Well this escalated quickly. In Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s new ad for Jell-O pudding, a pleasant moment between a dad and his son abruptly turns into an emotionally traumatizing lecture on the soul-crushing drudgery of working life. It’s also pretty hilarious, largely thanks to the Bill Lumbergh-esque boss who has no respect for meticulous ninja craftsmanship. Via Fast Company.

Toshiba targets the college-guy demo with sophomoric humor in a trio of Canadian spots from Capital C. All of the action takes place in dorm rooms, and the ads seek to show how the client's computers can improve the school experience.

"Chicken Prank" focuses on a dude who can't peck away with his fingers on a keyboard or touchscreen because he's been wrapped in plastic and tied to his bed. Oh, and the room's filled with clucking chickens, naturally. He wiggles his toe to operate an All-in-One desktop with gesture control. Presumably, he summons assistance. (Dude, why not just scream "help!" at the top of your lungs? Maybe someone's in the room next door. Clearly no Ivy Leaguer.)

"Black Light" touts the ability of Satellite P-series laptops to power and charge USB devices even when the laptop is closed. Two roommates just moving in are horrified when a USB-powered black-light wand reveals unsavory streaks, smears and smudges soiling just about every inch of their walls and ceilings. (I guess the pervious occupants hosted some all-night, um, study sessions.)

The third spot, "Math Notes," showcases the Excite Write tablet's ability to convert handwritten notes and sketches into sharable files. A guy asks his roommate for calculus notes, and looks extremely dismayed, almost repulsed, when he instead receives a drawing of himself re-imagined by his roommate as a hunky centaur. 

All three spots are cheeky, just a tad naughty and probably in tune with the teen and young-adult audience. I wonder, though, if some viewers won't find "Math Notes" borderline homophobic, since the punchline falls back on what GLAAD has dubbed the "homo-queasy" ad cliché of showing a guy looking disgusted that another man might be attracted to him. "Toshiba would never intentionally set out to offend our customers," Sherry Lyons,  vp of corporate and marketing communications at Toshiba of Canada, tells AdFreak.  "We do not feel that the 'Math Notes' video is offensive or cliché."

Planters has reinvented Mr. Peanut yet again, this time as a motivational speaker—voiced by Bill Hader, no less—who seems strangely obsessed with the magical power of his nuts. Each video spot in the campaign from ad agency Being mentions the product's protein and essential nutrients (I guess sodium is a nutrient now) while also shelling out Tony Robbins cultspeak and a fair share of innuendo. ("I'm going to show you how to put it inside you," Mr. Peanut promises in one clip, while in another, a young woman describes her dream man as "a guy who has a torque wrench in one hand and a bag of nuts in the other." A few more hip thrusts, and he'd be infringing on Tom Cruise's "Respect the Cock" shtick from Magnolia.) While the ads are hit or miss, their balance of practical product information and pseudo-enlightened gibberish is really impressive. And I'm most impressed that no actual motivational speaker had a trademark on “Successtimonials." More clips after the jump.

Who can argue that bombastic 1980s power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart" isn't the single greatest piece of music in human history? That's right: no one. Its appearance in a MasterCard spot a while back, with brand-centric lyrics performed by its original singer, Bonnie Tyler, was priceless. And these days, "Total Eclipse" has resurfaced with a vengeance. Diva impressionist Christina Bianco's performance of the song in the style of Adele, Cher, Streisand and others is approaching 2 million YouTube views since being posted earlier this week.

Now, Fiber One gets in on the act with a pair of amusing 30-second spots from Saatchi & Saatchi. As with MasterCard, the words have been altered to fit the brand profile. The "Turn around, bright eyes" chorus morphs into "Turn around, Barry" in one spot and "Turn around, Barbara" in the other as we watch various Barrys and Barbaras, deprived of the tasty-yet-unhealthy snacks they crave, discover the joys of Fiber One. 

"Finally I have a manly chocolatey snack and fiber so my wife won't give me any more flak," wails Barry. Amen, brother, amen. "Forever I've been praying for a snack in my life, and now I have a brownie ending all of my strife," wails Barbara. True that, sister, true that.

