Michael Jordan is back on TV for Hanes, once again intimidating the hell out of the mere mortals graced by his presence.

Previously, he was quietly judging his fellow first-class passenger, a carpet salesman and struggling screenwriter (who still came off looking OK thanks to Jordan's unfortunate choice in facial hair). Then he was harumphing another man's choice to wear a shirt made of live kittens. 

This time, he's quietly judging the golf skills of some poor guy who's testing Hanes' X-Temp technology underwear, which helps "keep you cool" by speeding moisture evaporation and preventing the dreaded swamp ass.

The :30 from The Martin Agency marks 25 years of Jordan being a spokesperson for Hanes. It will begin airing July 21 on a wide variety of cable and sports networks.

Although short, the spot's pretty funny and plays to the basketball great's strength, which is just standing around and being Michael Jordan. 

When he wasn't trying to avoid strangling his new golfing buddy, Jordan joined Jimmy Kimmel for a game of "Can Michael Jordan Palm It?", which a) isn't nearly as dirty as it sounds and b) probably settled a lot of unanswered questions in Jimmy's mind.

The new Hanes campaign will also feature short-form video sensation Logan Paul—he of the 4.6 million followers on Vine—traveling around the country to attempt (and film) dares proposed by fans. Something tells me those dares will be heavily curated by the brand.

CREDITS:

Client: Hanes
Chief Branding Officer: Sidney Falken
Marketing Managers: Tim Ronan, Jamie Wallis
Men’s Underwear Product Team: Russell Lauten

Agency: The Martin Agency
Executive Vice President, Chief Creative Officer: Joe Alexander
Senior Vice President, Group Creative Director: Steve Bassett
Senior Art Director: Tara Gorman
Senior Designer: Mark Brye
Senior Copywriter: Sara Grunden Kuhs
Senior Vice President, Managing Director: Steve Humble
Vp, Executive Broadcast Producer: Molly Schaaf
Vp/Group Planning Director: Matt Mattox
Senior Broadcast Producer: Adrienne Daniel
Senior Art Producer: Wylie Moran
Junior Broadcast Producer: Katie Der
Group Talent and Music Director: Juanita McInteer
Senior Vice President, Group Account Director: Rich Weinstein
Senior Strategic Planner: Dalynn Kincannon
Account Supervisor: Laurel Busony
Account Coordinator: Hill Shore
Vice President, Group Project Management Supervisor: Karen Baber

Production Company: CoMPANY
Director: David McNally
Director of Photography: Joshua Hess
Executive Producer: Robin Benson
Head of Production: Robert Nackman
Line Producer: Greg Ferguson
Production Designers: Francis Whitebloom, Vincent Renault
Photographer: George Holz
Producer: Liz Lang
Editing Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld
Producer: Evan Meeker
Editor: Dave Koza
Assistant Editor: Pamela Petruski
Visual Effects, Post Facility: The Mill
Executive Producer, Head of Production: Sean Costelloe
Visual Effects Producers: Colin Moneymaker, Colin Blaney
Lead Compositor: Jeff Robins
Designer: Gap Sangpattharamatee
Computer Graphics: Katie Schiffer, Navdeep Singh
Colorist: Fergus McCall

Audio Postproduction: Rainmaker Studios
Owner, Executive Producer: Kristin O’Connor
Engineer, Mixer: Jeff McManus
Original Music: Big Foote Music
Executive Producer: Paul Seymour
Composer: Mathew Hauser

Samsung Mobile's epic sci-fi soccer battle, which has been playing out in big-budget videos since last November, has finally reached its conclusion.

"The Match Part 2," released this week as a coda to the World Cup around which the campaign was focused, completes the series pitting global superstars against Predator-style alien baddies. The six-minute animated film was crafted by agencies R/GA and Cheil Worldwide with production company Psyop.

The new clip already has 4 million YouTube views in its first two days online. "The Match Part 1" bowed in early June and has 12 million views so far. At its conclusion, the offworlders—fearsome foes with gravity-defying moves—led 3-1.

Now the human team featuring Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mario Götze among others (not-so-subtly branded The Galaxy 11) must dig deep and mount a comeback. Naturally, the fate of Earth hangs in the balance.

So, does soccer save the world? If you don't want the ending spoiled, watch the video below before reading more.

C'mon, was the outcome every really in doubt? The destruction of humanity would be way too much of a downer for the eight-month campaign, which included all manner of social and interactive outreach. Besides, if Earth were reduced to cosmic ash, Samsung's market would pretty much disappear. (Martians prefer Apple. It's a fact.)

Samsung does, however, bend it like Beckham with a sneaky final twist that I didn't see coming. (No, the twist doesn't actually involve the English Football great.)

Overall, the preamble videos, which dealt with the formation of The Galaxy 11 team, and the two-part "Match" finale rank as dazzling, if slightly predictable, branded entertainment. The campaign was impeccably produced and genuinely engaging, a clever and successful reshuffling of big-screen action/fantasy tropes.

Sure, the client's technology is on display, but its presence never disrupts the storyline. In fact, during the final confrontation, the products get kind of lost amid all the action. I was expecting, even hoping, that Samsung functionality would save the day, but that's not the way the soccer ball ultimately bounces.

Bottom line: No humans are disintegrated or devoured, not even Landon Donovan, who gets to play in a high-stakes game after all.

Here are a few of the earlier installments, in case you missed some of the action:

Most ad agencies that work with alcohol brands have a general loathing for the myriad guidelines that shackle them from showing much of anything, including someone drinking a beer. 

