The Oscars are just around the corner, so now's as good a time as any to start amping yourself up by revisiting past highlights. And the show's producers, with help from 180LA, are making it easy to get a quick fix with the four new ads below, cut together by Oscar-winning editor Kirk Baxter.

The first, "And the Oscar Goes to," features a parade of stars—too many to name, though movie buffs might have a fun time trying to rattle them all off—doing their best victory dances. Their exuberance is pretty moving, even if it's plenty vain, too.



A second, "Holding Oscars," features the campaign's most poignant moment—one second of Robin Williams looking around in breathless gratitude, a genuine scene that makes the loss of such a talent sting all the more in hindsight.



The third spot, a multilingual Kumbaya "Everyone Speaks Oscar," can't help but be a bit corny. (Sure, movies are a universal language, sort of, but really, where would most of us be without subtitles?) Still, the Academy deserves a nod in the Best Lie category for trying to pretend Hollywood isn't a U.S.-dominated enterprise, and implying the winners are an ethnically diverse bunch—when in fact they're mostly white.



The fourth ad, a Valentine's spot featuring the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Tom Hanks kissing their wives at the show, is cute enough, set to the fairly obscure but anachronistically charming sounds of "Am I in Love" from 1952's Son of Paleface, performed by Bob Hope and Jane Russell.



For good measure, 180LA also commissioned a series of 15 posters featuring the Oscar statue alongside various artists interpretations of imagination (a popular theme in ads because it's hard to hate).

The results feature a number of nods to the award show's roots in the Art Deco era, but the standouts are really the weirder takes—like Hattie Stewart's leering, winking cartoon hearts, and Blastto's surrealist eyeball sculpture. Because if those aren't apt metaphors for America's unhealthy obsession with celebrity, what is?

CREDITS
Client: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
President: Cheryl Boone Isaacs
Chief Executive Officer: Dawn Hudson
Chief Marketing Officer: Christina Kounelias
Marketing Manager: Ford Oelman

Agency: 180LA
Chief Creative Officer: William Gelner
Creative Directors: Zac Ryder, Adam Groves
Copywriter: Christina Semak
Art Director: Karine Grigorian
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley
Producer: Nili Zadok
Chief Marketing Officer: Stephen Larkin
Account Manager: Jessica DeLillo
Account Coordinator: Alexandra Conti
Planner: Jason Knight

Holding / Goes to / VDay
Editorial Company: Exile Edit
Editor: Nate Gross (Holding)
Editor: Will Butler (VDay; Goes to)
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Producer: Brittany Carson

Foreign Language
Editor: Dave Groseclose
Producer: Brian Scharwath

Color, Visual Effects, Finishing: The Mill, Los Angeles
Colorist: Adam Scott
Color Executive Producer: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producers: Natalie Westerfield, Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Lead 2-D Artist: Robin McGloin
2-D Artist: Scott Johnson
Art Department: Jeff Langlois, Laurence Konishi
Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
Visual Effects Producer: Kiana Bicoy
Visual Effects Coordinator: Jillian Lynes

Recording, Mix
Recording Studio: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Scott Burns
Assistant Mixer: AJ Murillo
Producer: Dawn Redmann
Executive Producer: Suzanne Hollingshead

A creative team from DDB Sydney gives the Cannes Lions logo a sex change—and proposes a "Cannes Lioness" category—as a way of challenging the creative festival to reward work that reverses the trend of gender-based objectification in advertising.

The 90-second video below, "Sex Sellouts," explains the idea, though the judging criteria for the proposed category are awfully vague. (We're told the Lioness honors work "that changes the culture of objectifying women in order to sell stuff," but that's about it.) Still, using industry awards to inspire ad professionals "to go against the strategy that sells so many hamburgers"—and by extension, fuel a broader media-driven conversation in society—is ironically appealing.



The video was created in response to the brief "Change the conversation around sex," and it won gold in the third round of Young Glory, an ongoing competition for advertising students and professionals. DDB worldwide creative chief Amir Kassaei evaluated the entries. Lest anyone think he simply tossed a prize to his own network, however, Young Glory maintains that the creators weren't identified in the judging phase. (Nepotism in ad awards? Never!)

