Target launched "The Toycracker," an 8-minute online video starring Chrissy Teigen as the Nutcracker and her husband John Legend as the Rat King. The musical reimagines Tchaikovsky's
"The Nutcracker" in a modern-day setting, with five original songs and toys from Target's brand partners.
A young girl has no idea how to entertain herself on Christmas Eve when the WiFi dies. She
takes a nap and is transported to a realm with the Nutcracker, Rat King and familiar toys like Elmo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, My Little Pony and Legos. Rat King won't allow celebrating unless
someone defeats him in a rap battle. Nutcracker almost wins, but nothing rhymes with purple. The young girl steps up and defeats the Rat King, who admits that being a villain is a lonely job.
Everyone resolves their problems, and Clara is transported back to her family. Now she's much more appreciative of them. 72andSunny created the campaign.
Sweden is cold and dark in the winter, but that didn't stop an
adorable couple from seeing if solar panels and a storage battery could turn their farmhouse into a hip, holiday light display by night.
Challenged with the concept of using solar panels at night during dark Swedish winters, Lars and Ingegärd of Sölvesborg turned their farmhouse into an electric dance party, with an
impressive light show set to a remix of Avicii's "For a Better Day." The house and music could be seen and heard from miles away. Hope their neighbors were on board, because there is SO. MUCH.
BLINKING.
M&C Saatchi Stockholm created the campaign for energy supplier, E.ON.
I can't like this Nike campaign enough. A series
of TV spots asks viewers "Are We Running Today?" or "Are We Training Today?" -- in an effort to get folks off social media and outside, exercising and interacting with other people in real life.
I ran a 5k over the weekend and I lost count of the number of people who answered phone calls WHILE RUNNING. When did this become a thing, and how can we make it stop?
"Time is Precious" is
told by a digital voiceover that might sound slightly familiar. Each ad uses simple text to summarize what's going on in your social media feed, pop culture or favorite TV shows to save you time that
can now be used for a run or training session.
The 60-second anthem breaks down the amount of time we'll spend looking at screens in
our lifetime, working, online dating, creeping on friends' posts of kids, food and vacation photos. And let's not even discuss binge-watching old and new TV shows. Go run.
A zombie-themed ad ran during Sunday night's midseason finale of "The Walking Dead." Spoiler alert: zombies will die and more zombies will take
their place.
The next two ads rightfully mock our obsession with celebrities and obsessing over Instagram photos of things ranging from rainbows and avocado toast to dogs and motivational quotes.
The final ads describe how much of a
time suck Facebook can be when you're looking at friend requests from people you
don't know, pictures, birthdays, opinions, opinions and more opinions. Wieden+Kennedy Portland created the campaign.
ONEHOPE Wines launched a digital campaign
created by Erich & Kallmanto promote its reasonably priced wine and philanthropic ways.
In "Faircloth," viewers meet
a young, rich, spoiled winemaker, who haplessly spends his money on foolish things, like hovercrafts, blimps, dinosaur eggs, and paying people to act as actual chess pieces on an oversized chess
board.
He then talks up ONEHOPE Wines, a brand the rest of us can afford to drink, along with the company's rule of giving to charity when a bottle is purchased. Young Faircloth encourages you
to purchase ONEHOPE Wine, since he's already rich and has plenty of frivolous items to buy.
To date, the company has provided more than one million meals for the hungry, planted over fifty
thousand trees, and provided almost 10,000 people with clean drinking water.
Hope this isn't near the food court. Lifebuoy
soap launched an out-of-home campaign in Uruguay to promote regular hand washing. The Electric Factory worked with scientists
to take bacterial cultures from everyday objects, like money, cell phones and gaming controls. Next, the bacteria cultures were grown in a lab and then made into ads that were placed inside malls.
Over time, the bacteria would grow and spread, and copy would explain that the bacteria growing in the ad was taken from the item enclosed with it. If that doesn't make you wash your hands, I don't
know what will. At the bottom of the ad, there's a bar of Lifebuoy soup.
Timberland PRO launched an amusing
campaign targeting workers on their feet all day. Achy feet can diminish productivity and potentially increase mistakes. That's where the company's work boots with anti-fatigue technology come to
play. In "Fernando," a man driving a fork lift watches as Fernando rides into his warehouse, riding a motorcycle over wet paint. In reality,
the forklift driver is the one who drove over wet paint, but that doesn't stop him from telling his boss about Fernando, the real culprit. Watch
an extended version of the ad here.
"Crash" shows a cement worker with an active imagination. A mysterious object fell from the sky,
right into wet cement -- not the wheelbarrow the worker was moving. The Martin Agency created the campaign.
L.L.Bean launched "Seasons Change," a 30-second spot that seamlessly shows the brand's footwear and apparel transitioning from summer hikes to snowy winters. The ad
features a cast of real friends and families adding L.L.Bean clothes and boots to their individual style. The brand's clothes and boots last an eternity, long after your personal style has changed. I
recently bought a new pair of winter boots from L.L. Bean, which hopefully means we will have a mild winter -- fingers crossed! Erwin Penland created the campaign.
A common-sense answer beats an overwhelming stack of evidence in
an ad for Geico. A plaintiff is on trial for robbing a safe and bragging about it on social media. He takes the stand in his
defense and shares with the courtroom that switching to Geico can save you money on car insurance. The judge is impressed and dismisses the case.
The Martin Agency created the
campaign.
Random iPhone app of the week: Are you
active, athletic and potentially looking for more than an athletic partner-in-crime? Check out 5F – Find Fit Friends For Free, a Canadian-based startup that connects fit people with other active people nearby. The app has more than 100
different activities and four different skill levels from "Want To Try," "Beginner," "Intermediate" and "Expert." People can be searched based on age, gender, sport and location, and inappropriate
users can be reported. Users are only matched with people who like the same activities. If you see a buddy you like, tap the "thumbs up" to connect with them. Both users have to tap the thumbs up
before you will connect and be able to talk.