This commercial takes the concept of artisanal cheese to a whole new level—and it's not even trying to sell cheese.

In an amusing 30-second spot for Branston Chutney, Mcgarrybowen channels a classic scene from Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But instead of Richard Dreyfuss shaping an alien-inspired, mashed-potato sculpture, it's some guy who's not Richard Dreyfuss topping off his own intricately-carved fromage masterpiece, with a cracker and schmear of chutney.

Three new Branston flavors: Mediterranean Tomato, Caramelized Onion and Orchard Fruit, apparently served as muses to the spot's hero. (Extraterrestrials, as far as we know, didn't enter into the equation.)

"Whatever you make, make it special," the voiceover says. The ad, titled "Chutney Mountain," certainly embodies that spirit, in a slightly unhinged kind of way. It's not as sweet as Branston's "The Apologist" from a few years back, but some viewers might find it less sappy and possibly more memorable. Of course, there's also the likelihood that everyone who watches it will just end up craving cheese over chutney.

CREDITS

Brand: Branston Chutney
Agency: Mcgarrybowen
Client: Mizkan Europe
Campaign Managers: Lorna Kimberley, Victoria Adams
Executive Creative Directors: Paul Jordan, Angus Macadam
Creative Team: Will Grave, Yury Vorobev
Planning: Kevin Chesters, Nicole Kirkland, Rhonwen Lally
Business Director: Robbie Black
Account Director: Susan Lawlor
Account Manager: Nicole Avery
Producers: Abbi Tarrant, Charlotte Stirrup
Production Company: Rogue
Director: Sam Brown
Producer: Kate Hitchings
Postpproduction: The Mill
Audio: GCRS
Media Planning: UM London
Food Stylist: Clare Ferguson

How does Grolsch beer celebrate its 400th birthday? By hiring street-art collective Graffiti Lite to create an outdoor 3-D installation from 400 swing-top Grolsch bottles.

Don't worry, there's more to it than *just* bottles. See, the bottles are secured to a larger mural, of a bottle, in East London. And, they're covered with every variety of kitschy street art known to man, including "guerrilla gardening," "yarn bombing" and good ol' fashioned spray-painting.

Technically, it's not guerrilla gardening if said gardeners were invited to plant on a site that isn't abandoned, or considered private property. But misuse of activist terminology aside, this is a neat idea for a mural. If it's not too late to add something to it, though, the brand should consider a public bulletin saying that anyone who starts singing "400 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" upon seeing it will be forced to wear a dunce cap for the next 400 years. 

More photos after the jump.

(Via Design Taxi)

Specs
Claim to fame Shankar Gupta-Harrison, vp of strategy at 360i; makes the best sangria in the world.
Base New York
Twitter@SGMagnus

When marketers take their brand positioning and messages global, a lot can be lost in translation. Although brands are thinking and behaving more globally than ever before, due to the connective tissue of digital, many are still repurposing communications for different geographies and cultures at the executional phase or with mere language translation.

However, as content becomes more portable, we must place a stronger emphasis on context, by strategically and creatively adapting communications and content for cultural relevance.

The same sharing pathways that made "What Does the Fox Say?" a global viral hit in 2013 can give consumers insight into how brands present themselves to different consumers across markets, which can pose an authenticity threat to marketers trying to create a consistent brand identity. After all, if you tell one story to a teenager in New York and a different story to a businesswoman in Shanghai, which of those stories can really be trusted?

To get to creative ideas that can live globally, advertisers can borrow from social psychology, which recognizes core variations between cultures that can help us understand what different people value, how they prefer to be communicated with and what cultural tensions can be tapped to create compelling stories. One framework for understanding these variations is social psychologist, professor and former IBM employee Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory, which lays out a set of cultural variables that can give insight into adjustments that can be made to bring a creative idea to life across cultures.

Here are four of those variables and how they can be applied to strategically adapt campaigns for audiences around the world.

Individualism vs. collectivism: Ads in individualist countries often celebrate people who achieve great things on their own or emphasize the importance of the individual over the group, while collectivist countries emphasize progressing together. A prime example of this dimension at play in global advertising can be found in Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign. Unlike its "Sketches" execution in the U.S., which asked women to see the beauty in themselves, Dove ran a series of print ads in China, a market more oriented toward collectivism, that featured pregnant women with their bellies intricately covered in calligraphy with questions for society as a whole—"If you knew I'd grow up to weigh 140 jin [154 pounds], would I still be your baby?" The reemphasis of the creative idea prevents it from being only about the individual.

Being vs. doing orientation: In doing-oriented cultures, there's a strong tension between being successful and enjoying life that advertisers often leverage to create desirability for their products. When Johnnie Walker brought its iconic "Keep Walking" campaign, which features ideas about progress and success, to Brazil—a culture less focused on personal achievement and progress than the U.S. and Western Europe—the image used was not of an ambitious young man, but rather the nation as a whole. Johnnie Walker avoided the stigma against careerism and ambition that can be present in cultures more oriented toward "being" than "doing."

High context vs. low context: This describes communication between people, and how much meaning is carried tacitly by their relationship or context to an ad's theme or subject. In high-context cultures (e.g., Japan and Korea), sensitive subjects like conflict or sex must be dealt with less directly. This becomes clear when you look at brands that use sex to sell in markets where context is higher—brands like Axe/Lynx dial down the overt sexuality and dial up the subtext of their branding in order to maintain respectability in markets that appreciate subtlety.