While exaggerated, the humor is never so outrageous that it seems cartoonish or stupid, which could have thrown the spots out of whack. So I applaud Fiber One for finding the perfect balance and keeping things more or less...regular.

CREDITS:

Client: General Mills
Brand: Fiber One Bars/Brownies

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Chief Creative Officer:  Con Williamson
Creative Director: Peter Smith          
Creative Director:  Johnnie Ingram
Art Director: Katherine Kuni                                  
Copywriter: Chris Stevenson
Head of Broadcast Production:  John Doris
Senior Producer:  Nicole Gabrielle Ogborn
Music Producer:  Eric Korte
Business Manager:  Christina Mattson


Production Company:  Little Minx, Los Angeles, CA
Director: Nico Viega of Nico & Martin
Director of Photography:  Nanu Segal
Executive Producer:  Rhea Scott
Line Producer:  Deb Tietjen


Editing House:  Rock, Paper, Scissors, NYC
Editor: Carlos Arias
Assistant Editor:  Maria Lee
Flame Artist:  Edward Reina
Producer:  Helena Lee
Executive Producer:  Eve Kornblum

Kraft is bringing back the Zesty Guy for a new series of print ads, despite (or more likely because of) the backlash the brand received last time around from conservative protest group One Million Moms. Zesty Guy, created by agency Being, played by model Anderson Davis and photographed by Douglas Friedman, will be shirtless and sometimes pantsless in ads for the Raspberry Vinaigrette, Classic Catalina, Thousand Island and Classic Ranch dressings. (Check them all out after the jump.) His obsessive need for salad dressings in bizarrely nonfood situations is still a bit odd, but the variety of costumes and settings makes up for it. Plus, he seems like he's having a good time. And to think, he might not have come back at all if the moms hadn't complained about his "g*nitals" the first time around.

Your grandpa was a svelte boss. You, by comparison, are a junk-gobbling slob, according to a slick new split-screen ad for Coca-Cola from agency David in Buenos Aires. The spot, part of a larger effort to position Coke as anti-obesity, is meant to compare granddad's modest approach to life with today's steady diet of too much everything: oversized sandwiches, lattes and pre-TV-dinner hot dogs. Don't cut out Coca-Cola, though. Sugar water is cool, so long as you're riding your bike to work and taking the stairs. Because no matter what, it's important to enjoy life, and sugar water—or maybe aspartame water—is clearly the key to happiness. 

For reasons I don't entirely comprehend, Dove Chocolate recently decided to launch its new Mint & Dark Chocolate Swirl candies by creating a larger-than-life sculpture of TV personality Mario Lopez’s torso. The minty Lopez was served at an event in Los Angeles, where people then ate pieces of Chocolate Mario in a weirdly erotic communion to the god of abs. All this was apparently meant to prove that Dove chocolate “tastes as good as it looks.” It’s a cute idea, and objectification of hunky hunks and bedimpled cuties is totally on trend. From the wet torso of Colin Firth and zesty picnics with Kraft to the battle of hunks between Diet Coke and Diet Dr Pepper, dreamy guys are popping up shirtless and sexualized all over advertising. Unfortunately, the sculpture’s bizarre minty eyebrows and creepy life-likeness are slightly off-putting, as is the notion of passing around and actually eating pieces of Mario Lopez. Maybe next time, Dove can just cover the real Lopez with chocolate bits and serve him up Nantaimori style.

There's an old legend in advertising that goes like this: David Ogilvy was walking past a homeless man one day whose sign read: "I'm blind, please help." His cup was empty. Instead of giving him money, Ogilvy rewrote the sign to read: "I am blind, and it's spring." The cup soon overflowed with cash. Tada—a lesson in the power of storytelling.

Of course, stories that work in legend don't always work in reality, or so it seems when you try to apply the tricks of modern advertising to today's homeless signs. Writing team the Bilderbergers and director Ben Weinstein created a fictional project called Better Homeless Signs, bringing more compelling copy and design techniques to the traditional cardboard placard. Witness the sexy homeless sign, the meme-based homeless sign, and the prototype edible homeless sign (that's gotta be up for an award).

