For years, Gap's ads—and its clothes—were all about bubbly, drenching color. But this fall, it's time for a new look in both, as the brand has brought in David Fincher to drain the color, quite literally, from the TV work—and tell enigmatic stories in artful, cinematic black-and-white instead.

Four spots below, created by Wieden + Kennedy in New York as part of the new "Dress Normal" campaign, were released online Thursday (fittingly, perhaps, given their throwback vibe). The story lines are brief and somewhat inscrutable snapshots of guys and girls pursuing each other—with off-kilter payoff lines like "Dress like no one's watching," "Simple clothes for you to complicate" and "The uniform of rebellion and conformity."

The black-and-white style evokes film noir, though the vibe is lighter than that—and the lack of color (except for the Gap logo at the end of the spots, presented in various hues) ties directly into a product Gap is pushing hard this season: black denim.

"We want these films to get people talking," says Seth Farbman, Gap's global chief marketing officer. "Each one features a confident woman at the center and tells a story of how liberating it is when you are being your most authentic self. We believe everyone who watches them will identify with one or more of the characters.

"We were thrilled to work with David Fincher, one of the greats of modern American cinema and a superb storyteller. His highly detailed and authentic style resonates with the Gap brand and these films truly bring to life what our 'Dress Normal' message means."

What the line means is certainly up for debate, as we mentioned in covering the print component of the campaign. (It appears to be Gap's take on normcore, which it seems to want to half-embrace and half-reject.) But it's definitely a provocation.

And for a company long addicted to celebrity talent on camera, putting this particular celebrity director behind it certainly shifts the brand in an interesting direction. By moving into the shadows, perhaps Gap can actually emerge from them.

CREDITS
Client: Gap

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman, David Kolbusz
Creative Directors: Stuart Jennings, Susan Hoffman
Copywriter: Sheena Brady
Art Director: Kim Haxton
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Executive Producer: Alison Hill
Producer: Lisa Delonay
Brand Strategists: Erik Hanson, Hayley Parker
Account Team: Tamera Geddes, Dipal Shah, Patty Ehinger
Business Affairs: Lisa Quintela

Production Company: Reset
Director: David Fincher
Executive Producer, Chief Operating Officer: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Line Producer: Laura Miller
Director of Photography: Jeff Cronenweth
Production Designer: Don Burt
Costume Designer: Trish Summerville

Editing Company: Work Editorial
Editor: Kirk Baxter
Post Producer: Sari Resnick
Post Executive Producer: Erica Thompson
Editorial Assistants: Nate Gross, Mike Horan, Billy Peake

Visual Effects Company: Mill
Senior Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Producer: Dan Roberts
Coordinator: Jillian Lynes
New York Producer: Clairellen Wallin
2-D Lead Artists: Tim Davies, James Allen
2-D Artists: Robert Murdock, Tara Demarco, Timothy Crabtree, Jale Parsons, Brandon Danowski, Jamin Clutcher

Telecine Company: Light Iron
Colorist: Ian Vertovec

Mix Company: Sound Lounge
Mixer: Tom Jucarone
Sound Designer: Tom Jucarone
Producer: Vicky Ferraro

Music: Drive
Song: "L'amour LaMort"
Artist: Martial Solal

Music: Golf
Song: "Wait A Minute"
Artist: Performed by Eddie Ray; licensed by Bank Robber

Music: Kiss
Song: "Kiss"
Artist: David Holmes

Music: Stairs
Song: "Inner Babylon"
Artist: Written by Shabaka Hutchings; performed by Sons of Kemet

As Old Spice and agency Wieden + Kennedy continue to roll out ads featuring their chronically malfunctioning spokes-bot, it's hard to decide if they're succumbing to one of the most tired cliches in advertising or if they're skewering it. 

The gag, which competitor Axe spent years building its marketing around, is that using the brand's grooming products will make any man irresistible to women. Old Spice took the trope to its logical extreme, creating a mandroid who can score a hot date even when his face is falling off or he's crushing a woman's ribs with the weight of his industrial endoskeleton.

In the campaign's newest spot, the robot has made the mechanically unwise decision to lounge in a hot tub, surrounded by women so enraptured by his scent that they seem to have lost the common sense to leave a body of water that contains a sparking, error-spouting electrical device.

The campaign's ads definitely are good for a few laughs, but their portrayal of vapid women is also a departure for the brand.

A major factor in the success of Old Spice's already legendary "Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign was that it spoke directly to women ("Hello, ladies.") and recognized that they played a big role in household purchases like body wash and soap.

Later campaigns switched back to focusing on men, but they did so through oddly charming non sequiturs like a screaming Terry Crews or a watermelon shower basketball. 

But now, as it strives for a bigger slice of the lucrative male grooming category, Old Spice has dropped to the lowest common denominator: Use this product, and nothing else will matter. Women will hump you.

Turning women into mindless nymphomaniacs is the epitome of sexist advertising, but with one of the world's top agencies behind the campaign, one has to wonder if the whole thing is just a meta parody of how dumb most male-oriented advertising is. 

We asked Wieden + Kennedy whether it views the campaign as satire, though the shop deferred to the client:

"Much like all of our TV commercials, the new spots with the Old Spice robot illustrate the transformational powers of our products in the most ridiculous, over-the-top fashion," says Kate DiCarlo, Procter & Gamble's communications manager for Old Spice. "In this case, we were looking to bring to life the concept that when you use the combination of Old Spice body wash, deodorant and shampoo, the result is a manly, irresistible freshness from head to toes—regardless of your biological composition." 