Uncertainty avoidance: High-uncertainty avoidance cultures often emphasize the risks of not using a product versus the possibilities of using it. This dynamic can be seen with Airbnb's first few forays into advertising under the "Belong Anywhere" campaign. The first spot, called "Views," is very much about possibilities, evoking the many views you might see from the window of your Airbnb rental. The second spot, "Welcome to Airbnb," is much more explicit about the rental process, describing the steps a renter undergoes to find the perfect rental at the perfect price.

Each ad performs a clear role in the overall idea. The first speaks about possibilities to people who are comfortable with uncertainty, and the second speaks about realities to people who fear it, all under the same overall idea of belonging anywhere. Portugal, Greece and Japan are a few examples of countries that are highly avoidant of uncertainty. Singapore, Scandinavia, and Hong Kong are a few examples of regions more tolerant of uncertainty.

By tapping into these truths, and combining them with social listening to cultural cues, we can evaluate and develop communications and content that resonate across cultures.

Only then will the world be ours.

Egg McMuffins aren't just mediocre pastries stuffed with microwaved eggs, bright yellow cheese and ham product. They are a form of tyranny.

That, at least, is the upshot of "Routine Republic," a riveting and surreal new Taco Bell campaign from Deutsch. A year after the agency cheekily hired a bunch of guys named Ronald McDonald to celebrate the Mexican-themed fast-food chain's first foray into breakfast, the shots at the Golden Arches are barely masked.

In the three-minute centerpiece ad below, McDonald's affable but intrinsically creepy mascot is reimagined as a sunken-eyed Stalinist clown (though perhaps bearing closer resemblance to Mao). He rules over a small army of look-alikes and an oppressed proletariat in a decrepit, cloistered city with a beefy security apparatus. Run-of-the-mill breakfast sandwiches are his preferred method of subjugation.

Taco Bell, meanwhile—aided by "Blitzkrieg Bop," the universal theme song of teenage rebels in the late '70s (so perhaps an appropriate foil for a geopolitically themed bogeyman and/or Bond villain of roughly the same generation)—is the champion of non-conformists, who simply want hexagonal, instead of circular, breakfast foods. The spot even delivers the added gut punch of twisting McD's promise of happiness (on which the burger chain's advertising loves to harp) into a nefarious lie—a drab, gray, industrial (read: overprocessed) landscape (because those A.M. Crunch Wraps are surely only made with the freshest of organic, local ingredients).



That's all to say, it depicts a dystopian world, but the whole concept also can't help but come across as some kind of meta wormhole, like a microcosm of capitalism trying to devour itself. A smaller fast-food giant is knocking a bigger goliath for creating a fantastical totalitarian communist state, wherein the greatest strain on individual freedom is uninspired food, and the most dire physical threat to would-be defectors is whatever horror befalls a person who gets hit by a confetti bomb, or jumps into a grimy ball pit. (Though, in fairness, it's always been hard not to wonder what's lurking in the bottoms of those things—they're too colorful to trust.)

In fact, the campaign's biggest problem may be that it's too well done. The visuals nicely mimic the state-sanctioned artwork of the communist era—e.g., majestic sunburst portraits, imposing statues—and morph it into a series of creative, dog-whistle attacks. In addition to the epic narrative ad, which will air as a :60 on the season finale of The Walking Dead this Sunday, there's a mock-propaganda video (which might remind some gamers of BioShock) and a series of posters espousing the principles of the breakfast dictatorship.

Overall, it's probably not quite as ham-fisted as Nikki Minaj heroizing herself using Nazi imagery in a pop music video—but the frivolous McDespot comparison is also perhaps a touch insensitive, given, you know, the mass killings and other atrocities that marked the Stalinist and Maoist regimes.

Potential political indecencies aside, though, it does make for pretty light, entertaining fare. In the marketplace, Taco Bell is the underdog (whatever happened to the chihuahua anyways?), and from a corporate perspective, needs to be scrappy and get noticed. This certainly does that, punching above its weight, and coming out with a happy ending. The two heroes (a brooding guy and a hot girl, duh) crawl out of their culinary prison a through Shawshank-Redemption-style hole in the wall (presumably burned through with some fire sauce, or chiseled out with a spork) and lead the masses to the promised land of six-sided sandwiches.

Ultimately, though, nobody can claim to be a true Taco Bell breakfast revolutionary until they've eaten every single item on the menu in one sitting.

See some of the print work here:

CREDITS
Client: Taco Bell
Ad: "Routine Republic"
Chief Marketing Officer: Chris Brandt
VP, Brand Creative Director: Tracee Larocca
Director of Advertising: Aron North
Manager, Brand Experience: Ashley Prollamante
Food Consultant: Carolyn Avelino

Agency: Deutsch
Chief Creative Officer: Pete Favat
Chief Digital Officer: Winston Binch
Executive Creative Director: Brett Craig
Group Creative Director: Tom Pettus
Creative Director: Scott Clark
Creative Director: Pat Almaguer
Senior Art Director: Jeremiah Wassom
Senior Copywriter: Chris Pouy

Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo
Executive Producer: Paul Roy
Producer: Damon Vinyard
Music Director: Dave Rocco
Associate Music Producer: Eryk Rich

