were otherwise distracted.

SR22Agency.com has lots more info about the problem of distracted driving on this website. One caveat: It is legal in Florida to talk on the phone while driving. If you don't consider talking on the phone to be distracted driving, the numbers go down significantly.

SR22Agency.com is an organization that creates original research around issues concerning drivers around the country. It also provides resources to those seeking information about an SR22, a vehicle liability insurance document required by most state DMV offices for high-risk insurance policies.

Equal Pay Day is happening Tuesday in the U.S., thanks to the American Association of University Women. And you don't have to attend the 3 Percent Conference to know that the gender gap is painfully real both within and beyond the American advertising industry. 

But the professional divide between men and women is even more stark in certain societies.

According to a recent study by the World Economic Forum, Romania ranks very close to last among European Union countries on matters of gender equality despite passing a "Law for Equality of Opportunity among Men and Women" in 2002. 

The Bucharest offices of MRM/McCann recently partnered with French-style bakery chain Paul to bring attention to this ongoing struggle with some sweet treats bearing a very sharp message—real pies that double as pie charts outlining the problem. 

The project includes such delicacies as "The Misrepresentation Cake," which notes that men make up 88 percent of Romania's parliament, and a "Startup Exclusion Cake," revealing that the number of Romanian entrepreneurs who are women (13 percent) is almost as shamefully small as the number who serve in government. There's also the "Extremely Rich Cake," which shows that just one of Romania's 25 wealthiest people is a woman. 



"The bittersweet project takes a mission to spread the data, create awareness, and spark conversation in every household in Romania about the importance of closing this gap," says MRM/McCann CEO and chief creative officer Nir Refuah, noting Romania's poor showing in the World Economic Forum study.

The pattiserie, Paul, claims that the "bittersweet" pies are the world's first-ever "social desserts line." "The CSR project has started from a social issue every Romanian woman faced at least once in her life," says the company's CMO, Monica Eftimie. "Knowing from research data that sweets are more often consumed by women than by men, we are launching a range of cakes to spark the conversation about gender inequality, inviting women to take the necessary steps for having the same rights as men have." 

Those steps will involve far more than a series of conversations over dessert, but all progress is welcome. As the 2015 U.N. Women "He for She" project's tagline put it, "Gender equality is not just a women's issue; it's a human rights issue that benefits everyone."

Five percent of the cake project's revenue goes to the FILIA Foundation, a nonprofit that will use the funds to train rural women to compete more effectively in the modern job market.

Last week, we looked at a project from a Brazilian photographer who invited friends over and took their photos after one, two and three glasses of wine. That seemed like a fun exercise in shedding inhibitions.

This week, we're featuring a project from Trinidadian-born, New York City-based photographer Patrick Struys that was surely a lot more awkward for the people involved.

For the "Porn Portraits" series, Struys had his subjects sit in a viewing booth and watch five and a half minutes of pornography—a video he assembled personally—and took their photos by positioning the camera lens through a peephole. The reactions are pretty amusing, ranging from laughter to shock to sheer embarrassment.

Check out a bunch of the photos here: 

The subjects knew they were being photographed, which was part of the concept. And that created a complex dynamic—the subjects are reacting to being watched watching porn, as much as they are reacting to the porn itself. This makes them charmingly vulnerable, which they each deal with in their own way. 

"Being photographed for the whole duration of the film addressed head on the way the subjects expressed themselves when faced with sex in a nonsexual or 'public' situation," Struys tells AdFreak.

Struys says he tried to make the video as inclusive as possible to every person's sexual orientation and/or tastes. The subject themselves appear to be naked, too, though actually they weren't. "The women were actually wearing tube tops, and the men were shirtless," Struys says. "The intention to have them appear naked was driven by the fact that people usually are in some 'state of nakedness' when they are being sexual—whether that is participating or watching in private."

Laughter was a very common reaction to the awkward situation. "The reactions were great," Struys says. "Obviously, initially people did laugh or smile. However, usually about two or three mins in is when I would get their more 'honest' or 'natural' reactions.' "

Struys believes his presence as a straight man heavily influenced the results.

"It became very obvious to me that women and gay men were much more comfortable showing their interest or expressing their sexuality in front of a straight man behind the camera," he says. "That was something I hadn't really taken into consideration when I first started. I wasn't expecting to encounter as many of those moments. However, all the straight men seemed very uncomfortable watching the film with me present and expressed this by laughing, joking and talking throughout the entire shoot."

See lots more of the photos below.

Pages Jaunes—the French Yellow Pages—just launched an interactive music video for Breakbot's latest single, "My Toy." This may sound like a weird combination. But think about how much creative, local and artisanal color gets involved in productions like this. If you never have before, that's fine; it's usually hidden in the background. 

Not this time. 

The non-interactive video, which kicked off the #BreakbotxYellowPages campaign, went live in a global Pitchfork exclusive last week (we'll get to the content later): 



On Breakbot.pagesjaunes.fr, you can watch the whole thing with a layer you can play with. To the top left of your screen, you're told how many small-business professionals worked on each scene, VH1 Pop-Up Video style. 

