New Ad Campaigns

Thursday, June 02, 2011

New Ad Campaigns

Here's this weeks edition from Amy at Mediapost:

Love thy pits. Man returns rabbit's feet to a peg-legged rabbit. Let's launch!

Hertz launched two new TV ads for its "The Gas and The Brake" campaign, featuring a voiceover from Owen Wilson. A woman makes the best of a crowded bus ride by befriending a card shark and leaving him wearing nothing but his boxers. Her other half books a rental car online, with help from a rooster. See it here. You might be unable to afford a SUV, sports car or hybrid vehicle, but renting one is doable. Drive off in your fantasy vehicle, if only for a few days. Watch it here. DDB NY created the campaign.

New South Wales Tourism launched three TV ads encouraging young Australians to plan an adventure in their own backyard. "Captured by the Country" shows 20-something women on a road trip laden with food, wine, animals, boats and beaches. Sign me up. In "Food and Wine," the ladies pick apples, make cheese, stomp grapes for wine and play with chocolate. Sounds like a great day in my book. Watch it here. The trio becomes one with nature in the next ad, seen here. They hike through a forest, find a waterfall, go horseback riding, skim stones and camp beneath the stars. Break out the SPF, for the final ad takes place at the beach. The ladies swim, collect seashells, visit a lighthouse, go fishing and dolphin watching. See it here. The same song is used in each 60-second ad, so by the time you watch the last ad, you'll probably be sick of hearing it and know 80% of the lyrics. The campaign was created in-house and directed by Matilda Brown of The Colony.

Phillips 66 considers itself a high-performance gasoline. A TV, outdoor and online campaign has the brand on a mission to find "local legends": high-performance individuals with various talents. The first TV spot, seen here, pays tribute to a Pee Wee linebacker that "tackles quarterbacks like [Phillips 66] tackles dirty injectors." The next ad highlights a man who's really good at staring contests. The smell of freshly chopped onions or silly string shot in his direction is no match for him. Watch it here. Anyone with a random quirk or talent is encouraged to submit a video to Phillips66.com, between now and Nov. 27. Consumers will vote on submissions and the top three winners receive free gas for a year. Venables Bell & Partners created the campaign.

Snickers launched "Party," the fourth TV spot in its "you're not you when you're hungry" campaign. Initial pairings included Betty White and Abe Vigoda, Aretha Franklin and Liza Minelli, and Roseanne with Richard Lewis. This time around, we have Joe Pesci and Don Rickles. Pesci plays his usual tough guy persona at a party where he and his friend are chatting up two ladies. Pesci gets testy when he thinks a woman is distracted by something else, and knocks her appearance by implying she models gloves. After leaving to eat a Snickers, our angry man returns as himself only to be called a loser by one of the ladies, who has morphed into Don Rickles. Hysterical. Watch the ad here, created by BBDO New York.

Mitchum antiperspirant launched "Love Thy Pits," a global ad campaign supporting the launch of its Mitchum Advanced Control stick/solid deodorant. This bad boy offers 48 hours of sweat protection, so regardless of how sticky a situation you might be in, your pits will never reveal your secret stress. The first TV spot, "Lie," begins with a whopper of a fib. An unemployed man scored a job as a translator at Going Dutch Inc. Only problem is he lied on his resume about being fluent in Dutch. Thankfully, his boss will never see him sweat. Watch it here. Print ads, shown here and here, have love for armpits, sketching hearts on dry pits. Check out Mitchum's Facebook page and Love Thy Pits Web site for more information. Mother created the campaign, directed by Brand New School.

The past meets the present in a TV ad for Nokia Astound, available through T-Mobile. Present-day viral videos are combined with cowboys, villains and King Kong while the Black Iris' cover of "Don't Fence Me In" plays. My favorite scene is the old-school cowboy shooting at his rival and having the bullet morph into an Angry Bird. Needless to say, the phone can play music, games and video. See it here. Wieden + Kennedy, New York created the ad, produced by 1stAveMachine.

You don't need luck when you have Poker Wingman to help calculate whether you should fold, call or raise when playing online poker. So you can return your lucky rabbit's foot - or feet, in this man's case - to their rightful owner: a peg-legged bunny that wasn't happy to see his feet inside his mailbox. This bunny has a serious accent and looks threatening, until his peg legs slide on the floor. Poor guy. Watch the ad here, created in-house and produced by OPC Toronto.

PacSun launched a cutesy TV as called "Dress Irresponsibly" that pairs skate, surf and motocross athletes with the sound of Ol' Blue Eyes singing "Call Me Irresponsible." Chances are 70% of the kids in the ad have no idea who Ol' Blue Eyes is. The ad features crowd surfing, jumping in pools with clothes on, trading bikini tops with your BFF, making jean shorts out of jeans and skateboarding. So, a typical day for a teenager, right? "Dress irresponsibly," closes the ad, seen here and created by72andSunny, produced by Caviar Content and edited by Arcade Edit.

Random iPhone App of the week: I'd laugh at this app if finding a bra weren't always such an expedition. AvatarLabs created the Natori Bra Finder to help the estimated 80% of women who wear the wrong bra size. Women are instructed how to measure themselves for a comfortable fit. Those that take the "Find Your Perfect Bra" quiz and email the results are registered in a contest to win a Natori Bra each month for a year. The contest ends June 10. The app is available fore free in the App Store.