Design Director: Nathan Iverson
Senior Designer: Erin Burrell

Group Account Director: Walter Smith
Account Director: Katie Klages
Account Supervisor: Krista Slocum
Account Executive: Kaitlin Tabar

Chief Strategy Officer: Colin Drummond
Group Planning Director: Jill Burgeson
Group Planning Director: Lindsey Allison
Senior Account Planner: Kelly Mertesdorf

Director of Integrated Business Affairs: Abilino Guillermo
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Ken Rongey
Associate Business Traffic Manager: Missy Stella
Senior Broadcast Traffic Manager: Sarah Freeark

CEO, North America: Mike Sheldon
President, Los Angeles: Kim Getty

Live Action Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director: Michael Spiccia
Director of Photography: Germain McMicking
Managing Director / Partner: Mal Ward
Executive Producer / Managing Partner: Marc Marrie
Head of Production: Christa Skotland
EP / Producer: Ben Scandrett-Smith

Editorial Company: Union Editorial
Editor: Jim Haygood
Assistant Editor: Anil Baral
President/Managing Partner: Michael Raimondi
Executive Producer: Rob McCool

VFX: A52
VFX Supervisor/Lead Flame Artist: Andy McKenna
Flame artists: Pat Murphy, Hugh Seville, Steven Wolff, Jesse Monsour, Andres Barrios, Chris Moore, Michael Plescia, Richard Hirst, Michael Vagliently, Enid Dalcoff, Christel Hazard, Dan Ellis
Head of 3D: Kirk Shinatni
CG Supervisor: John Cherniack
CG Artists:  Ian Ruhfass, Joe Paniagua, Jose Limon, Josephine Kahng, Vivian Su, Wendy Klien, Chris Janney
CG Tracking: Joseph Chiechi, Michael Bettinardi, Michael Cardenas
Roto: Tiffany Germann
Art Director: Earl Burnley
Animation: Jeffrey Jeong, Lucy Kim, Tae-Kyu Kim, Trix Taylor, Alan Chen
Head of Production: Kim Christensen
Executive Producer: Jennifer Sofio Hall
Executive Producer: Patrick Nugent
Producer: Stacy Kessler-Aungst

Motion Graphics: Steelhead
Executive Producer: Ted Markovic
Motion Design Director: Jason Porter
Motion Designer: Luis de Leon
Producer: Matt Johnson
Mixer: Chase Butters

Color: A52
Colorist: Paul Yacono
Producer: Anna Vegezzi

Illustrator, Routine Rules Poster: Paul Rogers
Agent: Sally Heflin @ Heflin Reps
Illustrator, all other posters:
Erin Burrell: Senior Designer

Licensed/Composed Music, Credits and Track Info:
Elias Music
Music composed by Elias Arts
Executive Creative Director: Vincenzo LoRusso
Creative Director: Mike Goldstein
Executive Producer: Vicki Ordeshook
Head of Production: Katie Overcash
The Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop"

Audio Post Company: Formosa Santa Monica
Mixer: Tim West
Mix Assistant: Aiden Ramos
Producer: Jennifer Bowman

Shoot Location: Budapest, Hungary

Taco Bell is calling McDonald's a disgusting communist pig, but McDonald's doesn't care, because McDonald's still has the Big Mac. And now, the Big Mac is getting its very first lifestyle collection of merchandise for those who want something a little more meaty than what Martha Stewart can deliver.

The collection—which includes everything from clothing to wallpaper to bed sheets, all emblazoned with images of the chain's signature sandwich—was launched Tuesday at a "McWalk" fashion show in Stockholm, Sweden. (It follows the success of Big Mac thermal underwear—at the time, a one-off product that McDonald's Sweden made as part of its sponsorship of the Swedish Alpine and Cross Country Ski Team.)

If you're so inclined, you can order this stuff at bigmacshop.se.



While not an April Fools joke (you'll have to wait until next Wednesday for those), this stunt was part of a global day of McDonald's hijinks that took place Tuesday. Called imlovinit24, it featured goofy antics from McDonald's marketing teams in 24 cities worldwide in 24 hours.

Among the other highlights: a coffee-cup-shaped ball pit in Sydney, Australia; a giant Big Mac jigsaw puzzle in Madrid, Spain; a Joy Maze in Bucharest, Romania; a McOrchestra in Vienna; and a Ne-Yo concert in Los Angeles.

It was Friday, Feb. 2, 1962, and President John F. Kennedy summoned his press secretary Pierre Salinger into his office for an urgent meeting.

"I really need some help," said Kennedy.

"What do you want, Mr. President?" Salinger replied.

"I need some cigars," JFK replied.

"Fine," Salinger answered. "How many do you need?"

"A thousand," said the president.

Kennedy didn't need a thousand of any old cigar; he wanted H. Upmann Petits, his favorite. He also wanted them before the following morning. In Kennedy's desk drawer was Proclamation 3447, which would slap an embargo on all U.S. trade with Cuba. By 8 a.m. Saturday, Salinger came through with a shipment of 1,200 Petits, and the president signed the embargo into law. 

Photo: Nick Ferrari

Even if you're not one of the estimated 12.6 million Americans who smoke cigars, there's a good chance you've heard of H. Upmann, which has come to embody all of the privilege and decadence of its category. Winston Churchill was known to include H. Upmanns in the 10 cigars he smoked daily. Milton Berle tried to get 500 of them into Paris on his honeymoon. Upmanns are, said one reviewer, "as famous a brand as there is."