But in its new work for Heineken Light, Wieden + Kennedy New York decided to just make that the whole point of the ads, an approach that would probably come off entirely flat if the agency hadn't also tapped a spokesman as charismatic as Neil Patrick Harris.

In the brand's new :60, the Emmy- and Tony-winning actor spends most of the spot debating with the director about why he can't drink a beer in a beer commercial. The repartee builds from there, with Harris floating increasingly implausible solutions such as pouring a Heineken into an empty Heineken Light bottle and then drinking it. (I'm not sure I follow his logic, but I admire it.)

While it's not really explained in the ad, there's no law keeping Harris—or anyone else—from drinking a beer on camera.

The United States government doesn't actually limit alcohol marketing at all, or as the FCC notes,"Congress has not enacted any law prohibiting broadcast advertising of any kind of alcoholic beverage, and the FCC does not have a rule or policy regulating such advertisements."

The brewing industry's Beer Institute has its own voluntary guidelines, and they're generally OK with showing beer drinking, too: "Although beer advertising and marketing materials may show beer being consumed (where permitted by media standards), advertising and marketing materials should not depict situations where beer is being consumed rapidly, excessively, involuntarily, as part of a drinking game, or as a result of a dare."

However, several broadcast networks continue to stick to a long-expired portion of the Television Code that prohibited showing alcohol being consumed. (Thus the ad's reference to "network execs in a room somewhere.")

Also, Canada has a bevy of beverage restrictions, including a rule against showing "scenes in which any such product is consumed, or that give the impression, visually or in sound, that it is being or has been consumed." As you can imagine, other countries have their own rules, too, making a beer ad with global reach a truly hamstrung affair.

So in short, yeah, it's complicated. And it's not too likely to change anytime soon. 

In fact, we can probably expect a similar gag to come around every few decades. Check out this '80s classic from Paul Hogan and Foster's:

Anyway, back to Neil Patrick Harris. He also appears in a :15 along similar lines. Check it out, along with the credits, below:

CREDITS:
Client: Heineken U.S.
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy New York
Executive Creative Directors: Susan Hoffman, David Kolbusz
Creative Directors: Eric Steele, Erik Norin
Copywriters: Nathaniel Lawlor, Maddison Bradley, Danny Gonzalez, Mike Vitiello
Art Directors: Croix Gagnon, Jon Robbins, Zack Menna, David Suarez, Cory Everett
Head of Integrated Production: Nick Setounski
Producer: Orlee Tatarka, Jen Vladimirsky
Assistant Producer: Kristen Johnson
Strategist: Kelly Lynn Wright
Account Team: Patrick Cahill, Jacqueline Ventura, Syndey Lopes
Business Affairs: Amber Lavender
Project Manager: Sunjoo Ryou

Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Directors: Tom Scharpling, Matt Aselton
Executive Producers: Mal Ward, Marc Marrie
LineProducer: Alex Waite
Director of Photography: Peter Donahue

Editorial Company: Arcade Edit
Editors: Geoff Hounsell (Out of Frame :15, Party :48), Will Hasell (Director :60)
Assistant Editor: James Bird
Post Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Producer: Fanny Cruz
Visual Effects Company: Arcade Edit
Visual Effects Lead Flame: John Starace
Producer: Fanny Cruz

Telecine Company: Company 3
Colorist: Tim Masick

Mix Company: Heard City
Mixer: Evan Mangiamele

Song: STYE337_29_Time_For_Swinging
Music Company: Beyond Music

Like the everyday athletes it profiles, Dick's Sporting Goods remains a bit of an unsung hero in the sports marketing world. But that continues to change, thanks to its consistently strong advertising from Anomaly.

The company prefers unknown athletes to superstars, and the purity of real sports moments to the phony glitz and glamour of hero worship. This was memorably communicated in simple yet pulsating ads like "Every Pitch,""Every Snap" and "Focus and Explode." (The former was one of Adweek's 10 best commercials of 2013; the latter just won a gold Lion in Film Craft at Cannes last month.)

In its latest spot, Dick's takes a hoary old sports cliché—that a lifetime of work prepares you for brief yet crucial on-the-field moments—and breathes new life into it, thanks to some nice parallel framing and editing that stitch together three different stories (from football, soccer and basketball) into a coherent whole.

We're only a week removed from one of the most dramatic examples of seizing the moment in professional sports. As parents stock up on sports gear this fall, this ad will remind them that their kids can be heroes, too—ready to seize the moment when opportunity knocks.



CREDITS
Client: Dick's Sporting Goods
Agency: Anomaly, New York
Director: Max Malkin
Production Company: Prettybird
Co-Founder / Executive Producer: Kerstin Emhoff
VP / Executive Producer: Ali Brown
Head of Production: Tracy Hauser
Line Producer: Pedro Aragao De Oliveira
Director of Photography: Peter Simonite
Production Designer Kells Jesse
Editor: Peter Johnson

There's a lot to love about TBWA\Media Arts Lab's new Apple ad, a delightfully frenetic 30-second set piece—done in a stop-motion-like style—that sees MacBook Airs festooned by stickers reflecting their users' tastes, personalities and purposes.

"The notebook people love" is the tagline. And it's a message that's communicated giddily (almost like a throwback to Apple's classic iPod work) with shot after shot of icons, cityscapes, planets, digital gadgets, pop-culture characters and more—all cavorting and posing around the Apple logo in the middle of the notebook's lid.

The references are wide-ranging, including Breaking Bad, The Simpsons, Peanuts, Ice Age, Snow White, Pac-Man, Chi the cat, Batman, Wonder Woman, Catwoman, the Tasmanian Devil, Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse. A Beats logo also makes a cameo, of course.

