It’s not a surprise that older people like classical music more than younger people. For the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra (OSB), that trend needed to be fixed. Since most of their audience is older than 65 years, the OSB started playing orchestral themes from blockbuster movies like Jaws, E.T., and Star Wars to show younger people that they had an unknown appreciation for classical music.

Rio de Janeiro agency Artplan also incorporated YouTube videos of film clips to add a visual presence to the experience. As a result, the OSB saw a 40% increase of young people in the audience. The case study gave a healthy boost to the box office draw as well: all of the orchestra’s concerts in the upcoming season are already sold out. Unfortunately, young people still like Kesha more than Wagner, but I don’t think there’s a lot that the OSB can do to remedy that. Credits after the jump.

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Russia’s abysmal track record for gay rights got unnecessarily worse last year, when a court ruling banned gay parades in the country for the next 100 years. Today, Stockholm Pride and M&C Saatchi Stockholm are fighting back with gowest2013.com, a digital campaign that lets Russians celebrate gay rights on Twitter for one well-intentioned thorn in the side of the Russian government: to get “Go West” trending in Russia. How are they going to accomplish this from a Swedish website, you ask? All tweets from the website automatically change location to a Russian city. Got to love technology.

If Stockholm Pride accomplishes their goal, I’d love to see the faces of Russian government officials after “Go West” starts trending. Stalin rolls in his grave, Putin rolls in his bed, Sting makes more music videos like this. If you’re interested in contributing, you can tweet from the website to help the cause and watch as Princeton, New Jersey turns into Ufa, Russia.

Pim de Koel is not the most interesting man in the world, but he may be interesting enough to make you want to travel to Holland. Koel headlines a new Dutch travel spot, “Holland. The Original Cool.” that was put together in a joint effort from Mustache, the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, KLM Airlines, Schiphol Airport, and Amsterdam Marketing. The commercial focuses on how Holland is fun, quirky, pretty, forward-thinking, artsy, and generally better than wherever you live. They also like to say Van Gogh in thick accents. I can’t argue against their sophisticated European sensibilities, Holland is cool. You should visit there just so you can meet the one old, bitter Dutch dude who doesn’t speak English. And there’s no need for weed jokes or Red Light District quips, because Pim keeps it clean. The pitch has worked thus far, racking up close to 125,000 views in only one day (see how it’s blown up this week on Reddit after the jump).

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As you may know, Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Russell Westbrook suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first round of NBA Playoffs. Instead of flying in for dunks, Westbrook has watched the rest of his team’s games with crutches by his side. And even though the Thunder are one game away from playoff elimination, Champs and Jordan brand have decided to launch a new Westbrook campaign, created by L.A.-based agency Zambezi and filmed pre-injury, as perhaps a sign of solidarity for their hobbled endorser. The above commercial will run for the next few weeks during the Conference Finals.

In the spot, a high school basketball player transforms into Westbrook on and off the court when he gets new Jordan gear from Champs Sports. The on-the-court part is great, but the off-the-court part may not be a good look for a high school kid – or any human being with two spoonfuls of self-respect, for that matter – since Westbrook is the guy who wears this in his free time. Regardless of the fashion lampooning or the fake glasses he wore regularly to post-game press conferences, the decision to keep the campaign alive after Westbrook’s injury is a cool gesture from the brands involved. Be on the lookout for more Westbrook spots as we head into the never-ending stretch of NBA Playoff basketball that precedes summer.

Audi has been busy lately, pumping out ads for their newest cars in sponsorship deals with Iron Man while simultaneously pitting past and present versions of Spock against each other. The automaker seems to be at it again, now with longtime agency Venables Bell & Partners, for a 60-second spot that traces back to the origin of the company. Retro footage of Audi’s founder, August Horch, and old-school automobiles plays for most of the spot, set to narration of the children’s poem It Couldn’t Be Done, written by Edgar Albert Guest. I guess Dr. Suess was busy.

By design, most of the commercial feels like it belongs to pre-1980, but the dissonance of the kid’s poem and the speeding-car shots strikes a cool chord. While previous car spots may be clever or topical when full of movie stars, this one stands out in a good way. It’s smooth and engaging, presumably, like a ride in a new Audi. Credits and a couple of :15 second spots after the jump.