In the end, it's hard to get upset about an ad campaign that's this knowingly, gloriously dumb. The gags are so well delivered and head-shakingly odd, they make other "this will make you hot" ads seem flacid by comparison.

And if that's not a definition for satirical advertising, what is? 

Anyone who knows Jim Riswold knows he has a bit of a Hitler obsession—or more specifically, an obsession with making the Nazi leader look stupid through art. Speaking to Vice in 2011, the legendary Wieden + Kennedy copywriter explained:

"Bad guys don't mind being called bad guys. But bad guys don't like to be laughed at. I have always thought humour could diffuse fears and deflate even the most evil of egos. Voltaire said, 'I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.' I made Hitler look ridiculous. Hitler is ridiculous. But please don't tell him I said so."

Now, Riswold gets to show off some of his Hitler work in a new documentary called Meet the Hitlers. Directed by Tool's Matt Ogens (who also created the acclaimed doc Confessions of a Superhero), the film explores people named Hitler or related to Hitler, and how keeping that name has molded their lives.

As part of the film, Ogens profiles Riswold, who documents Nazi-themed objects as a way of disarming the hatred and making fun of the consumer culture behind Nazis and Hitler. Check out a scene from the documentary here:



Meet the Hitlers is also launching a digital campaign that includes whatsinaname.me (created by Trust), which looks at many people with absurd names (including some named Hitler from the movie) and how those names helped to shape their lives.

Soon, an interactive experience at meetthehitlers.com will allow users to experience what it might be like if their last name were Hitler.

Here's the trailer for Meet the Hitlers:

If watching Drew Brees talk to a hyper-awkward robot for six minutes is your kind of thing, then Old Spice has an ad for you.

The New Orleans Saints quarterback keeps his cool during "4th and Touchdown," a fictional sports news show hosted by Old Spice's new mascot, who in the recent past has been doing well with human women, despite his total lack of social skills.

Absent that context, the moral now seems to be that viewers should act like Drew Brees, not like a hyper-awkward robot, which is pretty sound advice regardless. Even if the robot claims to have great hair thanks to Old Spice, he's not the most reliable narrator.



The pair's antics range from fairly grating to pretty amusing, with some sharp writing and a lot of waiting between the high points (see: roughly 4:15, Brees pretending to be a brass instrument). In a way, the finale rewards your patience, though may not be quite enough to compensate (perhaps a shorter edit would be in order?).

Anyway, the whole thing deserves credit for trying to send up the tradition of senseless televised sports coverage, even if the pass doesn't quite connect. That robot does a solid impression of a smug anchor.

And if you do like it, stay tuned for more. The brand is promising appearances from Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green and Seattle Seahawks defensive back Earl Thomas.

ESPN calls itself "the worldwide leader in sports." And it got there partly thanks to quite a bit of free advertising—happily provided by the very athletes it covers.

Basketball, hockey, baseball, soccer, football. Whatever the game, fans count on ESPN to showcase it and analyze it. And ESPN enjoys a pleasantly symbiotic relationship with star athletes, who often freely serve as unofficial endorsers—online and on TV.

The prime example, of course, is the iconic "This Is SportsCenter" ad campaign, set in the surreal world of the ESPN offices, where pro athletes toil as co-workers rather than superhuman sports stars. They generally aren't paid for these appearances (though ESPN often donates money to a charity of their choosing), and one even told ESPN that being in the campaign was on his bucket list.

ESPN's skillful marketing over 35 years is what really built the brand. But it doesn't hurt that, more than most, it doesn't have to fight for celebrity endorsements. Indeed, star athletes love ESPN, and vouch for it. More than likely, if you're a sports fan, you do too.

Great piece on the Bad Boys on ESPN. Check it out. Here's an early pict of me and the Captain. pic.twitter.com/vehMhxUraR

— Shane Battier (@ShaneBattier) April 20, 2014

The Little League World Series has been very exciting & competitive! Thank you to @ESPN for airing the #LLWS!

— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) August 18, 2014

Great 30 for 30 on the "Bad Boys"!!! S/O that whole squad mostly because the brotherhood they had for one another no matter what!!

— LeBron James (@KingJames) April 18, 2014

Got to tour @espn this morning. Awesome to see behind the scenes! Didn't see any decaf or milk @RickieFowlerPGA...

— Troy Merritt (@TROYMERRITT_PGA) June 18, 2014

Stuart Scott is a Beast. Been an inspiration to a lot of people. Was the reason I started watching Sportscenter as kid. Hasn't missed a beat

— Ian Desmond (@IanDesmond20) July 17, 2014

Loving @ESPN_FirstTake this am. @stephenasmith And @RealSkipBayless both have good points.

— 10 (@SimplyAJ10) January 23, 2014

Social Media Profile (as of 9/23/14)
Facebook Likes: 13 Million
Twitter Followers: 11.4 Million
Instagram Followers: 1.2 Million

Sports fans are incredibly passionate, and this helps ESPN's social presence greatly. It's not surprising that ESPN had the year's top branded post on Facebook by summer's end. Every post on all of the brand's social channels quickly nabs thousands of likes. 

Fast Facts
• ESPN has two owners: ABC, which owns 80 percent, and Hearst Corporation, which owns 20 percent.
• Launched in September 1979, ESPN now has eight cable networks, a variety of digital properties including ESPN.com and Grantland.com, audio and international programming, a magazine and several annual events like the ESPYs and the X Games.
• In August, it launched the SEC Network, which showcases the Southeastern Conference schools.
• The company is based in Bristol, Conn., and has roughly 7,000 employees worldwide. 

—Brand of the Day is a daily feature on Adweek.com. To submit a brand for consideration, contact Kristina.Monllos@adweek.com.

