Willem Dafoe Ponders Life Choices In A New Anthem Spot for Jim Beam.

"Bold Choices," a new anthem spot beautifully shot by director Dante Ariola for Jim Beam, features actor Willem Dafoe as he ponders 'what might have been.' The 1:30 second spot from Strawberry Frog is meant to imply that the choices you make, make you.


above: Dafoe ponders his future; Milwaukee or New York?

The commercial opens with the young Dafoe at a pivotal turning point. Does he leave his small Milwaukee town for the dream of becoming an actor in the "Big City" or stay where he is and let life unfold?


above: One of Willem's possible futures includes becoming a trapeze artist

The spot has Dafoe reflecting on the possible futures had he made different choices- factory foreman, aging punk rocker, a trapeze artist, a successful businessman, limo driver, a fashion designer, a chess champion, even a sumo wrestler - but as Dafoe notes, in the end, there is really only one choice.



“All choices lead you somewhere,” Dafoe notes. ”Bold choices take you where you’re supposed to be.”



Credits:
Agency: Strawberry Frog
Chief Creative Officer: Kevin McKeon
Creative Director: Josh Greenspan and Jason Koxvold
Creative Team:
Todd Beeby
Brian Platt
Jed Cohen
Karl Haddad
Agency Producer: Sherri Levy
Director: Dante Ariola
Director of Photography: Emmanuel Lubezky
Editor: Adam Pertofsky @ Rock Paper Scissors
Visual Effects Company: The Mill, NY

2011's Hottest Pitchman? Marshall Mathers aka Slim Shady aka Eminem In 3 New Ads.

above image courtesy of the UK Guardian

Christina Aguilera botched the National Anthem at Super Bowl, the Black Eyed Peas halftime show was a disappointment and the match-up between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay packers proved to be an exciting one.


above: a still from the Superbowl's Chrysler 200 ad featuring Eminem

But two of yesterday's most talked about commercials that aired during the Championship Game both featured someone who'd been laying low in terms of screen time for the past few years, Marshall Bruce Mathers III, aka Slim Shady, aka Eminem. And that's not all. In addition to these commercials featuring the rapper, the 53rd Grammy Awards - in which Eminem has earned 10 nominations - is being promoted with a visual and aural 'life story' of the Midwest celebrity.


above: The 53rd Grammy Awards features the rapper's career in their latest campaign

As a Claymation pitchman in the Lipton Brisk ad, he effectively pokes fun at himself. As a Die-hard Detroiter, he adds an edge to the Chrysler 200 launch ad, which has proven to be a sentimental favorite. In the Grammy promo, his career is chronicled as part of the Recording Academy's 'Music Is Life Is Music' campaign.


above: Eminem is a claymation character in Lipton's latest Brisk ad

In case you missed them, here are the three tv commercials presently on the air, featuring Eminem.

Eminem in the Chrysler 200 ad:


Eminem in the Lipton Brisk ad:


Eminem promotes the 53rd Grammy Awards:


Talk about a comeback.

Prime Cable Network Promotes Popular TV Series With Mini Dioramas

To promote the PRIME series available on Belgium's PRIME Telenet network, Prime TV, director/deisgner/animator Steven Huybrechts filmed and composited miniature sets with tiny figurines to represent their line up of television series.

A smart and entertaining solution, this meant they didn't have to get clearance for clips from the actual shows, or book the actual actors, saving lots of red tape, moola and time.

The :60 television ad - shown after the screen grabs - features the following shows [shown in alphabetical order]:

Boardwalk Empire:

Breaking Bad:

Californication:

Deadwood:

Dirty Sexy Money:

Hung:

Lost:

Mad Men:

Matroesjka's:

Modern Family:

Pillars Of The Earth:

Six Feet Under:

Sons of Anarchy:

Spartacus:

The Pacific:

Weeds:

4400:




Credits:
director: Steven Huybrechts
producer: Sofie Gebruers
cam: Geert Verstraete
edit: Tom Willems [represented by Caviar Content, Brussels]
soundfx: Yve@Sonicville
compositing/fx: Steven Huybrechts
client: Ludo Luykx PRIME

A special thanks to Fubiz for bringing this to my attention!