"In addition to being a great name, it's a quality product," added Janelle Rosenfeld, marketing vp for Altadis USA, H. Upmann's American distributor. "Three hundred pairs of hands are involved in the making of each cigar. We were the original artisanal product."

In 1844, German banker Herman Upmann took a trip to Cuba, fell in love with the local cigars and started a proprietary brand he gave away to his investors. Upmann's cigars were so popular that they outlasted his bank.

But thanks to JFK's trade embargo, there are actually two H. Upmann brands these days: the ones made in the Dominican Republic that Americans can buy and the ones made in Havana that they can't. The fact hasn't diminished U.S. demand for the brand, nor hurt its mystique—in part because the leaf blends for varieties like The Banker are painstaking matches of the original, and easily command $125 a box.

Still, purists believe Cuban cigars should come from Cuba. With President Obama's relaxing of the trade embargo in December, puffers are hopeful that they'll soon be able to light up a true Habana. (For now, visitors to Cuba can take home $100 worth of cigars—a fistful at most.) "How it will all unfold, nobody knows," Rosenfeld said. "But it raises awareness, and that's exciting." 

JFK: CSU Archives / Everett Collection; Castro: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

Amsterdam is known for its famous "coffee shops," but coffee is not the main attraction. Amsterdam-based coffee brand Moyee hopes to change that—and make the city better known for coffee as well. But it can't avoid the pervasive influence of that other mind-altering substance entirely.

So, with help from 180 Amsterdam, it orchestrated a special taste test. Cannabis is said to heighten one's senses of taste and smell, so it had real people (not actors) try its coffee—while under the influence.

Their reactions are colorful indeed. Check out the results below.



CREDITS
Client: Moyee Coffee
Founder: Guido van Staveren van Dijk
Creative Director: John Weich
Agency: 180 Amsterdam
President, Chief Creative Officer: Al Moseley
Creative Director: Martin Beswick
Art Director: Stephane Lecoq
Junior Copywriter: Ben Langeveld
Junior Art Director: Ingmar Larsen
Account Team: Dan Colgan
Producer: Claire Ford
Assistant Producer: Davide Janssen
Strategy Team: Paul Chauvin, Vincent Johnson
Director: Tobias Pekelharing
Executive Producer: Daphne Story
Editor: Fiona Fuchs
Postproduction: MPC Amsterdam
Audio Postproduction: Wave Amsterdam

Advertisers are in love with short branded documentary films these days that are built around some sort of surprise for one of the main characters. The idea, in fact, has become clichéd—meaning a lot rests on the execution of the idea.

This new Knorr film, "Flavor of Home," from DLKW Lowe is a good example.

The idea is fairly run-of-the-mill. The Unilever food flavoring brand gets a British mother to travel to the Arctic and surprise her daughter—who's moved there to be a guide on a dog-sledding farm—with a home-cooked meal.

But the concept is really nicely executed, from finding this particularly down-to-earth mother and daughter to shooting the gorgeous landscape of Finland. Tears flow early and often, but somehow it manages not to feel mawkish—mostly because it just feels real. This is mostly thanks to director Nanette Burstein of Hungry Man, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2000 for her boxing documentary On the Ropes.



OK, the film is also underpinned by a decent insight, which is that flavors alone can trigger emotions. In a Knorr study, 82 percent of respondents said that the taste of some foods reminds them of childhood, while 77 percent said food is always a part of life's most meaningful moments.

But most important, they don't make a meal of it—and that's the best balance of all.

CREDITS
Client: Knorr/Unilever
Agency: DLKW Lowe
Global Creative Director: Richard Dennison
Creative Team: Rob Bovington, Stephen Webley
Agency: Lowe & Partners
Planner: Rebecca Morgan
Account Team: Richard Ellis, Monika Tomala
Agency Producer: Trudy Waldron
Production Company: Hungry Man
Director: Nanette Burstein
Executive Producer: Kevin Byrne
Producer: Jack Beardsley
Editing House: Marshall Street Editing
Editor: Gary Forrester
Postproduction: Absolute
Audio Postproduction: 750 MPH
PR Agency: Edelman
Global Media Agency: PHD
Media Agency: Mindshare

Here's an easy way to make sure the product is the hero. Make everything else around it really, really tiny—and leave the product at regular size.

It works great in this campaign for Frooti, one of India's oldest and most beloved mango juice brands.New York agency Sagmeister & Walsh designed a whole new visual language for the brand around this idea of a miniature world—which it then brought to life in a stop-motion commercial with help from Aaron Duffy's agency SpecialGuest, 1stAveMachine director Marc Reisbig and animation house Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

See the spot here:



As Duffy says, the colorful spot really is an "absurdly ear- and eye-catching little film." The spot features a miniature version of Bollywood superstar and longtime Frooti spokesman Shah Rukh Khan, who then appears in person at the end to deliver the pitch.

"The goal was to introduce the new packaging in a fresh, bold, and playful way," Sagmeister & Walsh says of the rebranding. "We introduced four bold colors to the brand which complement the yellow of Indian mango and add a sense of playfulness across the imagery."

See a bunch more imagery below.