Philip Thomas, CEO of the Lions Festivals, appears to be a fan. "We love the thinking behind DDB Sydney's idea," he tells AdFreak. "The representation of women in this industry, and in society at large, is something Cannes Lions feels a responsibility to address. Last year, we launched the 'See It Be It' initiative to accelerate creative women's careers in the industry. This year, we've been working hard, together with the industry, on a big idea that we'll be ready to announce in the next two weeks. It's really encouraging to see that the whole industry—veterans, rookies, male and female—is at a stage where we want to fight for the same vision."

It's unclear exactly what that "big idea" will be, or if it will in any way resemble a "Lioness" category roaring into this year's festival.

You arrived at this article because you either love infographics and one more couldn't hurt, or you're dying to know why everyone loves them so much. 

Neomam Studios takes a fascinating look at some of the data behind these highly shareable images. For example, did you know 70 percent of all our sensory receptors are in our eyes? Or that it takes only 150 milliseconds to process a symbol and 100 milliseconds to attach a meaning to it?

Are we pretty sure you're skipping these words and going straight to the image? Very. So, take a look at this very meta infographic about infographics.

Coca-Cola hasn't had much luck making the Internet a happier place lately, but maybe this will help—a fun campaign from Coca-Cola Puerto Rico that puts smiley-face emojis right in the brand's web addresses.

The brand registered URLs for every emoji that conveys happiness. Entering any of these happy icons into a mobile web browser, along with the .ws suffix, leads users to Coca-­Cola Puerto Rico's website.

Why .ws, which is actually the domain suffix for Samoa?

"Emojis are not accepted on domains such as .com, .net, and .org," DDB Puerto Rico says. "After doing some research on domains that do accept emojis, we opted to go with the .ws because the letters could stand for 'We smile' and hence seemed most relevant to the brand."



For now, all the emoji URLs lead to a special landing page, Emoticoke.com, where consumers can sign up for a chance to get emoji web addresses of their very own. The campaign is being supported by traditional media, including outdoor.

"The vast majority of our audience now visits our website via a mobile device. And since emojis have become a kind of second language for Coke's younger consumers, we felt this was a great opportunity to connect on a deeper level with our most important demographic," says Alejandro Gómez, president of Coca-Cola Puerto Rico.

Saatchi & Saatchi uses suggestive visual humor, and deadpan delivery from actor Alan Cumming, to skewer the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration's rules around donating blood.

At issue is a recent revision in the FDA's regulations that allows gay and bisexual men to give blood, but only if they have haven't had sex for a year. (They were previously barred entirely, based on concerns about exposure to HIV.)

With tongue firmly in cheek, Cumming introduces a series of eight non-sexual activities that that are "guaranted to make your year without sex fly by."

Among them: Apply your manual dexterity to packing powder into a Civil War musket; thrust your hips into yoga; and polish your trophies. The logo "Celibacy Challenge" logo also is a riot—a pair of red briefs with a white lock over them.

The ad points to celibacychallenge.com, where you can sign a petition.



Saatchi and Bullit director Ari Sandel created the mock PSA for GLAAD and the Gay Men's Health Crisis, which want the FDA rules to be based on risk factors, not sexual orientation, and are petitioning the federal agency to make that change. The pro-bono ad, which is being distributed online via the hashtag #CelibacyChallenge, went up Thursday on YouTube.

CREDITS
Clients: GLAAD, Gay Men's Health Crisis
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
Chief Creative Officer: Jay Benjamin
Creative Director, Art: Johnnie Ingram
Creative Director, Copy: Chris Skurat
Design Director: Juan Saucedo
Art Directors: Mete Erdogan, Matilda Kahl
Copywriters: Callum Spencer, Viktor Angwald                                                 
Chief Production Officer: Tanya LeSieur
Director of Content Production: John Doris
Executive Producer: Dani Stoller
Integrated Producer: Matt Micioni
Lead Creative Technologist: Steve Nowicki
Digital Strategist: Shae Carroll
Information Architects: Robert Moon, Kelly Redzack           
Head of Art Buying: Maggie Sumner
Lead Retoucher: Yan Apostolides
Proofreader: Ed Stein
Chief Marketing Officer: Christine Prins 
Talent Director: Akash Sen
Account Director: Rebecca Robertson
Associate Director, Business Development: Jamie Daigle
Account Supervisor: Carly Wallace
Project Manager: Bridget Auerbach
Production Company: Bullitt 
Director: Ari Sandel
Directors of Photography: Warren Kommers (Alan Cumming)
Benjamin Kitchens (vignettes)
Executive Producer, CEO: Todd Makurath
Line Producer: Nathaniel Greene
Editing House: Arcade Edit
Editor: Jeff Ferruzzo
Assistant Editor: Mark Popham
Producer: Fanny Cruz
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Music House: Nylon
Producer: Christina Carlo
Audio: Sound Lounge
Mixer: Glen Landrum
Post House/Telecine: Company 3
Colorist: Tom Poole

What is branding? You could spent a thousand years reading a million books on the subject. Or you could watch the two-minute video below, which tries to capture its fundamental essence—with snazzy little motion graphics to help you along.