Facebook swaps out its usual grandiose advertising with this cute TV spot from Wieden + Kennedy that captures some of the intimate emotions behind social media.

In the past, Facebook's ads have been criticized for not focusing on the intimate, human moments that social media can spur. Its Facebook Home ads last year were big, cartoony and surreal, and 2012's "Chairs" was even more over the top.

But the new spot, titled "Say Love You Better," takes Facebook in a different direction. Life-size speech bubbles pop up over two lovebirds as they send short messages back and forth to each other via Facebook Messenger. It's also a clever take on mobile messaging, which often only mentions texting features in ads. The idea is to show that Facebook Messenger can share much more than text—it includes audio, video and stickers.



The 30-second spot feels like a mix of Oreo's "Wonderfilled" and some of Google's better TV work—and indeed, the director here, Aaron Duffy of 1stAveMachine, has done lots of Google ads, including its famous 2010 Super Bowl spot "Parisian Love."

The ad is running in Los Angeles and Chicago, and the campaign will be expanded to include out-of-home elements in November—a first for Facebook. Billboards in Chicago and L.A.'s airports and freeways will play up creative showing the different features of Facebook Messenger. Ads will also wrap Chicago's "L" trains and bus shelters.

Whether the campaign will drive app downloads is unclear, but it's a tactic other digital companies are latching on to. Earlier this week, Foursquare launched its first brand campaign also aimed at driving app downloads using out-of-home and digital ads.

The media push comes at a key time for Facebook, as the number of mobile messaging apps continues to grow. A report from Forrester Research earlier this year outlined the top 10 messaging apps, with Facebook Messenger claiming only 200 million users, compared to 500 million for WhatsApp (also owned by Facebook).

CREDITS
Client: Facebook
Head of Consumer and Brand Marketing: Rebecca Van Dyck
Executive Creative Director: Scott Trattner
Director of Marketing Communications: Jennifer Henry
Brand Strategy: Sheila Thompson
Brand Marketing Manager: Brandon McGraw
Product Marketing Manager: Jessica Lee
Product Designer: Mac Tyler

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Creative Directors: Stuart Harkness, Max Stinson
Design Director: Guy Featherstone
Copywriter: Matt Skibiak, David Povill
Art Director: Zack Madrigal, Ollie Watson
Producer: Julia Lafferty, Kirsten Acheson
Strategic Planning: Britton Taylor, Lizzie Hanner
Media/Comms Planning: John Rowan, Stephanie Ehui
Account Team: John Rowe, Dave Hubbard, Anya Wachtel
Business Affairs: Cynthia Valenti, Cindy Lewellen
Project Management: Christina Kim
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: 1st Avenue Machine
Director: Aaron Duffy
Partner/EP: Sam Penfield
Executive Producer: Melinda Nuget
Post Producer: Malú Rodríguez
Animation Director/Art Director: Martin Allais
Cell Animators: Lizzi Akana, Masayoshi Nakamura, Barbara Benas
3-D Animator: Tyler Hurd
3-D Modelers: Garret Norlin, Eric Xu, Jerry Chow
Storyboards: Chris Butzer
Editors: Nate Buchik, Jonathan Vitagliano, Chelsey Blackmon
Compositors: Eric Concepcion, Beryl Chen, Tiffany Chung
VFX Superviser: John Loughlin
Color Grading: Ricart & Co
Choreographer: Keith Young
Line Producer: Nanette Williams
DP: Will Rexer
VFX Supervisor On Set: Keith Young

Sound Design Company: Henryboy
Sound Designer: Bill Chesley
Producer: Kate Gibson
Mix Company: Sound Lounge
Mixer: Chris Afzal
Mix Producer: Mike Gullo

Song: "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Presley as performed by twenty one pilots

Photographer: Jason Nocito

How do you sell American cars in 2014? By tricking people into first thinking your goods are Japanese or German.

Chrysler is launching a tongue-in-cheek campaign for its 200 model with TV ads featuring voiceovers that start in foreign languages, touting qualities commonly associated with cars built outside the U.S. Then, the narrators register faux shock that the car cruising across the screen is, in fact, a Chrysler. Reliability and performance are now "American things," the ads explain, in a bid to quickly to throw the brand's past self under the bus.

Created with agency Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., the spots also feature scenery meant to cue foreign settings, like cherry blossoms and koi ponds for Japan (actually shot in Detroit) and a knockoff Autobahn for Germany (shot in Seattle). Chrysler is also promising a Swedish version focused on safety (filmed in San Francisco and Seattle).

They're branded with the tagline "America's Import," also slapped on the Bob Dylan Super Bowl ad from earlier this year. It's a more explicitly patriotic evolution of the "Imported from Detroit" tagline introduced by Eminem's ad for Chrysler during the 2012 Super Bowl, and reinforced by Clint Eastwood's halftime ad the following year.

But since it's apparently going for a mix of laughs and puffed-up American pride, it's really a shame there's no Anchorman movie about to come out—then the company could ride Ron Burgundy's coattails again.

Credits below.