CREDITS
Client: Frooti

Creative Agency: Sagmeister & Walsh
Executive Creative Directors, Partners: Jessica Walsh, Stefan Sagmeister

Creative Agency: SpecialGuest
Co-Founder, Executive Creative Director: Aaron Duffy
Business Director: Ashley McGee
Creative Director, Copywriter: Jonathan Emmerling
Creative Development: Edward Choi, Chloe Corner

Production Company: 1stAveMachine
Director: Marc Reisbig
Executive Producer, Partner: Sam Penfield
Executive Producers: Melinda Nugent, Garrett Braren
Producer: Leanne Amos
Head of Production: Lisanne McDonald
Associate Producer: Christina Jang
Visual Effects Director: John Loughlin
Editor: Jonathan Vitagliano
Compositor: Chris Russo
Colorist: Seth Ricart/Ricart and Co.
Music Composer, Supervisor: Amit Trivedi

Animation, Postproduction, Online: Stoopid Buddy Stoodios
Executive Producers: John Harvatine IV, Eric Towner, Matt Senreich, Seth Green
Supervising Producer: Janet Dimon
Producer: David Brooks
Line Producer: Barb Cimity
Production Manager: Mario De Jesus
Director of Photography: Helder Sun
Animation Director: Harry Chaskin
Animator: Matt Manning
Animator: Alfonso Estrada
Director of Character Fabrication: Tennessee Norton
Character Fabricator: Tommy Keiser
Editor: Jenny McKibben
Visual Effects Lead: Jack Hamilton

Can we be even more like Mike?

Gatorade's 50th anniversary celebration continues with three spots from TBWA\Chiat\Day, each reimagining the iconic Michael Jordan-inspired "Be Like Mike" jingle we've been humming for nearly a quarter century.

An impressively remastered version of the original Bayer Bess Vanderwarker ad from 1992 was unveiled last month during the NBA's All-Star weekend. Visuals from that spot appear in these three new commercials, but each has its own unique vibe.



"Groove Like Mike," my favorite, feels like the '70s, with retro-cool animations and a righteously funky take on the song. "Move Like Mike" finds gym rats, inspired by footage of No. 23 playing on monitors around the place, working out and scrimmaging to subtly insistent beats. (Maybe the NBA will adopt that backboard video screen to blast ads during games.) "Dream Like Mike" shows a kid playing driveway hoops against MJ, a bold mix of "Be Like Mike" driving him to new heights.



The clips are fun, multilayered and reward multiple plays. Animal Music did a fine job with the remixes, giving all three versions a fresh sound while staying true to the spirit of the original. There's just one problem. Now, that damn song will be stuck in my head for at least another 23 years!



CREDITS
Client: Gatorade
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles
Creative Director: Renato Fernandez
Art Director: Pierce Thiot
Copywriter: Scott Cleveland
Producer: Garrison Askew
Music Production Company: Animal Music

The comically reluctant celebrity endorser can be a fun character, when done right. Ricky Gervais practically perfected it last week for Optus and Netflix in Australia. Now, Neil Patrick Harris returns for Heineken Light—and manages to ambivalently introduce a money back guarantee from the beer brand.

The actor stars in a 15-second TV teaser and two-minute online video from Wieden + Kennedy New York. In both, he makes abundantly clear that he personally won't be giving you your money back if you don't like the stuff. Somebody else will. Somebody at Heineken, probably. He doesn't really know.

Suggesting your endorser doesn't know much, or care much, about your product is obviously a delicate balancing act. But Harris pulls it off pretty well. In the longer video, he even takes mild offense at being "recognized" for the commercial work. (Though perhaps that's better than being recognized for having hosted this year's Oscars.)

The money back offer is real, though not available in all states. It follows Heineken Light being named the best-tasting low-calorie lager at the 2014 World Beer Championships for the second straight year. (Reformulated in 2013, the beer is brewed with Cascade hops, which gives it a floral, fruity hop aroma.)

The reluctant endorser idea, of course, will be popular with younger consumers who'll get more out of it than a regular pitch. And in fact, Heineken Light was created with millennials in mind, Ralph Rijks, vice president of Heineken USA, told Adweek.

"According to the Consumer Edge Insights' Beverage DemandTracker, we found that 40 percent of 21- to 27-years-olds desire light beer with a more full-flavored taste," he said. "To meet consumer demand for fuller-flavored beers, Heineken reformulated the brew with Cascade hops in 2013, which are particularly beneficial in enhancing the taste and give it a fuller flavor, crisper aftertaste and a clean finish, yet we've preserved the easy-to-drink, effervescent, low-calorie beer that Heineken Light drinkers love."

Rijks called Harris "a phenomenal partner" who's "hugely talented, creative and witty." He added that the brand thought Harris did "a fantastic job" on the Oscars.

"He's constantly pushing his own comfort zone," said Rijks. "Heineken's brand ethos is living a legendary life, and we believe that Neil has been doing just that with his various projects. We're looking forward to everything that he has going for him this year."

CREDITS
Client: Heineken
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York

See if you can identify the product associated with the following directions: "Pull back lid. Fill with boiling water. Let stand for three minutes. Stir well and enjoy."

Well, you either know it or you don't—and if you've ever been a liberal-arts major, lived in a large city or worked in any kind of creative industry (hello, millennials?), then you know it for sure.

