Yes, this is the brainchild of agency creative vet Feh Tarty, who has spent the last three years as a creative director at Mother London and has also worked at the likes of W+K and Goodby during his career. While Mother NY does its own thing with “Momtract,” we have this celeb-themed Mother’s Day effort from across the pond that includes a game called, yes,Who is Really Famous. Regarding the project, Tarty says, “Throughout my career in advertising, I’ve had the opportunity meet some famous people. But when I would share these experiences with my mom, in more cases than not, she would have no idea who a person was. I would jokingly say to friends that no one is really famous unless my mom knows who they are. So I decided to find out who actually is, according to my mom, by making a film and asking her which names or faces she [recognized].”

As the clip suggests, you are asked to select photos of at least 20 celebrities and then ask your mother whether she recognizes them. So farthe “top least famous people” on the Who Is Really Famous site are Diddy and Russell Crowe. C’mon mums, you can do better because we’re talking about royals, pop stars and others for heaven’s sake. Give it a go if you’d like with yours and play here.

For now, your guess is as good as ours, but apparently, a great reveal is on the way some time today from Mother, which for obvious reasons celebrates Mother’s Day (which is this Sunday, the 12th in case you forgot) as if it were Christmas. Case in point, we’ve been told that the agency is even closing shop this coming Monday so we’re assuming some Sunday revelry will be in order. We’re not sure what the hell that all entails exactly but in the meantime, see the teaser above to get a glimpse at what agency’s got in store today. We’ll update with the full reveal once we receive. We don’t know about you, but a “Momtract” kinda scares us.

Update: Well, the agency seems to have been delayed a bit, but as promised, here’s a full clip promoting Mother’s “Momtract,” which, yes, still scares us, as it’s a contract that “gives mothers back the power they woefully lost as their children aged.” Well, we do remember at a certain point in high school the folks saying that “just because you’re taller than us, doesn’t mean we can’t tell you what to do” (for real). Yep, this just refines that notion, we think. See promo below and, if you dare, draw up your own “Momtract” here:

These ten briefs from Mother and creative charity IdeasTap do offer compensation (£500, or approximately $762) to each week’s winner, so as contests and internships go, 10 by 10 is one of the more lucrative opportunities for freelancers and young graduates. Each week, Mother will roll out a new assignment that needs tackling. At the end of the process, the ten winners will have their work shown, and creative bigwigs will ultimately whittle the weekly winners down to one overall winner who gets a six-week paid internship.

The first brief, according to the project website: “Mother want you come up with a concept for a Twitter feed and start it from scratch. The profile with the most followers and the best content in 10 weeks’ time wins.”  Now comes the cost-benefit analysis from potential applicants–at what point does buying fake followers from a social media service cost more than the potential earnings from winning the competition? Let’s hope the eventual winner doesn’t spend £1000 buying followers and winds up snagging the internship. Or let’s hope for it, because that would be ridiculous. Imagine the internship turns into a full-time position, all because an individual gamed the system.

Something makes me think Mother wouldn’t want that. But, according to a recent article in PC Mag, you can buy 1,000 Twitter followers for as little as $5. Let the games begin.

Late last week, we received a few tips that Optimum would no longer be working with Mother, the latter of which was tapped nearly a year ago to work on a rebranding assignment for the former that eventually culminated a few months later into this. Well, slow down tipsters. A spokesperson for Optimum parent company Cablevision has clarified the brand’s agency relationships with this statement:

“Cablevision does not employ a traditional ‘agency of record’ structure, rather we work with a variety of different agencies at any given time. We expect to work with Mother NY as we continue to evolve the Optimum brand.”

If you recall, Mother’s most recent work for the brand, which includes the clip below starring crooner Michael Bolton, launched just a couple of weeks ago.

Along with Mother, which of course has now taken the creative helm for Burger King, Optimum’s agency roster has included the likes of fellow NYC shop, Gardner Nelson & Partners.

What about the trucker who just had to sit there while a waitress poured fake coffee into an overflowing mug? Or the egg on top of a diner table? The guy swimming with sharks? The wind-up brain toy? The geeky guy playing with a giant ball of yarn? Aloe vera tissues? Yes, all of these things are in the same “Retrain Your Brain” Virgin Mobile commercial, created by Mother NY. The spot is certainly unique, but that doesn’t mean it will get customers to switch from other carriers to Virgin Mobile.

“Retrain Your Brain” was birthed out of focus group findings that suggested customers wouldn’t switch mobile companies even if they were specifically told how much money they could save. So, Mother and Virgin Mobile decided to go with Brazilian triplets, Colonel Meow, and The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne.

