New Ad Campaigns

This weeks update from Amy at Mediapost:

What do you love? Volkswagen shows us that "driving can be beautiful." Let's launch!

Fred Savage makes his commercial directing debut in an online and social media campaign for uni-ball pens, targeting young male professionals. I'm left singing the opening lines to "The Wonder Years" theme song. The videos position uni-ball as an all-business pen that's durable and sans frills. A florescent-colored pen with needless embellishments spends his day at work viewing cute animal pictures. When it's time to present a project to his boss, the paper is frilly and smells like honeysuckle. Bad move. "All performance. No distractions." closes the ad, seen here. Ever have a pen explode on you? That's what happens in "Piddler." A nervous Nellie awaits a job interview and sweats onto a couch. During the interview, he goes a step further and explodes onto the man interviewing him. Watch it here. A pen's John Hancock is needed on an important document in the next ad, seen here. Too bad the pen falls apart, inciting the question "Do you ever work?" from his boss. TRIS3CT created the campaign.

If there's no football season this year, why not make a real series out of the fake TV show "Football Cops," starring Eli and Peyton Manning? It's two and a half minutes of football lingo, Fu Manchu mustaches and lethal weapons. And by lethal weapons, I mean black footballs that thwart criminals in the act. The preview video is a promotion for DIRECTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, assuming that they'll have one this season. The Mannings star as two former football players turned cops, who are looking to save a damsel in distress before she is blown to smithereens. When interrogating a suspect, the man claims to be a victim of unnecessary roughness and points to his black eye. "Well I didn't hear a whistle," says Peyton. "And I don't see a flag," screams Eli. Watch the video here, created by Deutsch New York.

Nike launched a campaign for Copa America, a football tournament happening in Argentina throughout July. "Copa Barrio" films were created for Brazil and Argentina to celebrate each nation's varying football views and extensive fan base. An online element was added for fans to recruit additional football fanatics to support their Barrio's journey to victory, and hope every other Barrio loses. Neymar stars in the Barzilian ad, playing an impromptu game of soccer with local kids and describing the fierce competition between Barrios. Watch it here. Footballers Pastore, Higuain and Tevez interact with Argentinean fans, playing soccer and hanging posters and flags throughout the city. See it here. Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam created the films and AKQA London handled the digital components.

Affinity Plus Credit Union launched "Underwear and Socks," a TV spot illustrating big banks taking more than the shirts off consumers' backs with hefty fees and rate increases. A man walks into his large bank wearing a jacket, shirt and pants. By the time he reaches a teller, he's buck-naked. Affinity Plus Credit Union, however, is "Not for profit. For people." See the ad here, created by Risdall Marketing Group, produced by Twist and directed by Matt Pittroff.

What do you love? Is it peanut butter, running and authentic key lime pie? OK, those are just a few of my favorite things that I can learn more about at What do you Love, a Web site launched this week by Google. The site places the power of 21 Google products on one page, so typing in key lime pie gives me recipes, pictures, the ability to translate the words into 57 languages, ways to start a key lime discussion group and search key lime pie blogs. Also love that the search bar has a heart in it. Very cute. Search for things you love and find a great deal of information housed on one page. Big Spaceship and Google Creative Lab created the site.

Volkswagen Canada launched a soothing TV campaign for the 2012 Jetta GLI. The ad shows the headlights and tail lamps of the GLI acting as a paintbrush on a parking lot. The spot ends with an aerial shot of the parking lot and a completed light painting of the Volkswagen logo. "Driving can be beautiful," closes the ad, seen here and created by Red Urban Canada.

Samsung launched a pinball game on its Home Appliances Facebook page called "Crazy Day Pinball." The game targets moms on its "Mom's Day Off" tab, where they can enter to win a spa day plus a Samsung 4-door LCD refrigerator. Once you "like" the page, you can play away. Each time you submit a game score, you receive an additional entry into the sweepstakes. The first time I played I scored 576,510 and was pleased. The next time I played, post-lunch, I scored an astounding 3,570,520. All in a day's work. Enjoy the game, created by VIA Agency.

Hillshire Farm launched an amusing TV campaign called "So Good. They'll Think It's For Them," and the first ad stars Wendi McLendon-Covey from the hysterically funny movie"Bridesmaids." "Something New" begins with a woman preparing a Hillshire Farm chicken sausage and pasta dinner. Her alter ego, played by McLendon-Covey, appears and admits the real reason for cooking her husband's favorite meal: to tell him the pair are signed up for dance lessons. Watch the ad here, created by TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles.

Random iPhone App of the week: SoBe launched "Try Your New Look," an app for the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. The app is an extension of the interactive "Try Your New Look" kiosks that SoBe debuted at SXSW 2011. Users can digitally try on new looks, like an Afro, princess hair with tiara, handlebar mustaches and a mouth full of braces. A picture or video is then taken and can be uploaded directly to a social networking site. The app, created and developed by Firstborn, is available for free in the App Store.

Amy Corr is managing editor, online newsletters for MediaPost. She can be reached at amyc@mediapost.com.

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