"Entrepreneurs, innovators, disruptors, CEOs and CMOs have enough landlines to sidestep when tackling the branding beast," says the video's creator, David Brier of DBD International."Written plainly with equally minimalistic motion graphics, this video unveils the magic, the spark and the simplicity that is branding in its most fundamental form."

What do you think? Useful, or overly simplistic?

Jim Elliott, the new global chief creative officer of Arnold Worldwide, and voiceover artist Paul Guyet made these two amusing videos (in what looks like Michael's house from GTA5) explaining how to win a 2015 Radio Mercury Award—by demonstrating all the terrible radio ad clichés that will guarantee failure.

Elliott (who's also the chief Mercury judge this year) even has a "NO" button to make his disapproval absolutely clear. Guyet is clearly having a ball with his impressions, and some of them are frighteningly accurate. Yes, nightclub ads really do sound that rapey.



The side effects portion of video No. 1 introduced the phrase "anal snoring" to my lexicon, which I consider a plus. Video No. 2 is more of the same, with Elliott and Guyet taking on AutoTune, bad writing and yelling, and long website URLs.

After all this, I'd be interested to hear what they like about radio advertising, because the tropes these videos are crapping on represent about 99 percent of it. Hey guys, how about some examples of what wins a Mercury?

Submissions are being accepted now through April 6 for this year's Radio Mercury Awards. Enter at RadioMercuryAwards.com.



CREDITS
Client: Radio Advertising Bureau
Voiceover artist: Paul Guyet
Script: Robert Rooney, Creative Director, Y&R NY
Director Kevin R. Frech
Camera: Taylor Christoffel
Recording Studio: Sound Lounge
Recording Engineer: Collin Blendell
Production Company: Logical Chaos
Editor: Nick Fehver

The 1980s were a special decade. Disco was experiencing its death rattle; Ronald Reagan was the president for almost the entire span; cellphones were as big as bricks; and fashion, oh the fashion was just—tubular.

Earlier this week, in honor of Molly Ringwald and John Hughes's birthday, Comedy Central's late-night game show/Internetgasm @midnight challenged its viewers to play a fun hashtag game, imagining if that totally awesome decade never stopped. 
 

Let's keep the 80's theme & play #IfThe80sNeverStopped! What if that party was STILL GOING?! (HBD @MollyRingwald& John Hughes!)

— @midnight (@midnight) February 19, 2015

Of course, brands caught wind—and showed us their take on how things might not have changed. And actually, they turned in some totally rad tweets.

Check some of them out below.
 

#IfThe80sNeverStopped we'd still be baking in puffed sleeves. pic.twitter.com/lwNThY9uPu

— Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped, we'd still be rocking out to this chart-topping hit: https://t.co/MIdxYalcP1 (Okay, fine. We still are.)

— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped Doodles would still be our mascot. pic.twitter.com/JPUUQyOioc

— Chick-fil-A, Inc. (@ChickfilA) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped, we'd all have huge phone-answering biceps. #MotorolaDynaTAC#TBT#Motorolapic.twitter.com/56XFGzGJG2

— Motorola Mobility (@Motorola) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped we'd totally offer you the raddest selection of boom boxes.

— Best Buy (@BestBuy) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped There'd be one of these in every living room! #tbtpic.twitter.com/gs6Gg7b8Uy

— IKEA USA (@IKEAUSA) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped We'd be eating a BLT with leg warmers and a side pony.