In fact, even if you just made partner in a Beltway law firm, there's still a good chance you know Cup Noodles. It's not only the star brand in the instant-food hit parade, but it's also among the most ubiquitous products in shelf and cupboard. To date, parent company Nissin has sold well north of 30 billion cups of the instant ramen. How? Some say because it's cheap (about 33 cents a cup), while others say it's tasty. A Nissin spokesperson insists it's both: "While Cup Noodles is an inexpensive meal option, if it didn't taste good, we wouldn't see as many people buying the product." 

Photo: Nick Ferrari

There's something else in play here, too—a kind of global food fraternity that eating from one of those 2.5-ounce white cups makes you a member of. "Cup Noodles is a symbol of forced economy, making do, the sacrifices we made to get to where we are," said Charlie Hopper, a writer for ad shop Young & Laramore, which works with leading CPG brands. "There's pride in that nostalgia, those years of not being able to afford much, and when you're buying Cup Noodles, whether you really have to economize or not, you feel that you're tapping into something bigger than yourself."

Nobody would have been happier to hear that than Cup Noodles inventor Momofuku Ando, whose goal was not to create an iconic brand but to pull his country out of its misery. In 1945, the day after the Japanese surrender in World War II, Ando was walking through a bombed-out Osaka when he noticed a long line of people waiting patiently for soup. Boiling noodles took time, but Ando figured there had to be a way to make them quickly, easily and cheaply. He later said: "People can only be content when there is enough food." His breakthrough finally came in 1958 when he sprayed raw noodles with chicken soup and then fried them in tempura oil. The precooking preserved the noodles for easy storage, and a little hot water cooked them fast. Chikin Ramen appeared in 1958, and Cup O' Noodles hit store shelves in the U.S. in 1973.

Which is pretty much the end of the story. Another reason Cup Noodles (the preposition "O'" got dropped in 1993) has endeared itself to two generations is its unapologetic sameness. "Cup Noodles has resisted the urge to hipsterize itself," Hopper said. "It's the same old humble, useful, possibly nutritious friend from college." Museum: YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images

If you like a good twist ending, check out this French action-comedy spot for Mondelez's Tassimo coffee and Belvita breakfast cookies.

It plays on classic (hackneyed) tropes—a nerdy guy makes for an unlikely, comic-book-style hero, rescuing a damsel in distress from a group of sinister hoodlums. But it's full of funny little surprises.

Created by Buzzman and set in New York City, the casting also flirts, at the very least, with xenophobic stereotypes (darker-skinned criminals vs. lighter-skinned innocents). But—spoiler alerts ahead—try to keep a straight face when the woman starts making a sound that's not quite human (also, in real life, the chivalrous knight is actually wearing a different kind of white shining armor).



And for anyone who doesn't pick up the point from the visuals alone, the upshot of the French tagline is that the readymade products will let you sleep five minutes longer—so you can finish off that sweet dream. (So, even the payoff is a bit of a cliché, but in context, it's unexpected.)

Unfortunately for Jean-Francois, it probably just means he'd still wake up right before the next, even better part.

CREDITS
Client: Mondelez (Tassimo/Belvita)

Agency: Buzzman
Creative Director: Georges Mohammed-Chérif
Head of TV: Vanessa Barbel
Agency Producer: Elodie Poupeau
Creative: Stéphane List
Creative: Antoine Moittié

Director: Remy Cayuela
Producer: Capucine Charbonnier @ Frenzy Paris
Producer: Julie Mathieu @ Frenzy Paris
Producer: Courtney Davies @ Doomsday Entertainment
Executive Producer: Danielle Hinde @ Doomsday Entertainment
DOP: Jeff Bierman

Production Designer: Susie Francis
Editor: Gopal Puntos
Colorist: Cedrick Lacour
1st AD: Allen Scudder
Production Manager: Bretanya Dubin
1st AC: Lenny Walsh
Gaffer: Brice Bradley
Key Grip: Sergio Silva
Steadicam: Neal Bryan
Makeup/Hair: Erika Frank
Stylist: Chris Velasco
Stunt Coordinator: Mindy Kelly

Postproduction: Firm Studio
Sound Postproduction: Benzene

I'm sure we've all had some unflattering theories about how Jack in the Box would achieve a Guinness World Record ("Most People Made Uncomfortable by Creepy Mascot" was my guess). But the fast-food chain recently unveiled the world's largest coupon, made to promote its new Buttery Jack burger.

Yes, Buttery Jack sounds like one of those Dutch holiday monsters invented to scare kids, but it's actually a quarter-pound burger with garlic herb butter melted on top. It was meant to scare adults!

Anyway, the coupon is 80 feet by 25 feet, and as you can see in the video, it took more than 12 people to carry it through Los Angeles to Hollywood's W Hotel. A cellphone picture of the coupon counts as a coupon itself, and can be redeemed for a free burger until Wednesday. Oh God, that's April Fools' Day. If they have something planned for that, I don't want to know what it is.

Agency: David&Goliath.



