Yo, grinches. I challenge you not to tear up, just a little, as you watch "The Other Letter," a holiday video from Ikea created by McCann Spain.

Young children are asked to write two letters saying what they want for Christmas. The first is addressed to the Three Kings—rather than Santa, because this is Spain—and predictably, the kids ask for material stuff like toys and games. The more creative requests include a Wii gaming system, a piano and a unicorn. (Sounds like my Christmas list, actually.)

Next, they're asked to write a wish list addressed to their parents. At first, the kids seem perplexed—their confused reactions are priceless. Ultimately, they compose letters that are completely different from their Three Kings requests, with lists that reflect the deeper meaning of the season. "Imagine," says one of the kids' moms, "you want to give them the best you can, and the best is yourself!"



The campaign uses the hashtags #LaOtraCarta and @LaOtraNatividad and includes "The Other Christmas," a moving 60-second spot (see below) directed by Primo's Felipe that employs a lighter touch to deliver its message.

Sure, the approach is manipulative, and the theme is perhaps only tangentially connected to Ikea. Even so, it's a potent stocking stuffer, and a worthy addition to the furniture chain's year-long stream of offbeat and memorablebrand content.

Another great takeaway from the video: Kids don't really need unicorns to be happy. That should come as a relief to parents, as feeding and stable costs can really add up.

Holiday safety is the theme of the latest "Dumb Ways to Die" video from Metro Trains and McCann in Melbourne, Australia.

Tangerine Kitty, which sang on the iconic original PSA from 2012, performs a version of "Deck the Halls" here. The lyrics warn against overloading electrical sockets to power festive lights or nibbling on toxic mistletoe. ("Christmas is a time to cherish/Don't be dumb or you will perish!") The song is available to buy on iTunes, with proceeds benefiting the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal.

This is just the latest extension of a campaign originally designed to promote rail safety. Other permutations include a Halloween safety video, a game for iPhone and iPad, and (unrelated) ads for a life insurance company.



Most of these iterations have proven popular to varying degrees. Still, I wonder if the inspiration has begun to wane—"Deck the Halls" treads familiar ground—and if these incautious cartoon cuties might be wearing out their welcome.

Overkill … now that's a dumb way to die.

CREDITS
Client: Metro Trains
Agency: McCann, Melbourne
Production: Airbag Productions; Electric Dreams
Recording Artists: Tangerine Kitty with members of the Salvation Army Choir

RB, formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser, has shifted its consolidated vitamins, minerals and supplements business, including brands Airborne and MegaRed, to McCann Erickson. 

McCann was awarded RB's Mucinex and Delsym business following a global review earlier this year in which RB shifted creative responsibilities for several brands to McCann, Wieden + Kennedy and Droga5.

An RB statement cited the "the excellent work" McCann has already done on Mucinex as a reason for the vitamins, minerals and supplements shift.  

Karlin Williams Graybill previously handled the business in the U.S.; Havas Worldwide ran the business overseas. The brands spent nearly $20 million in media during the first six months of this year and almost $47 million in media in 2013, according to Kantar. Representatives for McCann and RB could not immediately be reached. 

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:

Brands are obsessed with space, getting to space, and anything that's been to space. This week, it was Jose Cuervo's chance to boldly go where no tequila brand had gone before—and hopefully make it home safely.

In honor of National Margarita Day last Sunday, Cuervo and its agency, McCann New York—using aerospace technology and GPS tracking—launched a container of margarita ingredients heavenward, hoping to mix a cocktail in space and parachute it back to Earth.

See how that went in this video:

The agency teamed up with independent space program JP Aerospace, along with scientists who led the Phoenix Mission to Mars, to build and launch the spacecraft. The launch site was Pinal County Park, about an hour north of Tucson, Ariz.

Severe buffeting of winds at high altitude shook the margarita, and the extreme cold froze it. When the capsule reached about 100,000 feet into space, the weather balloons shattered and the capsule parachuted down.

The margarita landed in a ravine 100 miles from the launch site. It reportedly tasted good.

How do you get the word out about Durex in Indonesia or Coca-Cola in Kenya? How does Nestlé target consumers in rural India?