When you click on the screen, the action freezes and little interaction bubbles guide you to videos about who did what—everyone from makeup artists, to a custom umbrella maker, to a neon vendor are showcased in about 34 videos. (They're all in French, natch, but some videos with subtitles appear below.) 

Here's a scene for an interaction point about an esthetician: 



You probably think the Yellow Pages, whose fat yellow books would make a brick cower in fear, are the perfect symbol for the world we left behind in our race toward bionic supremacy. But in France, Pages Jaunes is still going strong—and remains among the top 10 French media sites, scoring a whopping 15 million unique visitors per month.

Pages Jaunes started going digital deep in the '90s. The company is super mobile and tablet-friendly—its app has been downloaded 21.9 million times—and has made it a mission to bring small-business owners to digital, even going so far as to build them white-label websites (making it the No. 1 website creator for French professionals). 

So, it's managed to keep up with the times. 

But it's still hard to understand how Sid Lee, a young agency best known for its work on Adidas, sold the world's most old-school phone directory on a music video about a lady who builds her own sexbot. (Unlike his Ex Machina counterpart, who went rogue, this android looks terrified... at least until the orgy.) 

We went to Sid Lee's Paris offices on Tuesday morning to find out what this madness was all about. Executive creative director and partner Sylvain Thirache and managing director and partner Johan Delpuech were nice enough not to throw us out. Here's a nice picture of them, so you know whose faces to imagine while they talk: 



Asked how the client managed to stay hip with the flowering conglomos of tomorrow, especially in a country that prides itself on wary tech adoption, Delpuech explained: "Pages Jaunes maintains a very close relationship with small-business owners. And when their business started changing, it adapted fast to respond to their needs." 

But faced with competitors like Airbnb, Google, TripAdvisor and food delivery services like Deliveroo and AlloResto, Pages Jaunes is under pressure to attract a younger target under constant assault. In fact, according to Delpuech, Pages Jaunes considers itself a competitor to any and all Uberization of French services. 

That's a lot of enemies. 

"People think it's still a book," admitted Thirache. "It needed to modernize its image to compete."

"We wanted to do something that would feel modern but still relatable," Delpuech said. "Breakbot is part of Ed Banger records, which launched French electronic bands like Justice, Sebastian, and DJ Mehdi. It's helped share French artists throughout the world, and is a modern expression of our culture. For us, Breakbot anchored that modernity." 

Thus a collaboration was born. But how'd they punt the idea? 

"We wanted something emotional that would showcase the beautiful and unique work of local small businesses," said Thirache. "We told them we wanted to respect the artist's vision."

Even if that vision, Delpuech noted, "is an erotic dream. It's a woman who makes a toy that can bring the Kama Sutra to life!" 

To their surprise, Pages Jaunes got it immediately. "It's tricky for agencies to surprise their clients, but they felt it was strategically sound," Delpuech said. "Each scene was built from the ground up by a small-business owner. Normally at a shoot, you want to work with a minimum of people. But we had to turn that around—we needed to find the maximum number of people to get involved."

Over the course of four months, Sid Lee scoured the country to round up the most interesting collaborators. This is the result of that. 

"What we like about Pages Jaunes is that they kept small, local businesses central to their mission," Delpuech said. "One in two French people don't make a doctor's appointment because they don't want to wait. And most people don't know that, like TripAdvisor and Expedia, it contains reviews. Unlike them, those reviews are certified. They're purists. And to help advance small business, 1,900 local commercial counselors exist to help with everything from SEO to building websites."

French hipsters can expect to catch #BreakbotxYellowPages on Elle.fr, Glamour, Rock en Seine and Facebook, not to mention on the sites and videos of influencers. Radio stations are talking about it, too—and rarely play the song without talking about the overall campaign, Delpuech proudly added.

Below are a few subtitled videos of the French businesses that helped make this randy robot tale happen. 

Neon light manufacturers from Chaville:

The Parisian dry cleaner (because it pays to stay fresh):

The costume seller from Soissons:

Anémone, the swimwear designer from Biarritz—because where else would you get your swimsuits, and isn't her name perfect?!

The clothing designer from Paris:

The Parisian florists:

As Breakbot so melodically put it, "Break the rules. Let's do something we never do." 

CREDITS

Client: Pages Jaunes

Agency: Sid Lee Paris:
Executive Creative Director: Sylvain Thirache
Creative Directors: Céline et Clément Mornet Landa
Art Directors: Yoann Plard, Jules Jolly
Managing Partner: Johan Delpuech
Deputy General Manager: Bruno Lee
Account Director: Jean-baptiste Destabeau
Account Manager: Thomas Lec'hvien
Production Director: Thomas Laget
Producer: Pauline Couten
Digital production Director: David Bismut
Digital producer: Clément Cassajus
Brand Management PagesJaunes:
Executive Director: Christophe Pingard
Deputy Executive Director: Julien Ampollini
Brand and Advertising Director SoLocal Group: Gérard Lenepveu
Advertising and Media Manager SoLocal Group: Yann Drumare
Communication Manager: Isabelle Druesne

Production:
Artist: Breakbot
Label: EdBanger Records
Record Company: Because music

Director "My Toy" clip : AB / CD / CD
Production "My Toy" clip: Partizan
Director Brand Content: Dimitri Pailhe
Digital Production: 60fps

Fashion designer: Xénia Gasull
Choreographer: Catherine Ematchoua

Laser-beam blue and spray-tan orange.