CREDITS
Client: Chrysler
Project: "Ready to Take on the World"
CMO, Chrysler Group, Fiat Group Automobiles, Head of Fiat Brand: Olivier
Francois
President and Chief Executive Officer, Chrysler Brand: Al Gardner
Director, Head of Global Advertising, Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram: Marissa Hunter
Head of Advertising, Chrysler Marketing: Melissa Garlick
Chrysler Brand Advertising Specialist: Danielle DePerro

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Aaron Allen, Kevin Jones, Michael Tabtabai
Copywriters: Smith Henderson, Brandon Davis ("Three Times" only)
Art Director: James Moslander
Producer: Bob Wendt
Production Assistant: Julie Gursha
Interactive, Social Strategy: Sarah Biedak
Strategic Planning: Andy Lindblade
Media, Communications Planning: Alex Barwick
Account Team: Cheryl Markley, Lani Reichenbach, Jourdan Merkow
Business Affairs: Dusty Slowik
Project Management: Jane Monaghan
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Reset
Director: Andrew Douglas
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Line Producer: Betsy Oliver
Director of Photography: Alwin Küchler

Editing Company: Joint
Editors: Matthew Hilber ("Japanese Quality," "German Performance"), Nicholas Davis ("Swedish Safety")
Assistant Editors: Dylan Sylwester, Kristy Faris
Post Producer: Leslie Carthy
Post Executive Producer: Patty Brebner

Visual Effects Company: Joint ("Japanese Quality" "German Performance – Autobahn" "German Performance – Three Times")
Flame Artist: Katrina Salicrup
Smoke Artist: Zack Jacobs
Visual Effects Producer: Alex Thiesen
Titles, Graphics: Brad Simon, W+K Studio Designer; Peiter Hergert, W+K Motion Designer

Visual Effects ("Swedish Safety" only)
Flame Artists: Simon Brewster, Andrew Eksner, Sarah Marikar, Katrina Salicrup
Smoke Artist: Zack Jacobs
Titles, Graphics: Brad Simon, W+K Studio Designer; Peiter Hergert W+K Motion Designer

Song: "The Fire" – The Roots

Mix Company: Joint
Mixer: Noah Woodburn
Producer: Alex Thiesen

Well, this might just blow your damn mind.

Honda and Wieden + Kennedy London have created a rather incredible "double-sided story" on YouTube to promote the Civic and its sportier sibling, the Civic Type R. While watching "The Other Side," you can press and hold the "R" button on your keyboard to switch between parallel storylines. 

Watch it here: Honda's "The Other Side."

"We wanted people to feel Honda's other side as well as see it," W+K notes today on its blog,"so we dreamt up a technique that brings together both narratives through a simple interaction." (The technique is a bit reminiscent of Interlude's famous interactive music video for Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone.")

Without revealing too much, I'll just say the dual film directed by Daniel Wolfe follows the travels of a seemingly mild-mannered dad who leads a rather interesting double life. 

You can watch a few teasers below, but you really need to see the full experience for yourself on YouTube.

LeBron James can go home again. And again. And again.

The NBA star's return to Cleveland from Miami was always going to be fodder for numerous ad campaigns. And indeed, we've already seen spots from Beats by Dre and Sprite this week. Now it's Nike's turn to get epic—timed to Thursday night's Cavaliers home-opener against the New York Knicks.

It's suitably goosebump inducing, as LeBron leads not just his teammates but all of Cleveland in a massive pre-game huddle—the ultimate come-to-Jesus moment for the city's once-and-again favorite son.



Nike Basketball partnered with Wieden + Kennedy for the spot, which was directed by the Malloy Brothers. LeBron's mom, Gloria Marie James, makes a cameo, as do Coach Dru Joyce and teammates Kyrie Irving, Dion Waters, Anderson Varejao, Shawn Marion, Tristan Thompson, Matthew Dellavedova and Joe Harris.

Nike is also introducing the LeBron 12 Hrt of a Lion shoe today, and is currently working on the nine-hour process of unveiling a 10-story, 25,000-square-foot banner on Ontario Street welcoming James back to Cleveland.

A funny thing happened on the way to final presentations in OppenheimerFunds' creative review: the pitches were called off, according to sources.

Why? Because three weeks ago Oppenheimer executives saw something they liked in one of the contenders, MRM, and wanted to hire the agency straight-away, sources said. Since then, the Interpublic Group shop has been in talks with Oppenheimer to handle the account, which is backed by annual media spending of about $20 million, according to sources.

The other contenders, meanwhile, have been cooling their heels. Sources identified the other finalists as Mullen and Wieden + Kennedy.

The winner will succeed Havas Worldwide in New York, which did not defend. Ark Advisors in New York is managing the search.

While unusual, the short-circuiting of a review just before finals saves other contenders the time and expense of pitching, though, of course, the agencies have already spent money on the process. Also, why put other shops through the paces if you've already found what you're looking for? In that context, such a move seems refreshingly honest.

MRM, a unit of McCann Worldgroup, referred calls to to the New York-based Oppenheimer, which declined to comment. But sources expect the process to be completed soon.

Not include in the review are media and public relations responsibilities, which remain at Havas Media and Prosek Partners, respectively.

Are you up for some BGCP3TV in HD?

Los Angeles Clippers stars Blake Griffin and Chris Paul have each shown, separately, that they can anchor comedy. In State Farm's Chris and Cliff campaign, Paul showed that he's perhaps the NBA's most gifted endorser. And Griffin? Well, he's done so much comedy that he has his own section on Funny or Die.

Now, they've teamed up for an interesting project from Wieden + Kennedy in New York and Jordan Brand—a pair of five-minute videos that are full of quirky comedy sketches. Both are pretty amusing—not surprising, since Neal Brennan, co-creator of The Chappelle Show, served as director and co-writer on these.

Griffin and Paul are launching new shoes a month apart, but these sketches are a whole lot more entertaining than some action footage would have been.





W+K's Eric Helin wrote some sketches, as did Brennan. There wasn't too much improvising—most of what you see was on the page, though Griffin and Paul made it their own. "I've worked with a ton of athletes and can honestly say Blake and Chris are among the best," said Gary Van Dzura, creative director at W+K. "They're natural in front of the camera and have a great comedic timing."

