Out to Launch
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Are sleepies the new selfies? Test drive a VW with your voice. Let's launch!
  • Burger King Brazil has a new sandwich on the menu: the Big King. To promote it, the brand scoured the globe for the most diehard Big Mac fans it could find. And by diehard, I mean people who have Big Mac tattoos. Once found, each person was invited by Burger King to visit Brazil and try the Big King. Not surprisingly, the sandwich was a hit for all Big Mac loyalists. It does look tasty. After the oohs and ahhs subsided, famed tattoo artists Ami James walked in and offered each fan a chance to have their Big Mac tattoos tweaked with a Burger King flair. Think flame grill marks and a crown atop a burger. All but one person had their tattoos updated -- but that refusal was more for sentimental reasons, not because of a supreme loyalty to McDonald's. "Change always leaves a mark," closes the video, seen here, and created by DAVID Sao Paulo.

  • I can't imagine anything going wrong when the boss sees a picture of an employee or two napping at their desk, can you? Skinny Cow is encouraging workers to put their computers and themselves to sleep -- and afterwards perk up with a Skinny Cow Creamy Iced Coffee -- in an effort to increase employee productivity. The #SkinnyCowCoffeeNap campaign launched this week on Skinny Cow's social media sites with pictures of employees napping at their desk with a Skinny Cow drink close by. "It's the latest productivity trend that's also delicious," reads one post. The brand also encourages workers to task their co-workers with taking sleepies of them while they nap at their desk for future posting online. Offline, Skinny Cow Creamy Iced Coffee is offering office workers a midday reboot in 10 cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Detroit. Workers will receive samples of  Skinny Cow Creamy Iced Coffee, but they'll also learn tongue-in-cheek ways to take a midday nap at work. 360i created the campaign.

  • A campaign to bring out the kid in all of us. "Unleash Your Rrrr" is a site that allows Volkswagen fans to drive a virtual Golf R using only the sound of their voice. Imagine playing cars as a kid and making the vroom noises  when taking a hard corner or flipping over. Deep Learning, an artificial intelligence subset of Machine Learning developed by Deutsch LA, analyzes each user's different take on the Golf R engine's roar. It then creates a custom video of the Golf R cruising through a race track, with actions like drifting and braking matching the user's recording. If you make a screeching noise, for example, it would be paired with the Golf R taking a tight turn. To encourage video sharing, there's a picture-in-picture feature that allows fans to see themselves in high performance mode. The stunts in the videos are performed by professional racecar and stunt driver Tanner Foust, whose custom video can be seen here. To further support the campaign, VW enlisted the king of all sound effects, Michael Winslow, to create his own video. Good luck creating a video better than his. Watch it here.

  • The latest ad for Esurance's "Sorta You Isn't You" campaign stars Buster Posey, catcher for the San Francisco Giants, moonlighting as a delivery-room doctor. Both wear gloves and work well under pressure, so why does the expectant mother look so skeptical? The soon-to-be father, on the other hand, is confident and giddy at the thought of Posey delivering his child. He even tells his wife to stop embarrassing him in front of the catcher. See it here, created by Leo Burnett.

  • Here's a great campaign for all you DIYers and yard sale junkies. Krylon and Pinterest teamed up to create the "127 Sale," a 690-mile-long venture through the world's longest yard sale, where old, rusty items were bought and spruced up using Krylon paint. From Aug. 6-9, Krylon sponsored the sale, which stretched through Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan, with close to 5,000 vendors ready to haggle with thousands of shoppers. TV host Amy Devers, a furniture designer, carpenter, and design blogger, met vendors and purchased 127 old items that were then revamped using COVERMAXX and other Krylon products. Items are up for sale on Pinterest in the first-ever Pinterest Yard Sale. Krylon is using Pinterest's Buyable Pins feature, and proceeds benefit the Charity Wings Art & Craft Center. Check out the Pinterest page here. Deutsch New York created the campaign.

  • PFLAG Canada, an organization devoted to LGBT Canadians, launched "Nobody's Memories," a moving video about marriage equality. The 60-second video begins with what looks like old-school film footage of same-sex couples getting married. There's joy and happiness everywhere. But, as the voiceover states, the happy weddings never took place, so these memories belong to no one. "For all the memories that never happened -- let's make marriage legal for everyone, everywhere," closes the video, seen here. Viewers can find additional campaign information at LoveMadeLegal.com, where visitors can sign a petition to legalize same-sex marriage. FCB Toronto/FCB Chicago created the campaign.

  • Choice Hotels International launched a rebranding campaign stressing the importance of connecting with friends and family in person. A debut 60-second spot uses The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" as a theme for travelers unsure about taking that trip to a high school reunion, playing a gig out of state, taking a business meeting in person or helping a relative recoup from surgery. Each person ponders the pros and cons, but inevitably chooses to travel and stay at a Choice Hotels. See it here. The company also revamped ChoiceHotels.com to encourage more online booking. McCann New York created the campaign.

  • I have a love/hate relationship with brand campaigns telling the world to drop their mobile devices and focus on the friends and family in front of them. Campaigns like this shouldn't have to exist. The fact that we need to be reminded and encouraged to leave technology at the door is sad. But popcorn is happy. And JOLLY TIME Pop Corn wants families to "Unplug. Pop. Connect." The campaign launched on social media, encouraging popcorn lovers to relax, talk to one another and have some technology-free bonding time. The brand offers up some coupons as incentive and also encourages people to visit a dedicated website where families can post pictures and stories of bonding time. But I thought the tech stuff was checked at the door? Contest posters will be entered in a contest to win JOLLY TIME-branded prizes, including cinch sacks to hide that cell phone. Haberman created the campaign.

  • Random iPhone App of the week: Sickweather, a Baltimore-based company that tracks illness trends in real time, launched Sickweather Health API, created to power third-party apps and services with community-driven illness data. The first app to use the Sickweather Health API is McNeil Consumer Healthcare's HEALTHYDAY, an app designed to take the guesswork out of managing cold, flu and allergy symptoms. Sickness never takes a vacation. Both apps are free and available in the App Store. Download the HEALTHYDAY app here and the Sickweather app here.