Hey, the Pillsbury Doughboy appears in The Martin Agency's latest "Happier than" commercial for Geico. I thought he'd done so a while back, but it turns out that was Eddie Money. Eddie's tunes are so poppin' fresh. In the new spot, the Doughboy giggles his way through an airport security check, illustrating that people who save money by switching to Geico are "Happier than the Pillsbury Doughboy on his way to a baking convention." It's a better commercial crossover than most—less strained, for example, than Mr. Clean and the Target bull's-eye pooch shilling for Xerox. Too bad Geico's gecko wasn't on hand to fight Doughboy to the death to determine which ad mascot is best. I guess that's something I'll only enjoy in dreams. Go on, smack him, Gecko … bite his doughy ass!

CREDITS
Client: Geico
Spot: "Doughboy"

Agency: The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.
Chief Creative Officer Joe Alexander
SVP/ Group Creative Director: Steve Bassett
VP/Creative Director: Wade Alger
SVP/ Art Director/Creative Director: Sean Riley
Senior Copywriter: Ken Marcus
VP/Agency Executive Broadcast Producer: Molly Souter
Agency Producer: Samantha Tucker
Agency Junior Producer: Emily Taylor
Strategic Planner: Melissa Cabral
Account Team: Chris Mumford, Brad Higdon, Parker Collins, Carter Crenshaw, Susan Karns

Group Talent Director: Suzanne Wieringo
Production Business Manager: Amy Trenz

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Wayne McClammy
Director of Photography: Tim Ives
Executive Producer/ Managing Partner: Kevin Byrne
Producer: Nate Young
Production Supervisor: Steve Ruggieri

Editorial Company: Makenzie Cutler
Editor: Ian MacKenzie
Editor: Dave Koza
Assistant Editor: Carmen Hu
Editorial Producer: Evan Meeker
Director of Operations: Biz Lunskey

VFX: The Mill
Executive Producer: Jo Arghiris
Producer: Colin Blaney
Shoot Supervisor: Tony Robins
2D Lead Artist: Randy McEntee
2D Artists: Tony Robins, Paul Downes, Jamin Clutcher
Art Support: Rob Meade
3D Lead Artist: Kevin Ives
3D Artists: Billy Dangyoon Jang, Olivier Varteressian, Laurent Giaume, Justin Diamond, Sean Dooley, Joshua Merck, Hassan Taimur, Wyatt Savarese, Samuel Crees, Ross Scroble
Matte Painter: Can Y. Sanalan
Colorist: Fergus McCall
Doughboy Animation: Topix
Creative Director: Steven Hollman
Senior Producer: Christina Lord

Audio Post Company/Sound Design: Rainmaker Studios
Engineer: Jeff McManus
Music: "Happier Than" theme song by Adam Schlesinger

Ads for indie film festivals are often quite brilliant. The movies are usually distinctive, so the advertising can be as well. Who can forget Geoffrey Rush as a potato peeler? Or John Malkovich getting all crabby at a cab driver's reaction to his latest film award. The Leo Burnett spot below for Portugal's IndieLisboa fits right into that great tradition. Screw Hollywood. Say yes to an indie movie instead.

CREDITS
Client: IndieLisboa
Product: 10th International Independent Film Festival
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett Lisbon
Executive Creative Director: Luciana Cani
Copywriter: Steve Colmar / Pedro Pinho
Art Director: Thiago Cruz / Leonardo Pinheiro
Illustration: Bruna Guerreiro / Silvia Rodrigues / Sara Louise Tucker / Mariana, a miserável / Fabio Santos / Douglas Cardoso
Account Director: Tiago Reis
Social Media: Vasco Mendonça / Joana Duarte
Production Director - Agency: Cristina Almeida
Production Company: Stopline
Executive Producer: Francisco Saalfeld
Financial Controller: Nuno Fonte
Line Producer: Inês Marques
Director: Pedro Varela
Creative Assistant Director: Nuno Noivo
Cinematography: Ricardo Prates
Post-production Supervisor: Ricardo Montez
Post-production Company: Illusion
Audio Post-production: Dizplay
Sound designer: João Rola
Voice Over: Marcantónio del Carlo
Original Soundtrack: Xavier Capellas
Additional Footage: VMI/Corbis

Since every third ad has to be an Apple parody now, Carlsberg makes fun of Apple Store product launches in this TV spot for Somersby Cider from agency Fold7. Some of the computer jargon here works surprisingly well for drinking, but there's no forgiving the apple puns. While we're on the subject, "Less apps, more apples" doesn't make sense as a tagline since they're comparing different products. Apples and oranges.

