Out to Launch

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Have five minutes to spare? Settle in and watch a short film for Lenovo called “Seize the Night.” A laptop, bathing in mystery, is passed around to various 20somethings over the course of a night. The first computer user is writing code. He then slides the laptop under a door – now that’s thin – where a woman uploads pictures. The laptop is then used on a subway and left in a backpack for its next user, who brings it to a library. My favorite scene is when this young woman replaces a book on a library shelf with the thin laptop, book serial number and all. At this point, I’m officially intrigued. The film continues with a man gaining access to a high-rise building after hours and in darkness, as in, the entire city loses power. The darkness leads to a colorful, loud and magical experience, created from an ultrathin notebook. Watch it here. Saatchi & Saatchi NY created the film, directed by Tomas Jonsgarden of Anonymous Content.

The California Milk Processor Board launched a pair of “Got Milk” ads that target so-called imitation milks, like soy, almond and coconut. Set in a game-show format, the spot shows two teens competing against one another in the “Science of Imitation Milk” campaign. There are more ingredients than you think in imitation milk. One teen learns the hard way when his opponent easily rambles off ingredients like zinc gluconate and carrageenan. Watch it here. When it comes time for the teens to create their own imitation milk, dancing test tubes illustrate how many hard-to-pronounce ingredients are included in a batch. See it here. Goodby, Silverstein and Partners created the campaign.

“Night Swimming” for a group of teens almost goes awry in an ad for Chevy Sonic. The driver mistakenly locks his keys in the car, only realizing this when the group rushes back to the car, clothes in hand and shivering. Not a problem, because the teen has the MyChevrolet app on his smartphone, enabling him to unlock his car. “From close call to best night ever” closes the ad, seen here, and created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Jason Reitman of Bob Industries directed the ad.

ASICS launched its third ad for its 33 by ASICS collection of running shoes. “Arrows” stars Ryan Hall, America’s fastest marathon runner, in his first TV ad. Putting the lightweight technology of GEL-Lyte33’s to the test, Hall was brought to the desert to race a box truck. As Hall ran over a series of pressure-sensitive pads, arrows were shot toward the box truck. This had to be timed perfectly. The end result was an ASICS shoe, made of countless arrows activated by Hall. See the ad here, created by Vitro.

Whatever you do, don’t tell Mayor Bloomberg about this: the calories in this portrait must be staggering. To celebrate CeeLo’s 38^th birthday, Cheetos created a 3' x 4' portrait of him and Purrfect the cat – made entirely of Cheetos, natch. Jason Baalman created the portrait using Flaming Hot, Natural White Cheddar and Cheetos Crunchy flavors. See it here. Thousands of Cheetos were used for the portrait and it took 42 hours just to glue them all into CeeLo’s likeness. Fans can visit the Cheetos Facebook page for a chance to own their own Cheetos-made portrait of CeeLo and Purrfect. Wouldn’t it be better if the winners won a portrait of themselves, crafted from Cheetos?

Act fast. There’s only one day left to participate. Give it up for Anton Zuponcic, a designer at Digitaria's Minneapolis office. He’s donating his beard to raise money for Bridging, a Minnesota furniture bank nonprofit that helps the recently homeless get back on their feet. Anton’s beard will be shaved into one of seven crazy styles, which he’ll don for two weeks. The more you donate, the more votes you get to choose the favorite. One vote costs $1, 6 votes costs $10, all the way up to 70 votes for $50. Styles include: The Double Decker, the lead design; The Frisky Whiskers and, my personal favorite, The Shrubble. To date, $900 has been raised for Bridging.

AlmapBBDO created a minute-long love letter for Getty Images called “From love to Bingo in 873 images.” Every photo in this video came from the Getty Images archive. If you do the math, that’s 15 images shown per second, resulting in a beautiful story. We begin with pictures of kissing couples that lead to marriage, sexy time, orgasms and children. There’s a counter throughout the film clocking the number of pictures used. The children grow up, have families of their own and parents age, leading up to a wife’s death. Pictures of grieving husbands follow, along with the arduous task of taking daily medications. The spot concludes with Bingo, boating, blue oceans and the actual number of phots in the Getty Archive: 38,297,842. Watch it here, directed by Cisma and produced by Paranoid BR.

Gatorade launched a TV campaign earlier this year featuring coaches of famous athletes reliving moments of great change in their athletes’ lives. In "Lochte", Coach Gregg Troy describes how swimmer Ryan Lochte committed to training, eating healthy and fueling with Gatorade and wound up becoming the world’s fastest swimmer. See it here. The next ad, starring Phil Jackson recounting Michael Jordan’s epic 1997 playoff performance, drew some flack from folks for implying that Gatorade helped keep Jordan’s fluish symptoms at bay. I think it was more Jordan’s hardcore determination and will than anything else. Watch it here. TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles created the campaign.

Random iPhone app of the week: Saddened to miss Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee? Comfort yourself with your own virtual pet dog that happens to be the Queen’s favorite breed. MyRoyalCorgi uses augmented reality to place your Cogi in the palm of your hand, on the ground or on a table. Users must hold their iPhone or iPad over the Queen’s side of a 5,10 or 20 U.K. pound note. If you don’t have one handy, you can download a training card from the site. The goal is to train your Corgi to perform tricks by petting her and rewarding her with treats. Each note has a different exercise to perform -- from easy, like sitting, to more outrageous things, like push-ups. Download the app for free in the App Store.

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1 comment on "Out to Launch".

1. Ronald Stack from Zavee LLC
   

   commented on: June 6, 2012 at 5:25 p.m.
   Seize the Night was outstanding with superb cinematography. Not all of it made a lot of sense (on one viewing) but who cares! Wonder how they will lift :30s and :60s for TV. Night Swimming has a great concept but was very disappointing. I know it's for broadcast but it wasn't very sexy at all. The dark palette wasn't mysterious, as in Seize the Night, it just made things hard to see. And why would they want such a flat reading from the VO? A payoff line like that deserves so much better.

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