Could it be that most customers just aren’t suited for short-term pay-as-you-go phone plans? (Shh, don’t tell Virgin Mobile). Regardless, the spot looks like a surrealist drug sequence from a bad student film. If you’re going to include Brazilian triplets, you might as well use them. Credits after the jump.

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Michael Bolton also told me to tell you that, hey, you’re not the only one enraptured with the pop crooner due to his handsome face and sweet, sultry voice. Michael Bolton’s not going to just drop everything and dedicate his entire day to a phone conversation with you. Why would he? He’s rich, single, and famous. Michael Bolton has more important things to do than talk to one of his many fans about their boring lives. Just, don’t call him, okay? Seriously, back off. Consider this a fair warning.

From Mother NY comes a new campaign for Optimum, the phone, Internet and cable provider that changed their logo last year but reminded you that they weren’t in the logo business because they think you’re stupid. This time around, they’re asking you to call them. Not Michael Bolton. Get it? Because dialing the phone is hard. They think you’ve gotten stupider since your last encounter.

Another new spot from Optimum (above) reminds you that for an optimal TV viewing experience, you should move on your chair or other reclining device in front of the TV. Oh, and I would recommend calling Michael Bolton’s number even though Optimum told you not to. There’s a surprise on the other line. Credits for both spots after the jump.

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By now, we’re sure you’re aware of Burger King shifting its lead ad duties to Mother, which has been working with the fast-food chain for over a year and rocked the boat just months after joining the roster with ads like this.

Anyhow, we received this statement straight from Mother founding partner Andrew Deitchman, who tells us, “Evolving our relationship with Burger King is very exciting and also something to which we’ve given a lot of thought. Mother is a company where the quality of our output is closely tied to our culture. If it changes too fast, nobody is going to be happy-  neither the Mother culture or the client who bought it. Luckily, we’ve got ourselves a client who recognizes this and who tasks us with the jobs we’re really good at.”

From Mother London comes “Make Room for Your Life,” a new campaign for IKEA (you may remember the agency/client’s recent collab) that highlights the benefits of Swedish-designed home storage a reminds you what a ball of filth you’ve become.

The campaign’s first spot, “Living Together,” follows the musical romantic entanglements of a couple whose house is so dirty that they can only communicate to each other through a cover of the Bee Gees’ “Living Together” (performed by British band An Escape Plan). Inject some IKEA whimsy, and the couple unite in a beautiful new living space that would probably take the average person about 6 months to build. But, as this spot as quite an escape from reality, the IKEA storage units assemble themselves and the couple doesn’t fight at all. It’s a twee kid’s dream home.

Peter Wright, IKEA UK and Ireland marketing manager, says of the campaign, “’Make Room for Your Life’ demonstrates our understanding of everyday life at home and the problems that a lack of good storage gives everybody.” Yes, losing your spouse amidst piles of old shit has happened to all of us. So, buy some IKEA storage units or, you know, just throw that crap out or donate it to charity or something. Credits after the jump.

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Mother New York, for whatever reason, decided to hype its music composer/mixer/sound designer Michael Coffman, who they affectionately dub “Ice.” Coffman, who has been with the agency for nearly two years, gets to show off his Zoolander/miming skills that make him look like a castoff from a Godard/Truffaut flick. You can read more about this “campaign” here, while we try to remember the lyrics to Wham’s “Careless Whisper.”

From Mother NY comes a new re-branding campaign for Optimum, an Internet, phone and television company owned by cable giant Cablevision. Though most of us Midwesterners are pretty unfamiliar with the brand, Optimum predominantly serves markets on the East Coast (including Connecticut, New York and New Jersey) and out west (including Colorado, Montana, Utah and Montana).

For Optimum’s first TV branding campaign, Mother, which won the business in April, decided to start simple, with the above spot featuring only the brand’s new Collins-designed logo and four repetitions of of the words “TV, phone and Internet.” Though pretty dull, I’ve found its way of drilling its company’s services into your head is quite effective. Now, if someone asks me what Optimum is, I’ll simply respond, “Oh, they’re like Comcast for the East Coast. They have that logo, but they’re not a logo company.” See? It totally worked.

Also from Mother are a trio of slightly more colorful new spots, each of which argue that, “You, dear consumer, are too busy dealing with your tragically comedic life to have to care about your TV, phone, and/or Internet malfunction. Let us, Optimum take care of it so you don’t have to.” In the above spot, it’s all a bit depressing, that is until you see that little girl sprinting down the street away from her father and training bike. That was just adorable. Two more spots and credits follow after the jump.

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