Hasta La Creative!

Anomaly continues to “Spread Love” for Dick’s Sporting Goods, launching its “Holiday Hoops” extension of its “Gifts That Matter” campaign today on “Giving Tuesday.”

The ad follows on the heels of this heart-tugging spot and similarly explores how a basketball hoop can bring people together. This time around, though, Anomaly employs a “social experiment film” documenting people’s reactions when they leave basketball hoops, and a tray of balls with a “Play with me” sign, at various locations around Cleveland, Los Angeles and New York City. Naturally, the hoops caused strangers to bond over pick up games and Anomaly captured their genuine enthusiasm for the spot.

The video, however, is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Dick’s “Spread Love” charitable initiative. Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love teamed up with The Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation today to surprise over 200 students at Scranton Elementary School in Cleveland with two new basketball hoops. The brand defines “Holiday Hoops” as a “‘pay it forward’ movement” which will ultimately donate over 100 hoops to organizations (all either schools or non-profits) across the country. Dick’s will select two such organizations every day, and then give them the chance to “pay if forward” to two of their own choosing, announcing the participants on social media with the #HolidayHoops hashtag.

“This holiday season, we wanted to enhance our “Gift That Matters” campaign by exploring the unique power a basketball hoop has to unite people and communities,” said Lauren Hobart, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Dick’s Sporting Goods and president of The Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation. “We believe that sports really do matter and Dick’s Foundation is thrilled to be able to provide 100 hoops to schools and communities across America.”

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M&C Saatchi created a holiday spot called “Christmas at Home” for The Silver Line, “The only free 24 hour confidential for older people that offers friendship and support.”

The ad tells the story of an older man who wakes up on Christmas day and appears to be preparing for his family to arrive. He gets dressed and tidies up, the ad cuts to a family on the phone with relatives saying “We’ll be there soon, put the kettle on” as the man brews some tea. Then the family knocks on a door and the ad reveals that it the man’s next door neighbor receiving the visit, as he looks out the window dejected. It’s a clever way to put viewers in the man’s shoes and give an idea of the devastation he feels rather than just telling them about the cause. The ad ends with the message, “More than a million older people in the UK suffer the pain of loneliness, not just at Christmas but all year round.” While this is true, the message is likely to resonate with people all the more during the holidays.

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Publicis London turns to beeped out cursing in its irreverent holiday ad for Oral-B, entitled, “Merry Beeping Christmas from Oral-B.”

The spot opens on a woman stepping on an angel ornament while tip-toeing around the house barefoot carrying presents. She lets out a few bleeped out choice words, and quickly we’re on our way to the next profanity-inducing situation. These scenarios run the gamut from ugly sweaters to cooking accidents and trouble with the lights but each result in an expected torrent of profanity. The ad ends with the tagline “At least you don’t have to worry about your smile,” accompanied by the Oral-B logo. It may be a bit of a stretch, but tying oral care to the holidays isn’t the easiest proposition in the world and the spot is fun and clever enough to fit in with other cheeky holiday ads we’ve seen this year from brands in the UK. (more…)

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JWT uses the Norman Rockwell painting “Freedom From Want” as a springboard to examine the modern American family in its spot for Tylenol launching the brand’s “For What Matters Most” campaign.

“Normal Rockwell painted America’s story for sixty-plus years,” begins Abigail Rockwell — Norman’s granddaughter — at the beginning of the ad before remarking on how “our definition of family is expanding.” The ad then asks, “What would a Norman Rockwell holiday look like today?” before answering with three families as examples. There’s the Japanese Yee Hoshida family, who view the hot pot served for dinner as metaphor of the blending of cultures and generations that go in to a modern family; the blended family Beser Carr Schneider Musich, who “happen to be four parents trying to raise our children”; and the African American Garza family, whose eyebrow ring-wearing grandmother serves up Cornish hens rather than the traditional turkey for Thanksgiving. All three families describe what makes them unique and “what matters most,” with each, of course, pointing to family. It’s all, of course, very sentimental, which is only appropriate given the Rockwell connection.

The spot saw a soft release on Thanksgiving, and JWT released a separate video for the Yee Hoshida family on Tuesday (featured after the jump). Videos for the other two families will roll out soon for the holiday season. The videos mark the launch of JWT’s “Freedom From Want” campaign for the brand, which Manoj Raghunandanan, senior director on the Tylenol business, told AdAge “presage a broader media effort in 2015.”