Roaches, rats and other pests had the starring roles in Orkin's campaign from The Richards Group in recent years. And while those spots were amusing, in a creepy way, it's the Orkin man himself who takes center stage in the new campaign, which broke today. And a resourceful man he is. Each spot shows a different Orkin man in some kind of undesirable position—wedged into a crawlspace with rats scurrying around; hanging from a tree above a parade of ants; suspended halfway up a wall to see cockroaches inside an air vent. "To catch a pest, you've got to think like a pest," he says in each ad. And then, you pretty much have to act like a pest. As this campaign suggests, that's not something most people want to do, or would even be able to do. The tagline is: "Pest control down to a science," which makes it seem even less DIY—a sly way of getting people to call Orkin instead.

Brian Altano's concept design of Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Pop-Tarts was born from silly work conversations about hypothetical Star Wars merch, which is probably how George Lucas came up with most of Episodes 1-3. It's amusing, yes. But there's a certain thematic dissonance in pairing Carbonite with something you're supposed to put in the toaster (not that anyone does that anymore). And what would these taste like? Carbonite doesn't have an obvious flavor option, and plain old Harrison Ford Pop Tarts would just taste like old leather these days. Via Laughing Squid.

Gorn … but not forgotten! To promote a Star Trek video game launching this month, William Shatner and a guy in a lumpy lizard suit winningly reprise Captain Kirk's hand-to-claw struggle with the alien Gorn commander from the classic Trek episode "Arena." The updated battle takes place in Shats' comfy living room, where he flips his wig over the gameplay tactics of his reptilian rival. The joke here is that 46 years after their initial encounter, the combatants are, as Shatner pants at one point, "both too old for this kind of thing." Indeed, time has taken its toll. In 1967, only the Gorn was wrinkled and leathery. Today, octogenarian Shatner fits the same description. Well, OK, Bill actually looks great, his schtick is ageless, and the clip scores by deftly employing elements of the original fight's campy choreography. As dramatic Trek-like music swells, the creature hurls a couch cushion that looks about as dangerous as the polystyrene "boulder" it heaved at Kirk the first time around. Once again, Mon Cap-i-tain discombobulates the alien by smacking his palms against its earholes. When the Gorn bellows in pain, Shatner, Hollywood's quintessential ham, accuses his foe of overacting. I haven't seen "Arena" in maybe 30 years, but damn if I didn't remember the boulder-toss and ear-slap like I'd watched it yesterday! This ability to tap into our collective memory should not be underestimated. I didn't just enjoy this spot, I relished every second, as many Shatner and Trek fans will. I couldn't hit replay fast enough. There's palpable feel-good power at play here, transporting viewers to pop-culture nirvana at warp speed.

Can salad dressing be sexy? Well, Kraft will settle for zesty. A new campaign for Kraft Zesty Italian dressing from the Playa del Rey, Calif., office of Being features a shirtless male chef whose catchphrase is "Let's get zesty." Slyly suggestive and playful, the character feels like a cross between Old Spice's Isaiah Mustafa and the skillet guy from ads for another Kraft brand, Velveeta. In one new spot, the chef keeps adding Kraft Zesty Italian to a hot skillet, with flames shooting higher and higher each time. "How zesty do you want it?" he asks. "A little? A little more? How about a lot more?" The flames then consume his white V-neck T-shirt to expose smoldering abs and pecs. The sassy cook also will appear on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live as a guest chef and bartender. Other elements in the campaign, which breaks today, include a website, getmezesty.com, and electronic cards or "Zestygrams" that can be sent via social media platforms. A Kraft rep says the campaign is "targeted toward our salad dressings consumer, who we define as a mainstream foodie. They enjoy cooking and creative expression, and this campaign speaks to them in a way that recognizes she is an individual in addition to being a mom."