Love is the key word for Apple around the Air these days, as the company emphasizes the emotional connection users have for the ultra-thin laptop. In the spot, that passion nicely manifests itself through personalization—in the countless ways owners have made their machines uniquely their own with artwork.

The spot, with music by Hudson Mohawke, moves quickly—blink and you'll miss something. But of course, that will reward repeat viewings. And if you want to slow things down, check out the "Stickers" page on Apple's website, showing some of the decals from the spot.

The one caveat here is that "Stickers," in its style, is somewhat reminiscent of the "Play Your Heart Out" spot for Google Play, which has logged more than 10 million views on YouTube since early May. That spot, similarly, had characters from games, music and movies interacting with the triangular Google Play logo.

The Air spot is more tactile, though. And unlike the Google Play ad, it's less about pop culture or entertainment or even the product, and more about the passion of the user. That's always been Apple's strong suit, and it's nice to see a commercial that gets back to it in style.



CREDITS
Client: Macbook Air, Apple
Agency: TBWA\Media Arts Lab

The world is really going to have a cow when FXX enacts its insane plan to air every Simpsons episode ever, back to back, beginning Aug. 21. In fact, there may be no cows—indeed, no world—left by the end.

In the wonderfully dark promo below, we enter on a kitchen sink whose faucet has been left on, filling up the house with several feet of water as slack-jawed couch apes gape at the boob tube. Turns out the whole world has stopped moving, as everyone is glued to their sets and cellphones, watching the marathon that never ends. (Well, it will end after 12 days. But who will survive, and what will be left of them?) The whole thing could be the plot of a Simpson's Halloween special.

Much of the spot's joy comes from the perfect syncing of Simpsons clips to the "total d'oh-vastation" (FXX's words) we're witnessing—from Mr. Burns saying "Release the hounds!" as feral dogs run through the abandoned streets, to Homer demanding a burrito at an empty food truck in a world where no burritos will be made again. There's no denying those who made this promo are fans of the show.



They're also good at sound design, as the clip expertly layers in every famous creepy Simpsons laugh, from Krusty to Nelson, over the sounds of chaos. (It ends with one of Homer's trademark little-girl screams.) And visually, it's gloriously bleak, with everything bathed in a sickly green hue, except for the on-screen Simpsons footage, which, in its normal colors, really pops—but also adds to a surreal, haunted feeling.

Just hearing the clips is bringing it all back. I'm going to have Simpsons PTSD after this thing airs, if I don't already have it. Truly, there is no God.

After the dust has settled on Sept. 2, FXX will air regularly scheduled Simpsons episodes, including thematic eight-episode mini-marathons every Sunday. After that, you'll be able to get on-demand access to every Simpsons episode at SimpsonsWorld.com and on the FXNow app.

I guess some people just want to watch the world burn.

The first time you hold a surfboard, the first time you ride a wave, the first time you get barreled, the first time you win a world title—it doesn't matter where you are from or how good you are. Every day is day one."

That's how Samsung summarizes its newest long-form ad in the clip's YouTube description, but the words hardly do justice to the visuals assembled by agency partner 72andSunny in Amsterdam. In "Every Day Is Day One," we dive right in alongside surfers facing the dauntingly powerful forces that make the sport both exhilarating and terrifying. 

Created as part of Samsung's global sponsorship of the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour, the ad includes a mix of beginners and seasoned pros like Kelly Slater, Stephanie Gilmore, Gabriel Medina, Johanne Defay and Mitch Crews. Shots were filmed in Iceland, Fiji, India and even the suburbs of New York. 

Helping to maintain the ominous and ambitious tone is the excellent soundtrack, a cover of David Bowie's "Absolute Beginners" by singer Angela McCluskey, whom you might remember from her work with Telepopmusik, and pianist Paul Cantelon.

The message of perpetual discovery is one often noted by the world's greatest surfers. 

"Every single time you paddle into a wave, it's a new wave," Gilmore told the ad's creators. "It's never broken before, and you'll never see it again."



CREDITS
Client: Samsung
Agency: 72andSunny Amsterdam
Executive Creative Director: Carlo Cavallone
Creative Director: Paulo Martins
Writer: Lee Hempstock
Writer: Damian Isaak
Lead Designer: Robert Teague
Designer: Renee Lam
Group Brand Director: Caroline Britt
Senior Brand Manager: Rebeccah Lowe
Brand Co-ordinator: Nicholas Rowland
Director of film Production: Stephanie Oakley
Film producer: Eline Bakker
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Madelon Pol
Business Affairs Co-ordinator: Sabina Gorini
Strategy Director: Stephanie Newman
Strategist: Nathan Manou
Director of Communications Strategy: Simon Summerscales
Junior Strategist: Daniel Asplund
Client: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Director, Global Partnership Marketing, IM Division: Hoon Kang
Senior Manager, Global Partnership Marketing, IM Division: Daniel Kim
Manager, Global Partnership Marketing, IM Division: Kim Hyunmin

Sound design:
Audio Post Facility: Wave Studios Amsterdam
Sound Supervisor: Alex Nicholls-Lee
Sound Design and Mix: Ed Downham
Audio Post Producer: Ben Tomlin

Production:
Exit Films Melbourne
Smuggler London
Director: Mark Molloy
Exec Producer, Exit Films: Corey Esse
Exec Producer: Emma Laurence
Exec Produdcer, Smuggler: Chris Barrett
Exec Producer, Smuggler: Fergus Brown
Producer: Martin Box
Director of Photography: Greig Fraser
2nd Unit Director of Photography/Underwater: Chris Bryan