Raghunandanan told that publication that the campaign “reflects serving our consumers and how unique and diverse they are,” and that he didn’t worry about a conservative backlash over the ad’s depiction of a blended family which includes a lesbian couple.

“If you look at what we’ve stood for as a brand, it’s always been so much more than pain relief,” he added. “Caring for people and going beyond their pain is what makes Tylenol Tylenol.” (more…)

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Swedish agency Le Bureau teamed up with Seattle-based animation studio The Academy’s Swedish collective known as Brikk to create a two minute PSA for Red Cross Sweden.

The ad tries to convince Swedes to give Red Cross parcels to those in need for Christmas, rather than buying something they won’t even remember next year. Or, as Brikk puts it, “We together with Red Cross think that a food package to Syria is a better Christmas gift than a fitness band, and that’s what we are trying to communicate in the animation.”

To accomplish this, the animation highlights just how many gifts are forgotten, or even sold secondhand online after the holiday season. “Don’t buy thoughtless presents for the ones you care for, buy something special that shows they mean more,” says the spot’s rhyming narrator, positing Red Cross gifts as the answer. Near the end of the PSA he gets a little more direct, saying, “…this year don’t buy shit, make an active choice.” The candidness is refreshing, and should get more people to share what otherwise could have been a very dry message. (more…)

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The sleigh is overrated.

Santa Claus ditches it entirely in Expedia’s touching Christmas campaign from 180LA, choosing instead to fly coach around the world and ending up at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, where he delivers presents to some very special kids.

As seen in the video below, Santa traveled 19,602 miles over seven days (49.7 hours of flight time), going from the North Pole via Anchorage through Honolulu, Tokyo, Dubai, Paris, Dublin, New York City, and finally to Memphis, where he hands out gifts—and also donates all the points he earned on flights to St. Jude, which is the selling point here.

“Santa flies around the world every year for children, so we loved the connection of giving him travel points to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,” says Vic Walia, senior director of brand marketing at Expedia.

“More people travel during the holidays than any other time of year. We hope this campaign will encourage people to donate their Expedia+ rewards points to St. Jude, considering how quickly they can add up during this busy travel season.”

More at Expedia.com/Santa and the hashtag #SantaFliesCoach.

CREDITS
Client: Expedia
Spot: “Santa Flies Coach”
Senior Director, Brand Marketing: Vic Walia
Brand Marketing Manager: Jessica Eichner
Media Director: Elizabeth Dorrance

Agency: 180LA
Chief Creative Officer: William Gelner
Creative Directors: Dave Horton, Matthew Woodhams-Roberts
Art Director: Chelsea Cumings
Copywriter: Trey Tyler
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley
Executive Producer: Erin Goodsell
Producer: Amber Schaefer
Head of Account Management: Chad Bettor
Account Director: Brooke Stites
Account Manager: Mackenzie Walen
Account Coordinator: Chase Pritchett

Production Company: Ghost Robot
Directors: Dave Horton, Nick Bentgen
Director of Photography: Nick Bentgen
Executive Producers: Mark DePace, Zach Mortensen

Editorial Company: Melvin
Editor: Dave Groseclose
Producer: Brian Scharwath

Company: Therapy Studios 
Executive Producer: Joe DiSanto, John Ramsay
Senior Producer: Allegra Bartlett
Flame Artist:  Wren Waters
Flame Assist: Geoff Stephenson
Sound
Recording Studio: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Ben Freer

Original Music by human

R/GA London rolled out a digital holiday campaign for Bailey’s, an extension of the brand’s global “Here’s To Us” campaign targeting millenial women, created by BBH London.

The digital extension celebrates getting together with friends — whether it’s going out and trying new places, as in “Here’s To Getting Together” (above), or staying in and hanging out, as in “Here’s To Staying In” (after the jump). Both videos, which launched in the UK last month and are now rolling out across Europe, feature montages of quick shots which together tell the story of a night with friends. In “Here’s To Getting Together” it’s “trying new places,” “catching up… on everything,” waiting for that one friend who’s always late and having just one more side dish. Each spot ends with the group of women toasting with a glass or shot of Bailey’s, implying the brand is part of the perfect evening.