 Ah, April Fools' Day. The Super Bowl of satire. The one day when brands are free to indulge in off-brand, often hilarious communications without catastrophic repercussions. Click below to see our working list of this year's pranks. Updated as the day goes on.

Gallery: The Best Brand Hoaxes for April Fools' Day 2013

You remember Sully. He was the odd talking sheep in last year's brilliant "Stan" commercial for Corona Light, from director Mike Mills and ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Well, it appears Sully's brief taste of fame went to his woolly head—because now he's bleated his way into a starring role in this year's Corona Light campaign. Four new :15s directed by Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm) went live online Monday, and will reach broadcast on April 15. The theme is, "Ditch the herd," and in the first spot, Sully does just that—rising up from the pack, suddenly bipedal, and giving his buddies a quick "Adios!" as he scoots away. In three other spots, Sully learns the fine arts of sports watching, hunting and guitar playing, only one of which really goes well. The ads are amusingly absurd, more lowbrow than last year's artfully designed work but still fun. Sully, of course, is also on Twitter.

"After the sheep garnered considerable attention on YouTube, we thought it would be funny, to spin the sheep out, and follow him as he started to do things differently. Thus this symbol of sameness became the face of change," says Goodby creative director Adam Reeves. Adds Jim Sabia, CMO at Crown Imports: "We have found that Corona Light's target consumer—the 21- to 29-year-old college-educated beer drinker—is craving to switch things up with a light beer that's different from the same old same old. The sheep's ability to serve as a spokesperson for what Corona Light stands for really got us excited about this campaign."

Perrier is the sexiest sparkling water you'll ever taste, says Perrier. It's so sexy, you'll find yourself transported to a secret party at an underground nightclub in Paris. There, you may participate in all of the activities commonly associated with drinking sexy sparkling water—namely, you may dance to the latest hip indie band, or play high-stakes poker with a bunch of cheating mean mugs in a back room, or witness a game of checkers in which the pieces are replaced with macarons (not macaroons). You may also accept a woman's invitation to cut off her dress with a pair of scissors, or peep in on a private lap dance being given to a man who can't see, or watch another woman tear off her dowdy skirt suit for the steamy bartender, because of course everybody is getting naked, because, duh, Perrier makes people get crazy. Nonsense aside, you really can do all of this. Or at least, your eyes can. Because Perrier and Ogilvy have graced you with Perrier Secret Place, a rabbit hole of an online choose-your-own-adventure game. In it, you'll bounce around the different viewpoints of attendees at the "party," as you go on a treasure hunt for the "golden woman" and "secret bottle." Find them, and you'll be entered to win some not-virtual and swank and off-the-chain party, somewhere like St. Tropez, or Rio during Carnival, or Miami Art Basel, or Ibiza. Why bother? Because presumably everybody there will be getting hammered on Perrier, and taking off their clothes, too. More clips and credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Perrier
Title: Perrier Secret Place
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Paris
Chief Creative Officer: Chris Garbutt
Creative Directors: Frederic Levron, Thierry Chiumino
Copywriters: Baptiste Clinet, Nicolas Lautier, Florian Bodet
Art Directors: Baptiste Clinet, Nicolas Lautier, Florian Bodet, Chris Rowson,
Global Business Leader:  Constance Capy Baudeau
Account Supervisor: Stanislas Vert
Film Producer: Diane de Bretteville
Digital Producers: Hugo Diaz, Cyril Duval, Sandra Petrus
Production Company: Fighting Fish, Olivier Dormerc, Cyril Couve de Murvil, Adrien Moisson, Benjamin Przelspolewski
Sound Design: Le Comptoir du Son, Franck Marchal, Alexandre Poirier
Film Director: Laurent King
Story Development: Olivier Domerc
Story Editor: Benjamin Bloch
Production Manager: Caroline Petruccelli
Production Designer: Arnaud Roth
Director of Photography: Frédéric Martial Wetter
Line Producer: Vincent Rivier
Location Manager: Timothée Talandier
Main Title Music: Toys
Client:
Head of Marketing, Category: Muriel Koch
Sparkling Brand Director: Fabienne Bravard
International Brand Manager: Armelle Roulland
Social Media, PR Strategy: Buzzman
Chief Executive Officer: Georges Mohammed-Chérif
Head of Social Media, PR: Hubert Munyazikwiye
Social Media Manager: Nicolas David