— Hellmann's (@Hellmanns) February 19, 2015

Don't you want me baby? #IfThe80sNeverStoppedpic.twitter.com/hrK5UKsqbp

— Nissan (@NissanUSA) February 19, 2015

You would have to go to a restaurant. #IfThe80sNeverStopped

— Seamless (@Seamless) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped I would taste exactly the same! :-) #TootsieRoll

— Tootsie Roll (@TootsieRoll) February 19, 2015

Oops... okay. Now THIS is our sweet new #Supra we'd still be rocking out in. #IfThe80sNeverStoppedpic.twitter.com/ifCjdN5I3M

— Toyota USA (@Toyota) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped We would've built this tweet by hand and thrown it at you.

— Craftsman Tools (@craftsman) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped All of your romantic dinners would look like this. #throwbackthursday#tbtpic.twitter.com/yRkMtlv9fe

— Tyson Foods (@TysonFoods) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped You'd be using this mouse to surf the world wide web. pic.twitter.com/Kr2TJa6kFH

— Logitech (@Logitech) February 19, 2015

Gain #IfThe80sNeverStoppedpic.twitter.com/waG5OxMmam— Gain Laundry (@Gain) February 19, 2015

You'd get a serious arm ache holding up this bad boy #IfThe80sNeverStopped. What would be your 80's ringtone? pic.twitter.com/myXyQgGive— Tesco Mobile (@tescomobile) February 19, 2015

You'd use your really huge cell phone to take a #selfie of your really huge hair #IfThe80sNeverStoppedpic.twitter.com/NBhcPAUJYX— Wix.com (@Wix) February 19, 2015

Gordon Gekko would still be looking #suave with this 2 lb. cellphone #IfThe80sNeverStoppedpic.twitter.com/uupTJeT0Wc

— Quirky (@Quirky) February 19, 2015

#IfThe80sNeverStopped Pre-ban's with fixed carry handles for EVERYBODY! #ColtContent#AR15#M16#M4pic.twitter.com/D0MuBHvxqF

— Colt Firearms (@ColtFirearms) February 19, 2015

If you were a fan of Christopher Guest's classic movie Best in Show, PetSmart has the perfect campaign for you.

The brand, with agency GDS&M, hired the writer, actor and filmmaker to direct a set of commercials in his signature mockumentary style, under the tagline "Partners in Pethood." The results are, unsurprisingly, great. 

Like the movie, which Guest co-wrote and directed, the campaign features a parade of awkward, pet-obsessed nutjobs—including two played by Anna Faris and Jennifer Coolidge—who deliver their various quirks in perfect deadpan.

Faris plays a ditzy, catty dog owner throwing a birthday party for her terrier. In a second ad, Coolidge, a veteran Guest talent, nails the overbearing mother-in-law act in the campaign's best, and riskiest, clip—the interplay with her character's son is pretty spectacular.

Both ads broke during the Oscars on Sunday night—in 30-second versions—and three more spots are worth watching for more ridiculous, doting pet lovers.

There are even some good extra tidbits in the behind-the-scenes video, which goes out of its way to strengthen the somewhat odd "Pethood" positioning.

"When I hear the term 'Pethood,' it makes me want to give my child up—I have a human child—and just be the mommy to a bunch of animal," says Faris. Adds Coolidge, "I never really liked my children, but I sure love my animals."

In other words, it's is a wonky portmanteau, but pokes fun at its target consumers in just the right spirit. And while Big Lots took a swing at treating pets like people in its focus-group themed spots last fall, the talent, pacing, and heritage here blow any competition out of the water.



CREDITS
Client: PetSmart
EVP Customer Experience: Phil Bowman
VP Marketing Communications: Shane McCall
Sr. Creative, Content Developer: Valerie Lederer
Assoc. Creative Manager, TV & Video: Tara Niederhaus
Agency: GSD&M
Group Creative Director/Art Director: Scott Brewer
Group Creative Director/Writer: Ryan Carroll
Assoc. Creative Director/Art Director: Ross Aboud
Assoc. Creative Director/Writer: Kevin Dunleavy
Account Director: Scott Moore
Account Supervisor: Brittany Hammer
Account Manager: Lauren Bradshaw
SVP, Director of Production: Jack Epsteen
Agency Producer: Monique Veillette
Associate Agency Producer: Adrian Weast
Production Company: GO
Director: Christopher Guest
Managing Director: Gary Rose
Executive Producer: Adam Bloom
Executive Producer: Catherine Finkenstaedt
Producer: Mark Hyatt
DP: Kristian Kachikis
Editorial: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Gavin Cutler

Bonpoint, the luxury French fashion house for children, wants you to play peekaboo with its child models.