Of course, some real graphic designers have been doing this in an earnest manner since 2012. The way advertising is today, who knows how they afford the overhead. The takeout costs alone must be legendary. Full credits here.

In this controversial Burger King ad from Russia, a Whopper crushes a flower as a voiceover informs us: "This is a poppy. It was popular once, but now its time has passed." That's a rather strained drug reference, as a BK official in Russia explains that the poppy, used to make opium, symbolizes a "bad habit" that BK would happily help you replace with a Whopper addiction instead. (C'mon, people, it's obvious!) It's also apparently a play on words, as "mak" is both Russian for "poppy" and a slang term for McDonald's, whose time has also ostensibly run out. Major Russian media outlets won't run the commercial because it seems to position BK as an alternative to opiates. Have it your way, Russia! Of course, as these recent Big Mac ads illustrate, if you don't think McDonald's offers the ultimate psychedelic burger experience, you be trippin'.

A street artist named Plastic Jesus (picking an artsy pseudonym in 2013 is like picking an AOL screen name in 1997) stuck it to the man by leaving a fake product—complete with product tag—in five Best Buy stores around Los Angeles. The product is a useless plastic box, and is tagged as such. The product description includes gems like "will not work once you get it home," and "battery life too short to be of use." As an owner of a Dell laptop, I feel the sting of that second comment. The stunt is interesting and well designed, but going after Best Buy at this point is like kicking a dying mule. He or she should have done this in an Apple Store. Via Laughing Squid.

UPDATE: Jon Sandler, a spokesman for Best Buy, tells AdFreak in a statement: "A few stores were affected and the boxes were removed immediately. We are flattered that Best Buy is so top of mind for Mr. Plastic Jesus, and are happy that he presumably had the opportunity to witness our expert Blue Shirts and Geek Squad members in action during his visits. Hopefully he also had the chance to check out our fabulous back to school deals."

Seattle police already had one of the most fascinating and amusing—not to mention relevant and informative—law-enforcement Twitter accounts in the country. But the department demonstrated again this weekend that engaging with your audience goes well beyond witty posts in social media.

Following the legalization of marijuana in Washington last fall, Seattle police decided to hand out 1,000 bags of Doritos to attendees of the three-day Hempfest pot festival—adding stickers to the bags that brilliantly reminded partakers of the do's and don'ts of marijuana use, even when it's legal. "Warning: The contents of this package are as delicious as they appear," the sticker read, while giving pointers like "Don't drive while high," "Don't use pot in public" and "Do listen to Dark Side of the Moon at a reasonable volume."

Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, a former police reporter who consults with the Seattle PD's social-media team, is credited with the Twitter account's wonderful conversational tone, and was also involved in the Doritos stunt. "All the pot stuff has involved a lot of brainstorming, a lot of late nights, and a lot of Doritos," he tells Forbes of the communications strategy around the issue.

Why Doritos? "We literally considered everything but Bugles. That would've just been cruel," he says. "We settled on Doritos pretty quickly, and then debated the merits of Cool Ranch vs. Nacho Cheese. I wish they still made Jumpin' Jack Flash, but that's just me. I mean, I think that's an actual flavor and not just a Whoopi Goldberg movie, but my snack chip memory isn't what it used to be."

Doritos wasn't involved in the planning of the stunt but didn't seem concerned about this particular product placement, says Spangenthal-Lee. "Doritos makes taco shells for Taco Bell, which pretty much exclusively caters to the stoned-and-up-late-crowd at this point," he says, "so I don't think so."

Alright, @seattlehempfest, thx for the wonderful morning. We're headed home. Feelin' kinda Spacey pic.twitter.com/VpXcJxtTVN

— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) August 17, 2013

Mountain Dew's "Living Portraits" series is one of the most innovative and intricate short-form campaigns of the year. Who'd've thunk it, especially after the brand's high-profile ad missteps a few months ago? Created by BBDO and Psyop, each 30-second "Living Portrait" spotlights a different Dew endorser—Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., skateboarder Paul Rodriguez and snowboarder Danny Davis. Fun, freaky symbolism is used to capture the essence of each and, for lack of a better term, mythologize their lives. The spots all take a similar approach, with the endorsers seated on stylized thrones and the shot slowly pulling back to reveal bedazzling details.

