We all remember our awkward first kiss stories, full of nervousness and rapid heartbeats. Based on “First Kiss,” the new 30-second ad in the Taco Bell Live Mas campaign that came through the tips line, we can now add sticky fingers and spicy breath to the list of uncomfortable descriptors.

Mixing Doritos Locos Tacos and kisses may not seem like the best idea, but this spot might strike the right cord for those who value some teenage sentimentality and John Hughes movies. Associating Taco Bell with cuteness is a tough trick to pull off, you know, with the greasy smells and penchant for attracting drunk college guys as a significant customer base, but Deutsch LA and director Zach Math found a way to pull it off. Taco Bell seems to have tapped the right nerve with Doritos Locos Tacos: the product helped create 15,000 new jobs. Maybe the company can use the profits to provide complimentary mouthwash with any purchase, so young lovers who want to make out in Taco Bell parking lots can have pleasant memories.

Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Hunter, who essentially replaced Eric Hirshberg after the latter quit Deutsch L.A. to join Activision, headed to the former after spending time as ECD at TBWA/London. During his career, the senior creative also worked at the likes W+K Amsterdam on Nike as well as Euro RSCG. While at Deutsch, as one would imagine, Hunter has overseen all notable creative for past and present clients including VW and PlayStation (we believe you know quite a few, lest we run it down). We’ll update, of course, if and when we hear more.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Today Deutsch NY CEO Val DiFebo announced that Peter Gardiner, Partner, Chief Media Officer, would be leaving the agency to pursue entrepreneurial interests and investments in the media and tech space.  Gardiner joined Deutsch in 2000 and during his tenure helped grow Deutsch’s media offering at a time when many agencies were unbundling their media operations.  He was an important part of the agency’s success and we wish him well.  Gardiner’s last day will be February 28^th.

An announcement will be made early next week regarding the plans we have in place, it’s a 1 + 1 = 3 approach that will continue to keep us ahead of the curve.

And from Gardiner himself:

“Having been a Partner of one of the best agencies in history has been incredibly rewarding and fun. But leaving Deutsch now gives me the opportunity to find, grow, and nurture startups in the media and tech space. I’m excited about what’s ahead and I thank everyone at Deutsch for the best years of my professional life, so far…”

During his time at Deutsch, Gardiner  helped launch Media Bridge Entertainment, a product placement company that introduced pay-for-performance as its core offering, nearly a decade ago as well as research unit, Consumer Prime.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Prior to joining up with GCL, Scheideler, as some of you may recall, served in a similar role for approximately the same amount of time as a director of digital production at JWT New York (she was eventually replaced by Suzanne Molinaro, who subsequently split for Deutsch NY after spending less than a year in the role). During her career, Scheideler also spent three years at CP+B, where she last served as VP/executive integrated producer, working with clients including Coke Zero, Microsoft, Burger King and was part of the team that picked up Titanium Lion in 2010 for the Best Buy “Twelpforce” effort.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

During his career, Richmond also spent over four years at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, last serving as director of digital production.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Choosing between Andrew McCutchen and Matt Kemp may be a more difficult decision than Obama v. Romney, but Deutsch LA and Playstation have empowered baseball fans by letting them vote on the cover subject of MLB13: The Show. Think of it as an election with no negative campaigning, backstabbing, or general political pessimism. The only sad part for me is that no Mets are on the ballot, but for everyone’s sanity, that’s probably a good thing.

The video game will hit shelves March 5th, and fans can select from a pool of seven different players including McCutchen, Kemp, Buster Posey, C.C. Sabathia, Ryan Braun, Miguel Cabrera, and Bryce Harper. Each player made 30-second clips explaining why he should be chosen over the other candidates. Athletes can’t act (other than Victor Cruz), but you should check out the videos on Youtube if you want to learn how to get dreads like McCutchen or hear trophy cleaning techniques from Mr. Posey.

Let’s hope this baseball vote goes differently than the Hall-of-Fame vote from earlier in the week, otherwise Playstation might have to go to Plan B and put a Met on the cover.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s coming up on two years since VW and Deutsch LA’s beloved “The Force” aka “Little Darth” spot captured the hearts of America during Super Bowl XLV. While most agree that “Little Darth” was worthy of the acclaim and awards bestowed upon it, the VW/Duetsch duo has had a difficult time following it up. Last year’s “The Dog Strikes Back” fell well short of its predecessor, and perhaps this is due to an erroneous insight into what the public loved about “Little Darth.”

Yes, the Star Wars tie-in to “Little Darth” was great, but it wasn’t the reason the spot became one of the web’s biggest hits. “The Dog Strikes Back” also had a pretty blatant nod to Star Wars as well, but the spirit of “Little Darth” was lost, and the spot became more of a sequel than a standalone ad. The real reason the public loved “Little Darth” so much was because it was just so damn adorable, and judging by the above new spot for the VW Passat, this insight is now crystal clear.

What we have here is a great (and simple) slice-o-life spot, with an absolutely perfectly timed punchline that will make you giggle and then give a long “awwww.” It’s a bit surprising that VW didn’t hold the spot until this year’s Super Bowl, but I’m quite excited for what Deutsch has planned next. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Alas, there are no “T-shirt uniforms” to hammer home the message of individuality in this latest Dr. Pepper campaign from Deutsch LA, which is now eschewing grandiose productions and blockbuster cross-promotions to instead focus on real people, real stories. The above spot, dubbed “One in a Billion” (title track courtesy of the Vinyl Hearts), should give you the basic gist of how the agency’s ongoing “Always One of a Kind” campaign for the soda brand is evolving.

