Hasta La Creative!

Colenso BBDO worked with the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation on a PSA campaign that included a unique way to get women to perform self-exams for breast cancer.

The campaign included the distribution of Breast Cream, a moisturizer designed for the breasts, with the intention of encouraging women to work breast self-examination into their daily routine. Colenso BBDO’s print ads for the campaign cleverly pitched the product as “a cream that gives you wrinkles,” since early detection is so often critical in stopping the spread of cancer. That print component just brought home a  gold Lion in Cannes on Monday, and Breast Cream has sold 75 percent of its first production run. Check out the case study video above to learn more about the campaign and how it is helping spread breast cancer awareness in New Zealand.

Would you share a drink or a plate with someone who’s HIV positive? Therein is the underlying theme of a recent campaign that continues after kicking off a World’s AIDS Day campaign from ACW Grey Tel Aviv. In a three-minute documentary-style film, we meet a handful of Israelis who are coping with HIV while also dealing with those who fear contact with them due to their illness.

So, in an effort to help them deal with their plight, the agency has opened what it calls “The Positive Store,” a concept shop selling secondhand items tagged with QR codes that has attracted those with HIV, over 500,000 customers and $1 million in earned media. As of now, the conceptual store is opening up in other countries to help alleviate the stigma about HIV.

Executive Creative Director: Tal Riven
Creative Director: Idan Regev
Senior Copywriter: Kobi Cohen
Senior Art Director: Karin Gross
Agency Special Projects Director: Galit Siman-Tov
Agency Executive Producer: Meital Tzoref
Planer: Daniel Avital
Post Production: Snowball VFX
Agency Post Editor: Saar Mizrahi
Music: Tomer Biran
Sound Design Company: Signal
Sound Design Editor: Roy Dotan
Editor: Guy Dagan
Director: Guy Michael

Would you share a drink or a plat

Last month, Canadian agency john st. launched a campaign entitled “Kids Read Mean Tweets,” which riffed on the popular “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets” segment Jimmy Kimmel Live for the Canadian Safe School Network. Well, offering up takes on the segment appears to be a trend in PSAs out of Canada, as Leo Burnett Toronto has created the similarly-minded “The Homeless Read Mean Tweets” for Raising the Roof Canada.

Whereas “Kids Read Mean Tweets” started relatively mild and light-hearted and became progressively more brutal as the spot went on, demonstrating the emotional toll of cyberbullying, Leo Burnett’s effort, while also increasing in intensity throughout the spot, is rough right from the get-go. After viewers are informed that what follows are real mean tweets, read by people living with homelessness, a young couple reads, “I hate the homeless. I don’t feel sorry for you. If you want change, then let me throw it as hard as I can at your dirty face.” It’s hard to imagine anyone saying something so despicable in person, but once again Twitter proves a cesspool for anonymous bullying. The horrific tweets keep coming as viewers see the emotional toll they take on those reading them, which gets more and more heartbreaking over the course of the ad’s duration, becoming increasingly hard to watch (as it should be).

While the framework for the ad is hardly original, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t quite emotionally affecting, humanizing an issue that many ignore (and which doesn’t have the same in-vogue status as the issue of cyberbullying). There’s also a campaign website with further videos, exploring the reactions of those involved as well as their personal histories.

To address what the misconception that owning a gun makes you and your loved ones safer, non-profit group States United to Prevent Gun Violence recently decided to get fairly blunt with prospective first-time buyers in startling yet clever fashion.

The project was directed by Grey New York and production company Rival School Pictures, which rented the space for two days.

The parties then built a “gun store” in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side that was specifically meant to lure those interested in owning their first piece. With hidden cameras rolling, a host of passersby strolled in to be greeted by a stack of arms and a salesman willing to explain the guns themselves. The catch, though, is that each weapon our salesman introduces potential customers to comes with its own horrific history. According to the video above, perspectives can change rather quickly when confronted with even remote tales of violence.