Davis sits on ornately sculptured ice, slurping Dew and strumming a guitar. The camera pulls back to reveal a wintry jam session with members of his crew, the ice sculptor, birds of prey and wolves in attendance. A yeti plays drums. Snowboarders soar in a rainbow sky. A cute, briefcase-sized eyeball lounges by the fire, diggin' Danny's vibes.

Components move at different speeds, mixing 3-D layering and 2-D animation with live action and matte effects. Yet there's no discord, and the elements combine to create harmonious representations of the endorsers' lives and achievements.

Fans can visit Mountain Dew's website to unlock the secrets behind each portrait's imagery. The outsized eyeball in Davis's spot refers to FrendsVision, where the snowboarder and his crew share information about the Frends brand and disseminate clips of themselves "performing skits, snowboarding, playing music and entertaining the public the best way they know how." So, basically, the eye opens onto another ad. I didn't see that coming.

And we learn that the crew is jamming around a "peace fire," because "Danny lives his life preaching peace." That's a bit precious for me—sounds like an overblown piece of you know what—and I wonder if perhaps the symbols should have been left unexplained, adding to the mystery, allowing fans to debate their deeper meaning.

The yeti's presence isn't explained at all! Smelling a Pulitzer, I sent an email, and a rep for Mountain Dew parent PepsiCo explained: "The Yeti was included as it's part of mountain folklore." Rock on, noble yeti! That furry dude really keeps the beat.

See the other spots below.

EA Sports goes back to the future with this dumb-in-a-funny-way spot by ad agency Heat for Madden 25. In the '80s, we're told, two guys playing an early version of the football video game decided to spawn offspring whom they'd be able to use in the game somewhat. Thus were born current Houston Texans running back Arian Foster and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. (The fathers, "Darian Foster" and "Marshawn Lynch Sr.," are played, of course, by Foster and Lynch themselves.) It's a somewhat convoluted concept that comes across as well done, right on target for sports and video game obsessives, and a nice way to celebrate the Madden franchise's 25th anniversary—even if the kids' gym workouts are over the top in a way that feels a little like Old Spice's Terry Crews was their personal trainer. Credits after the jump.

CREDITS
Client: EA Sports' Madden 25

Agency: Heat
Creative Directors: Warren Cockrel, Anna Rowland
Senior Art Director: Mark Potoka
Senior Copywriter: Ben Salsky
Content Producer: Vera Kacurova
Account Director: Eddie Garabedian
Senior Strategist: Daniel Teng

Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Wayne McClammy
Executive Producer: Dan Duffy
Line Producer: Rachel Curl

Post Company: Arcade Edit
Editor: Christjan Jordan
Executive Producer: Damian Stevens

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Supervisor: John Leonti

Music Company: Beacon Street Studios
Composer: Andrew Feltenstein

Officer Baby says, "Put your hands against the waaaah!"

Samsung invents the mustachioed-baby-plays-cop-and-chases-a-vacuum-cleaner trope with this spot by The Viral Factory in London. Thankfully, the little lawman doesn't actually speak, but he's got a flashing blue light on his walker, so you know he means business as he takes off after a Samsung Motion Sync vacuum pushed around the house by his mom.

There's '70s-style cop-show music, action-movie camera angles and even a few "crashes"—though the infant enforcer just harmlessly knocks into some cartons, toys and plastic baskets. It's immediately clear that he's OK, and that's probably a good thing, given the beating this client-agency team took a while back for the cartoon violence in its "computer/puppy" spot.

The petite patrolman's convincing "Where'd that vacuum go?" expression around the 40-second mark is topped only by his brilliant use of the facial-hair disguise. He's a lock to make detective, probably in Seattle. (Perhaps he could investigate why there just happens to be a fake mustache lying around.)