"Pretty much what you see is what you get," Brennan added. "They're friends who clearly spend a lot of time together. They like and respect each other and are used to making jokes all day. I was also amazed at how quickly they were able to memorize the material."

Asked if there was a limit to how goofy he wanted the sketches to be, Brennan said: "One of the sketches that got cut out was super crazy. But I don't think anybody really thought of them as crazy/not crazy. At least I didn't. I just thought of them as tonally correct and funny/not funny. The Ohhh Bros. sketch is about guys whose lives are ruined by reacting to basketball plays. That's pretty crazy."



CREDITS
Client: Jordan Brand
Project: BGCP3TV in HD
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman, David Kolbusz
Creative Directors: Gary Van Dzura, Jimm Lasser
Writer: Eric Helin
Art Director: Erwin Federizo
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Producer: Orlee Tatarka
Account Team: Jerico Cabaysa, Price Manford, Heather Morba, Cory McCollum
Business Affairs: Sara Jagielski
Production Company: Go Film
Director, Co-Writer: Neal Brennan
Executive Producer, Chief Operating Officer: Gary Rose
Executive Producer: Adam Bloom
Line Producer: Marc Benardout
Director of Photography: Chuck Ozeas
Editing Company: Starch Media
Editors: Bijan Shams, Scott Ashby, Jeremy Hsu
Post Producer: Susan Applegate
VIsual Effects Company: Stardust & Elastic
VIsual Effects Lead Flame: Alex Frisch
Telecine Company: MPC
Colorist: Ricky Gausis
Mix Company: Eleven
Mixers: Jeff Payne, Ben Freer
Producer: Susanne Hollingshead
Song: "Junkyard" (Original Composition)
Artist: James Poyser

Some pretty good agencies are getting swept out in Kraft's move to consolidate creative responsibilities on its brands at four main roster shops.

Gone are Droga5, Wieden + Kennedy, The Martin Agency and TBWA's Being, which handled brands such as Cracker Barrel, Velveeta, Stove Top and Planters Nuts. Also eliminated were Ogilvy & Mather, Roberts + Langer DDB, VSA Partners and Lopez Negrete Communications, which created multicultural ads.

Many of those shops were hired before Kraft spun off its snacks business into Mondelez International and when current Mondelez chief marketing officer Dana Anderson was a top marketer at Kraft. Under Anderson, a former agency leader, Kraft diversified its agency roster in a bid to get new blood on legacy brands.

Managing that many shops, however, can be unwieldy, particularly when each handled just a few assignments. Ogilvy, for example, worked on Nabob and Tassimo in Canada and Roberts + Langer handled Philadephia Cream Cheese in the U.S.

Also, two years after the spinoff, Kraft is a "more focused company," said a company representative, who added that the consolidation was about "fewer, deeper relationships." And, needless to say, there's a significant cost savings in employing fewer shops.

The rep also emphasized that "none of these agencies are exiting due to poor performance." That, of course, is small consolation to anyone losing business, particularly from a major marketer like Kraft.

The big winners in the consolidation are MDC Partners' Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Dentsu's mcgarrybowen, Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett and WPP Group's Taxi, current roster players who will take on the dozen or so brands that the outgoing agencies are shedding.

Where each brand lands, however, won't be revealed until next week. But now, instead of employing a dozen creative agencies, Kraft will have a core four.

Diageo’s $40 million global creative review of its marquee Johnnie Walker brand has caught many by surprise, given the sales growth the brand has enjoyed under longtime lead agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty and its "Keep Walking" campaign.

In fact, agency rivals and a search consultant—who typically are cynical and critical of agencies and their work—can’t fathom why the world’s No. 1 scotch whisky is looking around. In addition to BBH, sources identified the finalists as BBDO, Anomaly, Ogilvy & Mather and Wieden + Kennedy.

Observers see "Keep Walking" as a gold standard in spirits advertising and a driver of Johnnie Walker’s growth. When the campaign began in 2000, brand sales represented 13 percent of the global market; at the end of 2013, that figure exceeded 20 percent, according to the IWSR.

"It’s one of the world’s greatest brands. And you know what? BBH made it one of the world’s greatest brands," said a leader at one rival shop, adding, "I don’t like seeing agencies that really built something getting dusted off."

Russel Wohlwerth of External View Consulting Group is equally puzzled by the search. "You never know what goes on behind closed doors," he said. "But on its face, it seems strange they would place the account in review, given the success of the product and the success of the campaign."

Perhaps Diageo is just doing due diligence after 15 years with BBH. After all, even global brand director Guy Escolme admitted that the relationship has been "hugely successful." Nevertheless, Escolme added that "the time is right to invited selected agencies, including BBH to look at how we take the brand forward into the future."

The annual British Christmas ad wars are heating up, and Tesco wants people to know it's armed with lots of the obligatory bright lights and endearingly ridiculous ornaments.

A new TV commercial from the supermarket chain and Wieden + Kennedy London dramatizes everyman preparations for the holiday—pulling tangled string lights out of the dusty attic, scaling a ladder with a wobbly reindeer, and grinning slack-jawed as a two-story inflatable Santa reaches full stature.

It aims to build toward that wondrous moment when the electricity flips on—another in a string of familiar visual cues that are appropriate, if not particularly risky. And it has some pretty fierce competition in the the quiet charisma of this year's penguin-as-childhood-best-friend ad from department store John Lewis.



But the real gem in Tesco's campaign is the insane outdoor light show it put on at a store in Wigan, outside Manchester (with some of the resulting footage edited into the TV spot). See below for that.