In a statement, Julia Wyman, executive director of States United To Prevent Gun Violence, writes:

“Our goal is to educate those looking to purchase a firearm and ensure they are aware of the potential risks [and to promote responsible gun ownership]. Often gun purchasers wrongly believe guns will keep them safe when in fact a gun in the home greatly increases the risk of homicide and suicide. This sets the record straight so consumers can make an informed choice to buy a firearm or not.”

For more info, the campaign’s homepage, includes an interactive tool featuring the historic crimes and/or accidents involving each of nine “best seller” models.

This project marks Grey’s second gun-related PSA effort in as many weeks following the Snoop Dogg “Unload Your 401K” work (which was created with the assistance of unnamed gun control groups).

AGENCY – GREY NY

Tor Myhren
Worldwide Chief Creative Officer

Per Pedersen
Deputy Worldwide Chief Creative Officer

Andreas Dahlqvist
Chief Creative Officer

Stephen Krauss
Executive Creative Director

Ari Halper
Executive Creative Director

Marco Pupo
Creative Director

Joao Coutinho
Creative Director

Bennett McCarroll
EVP Director Broadcast Production

Floyd Russ
Producer

Elizabeth Gilchrist
VP Account Director

Katie Stirn
Account Supervisor

Emma Tonetti
Project Manager

Christopher Izzo
Digital Production

Jayne Horowitz
VP Art Producer

PRODUCTION COMPANY – RIVAL SCHOOL PICTURES

Andrew Lane
Director

James Blom
Executive Producer/Partner

Alihan Karagul
Executive Producer/Partner

EDITORIAL – VISION

Dominic Martimucci
Editor

POST-PRODUCTION – THE MILL

In what feels like a more redemptive version of Shark Tank, we have this pro-bono campaign from Pitch, the West Coast shop you know perhaps for its longstanding relationship with Burger King, Pepsi, Asics and more.

In its newest campaign, the agency gets philanthropic and turns its focus to more socially-conscious issues, namely homelessness and a downtown Los Angeles organization called the Weingart Center.

This short may look like a board meeting/presentation, but it turns into a pitch that transforms potential investors from cold to hot when their salesman of sorts suggests job placement for the homeless instead of just donating a buck or two. It’s apparently not fiction.

In a statement, Pitch President Rachel Spiegelman writes:

“The men and women who work at the Weingart Center are miracle workers. They help people truly in need re-enter society with hope and a plan. When you donate you give your money away, when you invest you get a return. That’s the core idea behind our campaign and behind the Weingart program. We’re honored to be working with them on this incredible cause.”

The campaign also includes a redesign of the Weingart site and a Twitter march with the hashtag #investinLA.

The Ad Council teamed up with San Francisco-based agency Pereira & O’Dell for a series of new PSAs promoting the recycling of bathroom products for Keep America Beautiful, with funding by Unilever.

Based on research showing that, while recycling of kitchen items has become commonplace, 45 percent of Americans aren’t recycling their bathroom products, the new ads hope to change this behavior with a series of broadcast and digital spots functioning as an extension of the ongoing “I Want To Be Recycled” campaign. The ads are narrated by shampoo bottles who dream of being recycled into something more. In “Smile,” the shampoo bottle just wants to be noticed. After being tossed in the recycling bin, the bottle returns as a hair brush to “make people smile.” Things get a bit more over-the-top in “Superhero,” when another shampoo bottle dreams of becoming a superhero and decides, after being recycled as a comb, that this mission has been accomplished. Both spots end by directing viewers to IWantToBeRecycled.org for more info and an interactive recycling game.

“Washing your hair, putting on deodorant, applying skin cream — common bathroom activities — are all associated with packaging that can be recycled,” PJ Pereira, chief creative officer and co-founder of Pereira & O’Dell, said in a statement. “The new creative aims to change people’s mindsets about recycling in the bathroom. While we use all these personal care products to take care of ourselves, we can also help take care of the world by making sure the products we use in the bathroom make it to the recycling bin. The spots continue to demonstrate how you can give your garbage another life by recycling.”