Fred & Farid Shanghai produced an interactive website for the brand, which asks for access to your webcam and microphone. Adorable children in expensive clothing stare at you while you cover your eyes, uncover them, and shout peekaboo. The adorable children then laugh.

The agency calls it "maybe the cutest interactive website ever," but I found it super uncomfortable. I took one for the team, tried it out, and had to adjust my screen so the children were "staring" at my ceiling and not at my face. On the plus side, you get to admire their clothing and then click on a link to buy the whole outfit (for $200).

The kids are adorable, and the clothing is beautiful, but something about it—maybe it's the green light suggesting that you're being recorded—feels a little bit like I'm starring in an M. Night Shyamalan film.

Everyone and their personal brand logged on to social media on Sunday night to let their followers know how much better they are than movie stars. Meanwhile, actual brands spent the night unabashedly making it all about themselves—instead of throwing shade on celebs.

Some tried to have a real-time-marketing-moment, but among the flurry of thematic entries, most seemed pre-planned. Check out some of their efforts below.

 
—From the red carpet:

No #ManiCam? We can't be THAT intimidating. #AndTheLobsterGoesTopic.twitter.com/KmiW3lIa0V

— Red Lobster (@redlobster) February 23, 2015

We think @Logitech has what it takes to really click on the red carpet. #GearLovepic.twitter.com/PkhV6UEzKE

— Office Depot (@officedepot) February 22, 2015

A designer loaned me an outfit for #OscarsRedCarpet too. By designer I mean "hotel" And by outfit I mean "bathrobe" pic.twitter.com/DXNY9VjM8Y

— Travelocity Gnome (@RoamingGnome) February 23, 2015

 
—Lots of brands paid homage to Ellen's epic group selfie from last year:

The award for best supporting actor in a selfie goes to…the stick. #RedCarpet#PlayWithOreohttp://t.co/zIl1IyN9ndpic.twitter.com/iX8nhhNRmQ

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 22, 2015

Who's ready for another epic #selfie? #Oscarspic.twitter.com/gVAC8zvr3k

— Coors Light (@CoorsLight) February 22, 2015

Throwback to last year's awards show! pic.twitter.com/kgf4Mt3L8i

— SUBWAY® (@SUBWAY) February 22, 2015

 
—Farmers Insurance and M&M's were both thrilled by J.K. Simmons' win, as he endorses both brands (he's the voice of the Yellow M&M):

It's Oscar gold for #JKSimmons! Congrats on snagging Best Supporting Actor for an amazing performance in Whiplash. #BumBuDumBumBumBumBum

— Farmers Insurance (@WeAreFarmers) February 23, 2015

CONGRATS! #JKSimmons I'm speechless. Never mind. Found one. – Your #1 Fan Yellow pic.twitter.com/urGOB98b1W

— M&M'S® Brand (@mmschocolate) February 23, 2015

 
—PetSmart scored with this real-time tweet, after Birdman won Best Original Screenplay and one of the winners thanked his dog Larry:

You always make time to thank your family. #LarryTheDog#Oscars#PetParenthoodpic.twitter.com/lcrvfHuxD3

— PetSmart (@PetSmart) February 23, 2015

 
—So many versions of the Oscar trophy, too:

#EverythingIsAwesome at the #Oscars! pic.twitter.com/A7HzK7FOGG

— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) February 23, 2015

Even Oscar has the confidence to leave his at home. #GoCommando#Oscars2015pic.twitter.com/AJkJdrpRMV

— Cottonelle (@cottonelle) February 23, 2015

And the O-ward for Best Came-O goes to... #FingersCrossedpic.twitter.com/H9uPttcnm2

— SpaghettiOs (@SpaghettiOs) February 23, 2015

Everyone's all like "The #Oscars is on" and I'm all like "What am I gonna eat during the #Oscars" pic.twitter.com/7eVuaddFlD

— Jimmy John's (@jimmyjohns) February 23, 2015

wow omg thank you I'm so surprised first I'd like to thank my mom, she's an oven, and my dad, he's a freezer. pic.twitter.com/orwBCCeYK3

— Pete Zaroll (@totinos) February 23, 2015

 
—One brand even paid homage to the Emmy trophy, for some reason:

I'd like to thank the burger academy. It's an honor just to be NOM-inated. pic.twitter.com/yFYoDAmLME

— Jack in the Box (@JackBox) February 23, 2015

 
—Among the best of the rest:

Film editing is the crust. Sauce is like visual effects & cheese is sound edit COME ON GUYS JUST TRYING TO MAKE THESE CATEGORIES INTERESTING

— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) February 23, 2015

One of his wingmen is an actual bird. #BestOriginalScreenplay

— Dos Equis (@DosEquis) February 23, 2015

ok but how many awards will this tasty hit win? pic.twitter.com/mRXFtb3dfE

— Denny's (@DennysDiner) February 23, 2015

Baffled about what to do with your worst-performing employees? Reward them with a trip to the Cannes Lions festival in the south of France this summer!