Edit:
Marshall Street Editors London
Editor: Patric Ryan
Assistant Editor: Elena De Palma
Edit Producer: S.J. O’Mara

Postproduction:
Glassworks Amsterdam
Lead Flame: Urs Furrer
Flame Artist: Bob Roijen
Colorist: Scott Harris
Executive Producer: Armand Weeresinghe

Composition:
Title: "Absolute Beginners"
Written by David Bowie
Published by Jones Music America (ASCAP) administered by ARZO
Publishing for North America and Jones Music America (ASCAP)
Administered for the World ex North America by RZO Music Ltd.
Master Recording:
The Rumor Mill
Produced by J.Ralph
Co-Produced By Arthur Pingrey
Performed by: Angela McCluskey and Paul Cantelon

Paris Hilton has almost come full circle, returning to the hypersexualized Carl's Jr. ad campaign that began when she sudsed up a Bentley in 2005.

The fast-food chain's strategy of selling hamburgers by wrapping them in scantily clad swimsuit models and busty pop culture icons has become a cornerstone of its advertising, thanks largely to Hilton's car washing, uh, skills.

Now she makes a cameo in the brand's newest commercial from 72andsunny, and this time she's serving as a sort of elder stateswoman advising Sports Illustrated model Hannah Ferguson on how to best clean a vehicle while also fellating a sandwich. (It's worth noting that at age 33, Hilton is not the campaign's most seasoned participant. That honor probably goes to Heidi Klum, who was just short of her 40th birthday when she played a meat-loving Mrs. Robinson.)

Supposedly the new ad has something to do with Texas, from which Ferguson hails and around which a new burger is themed. But really that's all whatever, who cares, because bikinis, suds, writhing, meat, etc.

Hilton's abrupt appearance in the ad does have a sort of strange logic, and not just because the soundtrack is a Texas-themed redux of Cole Porter's "I Love Paris." Hilton, who seemed to have faded from the public eye for a while, has, according to people who pay attention to these things, been making a comeback of sorts over the past year.

If that's the case, she at least picked a more respectable way of raising her visibility again than simply releasing another sex tape. 

The original:

CREDITS:

Agency: 72andSunny
Chief Creative Officer, Partner: Glenn Cole
Chief Strategic Officer, Partner: Matt Jarvis
Group Creative Directors: Mick DiMaria, Justin Hooper
Creative Director: Mark Maziarz
Lead Designer: Anthony Alvaraz 
Copywriter: Teddy Miller
Chief Production Officer: Tom Dunlap
Director of Film Production: Sam Baerwald
Executive Film Producer: Molly McFarland
Film Producer: Brooke Horne
Film Production Coordinator: Taylor Stockwell
Group Strategy Director: Matt Johnson
Strategist: Josh Hughes
Director of Business Affairs: Michelle McKinney
Group Business Affairs Director: Amy Jacobsen
Business Affairs Manager: Maggie Pijanowski
Business Affairs Coordinator: Calli Howard
Managing Director: James Townsend
Brand Director: Alexis Varian
Brand Manager: Michal David
Brand Coordinator: Ali Arnold
Communications Manager: Kayla Lostica 

Client: CKE—Carl Karcher Enterprises
Chief Executive Officer: Andy Puzder
Chief Marketing Officer: Brad Haley
Senior Vice President, Product Marketing: Bruce Frazer
Director of Advertising: Brandon LaChance
Vice President, Field Marketing, Media, Merchandising: Steve Lemley
Director, Green Burrito Marketing, Development: Kathy Johnson
Director, Product Marketing, Merchandising: Christie Cooney
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Public Affairs: Melissa Robinson
Director, Public Relations: Kathleen Bush

Production Company: HIS Productions
Director: Chris Applebaum
President: Stavros Merjos
Executive Producer, Managing Director: Rebecca Skinner
Executive Producer: Roger Zorovich
Head of Production: Doron Kauper
Producer: John Hardin
Editorial: Freditor
Producer: Yole Barrera
Editor: Fred Fouquet
Post Effects: Brickyard
Visual Effects Artists: Patrick Poulatian, Mandy Sorenson, George Fitz
Producer: Diana Young
Telecine: CO3
Colorist: Mike Pethel
Senior Producer: Matt Moran
Sound Design, Mix: ON Music & Sound
Mixer: Chris Winston
Music: Squeak E. Clean Productions
Composers: Justin Hori, Charles Rojas
Vocals: Daisy Hamel-Buffa
Senior Music Producer: Chris Shaw

The 2014 NFL season is almost upon us. And while Duracell may have a tough time producing advertising on quite the level of its masterly Derrick Coleman spot from last winter, the pair of ads below—also by Saatchi & Saatchi New York—are neatly linked and should get your blood pumping for another season.

Directed by Christopher Sargent of Anonymous Content, the spots look at the same play from scrimmage in a game between the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks—the foes in last year's NFC Championship Game. (Coleman's Seahawks, of course, went on to win the Super Bowl.)

The message isn't revolutionary: Duracell Quantum, the P&G brand's snazzy new battery, powers critical game-day communications for both teams (in devices like coaches' headsets). But the execution is nicely handled, ratcheting up the drama and leading both ads to the same violent, ambiguous conclusion.

For Saatchi, it's a nice beginning to a season that's ending prematurely, as Duracell recently selected Anomaly as its new lead creative agency in the U.S.