Credits:

Client/Brand: Keep America Beautiful/Recycling
Client Brand Manager: Advertising Council
Agency: Pereira & O’Dell
Chief Creative Officer: PJ Pereira
Executive Creative Director: Jaime Robinson
Creative Director, Copywriter: Eduardo Marques
Creative Director, Art Director: Rafael Rizuto
Copywriter: Sara Uhelski
Art Director: Leila Moussaoui
Project Manager: Adam Russel
Account Director: Ashley Brown
Senior Account Executive: Jennifer Wantuch
Vice President, Director of Strategy: Nick Chapman
Strategist: Beth Windheuser
Executive Producer: Jeff Ferro
Broadcast Producer: Judy Kreiter
Production by Hello!
Director: Graeme Joyce
Executive Producer: Mike Brady
Head of Production: Dominick Ferro
Producer: Valerie Thomas
Editorial by Cut & Run
Editor: Sean Stender
Executive Producer: Carr Schilling
Producer: Remy Foxx
Music
Composer: Skylar Bishil
VFX/Online Finishing by SpyPost
Colorist: Chris Martin
Executive Producer: Lori Joseph
Sound Design & Mixing by One Union
Lead Mixer / Sound Designer: Matt Zipkin
Producer: Lauren Mask

Saatchi & Saatchi teamed up with the Ad Council to launch a series of new PSAs for Goodwill focusing on how the charity helps the unemployed and underemployed find work.

According to a press release, Goodwill helped 261, 000 people find employment in Canada and the United States in 2013, or ” Every 27 seconds of every business day, Goodwill helps someone find employment.”

The series of PSAs celebrates this fact, and uses it to call on viewers to donate to Goodwill and help more people find jobs. The 60-second PSA featured above samples from a historic speech from Franklin D. Roosevelt to address the “inherent right to work” and how donating to Goodwill is a starting point to enact positive social change. Another spot follows a boy’s relationship with a bicycle as he grows up and, eventually, donates it to Goodwill. All of the spots in the campaign end with the tagline, “Donate Stuff. Create Jobs.” Both English and Spanish language of PSAs will be supported by print, radio, outdoor and digital efforts as part of a campaign dating back to September of 2013.

“We’re honored to partner with the Ad Council to assist Goodwill in connecting people with employment,” said Jay Benjamin, chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, in a statement. “We hope these powerful stories will inspire donations, create more jobs and effect positive cultural change.”

With the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting coming up this Sunday, BBDO New York crafted a PSA campaign for Sandy Hook Promise, an gun violence prevention organization formed in the wake of that tragedy.

In the three-minute video “Monsters Under the Bed,” an interviewer has children draw pictures of monsters and then interviews parents asking them what they do to protect their children from these imaginary creatures, with parents offering up a range of responses. Then the interviewer changes the conversation, asking, “How do you protect them from gun violence?” Most of the parents just sit silently with a pained expression, and not one is able to offer a satisfying answer. BBDO New York drives the message home when text appears onscreen reading, “Last year, zero kids were killed by monsters under the bed. Let’s protect our kids from the real threats…so they can continue being afraid of the imaginary ones.”

The video ends by directing viewers to SandyHookPromise.org, where the organization offers parents, students and teachers tools and programs to prevent future gun violence, including mental wellness, social development and gun safety approaches.”Monsters Under the Bed” is being promoted on social channels including Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, and Twitter.

Additionally, BBDO New York worked with director Tarik Karam and executive producer Stephen Daldry to create a short documentary film called What They Left Behind. The documentary tells the story of three children who lost their lives to gun-related violence: “from a 17–year-old girl who committed suicide with her father’s gun; to an argument among young teenage boys in Iowa that  ended in bloodshed; to the Barden family who lost their 7-year-old son in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.”

“In the two years since I lost my son, I have been speaking with communities across the country to better understand the causes of gun violence,” said Nicole Hockley, communications director for Sandy Hook Promise and mother of six-year-old Sandy Hook victim Dylan. “What we have learned is that, as a nation, we can help to prevent tens of thousands of gun deaths, by first learning the warning signs of violent behavior and focusing on community-based programs to help and heal those most at risk.”

Stick around for the 35-minute What They Left Behind, along with credits, after the jump. (more…)

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