CREDITS
Client: Jack in the Box
CMO & SVP Menu Innovation & Execution: Keith Guilbault
VP Menu Strategy & Innovation: Iwona Alter
Communications Manager: Lauren Ohlsson
Director of Innovation & Social Engagement: Jen Kennedy
Innovation Project Manger: Mikim Luu
Social Media Manager: Rah Mahtani

Agency: David&Goliath, LA
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo
Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery
Group Creative Director: Ben Purcell
Group Creative Director: Steve Yee
Sr. Art Director:  Rob Casillas
Sr. Copywriter:  Courtney Pulver
Director of Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese
Sr. Broadcast Producer: Karen Jean 
Director of Print Services: Meredith Walsh
Group Account Director: Michele Tebbe
Account Director: Frith Dabkowski
Account Coordinator: Kristina Papillion
Sr. Project Manager: Lila Anton

PR Agency: MWW
Founder & CEO: Michael Kempner
EVP and General Manager, Western Region: JP Schuerman

Production Company: Grandesign
Executive Producer: Bob Ridgeway
Line Producer: Thomas Campbell
Sales Representative: Aileen Shaw

Printer of Coupon: BP Graphics

Editorial House: Spinach LA      
Managing Director / Editor: Adam Bright
Cinematographer: Art Castle
Producer: Jonathan Carpio

Advertising craft doesn't get more delicate than this. Check out the crazy ice cubes TBWA\Hakuhodo created for Japan's Suntory Whisky.

The agency used what's called a CNC router (and a process that's kind of inverse 3-D printing) to carve the designs, which ranged from the Statue of Liberty to the Sphinx to Batman and everything in between. (There even appears to be, perhaps presciently, a Cannes Lion in the mix.)

Miwako Fujiwara of TBWA\Hakuhodo said the CNC router was chilled at -7 degrees Celsius to keep the ice from melting. The agency used an app called Autodesk 123D to capture the 3-D images and prep them for printing. "A touch of chilled whiskey polishes the surface of the ice and gives a beautiful shine to the sculpture," Fujiwara added.



The campaign was launched in 2014 and just won a Branded Content & Entertainment Lotus trophy at the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival in Thailand.

Lots more images, along with credits, below.

CREDITS
Client: Suntory

Campaign: "3D on the Rocks"

Agency: TBWA Hakuhodo+Hakuhodo
Executive Creative Director, Creative Director, Planner: Kazoo Sato
Copywriters, Planners: Takahiro Hosoda, Nobuhiro Arai
Art Directors, Designers: Yo Kimura, Yuki Tokuno
Creative Technologist: Masashi Matsukura
Producer: Kaoru Otani
Assistant Producer: Fusae Yoshikawa
Public Relations: Kayoko Asano, Miwako Fujiwara

Production: Tokyo, mount inc., amana

Movie:
Director: Eiji Tanigawa, Tokyo
Camera: Senzo Ueno, Tokyo
Lighting: Masachio Nishida
Art: Midoriko Nemoto, Taiyo Kikaku
Ice: Motoharu Kato, Yamane Ice
Sizzle: Noriko Saotome, Grand
Video Engenner: Satoshi Igarashi
Producer: Toshiyuki Takei, Tokyo
Assistant Producer: Masayoshi Takayanagi, Tokyo
Production Manager: Makoto Takahashi, Tokyo
Production Manager Assistant: Rintaro Kozasa, Taiyo Kikaku　
Offline Editor: Ryuichi Hasegawa (puzzle)
Online Editor: Akira Nishibu, Image Studio 109
Multi Audio: Yuta Sato, Image Studio 109
Sound Effects: Norio Kobayashi, ONPa

Music:
Executive Producer: Audioforce
Producer: Danic
Composer: Steve Sidwell

Web:
Planners: Im Jeong-ho, Takeshiro Umetsu, mount inc.
Planner, Art Director, Technical Director, Director: Hidekazu Hayashi, mount inc.
Directors: Hiroka Hasegawa, Hideki Yoshidatsu, mount inc.
HTML Coding: Hideki Yoshidatsu, mount inc.
3-D Computer Graphics: Takeo Saito, Mika Nariya, Fulvis K.K.
Production Manager: Ko Yoshida, mount inc.

Graphic:
Photographer: Keisuke Minoda, acube
Retoucher: Masahiko Furuta, Rizing
Photo Producer: Shinya Omi, Amana

Gatorade has saved the best for last in its nostalgic, eight-week-long "Be Like Mike" campaign revival.

In a 60-second video that went live this morning, we finally see present-day Michael Jordan drinking Gatorade—rather than just archival footage of His Airness from 25 years ago.

Created by digital agency VML, the star-studded homage to the original Bayer Bess Vanderwarker spot features no less than 10 Gatorade athletic endorsers.

Among them: tennis superstar Serena Williams; women's soccer stars Abby Bambach and Mia Hamm; Major League Baseball's Bryce Harper; the NFL's Cam Newton; the NBA's Jabari Parker; and NASCAR's Jimmie Johnson.

Plus, we get cameos from singer/actor Nick Cannon and Zach LaVine, who won the Slam Dunk contest at NBA All-Star 2015. The 19-year old LaVine lapped the competition at Brooklyn's Barclays Center while wearing a No. 23 Jordan jersey from Space Jam.

Of course, as the payoff, we see Air Jordan himself drinking his favorite Gatorade Citrus Cooler. "Still got it," quips Michael. The tagline: "We all want to still #BeLikeMike."

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Gatorade rolled out a digitally remastered version of the classic "Be Like Mike" spot created by BBV 23 years ago during NBA All-Star Weekend.

Since then, Gatorade has layered in three new spots inspired by user-generated social posts and video salutes from the other athletes who've followed in Jordan's footsteps as Gatorade endorsers. But none have featured the present-day Michael until now.

The positive reaction from consumers and athletes to the campaign shows that Jordan—longtime sports king of Madison Avenue—still has legs, according to Gatorade's Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley.