CREDITS
Client: Duracell
Spots: "Duracell Quantum Powers The San Francisco 49ers," "Duracell Quantum Powers The Seattle Seahawks"

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Chief Creative Officer: Jay Benjamin
Executive Creative Director: Peter Smith
Creative Directors: Garrett Jones, Billy Jones
Senior Copywriter: Lincoln Boehm
Senior Art Director: Nathan Wigglesworth
VP, Executive Producer: Bruce Andreini

Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Christopher Sargent
Executive Producer: Jeff Baron
Producer: Paul Ure

Editorial Company: Whitehouse Post
Editor: Shane Reid
Assistant Editor: Sam Perkins
Senior Producer: Melanie Klein
Executive Producer: Lauren Hertzberg

VFX: The Mill
Executive Producer: Melanie Wickham
Producer: Alex Fitzgerald
Shoot Supervisor: Tony Robins
2D Lead Artist: Danny Morris
3D Lead Artists: Wyatt Savarese, Emily Meger
Colorist: Fergus McCall

German compact-car maker Smart is so smart, it's playing dumb. And that, as it turns out, makes for some pretty entertaining marketing.

A new campaign from BBDO Berlin rests on the premise that it's time for the brand—known for small, fuel-efficient, city-friendly two-seaters—to get into the big car game. The really, really big car game. Not so different from the cab of a tractor trailer, or maybe a Sherman tank. Definitely a ride Andre the Giant might actually find comfortable.



One of two deadpan spots features Smart executives talking about the giant new vehicle. It's blisteringly well written, dripping with snark in all the right places. The second video features a Smart rep doing hidden-camera-style interviews (never entirely convincing) with consumers, who, after seeing a video introducing "the prototype" and handling an enormous to-scale wheel, offer reactions ranging from surprisingly agreeable to entirely incredulous.



In a sense, it could seem too much to ask of viewers that they track the sarcasm as a critique of real, oversize gas guzzlers, and follow through to the point that Smart's cars are the opposite. On the other hand, it's a message much of the brand's target will probably already find sympathetic. And sanctimonious as it may be, it's grounded enough in practicality and pop consciousness to serve its purpose as a sales pitch. (But it is hard, at times like these, not to think of South Park's take on hybrid cars).

Worst of all, though, the big car probably wouldn't be very good as a Pong controller.

CREDITS
Client: Smart
Agency: BBDO, Berlin
Chief Creative Officer: Wolfgang Schneider
Chief Creative Director: Jan Harbeck
Creative Directors: Lukas Liske, Daniel Schweinzer
Account Team: Jens Fauth, Anne Hohmann
Agency Producer: Silke Rochow
Director: Daniel Warwick
Production Company: Bigfish

Jude Law hasn't had the best of luck on boats in the past. But he puts that behind him for this stylish short film for Johnnie Walker Blue, directed by Jake Scott.

It begins with Law and co-star Giancarlo Giannini kicking back luxuriously on a fabulous handcrafted boat in rich waters somewhere in the world. (The ocean scenes were filmed in the British Virgin Islands.) Law wants the boat for himself, but Giannini says it's not for sale. The only way Law can get it is through a friendly gentlemen's wager. And it turns out Law wants to dance for it—which he does, in between sips of Johnnie Walker Blue.

Later we discover the real nature of the betting between the two, and the reveal is firmly in line with traditional luxury marketing—they're just two regular old consumers of ultra-expensive goods relentlessly seeking something money can't buy.

"The film is about improvement and progress, and this is something I try to do in my work and my everyday life," says Law. "I had to learn new skills shooting this film that combined with the places we visited and shot in, alongside working with Jake and with Giancarlo, made it a truly rare experience."

For my money, though, if you're going to go over five minutes with a Johnnie Walker spot, it needs to have Robert Carlyle and be shot in a single take.

"The Gentlemen's Wager" was made by Anomaly in New York and is being distributed by Unruly Media.



CREDITS
Client: Johnnie Walker Blue Label
Spot: "The Gentlemen's Wager"
Agency: Anomaly, New York
President: Karina Wilsher
Writers: Mike Byrne, Dave Douglass
Art Director: Mark Sarosi
Account Director: Lauren Bozarth
Executive Producer: Winslow Dennis
Director: Jake Scott
Production Company: RSA Films
Video Distribution: Unruly Media

In the eight years since he last released a full-length film, David Lynch has amassed a list of projects almost as bizarre as his signature directorial style.

His efforts in the world of marketing have been especially notable: In the past few years, Lynch has launched his own line of coffee (and made a couple of suitably Lynch-ian spots to sell the stuff), written and directed a video for Dior, designed limited-edition labels for Dom Perignon, and earlier this month lent his name to a capsule collection of women's workout apparel. (David Lynch Leggings, anyone?)

Lynch's latest work is this minute-long spot for Christian Louboutin's brand-new $50 nail polish, Rouge Louboutin.

What could possibly make this bottle of nail polish worth $50, you ask? According to the brand, this "true objet d'art" has a "tall slender cap, inspired by calligraphy" that "turns the application into a luxurious experience." The "highly pigmented, super glossy formula delivers in just two coats the effect of 20 layers of traditional lacquer."

And, of course, it's the same exact shade of red as Louboutin's famous crimson soles, the earliest versions of which were actually painted with nail polish (which presumably didn't cost $50).

Now that we have that sorted out, let's return to Lynch's ad. It is, to no one's surprise, very strange. The spot opens on a 3-D outer-space cityscape that appears to have been rendered on a computer running Windows 95. Cut to the image of a frighteningly fetishistic Louboutin ballet pump, which gives way to a fleet of Rouge Louboutin bottles, looking quite menacing with their black, spiked lids.



After some camera shots of a woman's red-lacquered nails (which would look very much at home framed on the wall of a tacky beauty salon) and a brief return to Mykonos-by-way-of-a-far-away-galaxy, the spot ends on a close-up of the woman's hand delicately clutching a bottle of Rouge Louboutin in a shiny protective case.