Those are the scary shades of common household cleaning products that make Maya Rudolph uncomfortable, as she describes them in a new campaign for Seventh Generation.

The actress and comic—an alum of Saturday Night Live and movies like Idiocracy, Bridesmaids and Sisters—stars in three ads for the environmentally friendly packaged goods marketer. It's the first work for the master brand from 72andSunny's New York office. 

In "Weird Dyes," Rudolph laments the Day-Glo nature of conventional soaps—including one she describes as "Yippee ki-yay yellow," a moment that can't help but evoke Die Hard (though John McClane's filthy tanktop is nowhere to be seen, even if it could serve as a fitting product demo). 



In "Common Scents," she takes aim at the fake smells that grace the labels of the same products, indicting fantastical offenders like "Fiji Funk," "Cabo Clean" and "Siberian Sunbeam" (because nothing says warm and welcoming like the tundra). 



And in "Not Blue Goo," she sets her sights on traditional laundry detergents, dinging them for distorting the colors of the clothes they're meant to clean. (Competitors would likely counter that the effect is actually meant to counteract natural yellowing, and is therefore desirable—but that's for the chemists to duke out.) 



Overall, Rudolph—a mother of four and an actual user of Seventh Generation products, according to the company—is a reasonable fit for the strategy. Highlighting the impossible, industrial colors of less natural soaps is a relatively clean and clear way to emphasize Seventh Generation's core proposition.

She gets that point across well enough, even if the moments she has to play her delivery straight feel the most contrived, and the least entertaining—as if the copy might be trying a bit too hard to charm viewers. 

By contrast, the ads work best when Rudolph's oddball side shines through, with her left-field kickers clocking in as the best parts. Take the brilliantly creepy "Clear as an angel's giggle" punch line in "Weird Dyes." Or the moment when she throws her voice while dangling a T-shirt with her own face on it at the end of a 15-second cut of "Not Blue Goo." It's one of the more entertaining attempts to play up a campaign hashtag ever (even if the :30 sadly takes it in a different direction).

All in all, it's a solid showing, building on 72andSunny's strong send-up of millennial advertising for Seventh Generation's reusable water bottle brand, Bobble, last fall.

It's probably worth noting, though, that brightly hued soaps are nowhere near as disconcerting as the sports drinks that also look like window cleaning fluid—even if Gatorade is what plants crave.

CREDITS

Client: Seventh Generation, Inc
General Manager & Chief Marketing Officer: Joey Bergstein
Senior Brand Manager: Julian Blazewicz

Agency: 72andSunny New York
Managing Director: James Townsend
Executive Creative Director: Guillermo Vega
Director of Production: Lora Schulson
Director of Strategy: Tim Jones
Creative Director/Designer: Wei Wei Dong
Creative Director/Writer: Matthew Carey
Designer: Rob McQueen
Writer: Matt Vitou
Executive Producer: Kerli Teo
Sr. Producer: Ryan Chong
Strategy Director: Marshall Ball
Sr. Strategist: Jennifer Lewis
Strategist: Carol Chan
Group Brand Director: Marianne Pizzi
Co-Brand Directors: Brittni Hutchins & Lauren Smith
Brand Manager: Jonathan Weiss
Interactive Producer: Vishal Dheiman
Jr. Art Producer: Brigitte Bishop
Business Affairs Director: Julie Balster
Business Affairs Manager: Marissa Burnett
Jr. Business Affairs Manager: Laura Fraser

Production Company: Pretty Bird
Director: Matt Piedmont
Executive Producer / Vice President: Ali Brown
Producer: Bernard Rahill

Editorial
Editor: Patrick Colman
Assistant Editor: Andre Castiglioni
Executive Producer: Sarah Roebuck
Head of Production: Jen Sienkwicz
Producer: Penny Ensley

VFX Production Company: Method NY / Company 3
Executive Producer: Angela Lupo
Sr VFX Producer: Heather Saunders
Lead Flame: Tom McCullough

Colorist: Tom Poole

Sound Design & Mixing
Nylon Studios NY
Sound Engineer: Rob Ballingall
Sr Producer: Halle Petro

Procter & Gamble's Secret deodorant is launching an interesting campaign from Wieden + Kennedy that looks at larger, generational reasons why young women sweat—often because of political, gender-based struggles—and not just their more random individual reasons.

The new brand campaign, themed "Stress Tested for Women," begins with the 60-second spot below, titled "Raise." The plot is simple: A young professional woman is psyching herself up in the bathroom at work to ask her boss for more money.

