• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, August 22, 2007

God likes Triumph boats. Honda goes 3-D in L.A. How do you spend your lunch hour? Nike enthusiasts run. Let's launch!

If chewing gum was this stimulating, I might not leave the house. AMV BBDOLondon and Energy BBDO Chicago created three TV and theatre spots for 5, a sugar-free gum from Wrigley. The name references the five main flavors of the gum, which produce cooling, warming and tingling feelings for the chewer. Each ad goes all futuristic and industrial to emulate these sensations. "Cobalt" reminded me of that scene in "Contact" where Jodie Foster went to meet extraterrestrial beings in the circular mystery machine she built, per their instructions. Watch it here. A woman achieves a warm weightlessness in "Flare." Click here to watch. Little metal balls combined with heavy bass equals one tingly ride in "Rain." Watch it here. There's even a Web site if you still feel sensory-deprived. MindShare handled the media buy.

Nike Zoom launched a series of print and outdoor ads featuring basketball players, football players, sprinters and runners doing what they do best: smoking past the competition. "Pick a number between two and 6.7 billion. Number one is already taken," reads an ad where Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell bypasses his competitors. Click here to see it. Running back LaDainian Tomlinson leaves a safety high and dry, accompanied with the copy: "Strong safeties have nightmares that start like this. And end like this." See the ad here. Track and field star Sanya Richards, NBA's Steve Nash and runner Lauren Fleshman round out the athletic prowess. Click here, here and here to view their ads. Wieden+Kennedy Portland handled all aspects of the campaign.

With the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina next week and tourism a vital resource needed for New Orleans' recovery, the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau launched an online component to its "Forever New Orleans" international branding campaign. A print campaign running through September uses headlines such as "Soul is waterproof" and "Dry? We were never dry," to boost tourism. Click here to see an ad. A tray table ad campaign found on 35 U.S. Airways and America West planes nationwide targets fliers' stomachs with pictures of delectable local dishes such as a fried soft shell crab. See the ad here. Now comes 24NOLA.com, an itinerary-planning tool for visitors who want to see New Orleans as local residents do. Visitors can scroll through hotels, restaurants and activities for each of the 24 hours of the day and customize their own itinerary. There's also a section where residents and frequent visitors to the city can post their favorite activities. Trumpet created the campaign and Morgan + Company handled the media buy.

The Lord works in mysterious ways in an ad for Triumph boats. A priest and a boy are fishing off a dock, both admiring a passing Triumph boat. Boy wants a boat, but the priest opines on the more important things in life, such as God's spiritual gifts. Lecture over, the viewer now sees a truck hauling Triumph boats. Divine intervention in the form of a man in white releases one of the boats from the truck. The boat is then hit by another truck, careening it into the woods until it fall off a cliff and lands in front of the priest and boy. "Thank you, Jesus," exclaims the boy, while the priest looks confused. Watch the ad here. Two versions of the ad will run on toughboats.com in September, using different scores: the actual noises made by the impact, and a "divine" piano score. Viewers will vote for their favorite ad, which will run in November on national cable. The Republik created the ad and media buying was handled in-house.

The 2008 Subaru Impreza was manufactured so well that German car engineers are upset they didn't design the Japanese car themselves. The spot stars four German engineers test-driving the Impreza while rocking out to Falco's "Rock me Amadeus." Once they've subjected the car to various tests, the men return the car and run in to their supervisor, who gives them a disappointed look. The spot ends with a voiceover stating, "The Japanese car the Germans wish they made." Watch the ad here. A microsite brings consumers further into the world of a German engineer studying the Impreza and print creative shows a weeping German engineer whose tears have smudged the Impreza on the adjacent page. Click here and here to see some ads. DDB Canada created the campaign and OMD Canada handled the media buy.

It's somewhat easy to squeeze a run during the day. I can attest from personal experience. Nike launched a print ad for Nike Women's called, "Gone Running--Rush Hour." Creative features women getting up super early and running before work or using their lunch hour to sneak in a run. One side of an ad shows a man asleep in bed next to a gone-running clock that's lying where his significant other was. The other side of the ad shows the woman running alongside copy that says: "If you went running when you first started thinking about it, you'd be back by now." So true. Click here and here to see the ads. Additional creative features the gone-running clock propped in front of a computer screen and a gone-running sign that warns co-workers not to try to contact the runner while she's out clearing her mind. Click here, here and here to see the ads. Wieden+Kennedy Portland handled all aspects of the three month long campaign.

Broadway Across America, the theatrical brand of LiveNation, is returning to St. Petersburg, Fla., following a decade-long absence. A TV, print, outdoor and online campaign features actor Patrick Wilson (the hottie Dad in "Little Children"), who grew up in Tampa Bay. The TV spot stars Wilson as an actor onstage and a fan in the audience to promote the project. "We're back to breaking legs," concludes the spot. Watch the ad here. Billboards feature Wilson in the forefront of a stage, along with copy encouraging visits to the theatre. Click here and here to see the ads. Wilson Media & Advertising created the campaign and media buying was handled in-house.

Honda Civic launched its first-ever set of 3-D billboards in Los Angeles, morphing the Cs in the brand's logo into actual airbags. "6 airbags, standard," reads the copy below the six inflated airbags used in the billboard. The first ad debuted late last month in a spot adjacent to the 405 Freeway. Click here to see the ad.RPA created the ad and handled the media buy.