Out to Launch
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Polar bears are back in Pittsburgh. Time to start those New Year's resolutions. V8 dusts off an old tag line. Let's launch!
  • Polar bears are back in Pittsburgh. Time to start those New Year's resolutions. V8 dusts off an old tag line. Let's launch!

    Weight Watchers works. I guar-un-tee it. With New Year's resolutions running rampant, the company launched a set of TV and print ads featuring real women discussing real results. It's a lifestyle change! The campaign tagline "be an After. stay an After" meshes well, and it hands down beats hearing Cher's tune "This is a song for the lonely" in ads. Watch the ads here, here, here, here and here. Look out for the ad with a recognizable face: Jenny McCarthy. Young & Rubicam New York created the campaign and mediaedge:cia handled the media planning and buying.

    Golden Corral, a chain of buffet style family restaurants, is launching a series of TV ads on Monday using the theme "Taste the Good Life" and the tagline "Everyone deserves a good meal." "Castle" shows a gluttonous medieval King. After eating, he does a little dance and morphs into a proud papa at the Golden Corral buffet. Watch the ad here. "Offerings" features a man and a Caesar salad complex. Watch it here. "Wigs" features Elizabethan clothes and flying hams, among other oddities. Click here to watch the ad.The Richards Group created the campaign.

    I love ads with hidden clues that lead to the bigger picture. Fitting this bill is a campaign for the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Each ad contains one clue, with answers being works of art found in the museum. The campaign hopes to increase attendance following a dropoff after exhibition openings. Ads will run twice over a six-month period, appearing in local daily and weekly newspapers, online, as fixed signage within the museum along with a ring-bound flip book in the museum shop. One clue features a "Missing" poster of a pinkie that references "Memories" by Sheng Qi, which depicts a four-fingered hand holding a photo. Another clue shows a man with a paper bag over his head, corresponding with "Portrait of an Unknown Gentleman," by Frans Pourbus the Younger. Correctly name all twenty artworks and receive a T-shirt. Yup, a T-shirt. Click here, here and here to view additional clues. The Republik created the campaign and NAS Media handled the media buy.

    The Pittsburgh Zoo launched a hysterical TV ad to promote its Polar Bear exhibit. During a mock Polar Bear Club swim, swimmers find they have a special guest with them in the water: a polar bear. The ad closes with the swimmers frantically running from the water with "Jaws"-esque speed. Click here to watch the ad. The ad is running locally on network and cable on Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and TLC. MARC USA handled all aspects of the campaign.

    Back from the dead -- after 20 years -- is V8's classic tag line, "I could've had a V8," in a series of ads for the pick-me-up beverage. "Busboy" features a waiter that hits a man on the head when he returns his dinner plate without having eaten his veggies. Click here to watch the ad. In "Drive-Thru" a man gets bopped for ordering his burger sans veggies. Watch the ad here. "Stroller" shows a smarter-than-she-looks baby. Click here to watch it. Listen to your fitness "Trainer." She knows best. Watch the ad here.Young & Rubicam New York created the campaign and mediaedge:cia handled the media planning and buying.

    Amachi Texas, a program of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Texas, created a campaign that draws awareness to how life might turn out for children with incarcerated parents without mentors to keep them grounded. Print and outdoor ads feature a crib covered in barbwire, a child in a mug shot photo and a child behind bars along with the tagline, "Break the Chain - Be a Mentor." Click here, here and here to view the ads. Phase one of the campaign is running in general and Hispanic media; phase two will focus on mentor acquisition. MARC USA handled all aspects of the campaign.

    Keystone Resort launched a campaign in December touting its new expert-only terrain, opening this month. Independence Bowl is accessible by foot or snow-cat only, a plus or minus, depending on whom you ask. Ads are running in national ski magazines and along highway locations around the Denver area. View the ad here. Cultivator Advertising & Design created the campaign and Explore Communications handled the media buy.

    Ben Affleck and Nick Lachey were the stars of identical ads for Axe's Clik fragrance for men. Affleck's ad ran only in Europe--I saw the ad countless times in Ireland--while Lachey's remake ran stateside. The ad follows each man running errands throughout the day and each time a woman (or man) flirts with them, they click a pocket-sized counter. Proud of their daily numbers, the men's egos are quickly dashed when they encounter an average Joe in an elevator with greater numbers. His leverage, of course, is Clik. Watch the Affleck ad here and click here for Lachey's take. BBH created both ads.