That's the tongue-in-cheek message of the festival's official ad campaign, which launches Monday. Don't think of it as a reward. Think of it as an investment in creativity. After all, as the tagline points out, sending underperforming staff to Cannes as delegates is "cheaper than severance."

Photographer Dan Burn-Forti shot both the print ads and the online videos, created by McCann London.

"Although our campaign is humorous, it makes a very sensible point. Why should being a Cannes Lions delegate be the preserve of the already excellent?" says Rob Doubal, co-president and chief creative officer of McCann London. "If we really want a more creative world, as we all profess, we should also be encouraging the not-so-excellent performers to be inspired by Cannes Lions."

So, if your boss hasn't penciled you in for a Cannes trip, now's the time to evolve your approach from sucking up to just plain sucking.

 
The print ads:

 
The videos:

Honda teaches you to speed read in a series of ads which—in a nice nod to its vehicles—keep accelerating if you're up for a challenge.

Apps have revolutionized speed read lately by displaying a single word on the screen at a time, one right after another in rapid succession. Partly because this reduces eye movement, these apps help readers not just beat but destroy the average reading pace of 220 words per minute. (Most of the apps default to 250 words a minute to start.)



The Honda campaign, from Wieden + Kennedy in London, uses the same technique—with the on-screen copy that flashes by in a trim, minimalist 40-second spot. A second ad lasts 30 seconds, with the text moving that much quicker. A third and final ad lasts just 20 seconds. (It's kind of a shame there aren't more. I was prepared to see how fast I could really go.)

The three spots combined have more than half a million YouTube views in a couple of days. That's some speedy likes for some speedy reading.

No workplace email gets trashed faster than a mass reminder to clean out the company refrigerator. Heck, I wouldn't even bother to open one. (Such an email, I mean. The fridge—I'd open that, sure. I've got to stow my Limburger-onion hoagies someplace.)

At Boston agency Allen & Gerritsen, however, the weekly "Clean the fridge" emails are savored like delicacies thanks to facilities associate Mike Boston, who also happens to be a local hip-hop artist. Each Friday, Boston (yes, it's his name and where he lives, deal with it) cooks up a sweet confection of pop-culture references, employee/client riffs and in-jokes designed to remind staff to remove their leftovers from the premises.

His couplets blow the doors off the fridge:
"Chickens go from so sad to so mad, it's so bad
Clucking 'round the ham like a nomad with no dad."

And they expose moldy (nay, "fuzzy") dregs to the masses:
"Those cuddly-wuddly eyes! How could I deny you?
Spoon-fed with hummus love.
Where in the fridge'd they hide you?"

Tasty puns are on the menu:
"Clean your spoon wisely.
Fork you and have a knife day!"

As are some appetizing free verse reminders:
"Please claim your food in the refrigerators or label it.
This is the one time it's ok to put a label on things."

Lest anyone think Boston is just a bard of the break room, he's begun to put his stamp on the agency's creative product, writing and recording a track for the Boston Celtics' "Green Runs Deep" campaign.

Check out a few of his full emails below. Dude's rhymes are fresh. Even if the food isn't.

Photo: Indi Samarajiva/Flickr

Is your creative director a douchebag? Before you reflexively blurt out yes, take a moment and put a little science into proving it.

The Creative Director Douchebag Detector Device asks you to describe your boss (or yourself, if you're so inclined) and then determines the kind and level of douchiness embodied therein. 

"This state-of-the-art-futuristic-hi-tek-gismo will calculate the potential DBAG risk of that overly paid Creative Leader," the device's makers say. "Simply adjust the dials and toggle the knobs to the exact specifications you are looking for in said Creative Leader and…. Beep! Boop! Beep! DING! You will know with 99.997% accuracy whether the Creative Leader you want to hire has real potential … to be a complete Dill Weed."

