Another year, another round of PETA’s “Great Ape Pledge” PSA campaign which aims to bring awareness of the plight of primates that suffer physical/psychological abuse at the hands of the entertainment industry. BBDO New York, which has taken the “Pledge” before with its nifty auto-correct effort from two years ago, joins forces with PETA once again for the spot above, which also features VO services from Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and VFX/production work from The Mill. If you stick around for the end, you’ll see that no real ape was used in the above PSA, which reemphasizes PETA’s whole purpose for launching “The Great Ape Pledge” in the first place.

Instead, the parties involved hammer home the message that primates shouldn’t be used as actors by creating  a photo-real CG chimp that’s seemingly at its wit’s end. If the stark message touched a nerve or inspired you to pledge (it’s perhaps a bit more effective than auto-correct messaging), you can go here. Credits after the jump.

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This is no Merriam-Webster, but if you’ve ever wanted to define words like “poopocalypse” and “glueslime,” then the “Language of the Domestic Jungle” is the right dictionary for you. Created for Clorox by Onion Labs – the creative services unit launched by The Onion a year ago – the Domestic Jungle spots employ Discovery Channel-esque narration to color their potty humor with some faux-sophistication. If you’re a legal adult who thinks poop jokes never get old (like me) there’s even a comprehensive Icktionary that can provide grammatical guidance for immaturity.

In the coming weeks, three more spots will air for the campaign. I can confirm that one of the terms is, in fact, “Splatteral Damage.” Even though that’s a dumb phrase that will make some people shake their heads, I wish I could’ve come up with that myself. These dirty situations do exist, and it’s easy to shrug them off as disgusting, but maybe you’ll get a kick out of watching some silly videos. And maybe you’ll think of Clorox next time you need to disinfect. Or maybe I’m 23 and alone in my appreciation for bathroom humor, and commenters will line up to criticize these ads. We’ll see. You can watch the “Glueslime” spot after the jump.

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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.

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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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There was a time, all the way back in April, when the Internet was outraged at actor/director Zach Braff. You see, after seeing Veronica Mars fans quickly pony up over $2 million to turn the cult 2000′s TV show into a movie, Braff figured he’d turn to the same platform, Kickstarter, to get his next film project funded.

This caused a lot of butthurt, especially on social media, where complaining is an art form of sorts. “But, @ZachBraff is a multimillionaire,” tweeted the world in unison. “Why should people be give the rich #Garden State douche their hard earned money to make a second #douchetastic film?” Comedian Tim Heidecker took the complaining to the next level, actually tweeting Zach Braff a one-page script about his douche-y idea. This was all fun for a while, but despite the Internet outrage, Braff’s Kickstarter investors already raised more than he needed for the movie, and everyone stopped caring. Well, almost everyone.

Starting today, the guys behind the website Screen Junkies (featuring that “brand rapper” former Deutsch LA copywriter dude Jason Pickar) have turned to Kickstarter competitor IndieGoGo to start “Don’t Back Zach Braff.” The campaign discourages people to donate to Zach Braff’s movie, despite it already being funded last month and everyone moving on to more important things like Angelina Jolie and the How I Met Your Mother season finale. With $10,000, Screen Junkies will take out a full-page ad in the print edition The Hollywood Reporter discouraging the people to give money to Zach Braff’s already funded project which, even if it wasn’t, would still be a waste of money, because you’d be making a media buy in The Hollywood Reporter and this isn’t 1954. With $200,000 Screen Junkies pledges to make whatever this is into even more of an exercise in futility by buying a full-page ad in (hold onto your butts) Entertainment Weekly.

Yes, of course they’re doing all of this ironically and the purpose of stopping celebs from crowdfunding their future vanity projects. After all, when has doing things solely for the sake of irony not led to great ideas? Donate here, or, you know, you could not let whatever Zach Braff or other Hollywood folks are doing have any impact on your spending habits. Credits 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.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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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On Thursday, NBC’s long-running U.S. version of The Office will celebrate its series finale after nine seasons on air, the last three of which everyone would like to pretend never happened because they were pretty boring and shitty.

The end of The Office also means the end of free product placement for Dunder Mifflin, the fictional-turned-real paper company licensed from Comcast by Staples two years ago to sell under the latter’s Quill brand. What might have seemed like a clever business venture at the time is now looking a bit silly as, with no more episodes of The Office on the horizon, Dunder Mifflin’s charm as a gag gift is fading quickly. Soon (as in probably about a year a so), if someone gets you a ream of Dunder-Mifflin paper, you will not laugh knowingly at the brand, thus depreciating the only value it offers. Instead, you will marvel at the fact that a friend got you a ream of paper as a gift, and likely consider them a total asshole.

Hopefully, Staples will put Dunder Mifflin out of its misery faster than NBC did with The Office, but in the meantime, we’re still getting spots produced by LA-based crowdsourcers Tongal that are even worse than the last season of the show they’re based on. Luckily for America, the above spot is only running during the series finale’s telecast in five Dunder Mifflin “branch” markets (Scranton, Utica, Akron, Albany and Syracuse), so you would most likely be spared if you hadn’t visited AgencySpy today. Sorry about that, but hey, at least we get Steve Carell back for the two-hour finale on Thursday, right?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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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Audi has switched gears from commuting with Iron Man to inject some ad gusto into another blockbuster franchise about to hit theaters: Star Trek into Darkness. The latest spot – produced by PMK-BNC – pits the wily veteran against the smooth newcomer. Spock v. Spock. Leonard Nimoy against Zachary Quinto in a battle of intellect, trash-talk, and automobile semantics. Quinto may be prettier, but Nimoy has an old-man game full of tricks up his sleeves.

The two-minute video promotes the new Audi S7 as the perfect vehicle for anyone in need of a smooth ride with technological toys. This may not be the USS Enterprise, but it can get Quinto to the golf club faster than Nimoy’s Mercedes, at least until the twist ending. The response has been overwhelmingly positive on YouTube thus far, and it’s a safe bet that sci-fi geeks will get a kick out of the Spock-off in the coming weeks. Can those geeks buy Audis? Probably not, but at least they’ll chuckle at the playful banter. Credits after the jump.

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After showing us Kiefer Sutherland/Jack Bauer’s, er, softer side and making a case for Megan Fox as a marine biologist, Mother London and Acer have teamed up again for another fairly amusing web film to promote one of the computer brand’s Ultrabooks. This latest collaboration stars the globe-trotting Dutch progressive house DJ/producer now simply known as Tiesto and his hapless assistant, Vernon, who perhaps resembles a hybrid of Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen.

One would think that Tiesto, who probably earns at least six figures a gig in a million exotic destinations and has been lathered up by the likes of DJ Magazine and Rolling Stone as the “world’s #1 DJ” over the years, would hire someone a bit less befuddled than Vernon to run his affairs. But, as you can see, being adept at using an Acer Aspire P3 Ultrabook can turn even the most awkward of characters into a model-luring, scene-stealing star. We can all dare to dream. Credits after the jump.

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