The heartwarming, human interest angle is one that’s been tread on aplenty, but it’s a somewhat interesting detour considering that at the end of the day, all agency and client are doing are selling soda. Will it take this year? Who knows, but in the meantime, check out out two specific stories, one focusing on a model-turned-boxer and the other a mother of five/roller derby queen along with credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

There are two versions of Outback’s “12 Days of Leftovers” commercial: a shorter 90-second video where talking leftover foods like Fuzzy Macaroni and A Half-Eaten Leg of Turkey sing an annoying riff on “The 12 Days of Christmas,” and  a ridiculously long version that drags for 3 minutes and 13 seconds. Christmas songs are already annoying, but with this new holiday push from Deutsch New York, you will hate them passionately.

Never before has the phrase “Congealed Creamed Corn” sounded so ugly. Also, when does macaroni turn fuzzy? Serious questions to ponder when your mind wanders during that long version.

Just a lazy effort to drum up support for a restaurant that offers low prices and the Bloomin Onion. It’s too bad, because when I think of enjoying the holidays, I used to think of Outback Steakhouse. Now, all I can see is the Slab of Slimy Ham. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

During his career, Lester has also served as a GCD at Saatchi & Saatchi’s Team One on Lexus (of course), an ACD at Goodby and had a lengthy stint as an art director at BBH London. According to the Deutsch LA camp, Lester has already started at the agency.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Yes, Hurricane Sandy has come and gone, yet large portions of New York are still far from being rebuilt. Those in New York are aware of this, but those of us in flyover country have, let’s be real, almost completely forgotten about the destruction wrought by the storm only a few weeks ago. Sorry, but it’s true.

So, how do you get Midwest hicks like me to care about helping New York’s disaster relief efforts? Well, one winning strategy would be having a bunch of celebrities tell me that I should care. You see, I find it hard to relate to those people in the Rockaways who lost their homes and more during Hurricane Sandy. However, I love celebrities, and there’s nothing more terrible to me than seeing a movie star look really sad. Deutsch NY and the New York State Governor’s office know these things, which is why they’ve produced a cavalcade of the most New York-y New York-based celebs to tell me that they need my help. If you for one minute thought that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro wouldn’t be in this spot (shot over a weekend) after seeing the title of this post, you are a stupid person.

Joining De Niro and Pacino is this PSA for the Empire Relief Fund are people like Michael J. Fox, Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Buscemi, the last of which is a great casting decision as he always looks kind of sad. For those who need their ads cut down to 30-second bite-sized portions in order to be convinced to give money, here’s exactly that. And, for those of you who have been sufficiently convinced to donate to the cause, visit ReliefNY.org to give. Credits and another PSA after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Ah yes, boys and girls, nothing rings in the holidays quite like PNC’s Christmas Price Index, which has become an annual tradition like repeat airings of It’s a Wonderful Life, but is actually aimed at making economics somehow digestible for both kids and adults. I don’t know about you, but just watching Trading Places in our high-school economics class did the trick.

Anyhow, this marks the third CPI that Deutsch New York has created for PNC and in case you didn’t know what it actually is, it’s a 29-year-old annual tradition that shows the current cost of one set of each of the gifts given in the holiday tune, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” According to the campaign site, yes, the Christmas price tag has once again gone up as PNC’s CPI has risen four percent from last year to $25,431.18 (in fact, the last shift downward was in 2002).

In this year’s installment, the parties involved (along with B-Reel) have created an interactive gaming experience where visitors can find missing gifts across 12 locations from NYC to Paris to even Shirakawa-go, Japan using Google Streetview. Don’t worry, “Twelve Days” purists, characters from the Xmas carol are all included in the mix. Now, off on your animated, street-viewing, globe-trotting adventure you go. Select stills and credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

And now, a quick bit of newsy news for you. Deutsch New York has been tapped to serve as media agency of record for GrubHub, the online/mobile food ordering service that has graced our subways and subway stations here in NYC with many a quirky, cartoony ad over the last year or so. The eight-year-old Chicago-based brand chose Deutsch NY because according to a statement from its VP of marketing, Mandy Pekin, the agency’s “…proven track record in building performance-driven results makes them the perfect partner for us as we continue to introduce diners to the GrubHub brand.”

Deutsch takes over over on the GrubHub media account for Boston-based Blitz Media, which declined to participate in the RFP process.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Along with the Google Fiber work, which helped celebrate the online giant’s launch of its super-fast internet/TV service in the Kansas City area, Kim has also pitched and led  the integrated campaign for Intel’s ambitious “The Chase” while at Venables. Prior to VB&P, the creative spent a few years as an AD/ACD at TBWA’s \Tequila and worked as an interactive CD at Publicis Seattle on T-Mobile. Guess you couldn’t write his mission statement at Deutsch LA any better as he says in a statement, “I aim to be the connective tissue between technology and creative design, bridging the gap between what is possible and what has not been done yet.” Godspeed, sir.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Prior to Organic, which just had a fairly eventful summer of its own, Pascoe worked on creative efforts, whether on a project basis or not, at the likes of Razorfish, frog design, JWT and Ogilvy (clients ranged from J&J and Nestle to GE and MTV).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.