"We hope this final video will continue to inspire a new generation of athletes to show us, and each other, what it means to Be Like Mike," she told Adweek.

CREDITS:

Client: Gatorade
Agency: VML

Gatorade Director of Digital Strategy: Jeff Miller
Gatorade Senior Manager of Digital Marketing: Abhishek Jadon
Gatorade Chief Marketing Officer: Morgan Flatley

VML
Executive Creative Director: Tony Snethen
Group Creative Director: Matt Bowne
Creative Director: Nick Allegri
Associate Creative Director: Maggie Harn
Associate Creative Director: Adam LaRocca
Senior Copywriter: Ryan Simpson
Art Director: Amanda Laffoon
Art Director: Zac Greason
Art Director: Jaclyn Co
Group Director, Client Engagement: Stephanie DeCelles
Director, Client Engagement: Abby Fraser
Senior Account Manager: Carley McNary
Senior Social Strategist: Kyle Rodgers
Channel Manager: Chelsea Curry

Directors: Chris Riehl and Christopher Leone

Production Company: Motion Theory
Editorial: Mirada
Editor: Mike Merkwan
Editor: Patrick Smith
Producer: Snake Roth

There's going to be some heavyweight marketing around the May 2 welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. And Butterfinger is jumping early into Pacquiao's corner.

The Nestlé brand on Wednesday sent out an April Fools' Day press release saying its Butterfinger Cups brand was betting a million on Pacquiao. Now, AdFreak confirms (as Pacquiao will do in a tweet shortly) that the bet is actually a million Butterfinger Cups. If Pacquiao emerges victorious on May 2, Butterfinger will offer 1 million of its peanut butter cups in a nationwide payout at ButterfingerCups.com.

The announcement kicks off a month-long "Get In Our Corner" campaign.

"We're such fans of what Manny represents and love that he has such a great sense of humor to join us in our April Fools' Day fun and launch the 'Get In Our Corner' campaign," says Fabiola del Rio, Butterfinger brand manager. "We want fans to get in our corner with Manny and help us celebrate this different kind of competitor."
 

Here's a simple and fun McDonald's campaign from Leo Burnett Dubai promoting the fast-food chain's delivery service, showing various characters receiving exactly what they love in a McDonald's bag. (Not McDonald's food, mind you, though you get the point.)

And that's a key that the robot is getting, people. A key.

Via Adeevee.

More ads and credits below.

CREDITS
Client: McDonald's
Agency: Leo Burnett Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Executive Creative Director: Andre Nassar
Creative Director: Rondon Fernandes
Art Directors: Daniel Salles, Robison Mattei, Victor Toyofuku
Copywriter: Wayne Fernandes
Head of Art: Bruno Bomediano

Wheaties is cementing its status as the breakfast of old people with a blustery new campaign featuring 1948 footage of bowling star Andy Varipapa, who died more than 30 years ago.

Six black-and-white spots, each 15 seconds long, show Varipapa rolling impressive bowling tricks, while a smug voiceover offers pointers on how much better it is to be a grandpa than some modern-day pansy.

They're charming in a grating sort of way—Varipapa's on-screen persona is great, hammy without being too cheesy. But then one of the spots has to come along and rant about $5 microwave turkey bacon egg-wrap frittata. (Whatever those are. Is that supposed to be a dig at Starbucks? Doesn't Wheaties know McDonald's is the breakfast villain du jour? Also, the whole no-allergies thing makes grandpa seem like some kind of proto-Scientologist).

The ads have been airing on ESPN as part of a sponsorship of a Professional Bowling Association tournament, so it's not much of a stretch that the audience might want to be like Varipapa (high-waisted, pleated pants and all). And he is a nice alternate to higher-profile champions like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, even if the clips take throwback smarm to new heights (cheerful grandpas are, in general, pretty easy to love, even when rough around the edges).

Unfortunately, they make us want black coffee more than Wheaties.

New Belgium Brewing peddles its Slow Ride Session pale ale in a series of silly Web shorts created by production house Strike Anywhere.

Dr. Don, a mellow therapist with a bushy upper lip, advises patients to relax and enjoy life as he serves them beer during slow rides on a fantastical bicycle-couch contraption. Is this guy licensed? To practice therapy or drive that thing? It's probably best not to ask.



The pleasingly perky films, which began appearing a few months back, top out at around three minutes, and the performances by sketch comedy vets, at times clearly ad libbing, give the spots an extra kick. Ditto the retro elevator/lounge soundtrack (like something from an oh-so-groovy '60s romp) and the rear-projection effects, which are goofy but not intrusive.

Still, it's a thin concept, and after episodes with a bickering couple on their first date, bickering roommates and a millennial bickering with his boomer boss, the comedy starts to fall a bit flat. Also, Dr. Don's chill-out mantra, while on-brand, wouldn't feel out of place for a purveyor of the wacky tobacky. (What exactly are you hopped up on, dude?)

Ah well, it's all about the "mobile therapy couch," which steals the show every time. There's even a laid-back video that shows you how to build one of your own. Alas, the instructions make assembling Ikea furniture look like child's play. (It's also difficult to follow what the hosts are saying in the clip, which was shot outdoors on a windy day.)

After attempting that DIY project, you just might need therapy. Or a couple sixes to take the edge off, at the very least.