2011 Super Bowl XLV TV Spots: What To Expect [UPDATED]

As we get closer to the XLV Super Bowl, commercials that will air on the championship game are starting to leak onto the internet. Most of those advertising on the year's most expensive media buy [$3 million for a 30 second spot] are no surprise, given they are the same brands that have been dominating the air time between the game for the past few years. But there are a few companies advertising on the game for the first time ever and some new faces shilling for old brands.

This new ad, airing during the game, for the 2012 Volkswagon Passat features two things that are hard to ignore; children and The Force:


Volkswagon will also attempt to bring back the allure of the beetle by teasing you with this agile CGI generated bug:


Coca Cola introduces an ogre in one of their two spots that will air during the game:


Kia Optima is presently running this teaser to get you to tune in to their spot:

The still below gives you an idea of what's to come from Kia:


As always, there will be lots of automobile ads and the expected beverage ads; Coke, Pepsi, Pepsi Max and Budwiser to name a few. Doritos will continue with their user-generated spots [you can vote for your favorite at www.crashthesuperbowl.com].

This Chevy ad that will air starts as a simulation of a cheesy dealership spot and segues into a promo for the next in the Tranformer's movie franchise:


Audi uses the children's book Goodnight Moon as inspiration for this spot which spends almost 60 seconds telling you they are not Mercedes:

Audi will be featuring other spots on the game that take a swipe at "old school luxury." The still below is from their :60 second spot "Release The Hounds" in which 2 stuffy wealthy fogies attempt to break out of a luxury prison:


This Honda CR-V ad, "Forecast" will break on the Superbowl as well:


If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix it

The talking babies for ETrade are back for the fourth year in a row with 2 new spots:


Careerbuilder brings back the chimps:


Danica Patrick appears again [this time with Biggest Loser's Jillian Michaels] for Go Daddy and once again attempts to drive you to their site with a promise of a titillating 'web only' ad:


And Budwiser's classic Clydesdales are back as one of Bud's five spots to air, this time in a Western Themed spot:


The New
Some of the newer companies [ and concepts] that will air include the following.

Mercedes Benz USA is advertising in the Super Bowl for the first time this year, to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Karl Benz's patent. Two of their five new models will be revealed in the :60 second spot:


Another car company to advertise in the big game for the first time is Suzuki. They will be taking on snowmen, in a spot called "Wicked Weather.":


Kim Kardashian will be shilling for Sketcher's Shape-Ups:


The new edition of the highly addictive game Angry Birds, Rio, will reveal a level code in their spot:


Stella Artois will feature a serenading Adrien Brody:


And Justin Beiber teams up with Ozzy Osbourne for Best Buy:


Bridgestone tires will appeal to your love of woodland creatures with their beaver spot:


And Faith Hill will appear in a spot for Teleflora:

images and info courtesy of CNN and individual brands

No need to DVR or Tivo the game for the commercials anymore since so many sites dedicate themselves to posting and sharing the commercials.

Smell Like A Parody. The Best Of The Old Spice Man Spoofs.

By now everyone knows that hunky Isaiah Mustafa's portrayal of the towel clad Old Spice Man has long gone viral. And, as to be expected, there are numerous spoofs and parodies of the entertaining advertisement. Here's a few of the best.

"The Woman You'd Love Your Woman To be Like"

The Sun Newspaper spoofed the ad to celebrate 40 years of page 3. The parody was accompanied by an in-paper offer of a free pack of Page 3 playing cards on Wednesday 17th of November.

