Commentary

Out To Launch

CrushHolidayToronto-based agency Crush created a multi-episode holiday campaign showing the abrasive side of your typical mall Santa. In the first episode, the foul-mouthed Santa swears at adorable kids asking for gifts. A volunteer ringing a Salvation Army bell conveniently drowns out the bad language. See it here. Episode 2 is full of crack – Santa’s butt crack – when he gets stuck in a chimney. Watch it here. Unhappy with the elves’ toy-making abilities, the un-PC Santa shows them how it’s done in episode 3, seen here.

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KissMassPartyThe interns at Cutwater were given the task of creating the agency holiday card. The end result is Kissmas Party, a site that combines the agency holiday party with its Christmas cards. The site houses a virtual mistletoe, underneath which users can kiss a stranger by uploading a photo via Instagram. Users who upload a picture can use the hashtag #leftkiss or #rightkiss, dependant on which side is their best. People are paired at random and I’ve seen some interesting matchups. One gal got a kiss from Pokemon’s Pikachu, and another got a smooch from a dog slipper.

InternHolidayBonusLowe Roche wants to help the less fortunate this holiday season: their unpaid interns. With that idea in mind, the agency created a website and video that demonstrates how easy it is for users to donate money. For every visit to InternHolidayBonus.com, Lowe Roche will donate $1 to the cause. So far, the site has raised $5,853.

 

BlueRockHolidayCardBlueRock shot their holiday card this year on an iPhone over the course of a two-week time span. The card features more than 30 employees doing 144 different actions. As the card progresses, more and more squares of people appear – think of The “Brady Bunch” opening theme. Watch it here.

 

 

ColoradoLotteryThe Colorado Lottery launched an amusing TV spot for its Holiday Scratch and Holiday Raffle games. An older man sits by the fireplace and compares the great gift of scratch-off games to gifts that are ideal in hindsight but sour quickly. Take that diamond engagement ring – you have to make a long-term commitment with that gift. Or the set of golf clubs that means endless hours of practicing. And that adorable kitten will only lead to more adorable viral videos. That simple scratch-off, however, could net its recipient up to $500,000 in prizes. See it here, created by Cactus.

 

PeepsPEEPS, the iconic sugarcoated Easter candy, has created its first-ever Christmas and Hanukkah ad campaign. I think my head just exploded, but it may be from an unexpected PEEPS sugar rush. An out-of-home campaign promotes the PEEPS candy-cane-flavored dipped marshmallow chicks using the tagline, “Hope You Survive the Holidays.” One ad shows a PEEP covered in melted candle wax that’s dripping from a menorah, while another shows a PEEP thisclose to being pelted by a snowball. See the ads here and here, created by The Terri & Sandy Solution.

FirstBankThe latest installment of FirstBank’s “helpfulness” campaign offers airport travelers a continuous showing of every scene of the 1946 Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The catch is that each scene doesn’t move; rather, the scenes are the size of a postage stamp, laid out in a grid, with one frame per second, totaling 7829 shots. The ad states: “For a more enjoyable way to watch, get Free Checking and receive a Kindle Fire HD.” Not too shabby, since the offered Kindle Fire HD retails for $199. See creative here and here. In addition, there are some non-holiday executions that include all 168 pages of the January 1905 issue of Popular Mechanics and all 204 pages of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” TDA_Boulder created the campaign and handled the media buy.

ApocalymasTraction’s holiday card wishes everyone a Merry APOCALYMAS. The agency created a 12-day Advent Calendar that counts down until the end of the world. “Twelve days of what you need before it all comes crashing down just like the Mayans predicted,” starts the site. Users can scroll down to view a series of 12 videos. Today’s video is an ode to the ornament, but since it’s the end of the world, this poem is dark and depressing. I did enjoy the zombie Christmas video that shows the zombie side of Santa and the little tyke waiting for his gifts.

M&MsRandom iPhone App of the week: Chocolate and gaming merge in the “M&M’s Brand Chocolate Factory,” where M&M’S Characters save M&M’S Brand Candies from melting and falling into hot milk chocolate. Players use tools like rubber bands, conveyer belts, pinwheels and pipes, to move the bouncing M&M’s obstacles. Each candy that makes it into the bag becomes a point-scoring pinball that bounce through Pachinko pins to rack up points. Alchemy3 created the app, available for $.99 in the App Store

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