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Holiday

Yoke’s Ad-vent Calendar Brings Commercial Cheer

Australia studio Yoke recently launched it’s holiday-themed Ad-vent Calendar for the 25 days leading up to Christmas. Each day, Yoke reveals one creative ad from the past that may not be well-known to large audiences. Thus far, the curated collection includes spots for companies like Peugeot and Nolan’s Cheddar Cheese, and to totally honest, some of these ads will probably be better gifts than whatever I get from my family.

Below is the Nolan’s Cheddar spot. Don’t know how much they paid for the rights to use Jim Morrison‘s voice and Rocky theme music in the same commercial, but the money is well spent. It’s hard to make viewers empathize with rodents, but they may have found a willing co-star for the next Rocky sequel.

Today’s posted ad is a Peugeot 206 commercial from India, definitely worth a look. I must’ve missed out on the Peugeots-are-symbols-of-cool bandwagon, but the ad has a worthy narrative for the Ad-vent Calendar. Who doesn’t love the signature Indian guy head-bob?

With 13 days to go, this is a page you’ll want to bookmark for a nice reprieve from the monotony of primetime TV ads. Unless you like the T-Mobile Girl, in which case, you’ll most likely end up with coal in your stocking.

…And Now, a Holiday Card Starring You, AgencySpy Commenters

 

 

Finally, gang! Finally, some of  your snide, vitriolic, juvenile remarks are immortalized in holiday greeting form!

We got this little number, dubbed “Warm Wishes from Ad Land,” sent to us anonymously (and we swear we had nothing to do with it). And, suffice it to say, it’s the best Christmas gift we’ve gotten so far. The website narrates AgencySpy reader comments, along with a few from our pals at Ads of the World and Campaign Brief, and blends in some joyous holiday cheer. Yay!

We’ll let you know if we get any additional word on who is responsible for this masterpiece (Update:We know who it is, but they’d rather remain anonymous). In the meantime, congratulations! Hopefully this card won’t make you want to punch yourself in the cock.

 

Publicis Groupe’s Maurice Lévy Hacks YouTube’s Functionality in This Year’s Holiday Greeting

Snow flurries are starting. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer is on network TV. Eggnog is once again a thing. And Publicis Groupe’s CEO Maurice Lévy is back with another holiday greeting. Christmas is coming, you guys!

Now, the press release we got about this is a little, well, apologetic. “His speech has been a little on the long side in the past,” it admits. “So, this year he made a superhuman effort to keep it short and to allow viewers to enjoy this video on their own terms.” What the hell does the mean? Well, I don’t want to spoil too much of the surprise, but if you watch it on YouTube, your natural tendencies to skip forward, pause, or play with the volume of the video will be greatly rewarded with disapproval from Lévy. He knows what you did. You may not listen to the man in charge’s talk, but you can play with the way it’s delivered.

Unfortunately, Digitas France has not provided an embeddable version of  the greeting, no doubt because YouTube magic can only go so far (unlike Christmas magic). However, you can still link to it from the above video. Credits after the jump.

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Your Mid-Day Image Break: Brought to You by Holiday Party-Crashing Daft-Tron

So…this happened at a certain agency’s holiday party last night in New York, and according to the Facebook feed, it’s one of the top dogs who donned this rather audacious outfit that’s just asking for some pop-locking moves to the sounds of ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” We’re thinking pretty much every holiday party this year could use a cameo from this character. Take a stab at who/what agency this is if you’d like. Anyone else up for a game of Laser Tag this weekend?

Does the North Pole Get 4G?

Last I checked, it’s still December, which means that we’re still going to be bombarded with Christmas ads. Out of the B-Reel camp, there’s a new “Direct Line to Santa” website to promote Verizon Fios that lets shoppers have customizable conversations with their favorite jolly obese man. When he asks what gift you’d like, it may be tempting to type in the dirtiest words you can think of, but then you realize it’s Verizon Fios and Santa doesn’t exist, so who’s the joke really on?

B-Reel houses a strong stable of talent—including Like Crazy director Drake Doremus—and most of their spots attempt to incorporate narrative and/or cool genre elements from features. Tom Malmros, who’s directed fresh commercials for Burger King and Toyota, created this Santa stuff with more of a paint-by-numbers approach.

The site is pretty stale due to some clunky A.I. and awkward pauses, but I did want to see Santa’s response to my wish list. When I asked for a basketball, he told he used to be a baller back in his younger days. I guess even fat guys can be superstars when playing against elves. However, when I asked him for the new Kendrick Lamar CD, he rambled about elves making computers. Not even close, Santa.

Creature Selling Off Odds & Sods Items at ‘The Window Shop’

Disclaimer: Before I criticize The Window Shop, a charitable pop-up store created by Creature, I want to say that it’s the thought that counts.  The agency converted its office windows in Seattle into a small store, so shoppers can literally pick and purchase out of a window, with all of the proceeds going to Hamomi Children’s Centre, which educates and cares for orphaned children from Nairobi. Even though most of the items for sale are silly, cheap, uninteresting, and useless, I hope people buy them anyway to support disadvantaged African kids. I’m guessing Creature is banking that you will, too.

The problem with The Window Shop is that it’s full of random ephemera that could only appeal to people who’ve been on Hoarders. If your hick cousins from Mississippi would pass on the Leggy Lamp (a la A Christmas Story below), odds are it’s not for you.

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Let’s See How Long You Can Watch Verizon’s 3-Minute ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ Cross-Country Lip-Dub

From Mcgarrybowen comes the above saccharine spot, a 3-minute long opus for Verizon that gets people from across the country the perform a lip-dub to “Jingle Bell Rock.”

Out of duty to AgencySpy readers, Mediabistro, and my fellow man, I eventually watched (almost) the entire thing. However, on my first try, I made it to the 41-second mark. Can you do better? Leave your time in the comments.

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