Spurred by a local journalist's Twitter gripe last year that the location's sign didn't have a Christmas hat, Tesco responded with a Christmas rock spectacular that includes a guitar-shredding Santa, turkey Rockettes and a brain-melting bass drop into a Elven electronica dance routine. In the grand finale, Saint Nick basically Hadoukens a neon green crown out of his guitar through the air, onto the "O" in Tesco.

In other words, be careful what you wish for at Christmas—you might get it, and then some.

A few years ago, out-of-home advertising was still primarily used by either big, traditional brands or local businesses. But as technology becomes more engrained in everyday life, companies like Facebook, Foursquare and a crop of startups are putting new twists on old-school advertising to build brand recognition and drive app downloads.

Boxed, an app that sells and delivers wholesale packaged-goods, is one such startup enlisting subway ads in New York to drive app downloads. The marketer launched a new subway campaign last week, taking over all ad placements on one side of subway cars. It's the second time Boxed has run underground ads; here's a look at one of them:

"We've tried a lot of ROI-based ad networks, and [out-of-home] averages out if you do it right," said Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed. "Even though it is more expensive, we can recoup the costs."

Huang acknowledged out-of-home ads are tougher to track than digital, in terms of how many downloads an ad drove, but both tactics are effective in acquiring loyal users, defined as people who keep an app on their phones for a long period of time. 

The CEO said the public transit promos work for his company because Boxed is set up to drive sales. While download numbers are important, so is teaching people to shop from their smartphones, which requires a brand-building campaign. The company declined to provide stats but said people who see the out-of-home ads spend more money than those who see the digital ones. 

"Because we do drive revenue, we're able to make bigger bets—you don't see a lot of games being advertised in out-of-home yet," Huang noted.

The creative on the Boxed ads are also meant to show off the advantages of shopping online, specifically for New Yorkers who buy in bulk.

Other payment players like Seamless, Venmo and PayPal have all recently leaned on out-of-home to build brand awareness.

In fact, online food takeout company GrubHub Inc.—made up of GrubHub and Seamless—has used out-of-home and subway ads since launching more than 10 years ago in all of its major markets. And with 50 percent of all orders coming from mobile, the ads seem to be getting attention.

"We're capturing people when they're on the way home from work, when they're hungry, so it's natural to drive them to download the app," said Abby Hunt, a rep for GrubHub Seamless.

East Coast healthcare startup Oscar has also made a big bet on out-of-home ads within the past year. Oscar started advertising on the subway in October 2013 with small placements.

"It was a bit of an experiment given that we are a startup with small budgets compared to all the other health insurance companies out there," said Veronica Parker-Hahn, vp of marketing at Oscar. "We knew we needed a way to drive awareness of Oscar, but we didn't have the money and we weren't quite ready to dive into the pool of TV."

Anecdotally, the ads built buzz and are now being expanded to include more placements and to reach New Jersey.

Traditional, Tech-Driven Creative Goes National
New York's subway has an obvious advantage for tech brands over most markets since it's the primary way people get around. But the out-of-home trend is hitting other major cities, too.

This week, Facebook launched its first out-of-home campaign in Los Angeles and Chicago to promote Messenger, its mobile messaging app.

"By using a variety of [out-of-home] creative in our 'Say Anything Better' brand campaign, we could be a part of the city landscapes while simultaneously showcasing different messaging for Chicago and L.A.," said Rebecca Van Dyck, head of Facebook's brand marketing.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is running billboards in Chicago and L.A.'s airports, freeways and trains with graphic visuals that aim to position Messenger as a mobile app that does more than text messaging. A digital ad buy also includes more traditional app-install ads.

"With all of the features, it allows for a very visual form of communication. We wanted to look at the conversations that people are likely to be having using an app like Messenger," said Matt Skibiak, copywriter at Wieden + Kennedy Portland, Facebook's agency of record behind the campaign.

To help do that, Facebook cast 25 to 30 real people (although not all of them were used) to be the faces of the campaign.

"At their core, Facebook is a product that's composed of real people, and they're not shying away from talking about real things and showing real people in their ads," Skibiak said.

Winter is here, people. And unless you're a baseball player passed out somewhere in the Caribbean sun, you're going to have to deal with it.

Or rather, enjoy it.

Wieden + Kennedy's new Nike campaign is all about how painful it can be for athletes dealing with the harshness of winter weather—unless you happen to be wearing the brand's Hyperwarm baselayer of workout apparel, in which case you're impervious and awesome.

Chris O'Dowd amusingly stars as a weatherman of sorts, who hyperbolically describes the effects of the cold on the human body. It's not pretty. And yet his dire warnings are at completely at odds with what's on the screen, as we see cold-weather athletes going about their business—with their brains and extremities in full working order.

O'Dowd is a likable guy and an unexpected choice, and the whole spot has some of the wry, freewheeling atmosphere of the Bradley Cooper-voiced "Possibilities" spot from last year—though it's more cartoony with the faux-weather-show setup.



The film is the first in a multi-part series, Nike says, with this first installment featuring football stars Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson, soccer players Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans, distance runner Mary Cain, figure skater Gracie Gold and snowboarder Johnnie Paxson.

Among those to be featured later in the campaign are hockey's Dion Phaneuf and baseball's Yasiel Puig—who must be playing in a winter league in Iceland.