This is a well-made spot, but the concept seems kind of random and weird, and it's tough to hang in for the whole two minutes. The focus is never really on the $600 vacuum cleaner being advertised. I guess the unit looks spry and maneuverable, though not as cute as the kiddie constable. Once the pursuit is finished, he's all tuckered out and ready for ba-ba and nap time—just like a grown-up police officer.

Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz has ruffled some bedspreads with this truly odd (and probably NSFW, though it's not really explicit) commercial positioning its new website as way more exciting than boring old sex.

"The design is impressive and comfortable, but the user experience as a whole … there's a slight sense of 'Been there, done that,' " the actor says in mid-copulation, according to The Hollywood Reporter, apparently referring to the experience of reading a traditional newspaper. The new website, though, is where the real thrills lie. "Life is not as interesting as Ha'aretz's new website," says the slogan at the end.

THR reports that women's groups in Israel were immediately outraged by the spot and formally protested it with a letter to the publisher. But 10 days after it was posted, it remains up on YouTube—and has more than 180,000 views.

Via The Ethical Adman.

Floyd Russ is getting petty good at gun-control advertising. The Grey New York producer worked on the famous "Ed" spot for States United to Prevent Gun Violence, which won a silver Lion in Film at Cannes this summer. Now he has spearheaded the chilling new PSA below—a personal project involving four Grey staffers but not produced by the agency—that uses audio from 911 calls made on the night of Trayvon Martin's death to protest stand-your-ground self-defense laws in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal.

The spot features a reenactment of Zimmerman's pursuit of Martin, and then calls for viewers to take action to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Russ tells AdFreak that he got the idea for the spot on the night of the Zimmerman verdict. He got Grey creatives Marques Gartrell and Kim Nguyen and account director Cassie Novick on board, and they raised $5,000 in a week online to cover production costs. Final Cut agreed to cover the postproduction work. Russ and his team drew up a list of potential clients for the spot; The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence was the first to reply.

"Our laws should protect victims. Not create more," says the on-screen copy at the end. "Stand up to 'Stand Your Ground' laws in 26 states." The spot points to csgv.org, which features a petition through which Americans can call on their state legislators to "oppose this immoral legislation."

Full credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Title: "Stand Up to 'Stand Your Ground' " PSA

Production Company: Narrow Margin Films
Director: Floyd Russ
Writers: Marques Gartrell, Kim Nguyen, Floyd Russ
Executive Producer: Adam Palmer
Associate Producers: Mike Lobikis, Keely Davenport, Emily Darby
Account Director/Art Department: Cassie Novick
Art Director: Marques Gartrell
Copywriter: Kim Nguyen
Director of Photography: Josh Fisher
Steadicam: Billy Green
Assistant Director: Adam Murphy

Postproduction: Final Cut
President: Stephanie Apt
Executive Producer: Lauren Bleiweiss
Editor: Sonejuhi Sinha
Assistant Editor: Dan Berk
Senior Producer: Viet-An Nguyen
Finishing Producer: Alek Rost
Online Visual Effects: Cecil Hooker
Graphics: Phil Brooks
Sound Design, Mixing: T. Terressa Tate
Color: Color Collective @ Final Cut
Colorist: Alex Bickel

Music: Future Perfect Music
Composer: Victor Magro

Bryan Cranston, the DEA's No. 1 pain in the ass during his iconic run as meth kingpin Walter White on AMC's Breaking Bad, has been getting some press lately for his early-'80s work in the commercial below for Preparation H (a product that basically defined the Reagan Era). Cranston's earnest take on lines like "It accelerates the absorption of oxygen to help shrink swelling of inflamed hemorrhoidal tissue" is so unironic, it's ironic.

UProxx posted a bunch of his ads from that decade, and Cranston's vaunted range is on full display. He's a smarmy "high-paid fashion model" for JCPenney, a bugged airport runway worker for Deep Woods Off, and a B.O.-cursed bus commuter dressed up as a skunk for Shield deodorant soap. (In some of these, his glib line deliveries and feathered hair remind me of the late, great Phil Hartman.)

Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul also did some early commercial work, notably a mind-blowing Juicy Fruit ad with a telekinetic twist from 2000, also posted below. (I wish Paul would shill for Preparation H and coin the catch phrase, "For when it itches, bitches!") On Breaking Bad, Cranston and Paul's characters often escape by the seats of their pants, but with their peril growing as the show winds down to its final episode, it will take more than Preparation H to save them from a painful end.