After watching the spot several times, one begins to wonder whether Lynch, sensing that Louboutin must be trolling its customers by attempting to sell them $50 bottles of nail polish, is simply perpetuating the scam with this dreadful mishmash of New Age-y music and terrible computer graphics that was probably called "transcendent" by a team of marketing executives.

Otherwise, let's hope Lynch sticks to coffee.

Swagger Wagon, Toyota's white-hot viral hit of 2010 (or at least the whitest viral hit of 2010), has pulled back into the cul-de-sac for a new round of awkward suburban rap.

This time, a new family fronts the Toyota Sienna's spectacle of unapologetically cringe-inducing hip-hop shenanigans from Saatchi & Saaatchi Los Angeles. And they're joined by Busta Rhymes—who might seem like an odd fit, but as a 42-year-old father of three, probably fits right in.

Featuring "The Neuberts"—the original Swagger Wagon crew were blatantly branded The Sienna Family—the new spot puts more lyrical responsibility on the kids, with mixed results.

Handing over half the song to sassy children and an actual rapper saps some of Swagger Wagon's appeal. The first incarnation felt more like a self-aware bit of dry satire; the new one seems to think it's an actual music video. (This uncomfortable gray area could also be called the Rebecca Black Danger Zone.)



The shift in tone likely stems in part from the creative talent behind it. The first Swagger Wagon was directed by Eastbound & Down creator Jody Hill and featured two stellar improv talents, Brian Juskey (recently of College Humor's "If Google Was a Guy" videos) and Groundlings alumna Rachael Drummond. The 2014 version is directed by lesser-known British writer and producer Rhys Thomas.

Beyond its overall vibe, the new spot also takes an awkward turn when it stops halfway (a commercial break within a commercial?) to describe the benefits of Sirius XM satellite radio. "How else do you think we got Busta Rhymes on the track?" asks the mom. So now we understand the how, if not necessarily the why.

Will the new Swagger Wagon reach its predecessor's 12 million views? Likely not, without the captive audience of a pretty substantial media buy.

The problem is that the Swagger Wagon of 2010 was an anthem of uncoolness that young parents enjoyed watching because it had a simple message: Just because your life has become one big supporting role doesn't mean you've melted into the background of your kids' lives.

This time, the parents are little more than Disney Channel clichés, and the new Swagger Wagon doesn't so much declare "I've still got it" as it is says "I've still got to get the kids to school."

Here's the original:



CREDITS
Client: Toyota
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles
Director: Rhys Thomas

What would happen if you took one of the best characters from The Office and moved him next door to the undisputed best character from New Girl? This ad campaign. That's what would happen.

Craig Robinson, who rose to fame as mild-mannered and multitalented Darryl Philbin on The Office, is the proud owner of a new Dodge Dart in this new campaign from Wieden + Kennedy. Bedeviling him at every turn is Jake Johnson, aka Nick from New Girl.

The two are such a naturally antagonistic couple, it's surprising they haven't teamed up before. And director Jody Hill of Eastbound & Down was a strong pick to bring their comedy styles together. Their schtick ranges from mild annoyance to full-on physical violence (though slapping someone who threatens to key your car is considered justified self-defense in 38 states).

For now, viewers who take the time to visit the campaign's site, DontTouchMyDart.com, may be disappointed, as it just redirects to the Dodge YouTube channel. But W+K says it will soon "transform into an interactive YouTube experience where people will find out firsthand what happens when they try to touch Craig Robinson's brand new Dodge Dart."

I'm guessing he ... won't like it.

Check out the campaign's first few spots below, followed by credits.

CREDITS
Client: Dodge

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Ore.
Creative Directors: Aaron Allen, Kevin Jones, Michael Tabtabai
Copywriter: Tim Cairns
Art Director: James Moslander
Producer: Melanie Fedunok
Interactive, Social Strategy: Sarah Biedak
Strategic Planning: Amber Higgins, Nathan Goldberg
Media, Communications Planning: Alex Barwick, Kelsey Bozanich
Account Team: Lani Reichenbach, Cheryl Markley, Stephanie Montoya
Business Affairs: Anna Beth Nagel
Project Management: Stacy Grogan
Executive Creative Directors: Joe Staples, Susan Hoffman
Head of Production: Ben Grylewicz

Production Company: Caviar
Director: Jody Hill
Executive Producers: Luke Ricci, Michael Sagol
Line Producer: B.P. Cooper
Director of Photography: Mark Williams

Editing Company: Arcade
Editors: Geoff Hounsell, Will Hasell
Postproduction Producer: Cristina Matracia
Post Executive Producers: Damian Stevens, Nicole Visram

Visual Effects Company: Timber
Flame Artist: Chris Decristo
Visual Effects Producer: Emily Avoujageli
Titles, Graphics: W+K Studio

Composer: Craig Robinson
Mix Company: Eleven
Mixer: Jeff Payne
Music Producer: Dawn Redman

Under Armour is shifting creatively from brawny footballers to ballerinas.

Pivoting from its usual focus on men's athletic apparel, UA CEO Kevin Plank announced the brand's biggest-ever women's ad campaign in New York on Thursday.

The first spot stars ballerina Misty Copeland. She'll be the face of UA's new "I Will What I Want" campaign, along with more famous female athletes: Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn, tennis player Sloane Stephens and soccer star Kelley O'Hara.

Droga5 is creating the TV, print and digital campaign. Copeland's moving 60-second spot shows her warming up while the voice of a young girl recites rejection letters she received over the years. "You have the wrong body for ballet. And at 13, you are too old to be considered," says the voice.