It should be the quintessential YouTube video: Funny Baby Panda Kiss. But when you tried to watch it, all you got was an infinite pre-roll ad loop. Because Rhett and Link wanted to trick you for April Fools' Day. The gag ads take what should be a nightmare scenario of never-ending, low-budget marketing and turn it into a good comedy bit. South Carolina's tourism board, for example, wants you to come pan a river for loose change and teeth in "the underbelly of North Carolina." Or if you're a lonely widower in your golden years, forget finding a late-life companion. Get a roommate with benefits at the Silver Manor retirement home. Because fake commercials are usually more honest than real ones.

JetBlue and its ad agency, Mullen, celebrated April Fools' Day with a payout instead of a prank. For the "April's No Fool" promotion, the airline actually offered to refund the entire fare (as a JetBlue credit) of anyone named April who happened to fly JetBlue on April 1. The carrier quoted its very own April—director of media relations April Dinwoodie—in the announcement. "April 1 isn't always fun and games for everyone," she said. "For many of us, it represents an annual tradition of mockery. We're thrilled to take a moment and do something for those customers that might not look forward to starting their month with a day of teasing." Poor Dinwoodie's life of teasing wasn't for naught, as it delivered a fun insight that drove this neat little promotion, causing excitement for Aprils all over Facebook. And yes, they really, actually, truly did give the money back.

Check out 42 other branded April Fools' efforts here.

Bonkers candy. Betamax. McRib sandwiches. Madonna. Michael Jackson. Reaganomics. Mountains of cocaine. … Man, the '80s rocked. Or sucked, depending on your point of view. Thanks to Mullen's ExploreThe80s.com, folks of a certain age can relive that glittery, gluttonous era in all its gaudy glory. (And Generations Y and Z can experience those years for the first time. Damn their youthful swagger and '90s nostalgia!) The highly interactive HTML5 site promotes National Geographic Channel's upcoming series The '80s: the Decade that Made Us by serving up all sorts of little factoids about those years. There's little depth, yet the experience is addictive and kind of overwhelming … just like the '80s! The retro-futuristic, arcade-style audio and visuals are especially evocative, recalling a simpler, yet amazingly complex and malleable time when the entire world looked and sounded like Tron.

"Fuck you. You'll take what we give you." That's easily the line of the year from any parody ad so far, and it comes around the 18-second mark of "The First Honest Cable Company," from Extremely Decent Films, which has gotten almost 2.5 million YouTube views in a week. Director and co-writer Nick Smith, sort of a cross between Will Robinson and Doogie Howser, does a fine job delivering the on-target faux pitch, aided by snazzy "infographics" and cloying music cues, as he explains how the corporate Internet-cable oligopoly is able to screw consumers and blithely "raise our prices to optimum cockbag levels." Big cable and Internet providers are such easy targets, so this is basically a can't-miss concept, but it's a flawless execution with a bit of economic education along the way. Thankfully, there are options on the horizon virtually guaranteed to relieve our collective pain. The progressive, right-minded folks at Google have our best interests at heart and would never dream of telling us to F-off. Right? Right?!

New York Presbyterian Hospital and ad agency Munn Rabôt recently made this video celebrating the life of Danion Jones, who was 3 years old when he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. NYPH treated him until his death at age 7, and the video isn't an ad so much as a promise to find new and better ways to help kids like Danion. It's hard to use kids in videos like this without looking schmaltzy and insincere. But you're made of stone if you don't get a little misty watching Danion, who got to perform at the Apollo Theater before his death, sing "When You're Smiling."