Check out the spot here: 

It's nicely shot (by Aoife McArdle) and very well acted. The scene is full of real drama, as our heroine tries out different approaches in the mirror—and suffers through a horrifying moment when she realizes she isn't alone (though her potential enemy thankfully turns out to be an ally).

Janine Miletic, brand director for North America deodorants at P&G, said the approach here isn't exactly new—that Secret has always shown women's evolving role in society through its advertising. The new campaign, she added, is based around an insight into "stress sweat," which P&G says is biologically different than physically induced sweat.

"We understand the stress that comes with challenging cultural norms and are committed to providing women with high-quality products that can stand up to today's stressors—big and small," Miletic says. "Secret was the first antiperspirant brand made specifically for a woman's needs. We've continued to be on the forefront of innovation for women and that's why we developed product technology designed specifically to fight stress sweat, which is more unpredictable and worse-smelling than normal sweat."

Justine Armour, creative director at W+K in Portland, said the creative team approached the assignment by thinking big—about what it means to be a young woman today.

"What are women still not really 'allowed' to do? What are the barriers they're still up against? What roles and situations still make them feel uncomfortable?" Armour asked. "These are the areas where they're really feeling the stress, and where Secret is going to step up for them in a way that other deodorants can't."

The political bent of the new spot is interesting, and raises familiar questions about how, when and to what degree brands should engage in political causes—and whether tying those causes to particular product benefits engenders loyalty from like-minded consumers or just trivializes the whole thing.

The gender pay gap works nicely as a creative hook here, but of course it would be nice to see the brand take things further by offering resources to women who want to learn more and obtain tools to actually fight the pay gap. (Nothing like this has yet been announced by the brand, or appears on the website.)

On the other hand, the pay gap isn't a particularly polarizing political cause. It's one that many brands could get behind without fearing any backlash, or feeling an obligation to make a more extended commitment. It's also probably good to bring up the issue whether or not the brand really cares deep down about it.

In other words, perhaps the creative hook, on its own, is all Secret needs to worry about.

In any case, it will be interesting to see how this particular campaign develops, and how, exactly, P&G plans to help young women—beyond not wanting to see them sweat. 

CREDITS
Client: Procter & Gamble/Secret
Project: Secret Stress-Tested for Women

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Justine Armour / Caio Lazurri
Art Director: Johan Arlig
Copywriter: Justine Armour
Producer: Jessica Staples
Strategic Planning: Angela Jones
Media/Comms Planning: Stephanie Ehui
Account Team: Dana Borenstein / Alexina Shaber

Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Aoife McArdle
Executive Producer: SueEllen Clair / Eric Stern
Executive Producer Somesuch: Sally Campbell / Tim Nash
Producer: Christopher Gallagher
Director of Photography: Alexis Zabe

Editorial Company: Final Cut
Editor: Paul Zucker
Assistant Editor: Betty Jo Moore [Editor on 'Three Dots']
Exec Post Producer: Eric McCasline
Head of Production: Suzy Ramirez
Producer: Sarita White

VFX Company: MPC Los Angeles
Exec Producer: Elexis Stern
Shoot Supervisor: Ben Persons
Colourist: Mark Gethin
VFX Lead: Susanne Scharping
VFX: Sandra Ross / Vincent Blin / Warren Paleos
Designer: Kathleen Kirkman

Music Company: Marmoset
Composers: 'Proposal' by Will Canzoneri / 'Raise' by Jeffrey Brodsky / 'Three Dots' by Kerry Smith
Producer: Tim Shrout
Sound Design Company: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Exec Producer: Kelly Bayett

Mix Company: Lime Studios
Mixer: Sam Casas

Three years ago, a young deaf girl named Shaylee Mansfield met her idol, Tinkerbell, and discovered that Tink could sign. The Mansfield family must have shared that magical moment with Disney, because the park flew them back to Disneyland to meet with a Minnie Mouse who had just started learning American Sign Language—and made the family the subject of one of its "Unfortgettable Stories" videos.

Disney Parks has released a number of online videos about family stories in the "Unforgettable Happens Here" campaign, but this one has gone viral. (It has more than 11 million views across Facebook and YouTube—a solid No. 2 among Disney Parks' recent ads, behind its famous mall stunt, which has 27 million view and counting.)



What is it about this family moment, out of a million moments of Disney family magic, that made it more special than the other magic moments? It's the fact that it's the kind of magic we need as a nation right now—inclusive magic.

Disney has persevered with magic that lets generations come together in the same place, for the same—yet somehow singular and special—Disneyland experience, regardless of their differences.

How? The magic of their storytelling. Not just the ones they tell about the brand, but the ones we can tell about our families. The moment when Tinkerbell signs her name for the little girl and she turns to her parents in surprise, that perfect look of joy etched on her face—that is what you shuttle your kids onto the plane for, schlep your way to the enormous parking lot for, bustle into the park that's bursting at the seams for, pay the expensive entry fees for, and walk around all day in the sweltering heat for. That one small moment that makes every other day worth it.