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“Jenny and the Chicken,” a Mash+Studio slideshow illustrated by Danny Mcclain, is one of those metaphorical stories that lets you know it’s metaphorical halfway through the narrative. A boy named Brand wants to befriend a a girl named Jenny, but he can’t figure out how to make her like him. He tries all of the usual friendly activities, like connecting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., but Jenny doesn’t seem interested in a guy who talks about himself all the time. Remember, his name is Brand. Get it?

This type of wink-wink story is typically not as clever as its creators think it is. Anthropomorphic chickens aside, engaging with consumers effectively is a lot more complicated than showing how a brand sees the world. I’m not sure who Mash plans to target with this slideshow, which is partly why it feels disjointed, but unless they start teaching brand equity to second graders, you might want to turn the page.

DraftFCB Chicago has invoked the cuteness theory for their latest Del Monte Foods work, which suggests that people will always respond positively to cats or babies. The Facebook campaign lets users personalize a digital cat avatar with pet photos and create a jingle. Aside from the obvious cooing and awwing, those who play along could win a $100 daily prize or a $10,000 grand prize. I can almost hear the creaky bones of cat ladies crunching as they try to get up from their rocking chairs and walk to their computers without stepping on one of their 47 cats.

The app has been so successful thus far, according to echoes from the Chicago office, that the agency’s needed to add more servers to accommodate the traffic. That means cat ladies are probably making 47 entries for each of their kittens, giving them more chances to win and less chances to ever reclaim a normal life that involves other human beings.

Credits after the jump.

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Recognizing mistakes retroactively is easy. After the damage is done, heads roll downhill as people ask, “Who could’ve let this happen?” At times, the criticism can be unfounded. The political correctness machine does not care much for different sides to an offensive story. But sometimes, in cases of extreme public blunders, the story only has one side.

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen two thoughtless content blunders – one from Mountain Dew, the other for Hyundai – that resulted in serious and immediate public backlash. Mountain Dew’s goat spot was developed by rapper Tyler, the Creator, and was quickly pulled by Pepsi Co. after viewers complained of racism and misogyny. As you’ll see in the above ABC News clip, it’s also being referred to as “the most racist commercial ever” for the way it reinforces black stereotypes. The Hyundai spot, which aimed to pull humor and brand equity out of a failed garage suicide attempt, may go down as one of the most insensitive commercials ever. Hyundai reached out to AgencySpy, hoping to distance itself from the bad press about an hour after we published excerpts of a heartfelt blog post from Holly Brockwell, a London-based copywriter whose father died in a similar manner to what was portrayed in the ad.

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Let’s kill two birds, shall we? AT&T must really like little kids. First, we had the Beck Bennett commercials that ran incessantly during March Madness (and still run; check out the newest Mother’s Day-themed “It’s Not Complicated” clip from BBDO after the jump). Now, the telecom giant seems to think we want more, more, more. The latest work from Dallas-based multicultural agency Sanders\Wingo shows young’ns on their mobile devices, saying things like, “In my day…our connection was so slow, we had to take turns online.”

Some viewers may find this cute, others may find it scary, but as kids become more and more comfortable with the latest technology, these types of spots should become the norm. We already have videos of babies who can swipe a page on an iPad, but can’t turn the page in a book or magazine. Regardless, kids will always have to eat the trope-filled Brussels sprout before they get to use any of these devices, and that’s how we get the thirty-second “Veggies.”

Check out the second spot, “Haircut,” the aforementioned “It’s Not Complicated” Mother’s Day effort and credits for all after the jump.

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“Anthem” the latest effort from Atlanta-based 22squared and the Costa Rica Tourism Board, may look like the rough cut of a Coldplay music video. The one-minute spot features shots of sherbet sunsets, beautiful landscapes, and even a frog jumping in slow-motion. The music is actually from M83 (from their Oblivion score), not Coldplay, but the point is that the commercial has the big sounds and simulated importance of something we’re used to seeing in music videos. That’s not a bad thing.

A few of Costa Rica’s recent tourism pitches have tried to capture this splashy substance. Patrick Pierson, who directed “Anthem,” also made the colorfully moody “Get Living.” And two years ago,  there was the Effie-winning Million Dollar Happiness campaign. In the travel ad arms race, Costa Rica is destroying those clumsy Ocean City commercials with the lifeguard who has frosted hair. Slow-motion frogs beat inserts of standard beaches every time. Credits after the jump.

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