If you're thinking of committing a felony in New York City anytime soon, keep an eye on how many photos of you are floating around on Facebook and Instagram. The NYPD's new Facial Recognition Unit is using software to scan faces in social media, and from surveillance-camera footage, and match them to the mugshots of known criminals. The amount of people posting photos online is a veritable boon to modern police investigation. By modern, I mean after 2006. Since the FRU can use only clear, straight-ahead portrait shots, trying this in the days of Myspace would have been impossible. Photo via.

At first glance, it looks like it has to be a prank. But despite being released suspiciously close to April Fools' Day, Bubba Watson and Oakley insist that the new hovercraft golf cart in the video below is real. Designed by Neoteric Hovercraft, the vehicle—if it's real—is the coolest thing to happen to golf since, well, Bubba Watson. The 2012 Masters champ, as always, has some amusing, self-deprecating one-liners in the demo video, which rolled out Tuesday, a day after April Fools'. "I see a lot of stares, a lot of laughs," Watson says. "And then they actually see how efficient it is. I think it's really going to get more people involved. They're just going to want to drive the hovercraft and not play golf. But I mean, that's how I got started, driving a golf cart, and then golf got in the way."

Your billboard fail of the day comes from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Mount Saint Vincent University put up an ad encouraging people to honor the "remarkable women" in their lives through a "Women's Wall of Honour" project. The baffling image: three smiling men who have donated to the initiative. (The guy on the right is from the ad agency Colour.) "I don't know that we were really shooting for juxtaposition there, to be honest with you. It was just about reaching a different audience," university spokesman Ben Boudreau tells the city's Chronicle Herald, just as oddly. Via The Ethical Adman.

Weird, but also pretty neat: On Tuesday, Pizza Hut Canada streamed live YouTube video of an illustrator sketching commenter-suggested images on pizza boxes. It's a bit reminiscent of that artist who promised to hand draw every new Twitter follower (before bailing when he realized how many people would click a button in exchange for a free picture of themselves). Pizza Hut is calling its marketing gimmick art. It's hard to imagine anyone rushing to frame the sketches and hang them on the wall. But they do include random bits of genius, like a pizza eating a man, a porcupine in a balloon factory and "Lady 'Za 'Za" wearing a dress made of pizza (instead of, say, one made of meat). There are also less appetizing sketches, like a "big slice of pizza pushing a baby slice of pizza in a stroller made of cheese." Because it wouldn't really be a pizza box—or advertising—if it weren't covered in melted goop. Now, sit back and enjoy seven and a half hours of footage from the event at the videos below.

Sauza Tequila had a major hit last year with its "Make It With a Fireman" video, starring Thomas Beaudoin—which reached No. 15 on YouTube's list of the 20 most watched ads of 2012. The Jim Beam brand had a similar campaign planned for 2013, featuring a lifeguard. But then, days before the big reveal, it saw its surprise new spokesman, the hunky Anderson Davis … doing ads for Kraft Zesty Italian salad dressing in quite a similar style. Both campaigns show Davis talking suggestively to the camera as he mixes up, respectively, salads and margaritas.

Lewis Lazare has more details here. Beam says it knew nothing about the Kraft work, which launched Monday. And the liquor maker is now scrambling to make sure its lifeguard ad doesn't get lost in the shuffle—it's launched the spot now instead of the planned April 15. A Beam rep tells Adweek: "Well, they say imitation is the best form of flattery. And apparently one company believes nothing goes better with Sauza margaritas than a zesty salad. I know you're familiar with the videos that Kraft just launched. … The success of our 'Make It' campaign has opened the door for other companies to do the same—even with the same moves and the same actor who plays our lifeguard. You be the judge…"

The Kraft work has gotten quite a bit of attention, including this Good Morning America segment. And that has put Beam in the odd position of actually drafting off the Kraft success as it introduces the lifeguard. "How do you like your @Sauza #margaritas? #Zesty, we hope," Sauza tweeted on Wednesday night.

Having launched its work first, Kraft, not surprisingly, doesn't seem too stressed out about the whole thing, even giving Davis a shout-out. "It's noted in his biography he was working with Sauza, but we didn't know any specifics about the campaign," a Kraft spokeswoman says. "We think Anderson has done a terrific job for us on Kraft Zesty dressing."