Chrissy Teigen, whom you may remember from her Sports Illustrated and Maxim appearances, was surprised by a Skittles waterfall during a recent photo shoot that was actually an ad stunt by Olson. It's generally a faux pas to dump candy all over someone without telling them first, but Chrissy took it in stride. She may have even welcomed it as a break from what was essentially the same retro pin-up photo shoot (with the same retro one-piece) that every other twentysomething girl in the country has been doing recently. "Surprise the Rainbow" is still a potentially dangerous piece of advice, though.

Stealing cardboard cutouts of the David Hasselhoff from Cumberland Farms is all fun and games until someone gets seriously hurt.

It began innocuously enough last summer, when some 550 cutouts of the Hoff were stolen from the convenience store's locations in New England and Florida. At the time, a brand strategist for the chain brushed off the thefts, saying the company didn't encourage it but was nonetheless "flattered by the attention." The chain will be less flattered by an incident on Tuesday, however, in which a Cumberland Farms clerk in Shelton, Conn., was critically injured trying to prevent the theft of a Hoff cutout from the latest campaign.

According to a statement from the local police:"The initial investigation revealed that a black SUV pulled into the lot of Cumberland Farms. The victim later observed a white male get out of the vehicle and cut two 'David Hasseloff' [sic] advertisement signs off of a light pole. The male then put the signs in the back of the vehicle. The victim approached the vehicle in an attempt to get the signs back. The vehicle then sped away and the victim was dragged and then he spun around and flipped backwards landing on his head."

The victim, who has not been identified, is listed in critical condition at an area hospital. Meanwhile, a 19-year-old who is suspected to have been the driver has come forward and is cooperating with police.

Barry Sanders has always been good at the vanishing act. He did it most famously in 1999 by retiring from the NFL at age 30, when he was just 1,457 yards short of the league rushing record. He does it again, comically, in this new Pepsi MAX ad from TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles and director Matt Dilmore. In the ad, Sanders, getting a shave at a barber shop, is about to reveal the real reason he retired—but suddenly he goes up in a puff of smoke, and reappears in the living room of some gamer who has "unlocked" him while playing Madden NFL 25, thanks to a code on a Pepsi MAX cap.

Sanders' involvement with Madden NFL 25 goes beyond the new ad. Though he's been retired for almost 15 years, the 45-year-old was recently voted by fans to be the cover athlete of the game's latest edition. "Being on the cover of Madden introduces you to so many new fans that never saw you play," he said recently. "It's been a thrill for me, and I just never saw it coming."

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Pepsi MAX
Spot: "Disappearing Sanders"

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles
President: Carisa Bianchi
Chief Creative Officer: John Norman
Creative Director, Copywriter: Zach Hilder
Creative Director, Art Director: William Esparza
Copywriters: Anne Sanguinetti, Kathleen Sweeny
Art Directors: Kristina Krkljus, Jenn Tranbarger
Group Account Director: Grace Kao
Management Supervisor: James Aardahl
Account Executives: Erik Wade, Rohit Bal
Planning Director: Neil Barrie
Planner: Drew Phillips
Executive Producer, Producer: Anh-Thu Le
Associate Producer: Stephanie Dziczek
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Laura Drabkin
Talent Payment Manager: Maryam Ohebsion
Broadcast Traffic Coordinator: Eugene Gandia

Production Company: Epoch Films
Director: Matt Dilmore
Executive Producer: Melissa Culligan
Head of Production: Megan Murphee
Line Producer: Geoff Clough

Editing: Cut + Run
Editor: Graham Turner
Assistant Editor: Russell August Anderson
Executive Producer: Michelle Eskin
Senior Producer: Christie Price

Visual Effects: Framestore
Flame Artist: Trent Shumway
Executive Producer: Kati Haberstock
Producer: Mary Nockles

Telecine: MPC
Colorist: Ricky Gausis

Mix: Lime Studios
Mixer: Loren Silber