Out to Launch
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Can you solve a jigsaw puzzle on Instagram? Make Facebook your Facebook. Let's launch!
  • A heart attack occurs every 42 seconds, and chewing Bayer Aspirin could help save the lives of heart attack victims. Most people don't walk around with aspirin in their purses or wallets, but Bayer Aspirin wants to change that.

    Bayer wants everyone with the most popular last name in America to carry aspirin with them. That way, if something goes wrong for them, a family member, or even a stranger on the street, a life can potentially be saved.

    There are more than 2.44 million Americans with the last name Smith, so "HeroSmiths" was launched in Fort Smith, Ark., a city with one of the highest heart attack rates in the country, and a decent population of Smiths. A 2:15 video describes the initiative and interviews residents named Smith who survived heart attacks.

    The 1,800 residents of Fort Smith with the last name Smith received a HeroSmith kit to help save lives. Check out TheHeroSmiths.com to watch videos from heart attack survivors, read about the symptoms of heart attacks in both men and women and print out a coupon for aspirin. Energy BBDO created the campaign.

  • Most people have their own hangover remedy that they swear works, no matter how quirky it may sound or taste.

    Blowfish believes it has THE actual hangover cure that's FDA regulated and contains pretty common ingredients like aspirin, caffeine and effervescence.

    Humanaut created a campaign for the hangover helper that includes a revamped website, a pair of online videos and display banners that really speak to consumers: "For when you're medically alive, but mentally dead."

    Online videos illustrate the consequences of a previous night's epic time. A man tries to type at this computer as an octopus squeezes his head. "You look like ass," says a no-nonsense co-worker. The man takes Blowfish and gets his head back.

    The next video features a woman making copies with a toilet bowl on her head. Blowfish is "for when you feel like dying, but you have to do stuff."

  • The Toronto Silent Film Festival, running from April 6-11, is taking advantage of Instagram's new save feature to promote its upcoming movie fest.

    The Instagram Jigsaw Puzzle, created by Red Lion, is more complicated than it sounds. To put the puzzle together, users have to search for and save each piece in the correct order. Once the order is correct, the original image will appear in a person's Saved feed.

    There are 21 pieces and 51,090,942,171,709,440,000 combinations -- I'm so happy I didn't have to do that math. The festival is offering a prize to the first seven people to complete the puzzle.

  • In the words of Captain Obvious, "Life isn't always rewarding, but Hotels.com is." The quirky company spokesman is back, promoting the Hotels.com Rewards Program that allows members to unlock immediate hotel savings while earning free nights to use at later dates.

    In "Binge," a couple watches 10 seasons of a TV series nonstop. They haven't read the mail or showered, and they missed Grandpa's birthday and funeral. Soap, stat.

    "First Date" is a riot. Rarely do people ever resemble their online dating pictures -- a fact clear to one woman when she meets her date for the first time. Online, he looks pensive and dreamy. In real life, he's wearing a wig and facial hair that's drawn on.

    The final ad, "Drill Sergeant," shows a cadet being punished for looking at his phone. Rather than start his 50 push-ups, he asks his drill sergeant "What's in it for me?" Captain Obvious comes to his rescue and goes head-to-head with the sergeant. Playing a captain on TV does not outrank the sergeant.

    CP+B created the campaign.

  • Droga5 London created "A Race Car Set Free," its first work for SEAT.

    SEAT cars have raced and won competitions in the past, like the World Rally Championships and the World Touring Car Championships. With the launch of the SEAT Leon CUPRA 300HP road car, available to anyone, it's like the beloved race car has been set free.

    The 90-second video tells the story from the race car's point of view. The car is driven on the same track, day in and day out, only to return to a dark, lonely garage.

    The next day, the race car stares longingly at the open road, watching a SEAT road car drive freely without limitations. The video, directed by Noam Murro, is running in Europe and Mexico in movie theatrers, online and at motor shows.

  • Facebook launched "Make Facebook Your Facebook" in Germany, which illustrates how users can customize the social media platform into something that best reflects them.

    The campaign, by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, uses snippets from video submissions from Germans with Facebook pages to educate users about common misconceptions about the social network.

    One video shows how to hide posts because not everyone loves adorable cat videos. Germans also hate the type of news found on Facebook, since it doesn't add or enrich their lives in any way.

    Who wants 1,000 friend requests a day from people you don't know and will never know? Ramp up your settings and decide who can contact you.

    Another video explains how to share content with certain groups of people. You might be Facebook friends with your boss, but do you want him to see you partying it up regularly?

    The final video shows users how to unfollow friends -- namely, the ones who post every five seconds about every meal or workout they've completed.

  • Following negative global media coverage about Romanians, which affected tourism and the work force, ROM chocolate, a chocolate bar wrapped in the national flag, teamed up with McCann Worldgroup Romania to create ROMBOT, the first artificial intelligence ambassador for a country.

    Romanians were invited to live chat with the ROMBOT, to teach it about the country. Think of simple questions like "What do you eat?" "What music do you listen to?" and "What's the country's favorite sport?" Almost 1 million answers were registered on the website, so ROMBOT is packed with valuable facts about Romania. ROMBOT is still learning, so bookmark https://rombot.ro/english.html to see it in action soon.

  • I came across this amusing video for BoKU Superfood and the rise of endurance races. The company teamed up with Spartan Race to showcase how a plant-based, vegan protein can help an athlete meet his or her fitness goals. The video was shot in one day using one real baby, one fake baby and a drone.

    A dad signs up for a Spartan race on a whim. He drinks his BoKU shakes and feels ready to take on the world. One small problem: He has to watch his baby that day. Rather than skip the race, he straps the baby to his back and tackles the obstacle course.

    When Dad crosses the finish line, he realizes that his baby is not with him. He goes back into the race and finds his adorable baby hanging from rings and climbing rope. Way more fit than I am. When the pair return home, baby explains to Dad that you can tell a lot about a person by what they put in their sippy cup. Too true.

  • Random iPhone App of the week:Chatscene is a social networking app that lets users see if their friends are in the same neighborhood, and also make new friends and interact with folks at their favorite watering hole. Users can see a list of profiles in their immediate vicinity, along with basic information such as mutual likes and friends.

    People can also be filtered by gender and relationship status. People can chat with folks nearby without exchanging names and phone numbers.

    At least this online app encourages hanging out in real life. This is progress.

    The app is free in the App Store.