• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 12, 2015

I don't often comment on creative efforts in this column, but you've got to hand it to Droga5. For the second year in a row, the agency has turned the typical Super Bowl advertising effort on its head. Last year the agency enlisted Anna Kendrick for its Newcastle Mega Huge Football Game Ad. This year, the brand is at it again and has hooked up with deadpan comedian Aubrey Plaza for an effort called Band of Brands.

The agency's effort marries crowdsource-style collective funding with the Million Dollar Homepage silliness in an effort to get as many brands as it can to help the agency support Newcastle’s Super Bowl advertising this year. Of course, the whole thing is a joke and no other brand is going to bite.

And yes -- it's very much inside baseball with the effort unlikely to appeal to anyone outside the insular world of advertising -- but hey, that never stopped an agency from ripping its shirt off, barring its chest and screaming "Look at me! I'm awesome! I'm special! I'm witty! I won a Lion! Pay attention to me!"