Then we see Copeland fly through the air with athletic moves that are part ballet, part Olympic gymnastics. Despite the rejections, the spot notes that Copleand eventually became a soloist for the American Ballet Theatre. The spot broke Thursday night and will air on ABC, ESPN, MTV and E!



The global campaign takes aim not just at female athletes but "athletic females," said Plank, an ex-college football player who launched UA from his grandmother's basement in 1996.

These consumers are "looking to wear UA, and participate with it, beyond the pitch, the court or the field," said Plank. "She's looking to wear us to the gym. Or she's thinking about going to the gym and doesn't make it. But she still looks great all day."

Focusing on a relatively unknown ballerina instead of a famous pro athlete is a "disruptive choice," admitted Heidi Sandreuter, UA's vp of women's marketing. But the move shows the "evolution" of the type of athletes UA wants to sponsor. "It speaks to how we're trying to incorporate more women into the fold," she said.

David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5, said the rejection notice recited in the spot is not an actual letter but a "compilation" of negative feedback that Copeland overcame.

"It wasn't creative license to create fake hurdles," he said. "As she said on stage, these are all things that were said to her."

CREDITS
Client: Under Armour
Agency: Droga5

Old Navy has become famous for its quirky TV spots over the years. But the apparel retailer is branching out for this year's back-to-school season with an ambitious four-minute music video titled "Unlimited."

The spot, created by CAA Marketing and featuring a catchy-in-a-Broadway-sort-of-way tune written by Tony-nominated songwriters Benji Pasek and Justin Paul, follows a teen girl (played by 14-year-old Isabella Balbi) as she embarks on her first day of school while singing about the hopes and doubts every kid faces at the start of the academic year.

This being an Old Navy ad, "Unlimited" has moments you'd have to consider odd—most of which center around the "Womp Womp," a giant, furry, bizarre-looking and sort of terrifying creature that's meant to personify the girl's inner fears.

We first meet the Womp Womp when the girl opens her locker and is yanked into the darkness within by the monster, who warns her that no one is going to like her.

He continues to pop up and dampen the mood every time the girl becomes hopeful about her future. When she imagines herself as a famous inventor, the Womp Womp tells her, "Awards are nice, but they don't pay the bills." When she dreams of becoming an athlete, he cautions, "Let's just hope you don't tear your ACL."



By the end of the song, the girl manages to get the best of her inner Womp Womp and leaves him behind as she drives away on the school bus with a new friend who also happens to know all the words to "Unlimited."

(On the subject of weird things, it also bears mentioning that "Unlimited" involves a singing plate of cafeteria food. As in, the googly-eyed Claymation food starts singing. Even the girl looks a little freaked out.)

Considering tweens' love of heartfelt musical numbers (how many times have you been forced to listen to "Let It Go" in the past year?) and the cameos from various AwesomenessTV stars, "Unlimited" should be pretty appealing to its target audience. (In fact, it's racked up almost 3.5 million YouTube views in a week.) And if your household tween does beg you to download the song on iTunes, at least you'll feel better knowing that part of the proceeds go directly to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

CREDITS
Client: Old Navy
Agency: CAA Marketing

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Matt Dilmore
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Colleen O’Donnell
Head of Production: Rachel Glaub
Producer: Jonathan Wang
Production Supervisor: Mercedes Allen-Sarria
Director of Photography: Alexis Zabe
Production Designer: Josh Locy

Editing: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Carlos Arias
Producer: Leah Carnahan
Executive Producers: Dave Sellars, Angela Dorian

Effects: a52
Colorist: Paul Yacono
Flame Artist: Matt Sousa
Animator: Michael Relth
Producer: Jamie McBriety
Executive Producer: Megan Meloth

Lots of advertising for television-related products—from HD screens to DVR recorders—immerses an everyman viewer into chaotic scenes from film and TV as a metaphor for how real the experience feels.

But as the high-tech products have gotten high-techer, the options for this imagined world where the viewer enters the action have gotten more varied.

BBDO New York just rolled out two very nicely done :60s for AT&T's U-Verse entertainment offering. One takes place at a police house; the other inside a speeding space capsule. In each case, the drama is interrupted by a character who's a proxy for the AT&T U-Verse user—and whose personal life is suddenly intruding on his viewing of the show.

The idea is reminiscent of ads for DirecTV and others, but MZJ director Steve Ayson does a nice job of bringing each genre convincingly to life. And the final scene in the cop-drama spot is amusingly understated.

See the credits below.





CREDITS
Client: AT&T U-verse
Spots: "Police Drama," "Space Capsule"
Agency: BBDO New York
CCO Worldwide: David Lubars
CCO NY: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald
Senior Creative Director: Erik FahrenKopf
Senior Creative Director: LP Tremblay
ACD / Art Director: Carolyn Davis
ACD / Copywriter: Matthew Page
Director of Integrated Production: Dave Rolfe
Group Executive Producer Julie Collins
Exec Agency Producer: Dan Blaney
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Steve Ayson
Line Producer: Donald Taylor
Director of Photographer: Greig Fraser
MJZ President: David Zander
MJZ Executive Producer: Emma Wilcockson
Production Designer: Jahmin Assa
VFX: The Mill
Executive Producer: Sean Costelloe
VFX Producer: Christa Cox
Shoot Supervisor: Andres Eguiguren
2D Lead Compositor: Iwan Zwarts
CG Lead Artist: Andres Eguiguren
Colorist: Fergus McCall
Edit House: Final Cut NY
Editor: Rick Russell, JD Smyth
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich
Music: Q Department
Audio Mix: Heard City
Audio Mixer: Phil Loeb
Titles: ImagefactoryDC

Penélope Cruz is back to hawk L'Agent, the lingerie line she and her sister Monica developed for Agent Provocateur. And in the least surprising news of the year, the ad features a lot of almost-naked women.