And when we see the Mansfield family's moment, we feel that same joy in ourselves. Hearing is not required. And so we press forward, happy for their moment, remembering our own moments at Disneyland as kids, and wondering when the right time will be to pass that magic on to our own kids. 

From the days when he would pop up, unannounced, in your bed in the morning, Burger King's King character has never actually spoken a single word, preferring to let his creepily silent visage speak for him. But now, to celebrate National American Sign Language Day this Friday, the King is speaking up—by signing.

And he's asking BK fans to come up with an official sign for the Whopper sandwich.

Check out the announcement of the project in the video below, from David in Miami and Bullitt director Josh Greenbaum. It's creatively noteworthy in part because the entire 2:27 video is completely silent, which lends it a certain poignance that it wouldn't have otherwise.



"The Burger King brand is built not only on including everyone, but celebrating everyone," Fernando Machado, the fast-food chain's svp of global brand management, said in a statement. "National ASL Day felt like a perfect opportunity for the King to extend our brand mantra and engage with the ASL community on such a great day."



BK has also created an ASL version of its logo, and is making a scholarship donation benefiting students who are dedicating their studies to ASL language and interpretations.

It also has the King interpreting a recent TV spot in ASL, as you can see below. 



CREDITS

Client: Burger King
SVP Global Brand Management: Fernando Machado
Chief Marketing Officer, North America: Eric Hirschhorn
Senior Director, Media and Communications: Adam Gagliardo
Director Field Marketing: Elizabeth Greenberg

Project: Whopper Sign

Agency: David, Miami 
Client: Burger King
Chief Creative Officer/Founder: Anselmo Ramos
CD: Russell Dodson / Tony Kalathara
Head of Art: Carlos "Panza" Lange
Art Director: Ricardo Casal
Copywriter: Juan Peña
Head of Global Production: Veronica Beach
Associate Producer: Marina Rodrigues
Jr Producer: Calvin Beach
Business Manager: Ann Marie Turbitt
Creative Manager: Katia Ramos
Managing Director: Paulo Fogaça
Group Account Director: Carmen Rodriguez

Production Company: Bullitt
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Executive Producer: Todd Makurath
Executive Producer: Luke Ricci
Producer: Jon Dawes
Head of Production: Elícia Laport
Bidding Producer: Victoria Curtis
Director of Photography: Matthew Woolf
Coordination: Michael Cheng
Production Supervisor: Cindy Miller
Asst Production Supervisor: Megan Peason
Art Director: Chris Ashley
Stylist: Bebe Ferro
Gaffer: Ted Ayd
Key Grip: Rhett Blomquist

Editorial: Cosmo Street Editorial
Executive Producer: Yvette Cobarrubias-Sears

Editor: Stephen Berger
Post Producer: Marie Mangahas
Assistant Editor: Zack Winick
Assistant Editor: Rich Gonzalez

Agency: Code And Theory 

Senior Art Director: Kate Bergquist
Senior Art Director: Jeremy Stein
Senior Copywriter: Mike Latshaw
Copywriter: Conor Champley
Visual Designer: Daniel Nosonowitz
Visual Designer: Chris Szeto
Jr Visual Designer: Riley Walker
Senior Community Manager: Carlos Matias
Junior Community Manager: Hallie Martin
Digital Analyst: Jon Leavitt

PR: Alison Brod Public Relations

Media Agency: Horizon Media 

Love and hate is Nike's big theme around the retirement of Kobe Bryant, who will play his 1,346th and final NBA game on Wednesday night. We saw this last week in this Nike spot from Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai in China, where Bryant is revered (but where, in the spot, he urged fans to consider hating him instead of loving him).

There's a similar polarizing feel in Nike's U.S. farewell to Bryant, which gets the player's friends and foes (the ones who are also Nike endorsers) to sound off about the the Lakers star. Nike has also declared April 13 to be "Mamba Day," a reference to Bryant's nickname, Black Mamba.

The stars in the black-and-white ad are asked which words come to mind in thinking about Bryant. They mostly end up saying positive things about him, with some respectful insults thrown in. Kevin Durant even calls Bryant an asshole, though it's bleeped out. (And Roger Federer, in a charmingly awkward moment that's typical of him, proudly tells of the Kobe emoji he came up with.)



There's a digital element to the campaign. If you visit nike.com/mambaday on a mobile device, you can choose "Love" or "Hate," enter a word you think best describes Kobe, and then build a poster of the word superimposed on any photo you upload.

Nike certainly got its endorsers in line for this project. The video features Kyrie Irving, Russell Wilson, Allyson Felix, Elena Delle Donne, Odell Beckham Jr, Paul George, Rafael Nadal, Paul Rodriguez, Natalie Anchonwa, Kirani James, Michelle Wie, Richard Sherman, LeBron James, Neymar Jr, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Phil Jackson, Sanya Richards-Ross, Tiger Woods, Clay Mathews, NaVorro Bowman, Brooks Koepka, Kevin Durant, Rob Gronkowski, Ali Krieger, Rory McIlroy, Gerard Pique, Eric Koston, Shao Ting, Javier Mascherano, Yi Jianlian, Andres Iniesta, Marcus Mariota and Mo Farah. 