CREDITS
Client: Nike
Project: Choose Your Winter

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Stuart Brown, Chris Groom
Copywriter: Nathaniel Friedman
Art Director: Sara Phillips
2D Artists: Tim O’Brien, Edgar Morales
Global Executive Producer: Matt Hunnicutt
Agency Senior Producer: Erika Madison
Production Intern: J.R. Celski
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz
Account Team: Marisa Weber, Molly Rugg, Jordan Muse
Business Affairs Manager: Karen Crossley
Broadcast Traffic: Tobin Kittoe
Project Manager: Lauren Walker
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Mark Fitzloff

Production Company: Reset
Director: Adam Hashemi
Managing Director: Dave Morrison
Executive Producer: Jeff McDougall
Line Producer: Andrew Travelstead
Director of Photography: Ben Seresin
Production Designer: Jeremy Hindle

Editorial Company: Exile
Editor - 60: Kirk Baxter
Editor – 30s: Nate Gross
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Post Producer: Toby Louie
Assistant Editor: Grant Hull

Finishing: The Mill LA
Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Producer: Leighton Greer
Creative Director/2D Lead: James Allen
3D Lead Artist: Tom Graham
2D Artists: Jale Parsons / Brad Scott / Jake Maymudes / Nick Tayler / Jason Bergman / Chris Payne
3D Artists: Robert Chapman / Josh Hatton / Martin Rivera / Matt Longwell / Milton Ramierz
Matte Painting: Thom Price / Rasha Shalaby
Motion Graphics: Andrew Marks
Colorist: Adam Scott
Color Producer: Natalie Westerfield

Music Company: Walker
Executive Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Composer: Michael Picton
Arranger: Judson Crane
Track: “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” by Edvard Grieg

Sound Design: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi
Executive Producer: Kelly Bayett

Mix Company: Lime
Engineer: Rohan Young
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will honor Heineken its Creative Marketer of the Year at the festival in June.

Past honorees include McDonald’s last year, Coca-Cola in 2013 and Mars in 2012.

The honor recognizes Heineken's past success at the festival. In the past three years, six of its brands have collectively won 41 Lions, including a Grand Prix in Creative Effectiveness. 

"[Heineken] has a superb framework that allows its marketing teams the freedom to experiment while retaining the core essence of their many brands,” said Philip Thomas, CEO of Lions Festivals.

And experiment it has. Throughout 2014, the Dutch beer giant made a 15-second film based on a tweet, ran an Instagram campaign for Gay Pride month, and trialed a mobile-only campaign for a new beer-tequila brand.

“This prestigious award is recognition of the great creative work our people and agencies are delivering,” said Alexis Nasard, Heineken's president of Western Europe and global chief marketing officer.

The brand's lead global agency is Wieden + Kennedy, which created this year’s “Cities of the World” campaign.

Heineken is the second-largest brewer globally by revenue, and claims to be the No. 1 beer brand on Facebook, according to a company fact sheet. It posted group revenue growth of 4.6 percent in the first half of the year, with beer volume up 3.1 percent.

Distraught mothers became psychotic stalkers in Old Spice's epic "Momsong" musical, following their sons around and weeping about how they've grown into men too soon, thanks to the brand's female-luring body sprays.

Now, it's time for fathers to weigh in. And naturally, they couldn't be happier that their boys are turning into men.

The 60-second sequel, "Dadsong," from Wieden + Kennedy, tries to pack in a lot more than the original, which won a slew of awards, including gold at the Clios and in Cannes. It opens with one of the moms from the first spot, still bereaved as she watches her son slow-dance with a girl at a high school dance.



"Where's my little boy, I miss him so/Who's this man living in our home?/My special guy has turned into a man," she sings. Then, back at home, Dad comes roaring in on a sit-down lawnmower, and sings: "At least he won't be living in a driveway in a van!"

The rest of the spot is a showdown between mothers and fathers, with amusing lyrics—music company Walker worked on the spot, with music and words by Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords—and increasingly outlandish visuals, echoing the first ad. (The mom under the ice is the best bit here.)

Of course, the moms and dads are actually both right. As the lyrics cleverly hint at, about halfway through, he's not a man or a child—he's a manchild. And he'll certainly get a kick out of the commercial.

CREDITS
Client: OId Spice
Spot: "Dadsong"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Jason Bagley | Craig Allen
Copywriters: Jason Kreher | Nathaniel Lawlor
Art Directors: Matt Sorrell | Ruth Bellotti
Senior Producer: Lindsay Reed
Account Team: Georgina Gooley | Nick Pirtle | Michael Dalton | Jessica Monsey
Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman | Joe Staples
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Colleen O’Donnell
Line Producer: Jay Veal
Director of Photography: Fredrik Backar

Editorial Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler
Assistant Editor: Pamela Petruski
Post Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Producer: Adam Reeb
Coordinator: Kris Drenzek
Creative Director: Tim Davies
Senior Visual Effects Artist: Becky Porter
Visual Effects Artists: Alex Candlish | Patrick Munoz | John Price | Timothy Crabtree | Adam Lambert | Anthony Petitti | Yukiko Ishiwata | Phil Mayer
Computer Graphics Visual Effects Artist: Jason Jansky

Music Company: Walker
Producer: Sara Matarazzo
Assistant Producer: Abbey Hickman

Composer: Bret McKenzie
Arranger: Mickey Petralia

Music Record and Final Mix
Studio: HEARby
Engineer: John Buroker
Executive Producer: Nannette Buroker

Color Transfer Company: The Mill
Artist: Adam Scott
Executive Producer: Thatcher Peterson
Producer: Natalie Westerfield

Wieden + Kennedy recently created a pretty incredible out-of-home tourism installation for Travel Portland: the tallest freestanding cuckoo clock in the U.S.