Read all about this video at http://www.thesun.co.uk/page3is40

"Smell Like A Monster"

Sesame Street parodied the spot with Grover to teach us the word "On":


"Study Like A Scholar"

A fun and smart parody to encourage students to study brought to you from the Harold B. Lee Library:


"The Man Who Lost His Girlfriend To The Man Your Man Could Smell Like"

Los Angeles comedian and YouTube star Toby Turner (aka Tobuscus) plays a guy whose girlfriend has left him to take a sunset cruise of the Galapagos Islands with the real Old Spice man.


"The Sausage Your Sausage Could Taste Like"

Bizarre and phony product, Mr. Happy's Spicy Dijon, personifies a sausage as the Old Spice Man:


This animated spoof uses Mel Gibson's phone rant as a call to the Old Spice Man by Smallpoppy productions:


and lastly, an entertaining Old Spice Remix by youtuber Mike Relm:

New Call Of Duty: Black Ops Commercial Makes Even Peace Lovers Want To Shoot Someone.

The latest 60 second spot (shown after the stills in this post) for Activision's soon to be released Call of Duty: Black Ops video game, conceived of by TBWA Chiat Day and directed by Rupert Sanders, makes even me want to pick up a gun - or at least a game controller - and I'm about as far as one gets from a war monger.



Despite your stance on war or video games, one cannot deny the visceral appeal of this commercial. Set to the Rolling Stone's Vietnam-era classic Gimme Shelter, the gamers (a variety which includes, amongst many, a medical technician, a scientist, an electronics store clerk, a hotel concierge, a businessman, Kobe Bryant, Jimmy Kimmel and not one, but three women - even a Birkenstock wearing Granola) find themselves so immersed in the experience, they appear engaged in real life combat. To present a video game as so life-like that the players appear in the virtual world may not be a new concept or idea, but in this case, it is beautifully executed.








The everyday folk - and avid gamer celebs Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel who make appearances in the spot - are adeptly brandishing weapons while donning their civilian garb (love the Chanel shoulder bag), amongst the thunder of helicopters and flying shrapnel.



above: Video game fans Jimmy Kimmel and Kobe Bryant make appearances in the spot.

There's only one word of dialogue uttered in the whole script... when the hotel concierge, Vic, stops to answer his phone and identify himself while in the midst of combat.



And the final shot of a fast food cook with guns a-blazin' is the Creme de la Combat.



God damn, they were right when they said "There's A Soldier In All Of Us" and I didn't even know it. Now where's my Bazooka?

There’s a Soldier in All of Us (:60)


Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision, scheduled for release on November 9, 2010. The game is the seventh installment of the Call of Duty series since the original game published in 2003, and the third game in the series to be developed by Treyarch.

Pre-order/Buy Call of Duty: Black Ops

Activision is an American video game developer and publisher, with well known titles such as the Tony Hawk series, and the Guitar Hero franchise.

CREDITS
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles
Chief Creative Officer: Rob Schwartz
Group Creative Director: Brett Craig
Associate Creative Director: Blake Kidder
Associate Creative Director: Patrick Almaguer
Creative Director:
Head of Production: Richard O’Neill
Executive Producer: Anh-Thu Le
Producer: Stanton Hill
Art Director: Chase Madrid
Copywriter: Chris DeNinno
Group Account Director: Stan Fiorito
Account Director:
Account Supervisor: Paul Sears
Assistant Account Executive: Rohit Bal
Group Planning Director: Oke Mueller
Sr. Planner: Natalie Puccio
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Business Affairs Manager: Jill Durand
Senior Broadcast Traffic: Jerry Neill

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Rupert Sanders
Executive Producer: David Zander
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Producer: Laurie Boccaccio
Director of Photography: Greig Fraser
Production Designer: Dominic Watkins
Costume Designer: Nancy Steiner
Editor: Neil Smith
Post Production Producer: Carolina Wallace
Visual Effects: Asylum
Visual Effects Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Visual Effects Post Producer: Ryan Meredith

Visual Effects: Asylum
Visual Effects Supervisor/ Lead Compositor: Jason Hicks
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Producer: Ryan Meredith