A nebula made from soy sauce, coffee, flour and salt. A galaxy formed from curry powder, cinnamon and poppy seeds. 

Welcome to the intergalactic and largely edible inventions of Seattle-based engineer-turned-photographer Navid Baraty. An inventive and multi-talented creative (you can buy his planet-themed cross stitch patterns on Etsy), Baraty posted a new gallery this week of swirling, astronomical images created by putting food items on an Epson scanner. 

The image above is described as an Earth-like planet made from the bottom of a glass filled with bourbon, coconut milk, water, soy sauce and food coloring. The stars were created with salt, flour, cinnamon and curry powder. 

"I've always been a huge space geek," Baraty explained on his popular Reddit post about the project. "I'd also seen other scanography where people scan objects with the lid open to create an all black background and wondered if I might be able to use the same method to make space scenes out of spices for stars/galaxies, liquids for planets, etc. I was pretty surprised at how realistic it all can look."

OK, it's not all strictly edible. One of the images, "Two-Cat Nebula," was made from Sriracha, chili powder, cinnamon, baking powder, salt—and the fur of two cats.

Check out some of his creations below (with Baraty's description of the components), and visit his full gallery on Imgur and his photography site. 

You can also follow his project on Instagram.
 

"Ring of fire—turmeric, powdered cheese, cinnamon, baking soda."
 

"Planet and moon—pancakes. Background—olive oil, flour, cinnamon, cumin, seasoned salt."
 

"Edge-on galaxy—curry powder, cinnamon, poppy seeds, flour, salt, cheese, cumin."
 

"Planet—bottom of a glass containing orange juice, wasabi, tomato sauce, half & half. Moon—pancake. Nebula—water, coffee, food coloring, half & half."
 

"Mars-like planet—bottom of a glass containing tomato sauce, water, food coloring, soy sauce, coconut milk. Background—flour, baking soda."

Adobe has long excelled at comically portraying the disastrous consequences of not managing one's marketing properly. But in its latest spot, it literally becomes a matter of life and death.

The commercial, by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, features a couple of buddies out hiking together, when one of them is suddenly bitten by a snake. Luckily, they have their mobile phones with them, and seem to be getting a good signal. But it all goes downhill from there.

Check out the spot here:



The brand's earlier comic spots for its Adobe Marketing Cloud services encouraged marketers to look at the data—to know their audiences and understand the performance of their marketing efforts. This spot goes further by encouraging marketing to look more broadly.

"This new spot reminds us that we can't just look at data in a silo," Alex Amado, vp of experience marketing at Adobe, tells AdFreak. "Everything we do as marketers culminates in an experience for our customers. Even if some of the numbers look good, the overall experience may still be poor. We want to help marketers think in terms of experience, not just performance."

The tone of many previous spots was dark—"Mean Streets" is a good example—but not quite this dark. "Marketing gone wrong can have disastrous consequences for a brand," Amado says. "We hear about it all too often. The campaign dramatizes worst-case scenario, but hopefully it does it with enough good-natured humor to be cautionary yet still entertaining.

Ultimately, he adds, "your customer experience is your brand. More and more customers are connecting with you through digital channels, and they expect high-quality content and a seamless experience on mobile. They want what they want, when they want it, and the stakes are higher than ever for marketers—get the experience right or risk losing your customers."

The spot will be running on various business, media and marketing news sites, and in targeted placements on Hulu and addressable TV. 

Ice Breakers breath mints are actually unicorns that will help millennials squeeze extra perks out of job negotiations, according to a new campaign by Crispin Porter + Boguksy for the Hershey's-owned brand. 

In a 15-second ad, a young woman gets her future boss to agree to three weeks of vacation (rather than the standard two) after the candy she pops into her mouth summons a mythical beast rearing its hind legs to kick in the office's glass wall. 

It's not entirely clear whether the supervisor makes an awestruck concession more out of love or fear, but either would be reasonable. (Maybe the woman from yesterday's Secret ad should invest in some breath mints.) 



A 30-second ad, released as a teaser for the series—which will include more shorts—sheds more light on the concept. A song introduces the glittering horned creature—which appears to have Ice Breakers embedded in its fur—as the "unicorn of your confidence." 

In other words, fresh breath will help you feel more comfortable asking for things you probably haven't earned but could get anyway.



It's an entertaining enough concept, with a reasonable connection back to the product, even if the scenario is absurd: Any self-respecting member of Gen Y would have insisted on four weeks off per year, at least. 

And yes, a unicorn would be a good sidekick in most situations, assuming it's not busy running around powering British seaside towns or defecating rainbow ice cream.