After Penélope's ass-fest directorial debut last year, she wrote, directed and also appears on camera in this ad for the brand, driving what looks like a '70s-era two-door coupe (Lincoln Continental, car experts?), cherry red of course, to a halt in a desert. An impossible number of models pour out of the whip, and naturally proceed to have a sexy strip-dance party in the middle of nowhere.

Video is NSFW.

This means lots of bending and bouncing, and to quote Reggie Watts, shaking of their jiggly bits. It's not that different from a music video, if the focus of the music video were the almost-naked girls rather than the music. (So, yeah, it's like a lot of music videos.) There's even a pseudo-storyline. See, some poor sap of a guy is stranded and thirsty, and these girls are all just a mirage. Or are they?

Just when you thought the three-and-a-half-minute video couldn't get any more raunchy, the ladies start doing totally unnecessary splits and spilling bottled water all over themselves, and it devolves, as this brand's ads tend to, into soft-core porn. Then again, what's the point of creating advertising for an intimates brand if it doesn't?

As delirious fantasies go, it could be a lot worse.

Puma is on a mission and it's calling on all troublemakers for a task that will most likely include "danger, risk and potential fugitive status." Sign me up!

In the brand's latest ad, Puma plays up its rebellious side with brave, young, flashy athletes who trust their instincts, not necessarily the rules (which could be both a good thing and a bad thing, if you think about it). The world's fastest man, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, and Italian soccer bad boy Mario Balotelli—both athletes who are a bit familiar with controversy—entice viewers with hot tubs and scantily clad twins, who not only look sexy together, but also also speak in unison.

#ForeverFaster also features the Chiefs' running back, Jamaal Charles, and pro golfers Rickie Fowler and 19-year-old Lexi Thompson (though I don't know how much of a troublemaker anyone can really be at that age).

This ad itself sets up as though these athletes are preparing for an elite mission to save the world with a James Bond-ish feel, rogue dialogue and "unlikely anonymity." Oh, and did I mention the half-naked girls in hot tubs yet?

Puma is calling on those who remain primal, hungry and who want to win. Because after all, if you're not first, you're last.

CREDITS
Agency: JWT New York
Director: Gerard De Thame
Production Company: Supply & Demand
Director of Photography: Mauro Fiore
Editor: Joe Guest
Post Production: Final Cut & The Mill
Music House: KBV Music
Media Agency: Zenith Optimedia

It’s Shark Week again. But you already knew that, didn’t you? You’ve seen it mentioned every 30 seconds in your Twitter feed. At least one-quarter of your Facebook friends have been posting incessantly about how psyched they are about it. Every news site on the Internet (includingthisone, natch) has posted at least a dozen stories alerting you to everything from its marketing potential to the dubiousness of its “documentaries” (fun fact: the 35-foot-long “submarine shark” is not real). There’s a man with a megaphone on your street corner yelling “Shark Week!” at the top of his lungs, 24 hours a day.

By now, you might be wondering what all of this has to do with a Southern Comfort spot. Well, it seems that SoCo has too fallen prey to shark fever (which is not an actual illness, but is the title of a Baywatch episode), as evidenced by latest installment in the brand’s super-weird-but-kind-of-great“Whatever’s Comfortable” campaign from Wieden + Kennedy in New York.

The new spot, titled “Shark” (yep), features the campaign’s first female lead. Dressed in an aggressively acid-washed denim jacket, she sits alone at a jazz club, tapping her finger along to the beat. Upon further inspection, we discover that her talon-like nails are decorated with expertly airbrushed sharks’ jaws, which she uses to slowly stir her drink before piercing the maraschino cherry at the bottom of the glass like a bloody piece of prey and depositing it into her own gaping maw.

In case you're still not feeling Shark Week-ed out, Southern Comfort is also adding a shark-based social digital layer to the campaign. The brand has apparently “adopted” a shark, which it has dubbed The Sharktender. Starting tomorrow, SouthernComfort.com will track his whereabouts while also offering “location-based drink recommendations.” Yeah, it's sort of ridiculous, but if you’re going to sit through four hours of “Zombie Sharks” and “Air Jaws: Fin of Fury” on Discovery, you’re probably better off plastered.

CREDITS

Client: Brown-Forman
Spot: “Shark”

Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, New York
Executive Creative Director: Susan Hoffman
Creative Directors: Jimm Lasser, Caleb Jensen
Creatives: Laddie Peterson, Jeff Dryer
Producer: Orlee Tatarka
Head of Content Production: Nick Setounski
Account Team: Toby Hussey, Katie Hoak

Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Steve Rogers
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Line Producer: Kathy Rhodes
Director of Photography: Benoit Delhomme

Editing Company: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler
Assistant Editor: Ryan Steele
Post Executive Producer: Sasha Hirschfeld

Visual Effects Company: The Mill
Visual Effects Senior Producers: Orlaith Finucane, Aleen Kim
Flame Artist, Creative Director: Jade Kim (Lead), Margolit Steiner
Computer Graphics Artist: Laurent Giaume

Song: "Little Red Riding Hood"
Artists: Bushwalla (Lead Vocals), Sallie Ford (Background Vocals), Graeme Gibson, Sallie Ford (Instrumentals)
Music Company: Walker

Mix Company: Sonic Union
Mixer: Steve Rosen