Chainsaw sculptor J. Chester Armstrong carved the clock, made from a single Oregon maple, in the national forest just outside Portland. It took three months to make—with help from metal sculptor Nicolas Gros, clock designer/gear consultant Laurent Worme, electronics consultant Mark Keppinger and local illustrator Patrick Long (who did the illustrations for the clock face). The clock features references to a number of Portland icons—Mt. Hood, Portlandia, beer, wine, bikers, farmers markets, roses, rivers, bridges and even Sasquatch.

W+K recently took the clock—which thematically ties into the "Portland Is Happening Now" campaign—to Seattle and Vancouver for tourism events in those cities. Every hour on the hour, hand-painted, wood-carved miniatures appear when the clock chimes. The events also featured "Portland-themed surprises, like coffee and donuts, a poet reading, a comedian performance, a tax-free tea party and naked bike riders," the agency says.

The clock is 24.1 feet tall by 9.5 feet wide and weighs more than three tons. W+K is now looking for an indoor location in Portland to house the clock through the winter months. Check out more images below, all courtesy of the Portland Oregon Visitors Association/Travel Portland.

CREDITS
Client: Travel Portland
Project: "Portland Is Happening Now"

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Hal Curtis / Antony Goldstein / Jeff Gillete
Copywriters: Becca Wadlinger / Jared Elms / Ian Fairbrother
Art Director: Nate Nowinowski
Designers: Patrick Nistler / Cassandra Swan
Media Team: Wieden + Kennedy
Interactive Strategy: Jocelin Shalom
Media, Communications Planning: Stephanie Ehui
Strategic Planning: Lisa Prince
Account Team: Ken Smith / Kristin Postill
Production: Byron Oshiro / Kristin Holder / Heather Hanrahan
Project Managers: Danna Dolich / Shannon Hutchinson
Studio Manager: Abby Marten
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples / Mark Fitzloff

Event Partners
Social Agency: Edelman Digital
Public Relations Agency: Lane PR
Digital Agency: Rally Group
Event Producer: Sue Cool

Design, Construction Team
Project Leader, Metal Sculptor: Nicolas Gros
Chainsaw Carving: J. Chester Armstrong
Clock and Gears Design Development, Consultant: Laurent Worme
Microprocessor and Pneumatic Consultant: David Butts
Electronic Consultant: Mark Keppinger
Welder: Cameron Visconty
Lead Carpenter: Matt Sykes
Fabricator: James Harrison
Lighting, Carpentry Assistant: Julia Zell
Carpenter: Dave Laubenthal
Sign Painting: Ardis Defreece
Miniatures and Clock Face Painting: José Solis

Old Spice this week unveiled "Dadsong," its second lunatic 60-second musical via Wieden + Kennedy—the sequel to the award-winning "Momsong" from a year ago. Clearly, the music on a commercial like this isn't just an important component—it's the main component, around which everything revolves.

AdFreak caught up with Sara Matarazzo, owner of music company Walker, which coordinated the scoring and recording of the music, to ask how it all came together.

AdFreak: What was the brief for "Dadsong"?
Sara Matarazzo: We worked on the "Momsong" campaign, so the idea for this one was to create the second single off the "album." The challenge was to create a track as good as the first while keeping the campaign consistent and cohesive.

Sara Matarazzo

How is "Dadsong" different from "Momsong," creatively?
The key difference with "Dadsong" is that we introduced a new perspective to the story. We needed to juxtapose the moms' feelings with the dads' through the music. The main melody of "Momsong" was written in an unusually low female vocal range, which contributed to our purposefully homely performances. However, "Dadsong" utilizes a more traditional female range in order to allow the full male register to shine through. The new arrangement of voices helped accentuate that back and forth and allowed us to build the song up to a bigger climactic moment with voices hitting notes all over the pitch spectrum.

Walk us through the creative process.
We worked with Bret McKenzie and Mickey Petralia from Flight of the Conchords on board to compose the music. We have worked with Bret and Mickey on several ads over the years, so this was a nice reunion. We actually wanted to work with him on the first Old Spice spot but he was busy writing music for Muppets Most Wanted [following his Oscar-winning work on 2011's The Muppets]. I told him, "We have the perfect campaign for you," and he was available. Of course, he nailed it.

The process started with Bret and I going back and forth with the creatives at the agency to refine the music, melody, chords and arc. When we got to a place where the team was happy, Old Spice gave us the green light and production on the spot began in Prague with director Andreas Nilsson. Once we had rough picture, our music producer Abbey Hickman worked on [voice] casting with the agency to match our actors. Walker engineer Graeme Gibson oversaw working with our casting and creating demos to show all the possibilities and different directions our vocals could be, which helped to choose our favorite takes and piece together the elements. After the singers and musicians were selected, we went to Vancouver to direct and final record with them.



Musically, the spot feels a bit like the end of a big musical, when the entire cast does the last song. Is that something that was mentioned?
Yes, that was a reference. Mainstream musical theater nowadays is largely based off the past century of popular music (except for Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown musicals). Take Spring Awakening or Mama Mia, for instance. Both infuse contemporary rock and pop styles with dramatic content to be more relevant to the modern musical watcher … and sell more tickets. Furthermore, the most passionate songs in a musical are the numbers that bookend the acts and those songs usually utilize the entire cast. "Dadsong" is like the end of one of these musical numbers because it's passionate, dramatic, musically modern and features a large ensemble.

Which particular musical styles or genres is the spot based on?
Classic rock ballads and operatic recitative.

How is working on a project like this different from other ads you do?
These spots are special because we are involved not just in post but from the beginning of the job and throughout the process. You collaborate on ideas that end up in the campaign. Music can be subjective and go through many mutations, but with this campaign, the song and the spot are one and the same.