CREDITS
Client: Hershey
Agency: CP+B
Product: Ice Breakers
Campaign: Break Through
Chief Creative Officer: Ralph Watson
Creative Director: D'Arcy O'Neil
Associate Creative Director: Quinn Kathermann
Art Directors: Mackenzie Gire, Tyler Gonerka
Copywriters: Mariangela McMurray, Josh Shelton
Agency Producers: Aymi Beltramo, Jake Burnett, Rachel Noonan
Client Service Director: Danielle Whalen
Account Director: Kevin Sypal
Account: Neylu Longoria, Amy Denton
Social Strategy Director: Kristen Fox
Social Strategists: Jillian Hart, Devon Dickson
Planning Director: David Nottoli
Senior Planner: Brian O'Connell
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Craig Gillespie
Executive Producer: Emma Wilcockson
Line Producer: Martha Davis
Editorial: Plus Productions
Editor: Lawrence Young
Assistant Editor: James Bedford
Editorial Producer: Dre Krichevsky
VFX/Post Production: Method Studios
Executive Producer: Robert Owens
VFX Supervisor: Ben Walsh
Lead Flame Artist: Noah Caddis
Producer: Karena Ajamian
Telecine: Company3 LA
Telecine Colorist: Stefan Sonnenfeld
Telecine Executive Producer: Rhubie Jovanov
Music/SoundDesign/Mix: Beacon Street Studios
Musicians: Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau, Dewey Thomas
Executive Producer: Leslie DiLullo
Producer: Lindsey Lerman
Audio Mixer: Rommel Molina
Mix Producer: Erin Reilly 

States United to Prevent Gun Violence and Grey New York have made celebrated gun-control PSAs together for years. Now, they back with another powerful video, following up 2015's famous "Gun Store" experiment with another sobering real-world prank.

This time, they invited self-professed action movie lovers to a screening of a film Gun Crazy, which was billed as the latest big-budget blockbuster. But when they got into the theater, with hidden cameras rolling, they were sickened to see real footage of gun violence, including unintentional shootings, suicides, incidents of domestic violence and homicides.

Check out the spot below.

Warning: The video contains graphic footage of real gun violence. 



It's a pretty sadistic way of illustrating the gap between American culture's glorification of guns and the actual consequences of real gun violence. But then, SUPGV believes it's important to shock audiences back to reality, if necessary, who have been desensitized by fictional depictions of gun death.

"In 2015 alone, there were almost as many mass shootings as there were calendar days," Julia Wyman, executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement. "Our goal with #GunCrazy is to showcase the need for society as a whole to re-sensitize themselves to the gruesome consequences of gun violence. We encourage people to watch and share this educational PSA featuring first-hand reactions to real footage. Help us continue to bring widespread awareness to this issue and reignite the dialogue about our national crisis."

The message, revealed on screen at the end of the video, is this: "We need to change the way we look at guns. We would be crazy not to." 

Advertisers have been saying goodbye to Kobe Byrant, who plays his final NBA game on Wednesday night, with either comedy or drama.

But Nike, which has always prided itself at balancing both, offers a mix in "The Conductor," a just-released spot that portrays the retiring 37-year-old Laker as an orchestra conductor fully in control of an arena of players, coaches and unruly fans—lovers and haters alike.

The spot, created by Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., and directed by Mark Romanek, also features Phil Jackson, Paul Pierce, Rasheed Wallace, Benny the Bull and fans representing nine basketball teams.

Check it out here:



As in Nike's earlier tribute to Bryant, starring the brand's other endorsers, the theme here is the love and hate that Bryant has experienced over the years—depicted in the new spot by the "symphony of cheers and jeers" across the stadium, as Nike puts it.

The spot has a goofy theatricality to it that actually recalls W+K's Old Spice work, particularly the "Momsong" and "Dadsong" spots, which were also musicals. But while it walks that line, "The Conductor" is also clearly not a parody—but rather illustrates "how hate has manifested into respect and admiration for Bryant," Nike says. 

Beginning at tipoff tonight, fans will also be able to customize and purchase a limited-edition of the KOBE 11 Mamba Day NIKEiD shoe. The final NIKEiD shoe of his pro career will feature a graphic highlighting eight notable career stats (see below).



We'll have more on Bryant's retirement, and marketers' handling of it, later today.

CREDITS
Client: Nike
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Director: Mark Romanek
Production Company: Anonymous Content
Executive Producers: SueEllen Clair, Eric Stern
Producer: James Graves
Director of Photography: Greig Fraser

The recruiting of summer interns is in full swing, and Minneapolis agency Solve might have the cleverest (and cutest) solution to finding eager would-be advertising practitioners.

Solve took a miniature version of itself—lobby, collaborative workspace, conference room—on the road to colleges around the Midwest. And it gave potential interns "try-outs" consisting of five-minute job assignments, to get a sense of who'd be the best fit to actually come to Minneapolis this summer and do the interning for real. 

The students who performed well during their five-minute test were interviewed on the spot for a chance at a coveted intern slot.



The agency visited, among other schools, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. "The weather at UW-Madison nearly stopped us," Solve account director Ryan Murray tells AdFreak. "A downpour and high winds forced us to open our pop-up a little late—classic agency tardiness—but we still had a dozen recruits waiting for us to open our door. One recruit even stopped 'mid-internship' to help us fix a nearly-falling tent. Now that's thinking on your feet."