Via AgencySpy.

If you're looking for an unconventional workout, Reebok might suggest carrying a stranger up a flight of stairs, just so he or she doesn't have to walk.

Last week, when the escalators in Stockholm's subway stations were out of order, the sportswear brand, along with agency The Viral Company, recruited a bunch of athletes from Fit 4 Life, a local CrossFit gym, to give commuters a lift.



Despite the reasonable odds that the women panting at the top of the stairs—as well as some of the people who don't seem to mind getting slung over some rando's shoulder—are agency employees, the idea is cute, and a nice, down-to-earth extension of Reebok's lofty new "Be More Human" strategy. (While there's nothing special about Good Samaritans helping solo parents carry strollers up stairs, helping a pregnant woman by actually carrying her is a little more unusual—she was, according to the agency, late for a meeting.)

Nonetheless, the ad's everyman heroes aren't really doing anything impressive until they're carrying their passengers raised overhead with one arm, like this guy. And they're obviously not truly hard core unless they have a giant tattoo of Reebok's logo, like this woman—though she is just one of some 28 Reebok-branded humans currently known to reside in Sweden, according to a recent headcount from the company.

American Express tells four heartfelt stories of celebrity struggle, and ultimate success, in these spots from Oglivy & Mather. The ads—featuring queen of soul Aretha Franklin, sitcom star Mindy Kaling, GoPro founder Nick Woodman and restauranteur Natalie Young—aired in edited form during Sunday's Academy Awards on ABC.

The stars, all AmEx customers, recall how they battled adversity. Franklin vanquished youthful shyness and insecurity to become a dynamic stage performer. Kaling overcame typecasting, refusing to play second-banana roles—"best friends" and such—as she climbed the ladder in Hollywood. Woodman reinvented himself from scratch, even moving in with his parents, after his first business failed and he lost $4 million of investors' money.



Young's tale of addiction is the most intense. "Everything that was good, was gone," she says in a sobering voiceover. "I lost my family. I lost friends, lovers, jobs. … I took any job I could get. I trimmed trees. I washed cars. I just felt like a number. I didn't feel like I was important, and that I was irreplaceable. And they made sure I knew that, that I felt like that. I know, today, that I don't want anybody that works with me to feel that way."

At the end of each spot, AmEx tries to forge a connection between endorsers, viewers and the company's offerings. For example, during Young's story, text flashes on screen: "To the next generation of late bloomers, welcome." Kaling's ad mentions "the next generation of unlikely leading ladies." Ultimately, AmEx reminds us that "The journey never stops," positioning its products and services as helpful tools to have along the way.

"People think we're just a brand of when you quote, unquote 'arrive,' " Marie Devlin, AmEx's svp of global advertising, tells The Wall Street Journal. "We very much want to be with people along their journey through life. It's not about a final destination."

That strategy is fairly well implemented here. The spots look great, and the storytelling is first rate. It's compelling, inspirational stuff, perhaps even refreshing and unexpected for the brand and the category.

Still, there's a disconnect. There's no evidence, nor even a suggestion, that AmEx helped them achieve stardom—or anything, actually, so the value proposition remains elusive. OK, they carry AmEx cards in their wallets. With all due respect: So what? (At least the campaign's main social component—asking users to tweet in return for AmEx's financial support of a documentary about ballerina Misty Copeland—displays some cause and effect.)

The whole initiative would be stronger if it focused on famous folks who scored major life victories precisely because, at pivotal points in their development, they used AmEx, and the company's services pulled them through. That would give the campaign an extra layer of integrity, and perhaps deter those who would point out that charge cards—often misused in times of desperation—can bring people's journeys to a crashing halt.

Cottonelle wants you to "go commando." That's right, the toilet paper brand says you should walk around without underwear because its CleanRipple texture imparts a superior clean.

In fact, they've hired documentary filmmaker and British accent possessor Cherry Healey to intercept random people who've just used the toilet and ask them to go commando.  Whereupon they hide in a little pop-up tent, take off their underpants and receive an undies storage baggie and some Cottonelle—in stunts that are both bizarre and amusing.

I can only surmise that part of the reason they picked Healey is because Poo-Pourri's success taught marketers that Americans like it when potty humor is delivered via a British accent. In fact, Time Out recently found that British accents are considered the most sexy.

