Out to Launch
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Drink "Responsibly." Protect like a mother. Let's launch!
  • Planet Fitness launched "Puffy Baby Man," a ad with a name that sounds eerily similar to 2016's Mountain Dew Super Bowl commercial, "Puppymonkeybaby."

    In this ad, a man of average build opens his blinds, only to be mocked by chiseled male models on the billboards outside his apartment. The models refer to the man as "Puffy Baby Man," mock his looks and laugh at the thought of hanging out with him socially.

    The man blocks the negativity from his life and heads to Planet Fitness to exercise in a judgment-free zone. Hill Holliday created the campaign.

  • New trade laws will soon make imported cheese more accessible to Canadians, so DDB Canada and Gentleman Scholar created a delightful online video to show residents that Canadian cheese is high-quality, delicious and worth tasting.

    "Mia and Morton: A Story of Canadian Cheese," is a 3:40 animated video that supports the Dairy Farmers of Canada.

    Viewers meet a cheese-maker and his adorable young daughter. The video follows the daughter, always at her father's side, from young girl to grown woman. Each year, their cheese enters an international contest and wins second or third place. First place is always so close but so far.

    As Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" plays throughout, we watch the daughter create her own cheese that's slightly different from her father's. When the next cheese contest comes to town, dad enters two cheeses: his and the daughter's. Guess who wins first place? The daughter proudly takes her winning pin and places it on her dad's chest. Following the win, the cheese shop tweaks its method of cheese making.

  • Joke's on you, big beer brands. UBREW, a small craft brewery in London, named its new low alcohol beer "Responsibly," and advertises it as the beer that all other beers tell you to drink. The campaign plays off the "drink responsibly" messages seen on packaging, bottles and cans.

    A social media campaign consists of three quick videos starring a UBREW exec. The exec thanks other beer brands in one clip for telling beer lovers to drink responsibly. In another, the exec donates Responsibly's brand jingle, which is not as sexy as mainstream beers. It's no rock anthem, it's a bagpipe.

    The last video is my favorite. Urged to drink "Responsibly" and in moderation, the exec debuts a brand of potato chips called... "Moderation."

    McCann Milan and Craft London created the campaign.

  • Lysol is known for being a household germ killer, but a new TV and social media campaign positions the brand as a protector of families, like a mother.

    The "What It Takes To Protect" campaign begins with "Protect like a mother," a 60-second ad that plays into a mother's instinct to keep her children safe.

    The ad begins with a mama bear bringing her daughter to school. When a car stops just shy of the crosswalk, mama bear shows her teeth. When a young boy forgets his umbrella, mama bird uses her wing to keep him dry. A rhesus monkey touches her son's hair just as his crush walks past. Awkward. Bullies return a stolen hat to a young boy when his mother elephant charges on.

    "Protect like a mother. It's what you do. It's what we do," closes the ad, created by McCann NY.

  • Toronto-based food box delivery service Stubborn Farmer launched an online campaign that's reminiscent of those recipe videos  constantly shared on social media. The recipes have a handful of recipes, are simple to assemble and/or cook and they look scrumptious.

    Stubborn Farmer's three videos follow this pattern with a twist: The meals prepared are for the animals raised and subsequently used in consumers' food boxes.

    Chickens eat grass, corn, worms, crickets and oats. "We care as much about what our chickens eat, as what you eat," closes the video.

    Cows and pigs also eat healthy ingredients like alfalfa, clover dandelion, broccoli, cabbage and green beans from well-stocked bowls. Cut to scenes of a cow and pig making a mess of their bowls but enjoying every bite of their meals.

    "Our cows eat healthy so you can eat healthy" and "If this is how healthy our pigs eat, imagine how healthy you'll eat" close the remaining videos. I'm definitely curious to see how healthy the actual meals are for humans.

  • This ad for Interval House Women's Shelter interviews men about the "one" that got away. Initially, viewers are inclined to view the documentary-style video as sweet and romantic, with a few good men showing their sensitive sides. It's anything but.

    The men wax nostalgic when describing their women -- how they miss their friendship, smile and simply want love in their lives. Then memories turn bitter fast, with each man focusing on their dramatic communication issues and controlling patterns.

    The ad closes with one man telling the interviewer that his woman will never be with anyone else. And you can tell he means it. "The only thing worse than feeling sorry for them is having to go back to them," is the message about these men. UNION created the campaign.

  • Publicis Russia launched a disturbing Web site called webrifle.org to test gun enthusiasts with the option to "kill" people online. The site allowed users to control a robotized rifle with a mouse or touchpad. In its line of sight were regular folks enjoying a wintry day.

    Would you pull the trigger? Out of 254 shooters, every 27th person did so, hence the name of the campaign, "Every 27th." Of course, no one was killed. The victims were actors and fake blood was attached to the actor's bodies using a contrast-tracking API.

    The social experiment wanted to test people to see if they were responsible to own guns sans gun control. There was also a live chat where shooters could see people's reactions. Imagine their shock to think they actually killed someone.

  • Cub Cadet's 30-second spot on riding lawnmowers focuses more on emotion and memories than cutting one's lawn.

    "This is Strongsville" begins with a man making a tight turn on a riding lawnmower. But the ad centers more on what a lawn gives a homeowner, which is memories of family picnics, tumbles on the grass with the kids, outdoor movie night and playing with the dog.

    Created by Colle+McVoy, it's the first ad for the brand that takes a more emotional direction and less of a "go buy me now" turn. The spot is running nationally, along with digital, print and in-store merchandising.

  • Art speaks to most people, but not all of us. Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo Museum, Ogilvy Brazi and IBM created the "The Voice of Art," so now art talks to everybody.

    Using IBM's Watson, the app answers questions museum visitors voice about specific paintings and sculptures from Pinacoteca's collection. To be able to answer the questions, IBM programmers worked with curators and scholars from the museum to feed Watson information about art pieces, a six-month process. Information came from books, old newspapers, biographies, interviews and online. Watson was also taught to make a correlation between the art pieces and contemporary events.

    Arriving at the museum, visitors receive a smartphone and headphone with the "The Voice of Art" app installed. They receive notifications as they approach the art pieces and will be prompted to ask questions into the headphone's mike about any paintings and sculptures nearby. The app allows aficionados and art newbies  to interact equally with art.