Fabricating the mini agency was a lot of fun, too.

"We tried to bring the space design and collaborative feel of our office to campus quads," Murray says. "We partnered with Clamor, an event firm, who built custom cube walls and desks to mimic our actual space. Every portion of the pop-up mirrored our headquarters, from the receptionist desk with the Solve logo to the open offices to the collaborative brainstorming area."



And how did the five-minute assignments actually work?

"Depending on their area of interest—account management, media, creative—they were given a specific five-minute exercise," Murray says. "For example, the account management assignment tasked students with strategically evaluating a Bentley campaign and deciding if it was on brief. In the middle of the exercise, I interrupted them and gave them a President Cheese print ad and told them it needed to be proofed instantly, before shipping off to meet a pressing media deadline."

Juggling the assignments like this "gave us great insight and perspective into their abilities, well beyond a standard résumé or interview," Murray adds. "Best of all, students loved it. We're still getting thank-you notes."

More than 150 students participated in the five-minute internship, which was three times more people than used to send résumés.

The agency will make a final decision on interns by May 1. 

Innocence in Danger, the organization that gave us online predator emojis, returns with an equally disturbing ad that transforms youthful symbolism into something tragic. 

For International Children's Day this year, it released "The Witness." Created by French agency Rosapark and flanked by Radiohead's "Exit Music," the ad features a girl falling asleep while a male family member reads her a bedtime story. As she drifts off, he reaches under the covers.

The camera thankfully drifts off, panning to a teddy bear, the sole witness to the crime. 

Warning: The spot may be particularly disturbing to incest survivors. 



The piece ends with a strong tagline: "He can't talk. You can."

Innocence in Danger reports that there are 4 million victims of incest in France, and four out of five of those cases occur before age 18. Only one-third of those complaints are heard.

"It is the duty of every citizen to do what they can to apply the law to these crimes so they can be stopped," says Innocence in Danger president Homayra Sellier, alongside manager Christine Djamila Allaf. "We must intervene in order to protect these children." 

Picking up the mantle, co-founder Jean-Patrick Chiquiar of Rosapark adds, "As a communications agency, it is our duty to intervene, to spread the word about this cause to the maximum number of people, to bring these taboos to light in order to solicit the collective conscience."

The ad certainly does its job in striking emotional chords, but besides raising awareness and potential donations, it does little to teach adults how best to earn the trust of children who may be suffering. Often it is hard to tell; when a guardian or protector is the danger, a child can't gauge who can really help, and may protect herself by behaving in ways that other authorities consider reasonably normal. Symptoms of the trauma may make themselves visible only years later, when they are no longer within reach of the predator.

For its part, Radiohead was so moved by the work that it donated the rights to "Exit Music" and waived compensation.

The campaign is currently running online and on French TV.

CREDITS

Rosapark:
Co-Founders: Jean-Patrick Chiquiar, Gilles Fichteberg, Jean-François Sacco
Creative Directors: Mark Forgan, Jamie-Edward Standen
Account Director/TV Producer: Fanélie Martin

Film Production:
Production Company: Troopers
Director: Josh Patrick Dawson
Producer: Amandine Le Drappier

Sound Production:
Grabuge Productions

Music:
Radiohead "Exit Music"

Innocence in Danger Campaign Coordinator: Dr. Gilles Iazimi

Your grandmother is probably already on Facebook. But in case she's not, she might enjoy GramGram, an amusing concept from some BYU advertising students who went rogue in a social media advocacy class. 

"We tried to imagine social media in a reversed skeuomorphism form and had tons of fun with it," says one of the students, Brad Hill.

As illustrated in this video, the concept is amusing—and certainly gives Grandma a thrill:



"Most of the class decided to pick more serious issues like depression, immigration and Islamophobia, but we were feeling a bit cheeky and wanted to do a fun campaign for something important but not super serious," Hill says. "Our 'cause' ended up advocating millennials to reach out to their grandparents and take time to carry some offline communication."

Hill was inspired by an article he'd read a few years ago about how everyone loves receiving hand-written mail. "I thought that it is no different than receiving messages on social media," he says. "We combined the two and created 'Project GramGram.' It is the perfect blend with my background with digital/social media and my printmaking skills."

Initially, the team looked into some mailing companies and APIs to help process the social media, thinking they'd actually bring GramGram properly to life. But that proved a bit daunting.

"I even spent a week or so trying to find disappearing ink that would vanish over a few days so we could do Snapchats in the mail," says Hill. "Eventually we just opted on creating something quality for our portfolios and that could tell a great story."

Hill plays the printmaker in the spot. Another member of the team, Stew Tribe, plays the main character, and his actual grandma plays the grandma. The video was shot in various locations around Provo, Utah.

So, could GramGram really exist? "I don't think Project GramGram would be a great lasting product, but a short-term, 'limited-edition' run might be fun to do," says Hill. "My team and I have considered running a Kickstarter and seeing how far we could go to making it real, but to be honest, everybody is on Facebook. My grandma isn't quite on Snapchat or Peach, so that might be worth looking into."