Out to Launch
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Girls do code. Open house shows poverty in Canada. Let's launch!
  • Reunited and it feels so good. To amusingly illustrate the pitfalls of bad streaming, Verizon reunited members of "30 Rock," complete with original props and original background extras. In "Audition," life behind the scenes is crazy as ever for Jenna (Jane Krakowski), Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) and Frank (Judah Friedlander). It pales in comparison to a nightmarish streaming experience, which gives Jenna an oversized forehead and makes Frank a pixelated mess. See it here. "Backdoor Brag" shows what happens when typical carriers size down videos to make them below HD standards. Things get tight backstage -- let's hope your colleagues showered before showing up for work. Watch it here. Wieden+Kennedy Portland created the campaign, directed by Wayne McClammy.

  • Dutch insurance company Centraal Beheer Achmea celebrates its 30th anniversary working with DDB & Tribal Worldwide, Amsterdam with a hysterical ad where voice-activated car commands go terribly wrong. "Rapper" follows the story of Young D, a newly successful rapper who treated himself to a fancy car. Young D picks up a few friends and heads to a house party, but not before he shows his pals the personal voice control features equipped in his car. Once at the party, Young D's new single plays on the radio and his car starts responding to his voice. The car starts, puts the convertible top up, releases the brakes and rolls downhill, with the car doors open, right into traffic. See it here.

  • Girls Who Code, a nonprofit working to close the gender gap in technology, launched a series of online videos that highlight stereotypical reasons why girls can't code. Their beauty gets in the way, they get their period and their boobs are too distracting, so how can they possibly focus on something serious like coding? Crazy talk. By the time they reach college, women make up fewer than one in five computer science graduates. Girls Who Code aims to change those statistics. See the videos here, here, here, and here, created by McCann NY.

  • "Poverty isn't always easy to see" is a campaign for the Salvation Army in Canada that aims to educate Canadians that 1 in 10 residents live in poverty. An actual open house was staged to illustrate how poverty can be easily hidden. The exterior of the home looked well-kept, but potential buyers saw something drastically different when they entered the house. Inside, there was hardly any furniture and bills late to be paid. Poverty statistics were placed throughout the home, like "1 in 7 children go to school hungry" and "1 in 5 Canadians skip meals to make ends meet." The goal of the campaign is to show that poverty doesn't necessarily mean homeless, and to encourage donations from Canadians outside of the holiday season. See the open house here, created by Grey Canada. MediaCom handled the media buying and planning.

  • Apparently, elderly retirees in Italy love to spend their free time watching construction sites and doling out advice that no one listens to or cares to follow. They're called "Umarells," and Burger King Italy hired a crew to help guide workers on the latest restaurant construction site. The #KingofUmarells were found via a newspaper campaign and fliers in bowling alleys and outside churches. Five men were selected to lead a construction site for an entire day. I think they had a good time. Once the restaurant opened, the men were invited back to don crowns and eat Whoppers. See "King of Umarells" here, created by The Big Now.

  • Booking.com launched "Passions," an international TV campaign that promotes a new feature on the travel site that allows people to search destinations based on their interests. The ads are running in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and Canada. One woman lets her inner warrior roar in "Haka." One couple takes Medieval reenacting to an extreme level while on vacation in Italy. The final ad features a man, a pig and a search for truffles. Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam created the campaign.

  • NASCAR fans want to be as close to the action as possible. When that's not doable, check out a virtual reality experience created by XFINITY, a title sponsor. The app allows fans to get an inside look at the race action, with live race and driver stats right on their TVs. "How Close is too Close" begins in a living room, with the viewer watching a race on TV. The action gets closer and closer, to the point where you're rattled watching the video. I know I was, and I've never been to a NASCAR event. Watch the action unfold here, created by Office of Baby.

  • Actress Mila Kunis takes viewers inside a Jim Beam rackhouse for the brand's latest global TV campaign. The 30-second spot, "Look Inside," shows stacks and stacks of oak barrels, holding bourbon that takes four years to age. Not much excitement here. The commercial will air throughout the year across sports, late night and Hispanic TV networks. See it here. And for the first time in Jim Beam's history, the company will air a Spanish-language version exclusively for Hispanic media. StoryWorks created the campaign.

  • Random App of the week:SalesFuel launched a free mobile app called SalesFuel Insights. The app provides sales tips and strategies, marketing and branding trends, consumer insights and digital media expertise and guidance. Employees also curate relevant news headlines in automotive, healthcare, retailing, consumer purchase intent, SMB operations, digital marketing and advertising media categories. The app also updates field reps with real-time local traffic, weather radar and forecasts when visiting clients. Download the app in Google Play or the App Store.