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Ads of the Week

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Ad of the Week: RKCR/Y&R – The Home Office

Disrespect NoBody

Iv'e always been a big fan of puppets. It probably has something to do with being raised on a steady diet of The Muppets and Fraggle Rock from an early age. Regardless, if a campaign decides to forego live actors and/or animation and get a little fluffy, I'm always on board, so it was almost a foregone conclusion that this spot from RKCR/Y&R would be my ad of the week. Directed by BAFTA nominated directors Jonny & Will from Blinkink for the Home Office, “Disrespect NoBody” is part of a series of films the duo were approached to create in order to build awareness and tackle relationship abuse, in all its forms, to an audience of 12-18 year olds. Using puppets to reach kids might come across as a little condescending on paper, but the spots are actually quite smart and subtly disturbing. With the difficult task of engaging this audience in mind, the pair collaborated with writer Baker Terry, who has an impressive track record of crafting offbeat viral hits with the online series “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared.” Together they shaped the original ideas into blackly funny scripts, getting the important message across in unexpected ways. Drawing on their extensive puppet experience, Jonny and Will built and manipulated all of the body parts themselves, creating an array of engaging characters from an aggressive fist to a boxer short bulge. Teenagers were cast for the voices, providing the all important sense of authenticity, which is part of what makes the ads so powerful and so unique.

Disrespectful and unacceptable behaviour can come in many forms. It isn’t limited to just physical behaviour; it can also go way beyond that” Jonny & Will

After Hours – D&AD

It All Starts With A Pencil

In order to inspire the entrants for the New Blood Awards, D&AD have been working with After Hours and Picturesmith to create a series of four films that take students through the whole New Blood process: From opening for entries though to guiding them on submitting their work, each step along the way has an accompanying stop motion film, the first of which can be seen above. It's an incredibly creative way to draw attention to the awards, and fits in perfectly with the artistic, design-centric identity of the D&AD brand. The project doesn’t stop here either, as Picturesmith will be creating more stop motion animations to accompany the D&AD New Blood Festival, New Blood Ceremony and the New Blood Academy, so there will be much more eccentric animation to look forward to over the coming months.

The use of real hands and hand crafted paper models allowed us to showcase the journey from pencil marks on paper through to winning an award in visually compelling sequences capturing the true spirit of the creative process” After Hours’ Creative Partner, Chris McDonald

Saatchi & Saatchi Poland – Toyota

Toyota Dream Car

Saatchi & Saatchi Poland has created a bold new film encapsulating the belief that “Every great idea is born from a dream” for Toyota, in a bid to nurture the creativity of the next generation of great inventors, thinkers and dreamers. The spot tells the story of a Polish girl (Aleksandra) who was a World finalist in the 2012 Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. She participated in it twice: in its 6th and 7th editions. Saatchi & Saatchi Poland teamed up with Papaya Films and captured Aleksandra’s story in a moving documentary that shows there are life-affirming moments in life. The video will go live in all Toyota social media placements globally. It's all a little mushy, but it's rare for an automotive brand to go for the heartstrings in such a fashion, and it's a move that pays dividends here.

The best documentaries balance presentation of facts with entertainment to capture an audience’s imagination. I think Saatchi & Saatchi together with Papaya Films achieved the goal just right” Stephane Rydlewski from Toyota Europe

TBWA\London – Lidl

Easter Egg Hunt

Lidl unveiled its delightful 2016 Easter TV ad campaign this week. Designed to highlight its full range of delicious, great quality and low-priced products, the campaign encourages families to choose Lidl for their entire Easter weekend shop. Lidl’s Easter campaign, created by TBWA\London and directed by Jim Gilchrist at Outsider, is a return to the Lidl heartland of surprises. Comprising two creatives, the TV ads centre around school children eagerly surprising their busy and unsuspecting parents when they come to collect them. Using a real teacher, a real classroom, and real Lidl food, the ads see the children excitedly organise an Easter egg hunt for their parents and cook a meal of fresh roast lamb or Scottish salmon with all the trimmings, in an effort to convey the “Surprises with truth” message, which runs across the ongoing Lidl Surprises campaign. To bolster the integrated campaign, which encompasses TV, press, OOH, POS, digital, radio and social, Lidl is also encouraging families to participate via a series of short videos created by Cubaka especially for Lidl's social channels. In each video, children are asked a question about Easter and their spontaneous responses are captured, encouraging the public to share their children's pearls of wisdom for the duration of the Easter campaign. I like Lidl, and my girlfriend's a teacher, so maybe I'm a little biased, but there's something defiantly old school about this campaign that I really enjoyed.

This Easter continues the hugely successful Lidl Surprises campaign, showcasing Lidl's great quality food at amazingly low prices. This time we enlisted a class full of eager children from Princess Frederica School in London to surprise their parents with Lidl's delicious Easter fare” Richard Stainer, CEO at TBWA

Saatchi & Saatchi London – HSBC

Life Writes the Best Stories – Chung

HSBC and Saatchi & Saatchi London have launched a new broadcast campaign to encourage people to plan for their future. The new campaign is designed to attract customers to the bank's Premier service, and comprises two films that follow the lives of “Audrey” and “Chung.” As the films unfold, so do their respective lives, but not quite in the way that they had originally planned as children. They both conclude with the idea that life itself writes the best stories and that HSBC Premier can help with the next chapter, whatever that is. Directed by Jeff Labbé of Academy, the films have a bold cinematic quality that underlines the epic, but relatable nature of the stories.

Life writes the best stories is a campaign idea based on the premise that you reach a point in your life when you can reflect on the unpredictability of your journey so far, and look forward to the adventure yet to come” Kate Stanners, Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi London

Honourable Mention: Saatchi & Saatchi – Toyota

The Coupé That Reinvents Crossovers

Saatchi & Saatchi recently teamed up with London production company 76 to create the launch film for the new C-HR Coupé; described as Toyota’s most important new car for the last 10 years. The collaboration didn’t stop there either, with David Mould and Yann Secouet teaming up to direct together for the first time. For the directing duo, it was a fantastic opportunity to showcase their different styles and fuse them together to create something as diverse as the car itself. The film erupts with energy, each distinctive lighting feature or visual effect blending together with the surrounding lifestyle scenes. At the film’s core is the Toyota 
C-HR’s drive that spears through the visual fireworks. It's all very loud and colourful, but in a remarkably approachable way.

It was a very challenging brief that needed a bespoke approach to the production. It also helps that these two directors are great friends and very comfortable working together” 76 EP Mark Murrell

Another Honourable Mention: VCCP – Asda

Giant Hen

There was just too much good creative stuff this week, so here's an extra little piece of work that would have earned a place in the top 5 if it wasn't for the fact I personally feel it's dropped a little too early. The spot, which sees a giant chocolate hen delivered to an Asda supermarket in order to lay giant chocolate eggs for its customers, demonstrates how seriously Asda takes the season, and is running on TV throughout the Easter period, with press, outdoor, radio and social accompaniment. VCCP has also created a spoof news channel known rather cuttingly as NewsHD to tie in with the social media drive.

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from the dark heart of Kidderminster in the UK.

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