Out to Launch
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
An app to test your handshake at Advertising Week. Nike Running celebrates last place marathon finisher. Let's launch!
  • Tuesday was National Coffee Day, a "holiday" I celebrate multiple times a day. Orbit Gum celebrated by sending comedian Nikki Glaser on five coffee dates full of caffeine, humor and awkward moments. It's fantastic. Glaser brings her dates customized mugs with their names on them, listens to one man perform slam poetry and asks another suitor if he wants children. It's a no. She takes strange coffee selfies and ends each date with an offering of Orbit Gum. Then she chooses the guy I would have selected, too. "Off turns me on," Glaser says as her speed coffee dating winds down. Watch the video here, created by Olson Engage.

  • Dominic Purcell, international man of yogurt? The action actor serves as an unlikely spokesman for Yoplait's Greek 100 and Greek Whips. In the first ad, Purcell shows two faces: his hangry face and his happy, post-yogurt face. If you can spot the difference, let me know. See it here. In "Texture," Purcell likens the taste of Yoplait's Greek Whips to a fluffy cloud in his mouth. Watch it here. Wieden + Kennedy Portland created the campaign.

  • As a marathon runner, I found this ad for Nike Running so spot-on that it gave me chills. "Last" pays tribute to the marathon runner in last place. This person has the vantage point of seeing volunteers break down water stations and the sea of runners ahead of her get smaller and smaller. Even the spectators are gone. The visuals are so accurate: runners drenched in sweat, doing more of a shuffle than a run, wondering how far away the finish line is. You don't need to see the look on anyone's face to know that each runner is in pain. Halfway through the ad, a voiceover tells the story of Pheidippides, the first man who ran a marathon, and who died shortly after completing it. When we finally see the face of the runner in last place, the voiceover says: "You are not a runner. You are especially not a marathon runner. But at the end of this, you will be." And then the woman's determination is seen and she picks up her pace. Watch it here, created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland.

  • Skol Ulta makes its debut in Brazil with the tagline: "The official beer of non-official athletes." The brand targets athletic people who love to drink beer but hate the unnecessary carbs and additional calories. Skol Ultra has less of both than a typical beer. The launch ad features the song "Feeling Good" and follows the daily workout and post-workout routines of athletes with day jobs. Athletes sing a verse from the song as they run in the rain, ice a calf muscle during a work meeting and change into running shorts in their office parking lot. I love the shot of the woman in a crazy yoga pose. If I attempted it, I would need medical attention. Watch it here, created by Wieden+Kennedy Sao Paulo.

  • A single pencil was used to promote the California Lottery's 30th Anniversary and the funds it donates to public schools for equipment, notebooks and pencils. To illustrate that "A Little Goes A Long Way," David&Goliath hired artist Eric Nyquist to create a mural in one day, using one pencil. A 90-second video shows Nyquist at work as passersby stop, stare and snap photos of the mural in process. The end result is the phrase "A little goes a long way," surrounded by schooltime symbols and a pencil that thanks lotto purchasers for supporting California's public schools for the past 30 years. Watch it here.

  • Random App of the week: Advertising Week is a time where you'll meet tons of new people and undoubtedly shake a lot of hands. Just how good is your handshake? First impressions make lasting impressions, so Colle+McVoy created the Handshake Tester mobile app to test your grip. No one wants to shake hands with someone with a death grip -- or worse, a clammy hand. Visit HandshakeTester.com on your mobile phone and shake it up to find your handshake. There are 11 in all, with names like Barbarian, Politician and Clams Casino.

  • Talk about awkward. Foot Locker launched a TV campaign starring two New York Giants football players -- and their inner thoughts. Victor Cruz runs into Odell Beckham Jr. at training camp, and it's the first time the pair has spoken since Cruz was sidelined with an injury and replaced by Beckham Jr. Cruz is polite, but his inner thoughts reveal that he's eager to take back his spot on the roster that Beckham Jr. successfully filled last year. The spot ends with viewers hearing the inner voice of Beckham Jr. -- who wonders why Cruz is acting so strange. At least these two can laugh all the way to bank about it.  Watch it here, created by BBDO New York.

  • To support a global partnership with the UEFA Champions League, Nissan Europe launched a pan-European campaign called "Truckerball," which consists of a spirited game of soccer set on the back of Nissan NT400 Cabstars trucks. I don't know how the players stay on the trucks, but they do -- and it makes for an interesting version of soccer. A version I would not want to play without a harness of some sort. Following the trucks are fans and a referee in Nissan e-NV200, Navara and NV400 vehicles. And watch out for a cameo from Manchester City star player Yaya Toure. Watch the video here, created by TBWA\G1 and directed by Emil Moller.

  • Abby Wambach, captain of the World Cup U.S. Women's Soccer Team, puts an end to bad lighting in a 90-second ad for Cree lighting. Wambach enters a darkened stadium that's lit only by six old, out-of-date fluorescent, metal halide and incandescent bulbs, hanging inside a goal post. One by one, Wambach shoots a soccer ball until each light is destroyed and she's standing in complete darkness. "Time to end bad lighting. Cree: light a better way," closes the video as the stadium's LED lights turn on. See it here, created by Baldwin&.