Speaking of sexy, Cottonelle isn't just doing this commando stuff to hawk its product. It's doing it for the good of musicians everywhere. Musicians who have been much maligned by the odious habit women have of throwing our undergarments on stage. Musicians like New Kids on the Block, who kicked off the Cottonelle campaign on Feb. 15 with an intimate concert that didn't get intimate enough for underwear throwing.



The Kimberly-Clark brand will be joining the first leg of the NKOTB summer tour to offer "an elevated bathroom experience," and surprise meets and greets with the boys—which presumably only happen if you agree to remove your underwear ahead of time. Meow.

So, if you want to trust your butt to clean ripple, challenge a friend with a free sample, or just want to browse a lot of pictures of people showing side-hip to prove their not wearing underwear, head over to Cottonelle's website. And take a moment to wonder about this new trend in bathroom humor that's sweeping marketing.



CREDITS
—TV
Director: Fred Goss
Production Company: Company Films
Editor: Matt Walsh
Editorial Company: Cutters
Sound: John Binder
Sound Studio: Another Country
Agency: Trisect
Chief Creative Officer: Chris Cancilla
Chief Strategy Officer: Gabe Misarti
Executive Creative Director: Kevin Hughes
Group Creative Director: Mel Routhier
Senior Copywriter: Dan Lewis
Senior Art Director: Garrett Fleming
Copywriter: Aaron Vick
Group Account Director: Soraya Faber
Account Director: Meg Graeff
Account Executive: Jeanette Polanin
Strategic Planning Director: Danielle Simon
Producer: Corrine Serritella

—Print
Photographer: Liz Von Hoene
Studio: Stockland Martel
Retoucher: Kellie Kulton
Agency: Trisect
Chief Creative Officer: Chris Cancilla
Chief Strategy Officer: Gabe Misarti
Executive Creative Director: Kevin Hughes
Group Creative Director: Mel Routhier
Senior Copywriter: Dan Lewis
Senior Art Director: Garrett Fleming
Copywriter: Aaron Vick
Group Account Director: Soraya Faber
Account Director: Meg Graeff
Account Executive: Jeanette Polanin
Strategic Planning Director: Danielle Simon
Producer: Corrine Serritella

BBDO New York's "Brady Bunch" Super Bowl campaign for Snickers had a great out-of-home teaser element that not too many people saw—but now you can, as video of it was posted Tuesday to the brand's YouTube page.

The teaser video with Danny Trejo brushing his hair in the mirror rolled out online on Jan. 21. But the billboard campaign began way earlier—back in the first week of the year. By Jan. 9, people were already taking photos of the hand-painted New York City board (originally just showing Marcia Brady) and posting them online, tagged #WhatsUpWithMarcia.
 

This is AMAZING! If you're in #NYC you have to find this: Canal & Lafayette #WhatsUpWithMarciahttp://t.co/c7EcY1vLWd#ad

— MARIO (@MarioPalush) January 9, 2015

 
Over a period of a few weeks, painters slowly transformed sweet Marcia into surly Danny. Check out that process in the new video here:



The video isn't just a recap of the creative, either. Rather, it kicks off a new U.S. promotion. A spokesperson with Mars Chocolate North America tells us that fans can visit EatA.Snickers.com and show the brand (in photos or videos) who they are when they're hungry—for a chance to win cash prizes and a YouTube takeover for a day.

Last fall, Fox Searchlight gave away limited-edition Birdman action figures as part of its marketing for the movie. Now, the Best Picture Oscar winner is reopening in cinemas—and getting a dose of new marketing, including a commercial for those toys.

It's a fun little morsel of '90s nostalgia—a parody of old Saturday morning toy ads. And like the film it's promoting, it's a multi-layered gem. It has more cuts than the entire movie, though, and also has young children (certainly not the target demo of the R-rated film itself). This is surely a nod to the original Birdman cartoon from the '60s and the subsequent Adult Swim reboot.



"Hey kids! You too can now defeat Birdman's arch-nemesis The Condor with this spiffy Birdman Action Figure! Batteries not included," says the YouTube page, which goes on to mention that Birdman reopens in theaters this weekend.

Check out the ad, but don't get too close—it "smells like balls."

And for more Birdman action figure goodness, check out BirdmanSpeaks.com—and click on the speech bubbles. But make sure you have headphones. This isn't G-rated stuff.