In addition to the online spots there is also a campaign Tumblr page functioning as part of “a unique influencer campaign featuring women such as Daisy Lowe and blogger Eleanora Carisi.” The influencer campaign will include editorial interviews, Instagram content creation, and cocktails created by Daisy Lowe (UK), Jessica Weiss (Germany, of Journelles Blog) and Eleanora Carisi (Italy, of JouJou Villeroy blog) alongside “London Mixology icon” Missy Flynn.

“Our ambition is to create unique online content that captures the magic you feel when you’re with your best girlfriends and inspires women to raise a toast to each other with,” explains Dawn Allison, global digital marketing manager, Baileys, in a press release, adding that the campaign “marks a critical phase in our journey to re-ignite performance by putting consumer behaviour – serve and occasion – at the heart of every brand execution.” (more…)

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Ever wonder who it is and is not okay to give underwear to as a holiday present? Well, CP+B has got you covered in its new holiday spot for Fruit of the Loom, entitled “The Rules of Underwear Giving.”

“There are some people you should give underwear to this holiday,” the spot begins, showing a couple appreciatively exchanging pairs of Fruit of the Loom, both far happier than anyone has ever been to receive underwear. “And there are some people you shouldn’t,” the ad goes on, showing a disgruntled mailman shaking his head. The tongue-in-cheek formula continues for the remainder of the 30-second broadcast spot, reminding you that maybe it’s not the best idea to buy underwear for your boss, teacher, doorman or a police officer, ending with the tagline, “You shouldn’t give underwear to everybody, but for those you do, give them Fruit of the Loom.”

CP+B’s humorous approach is a welcome change in underwear advertising, and manages to be jokey about the holidays while also promoting the product as a holiday gift. In fact, while no one is going to be overjoyed about unwrapping a present and finding Fruit of the Loom, they glamorize the idea a bit by pointing out that it’s a gift you would only give to someone with whom you have a close relationship. Not a bad way to make gifting unmentionables seem appealing.

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RPA has launched a social extension of its “Happy Honda Days” campaign, which launched last month featuring nostalgic toys of yesteryear.

The new extension consists of three new videos featuring Skeletor and He-Man, Jem and G.I. Joe, and Gumby and Pokey. The extension was launched yesterday with Skeletor taking over Honda’s Twitter account. Each duo sings a new version of a classic Christmas song (except for Gumby and Pokey, because they don’t know any Christmas songs) and calls on viewers to vote for their rendition. Honda will donate a total of $100,000 to three charities – Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the Little League Urban Initiative and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation — with $50,000 going to the charity associated with the winning video and the other two receiving $25,000 each.

In the most amusing of the three videos, Skeletor sings of his newfound bromance with He-Man to a rendition of “Jingle Bells,” which has been rechristened “Jingle Bros.” According to Skeletor, the duo are now Facebook friends and even got matching tattoos, although it ends with a not-so-surprising twist. In the other videos, G.I. Joe wins over Gem with some Kung Fu moves, and Gumby and Pokey interact with random items. You can watch them on Honda’s YouTube page and vote for your favorite (or just for the associated charity you’d most like to receive money). We’ve included “Jingle Bros” above and the other two videos after the jump. (more…)

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WestJet does the holidays right. Last year, the Canadian airline surprised its passengers with gifts at the baggage carousel; a lovely spot and a tearjerker for sure. Now WestJet has me sniffling yet again, this time with surprises for residents of a village in the Dominican Republic.

Families sit in a blue sleigh, talking to Santa via video chat, telling him what they want for Christmas. WestJet employees then race to buy gifts (locally!), and present them at a party on the beach (with snow). This time, the gifts aren’t just flat-screen TVs and cameras; they also include practical and much-needed items like a washing machine, a motorcycle engine and a horse—enabling locals in the community of Nuevo Renacer to provide for their families. WestJet even built a small playground for the local children to use long after the visit was over.

It’s lovely and endearing, and for those who will say this is simply a calculated marketing tactic, shhh shhhhh, just enjoy it and let the brand have its moment. Pluses to note, I think, are that this “stunt” happened in a country where WestJet isn’t readily available (unlike Canada), and that their local purchases helped support the area’s economy.

Ahh, WestJet, I love you. Now send me tissues.