The challenges of serving ads in emerging countries are different than in more mature markets like the United States and Europe. So this week, Facebook launched a program for the top worldwide agencies to learn about advertising in less developed areas—it's called the Creative Accelerator. For now, Facebook says, the program is not for small businesses and independent retailers. It's for the Cokes of the world to learn how to build ads that work on phones running on slower networks in far-flung lands.

The creative program includes agencies like McCann, Publicis and Omnicom, working with brands like Durex, Samsung and Axe to build campaigns that can run no matter what device a consumer is using or at what speed.

"Technical limitation is not a limitation of cultural sophistication," said Mark D'Arcy, head of Facebook's creative shop. "Creativity is not limited by the bandwidth or by any one phone a person owns."

The creative program puts Facebook's team on the ground overseas to work directly with local offices of the agencies and brands. Together, they set up campaigns that send video ads to users on faster networks and photos to users on flip phones, among other targeting tactics.

The international market is a key area for Facebook's growth. In a program unrelated to the Creative Accelerator, the company is trying to connect the next billion people through its Internet.org program, which hooks people up online but does not feature ad experiences.

Also, with 1.4 billion monthly users, 436 million of them are from countries outside North America, Europe and Asia. That's almost a third of its audience. Meanwhile, only about 10 percent of its revenue comes from outside more developed markets.  

Here's a look at how Durex, Coca-Cola and Nestlé ran Facebook ads overseas, according to a new report from the social network:

Durex
Country: Indonesia
Goal: Target consumers with a message that showed condoms are more than for safety. The message was to make "love pleasurable."
Targeting: They built the creative to run on low-end smartphones and flip phones and changed the copy for men and women.
Results: 25-point lift in ad recall, 4-point boost in purchase intent, and 3-point lift in brand recommendation

Coca-Cola
Country: Kenya
Goal: Spread the word about happiness and sharing a coke, a classic theme from the soda company.
Targeting: Flip phones are most dominant in the African nation, and the types of devices and networks people use are diverse. The campaign shared photos with Kenyans of their fellow citizens drinking a Coke and included the hashtag Kenyan Happiness, prompting people to share their own photos and continue to spread the message. The campaign also hit ex-pats and tourists in the country.

Nestlé
Country: India
Goal: Increase sales of Everyday Dairy Whitener, a creamer, and for the first time present it as a direct rival to milk for use in tea or coffee.
Targeting: They went after people 18 years old and older in cities with video ads because of faster bandwidths and better phones. In the rural northeast part of India, they went with photos to accommodate lower-end phones and slower connections.

Coca-Cola might be looking to move away from "Open Happiness." 

The brand has asked 10 roster agencies to pitch ideas for Coke's next global campaign: Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Ore.; David; Dentsu; FCB in South Africa; Martin Mercado; McCann in Madrid; Ogilvy; Santo; Sra Rushmore; and The Cyranos.  

"We have invited a selection of our key agencies from around the world to bring their best thinking to Coca-Cola in order to create the strongest work for our flagship brand," said a company representative in a statement.

The brand launched "Open Happiness" in 2009 during American Idol and rolled it out to over 200 markets globally. At one point, CeeLo Green even recorded a single for it. The campaign, which has used "Open Happiness" as its slogan in print, television and digital marketing, replaced "The Coke Side of Life." 

Since Coke's new chief marketing officer, Marcos de Quinto, recently took the reins, the move isn't surprising. Also, given the brand's recent trouble with #MakeItHappy—which spawned a milquetoast Super Bowl spot and was pranked by Gawker on Twitter—a fresh campaign might help buoy the brand's image.  

A rep said Coke is looking for new messaging now to ensure it continues to have global appeal, engages and entertains consumers, and drives business growth. It's unclear how long the selection process will take, or when the brand might unveil a new marketing effort.

In life, as in advertising, the best idea usually wins.

That simple insight informs McCann's campaign for the 2015 Clio Awards, featuring pairs of famous foes—Nelson Mandela and Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid; Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner; Al Capone and J. Edgar Hoover; and angel and devil.

"It's just this simple idea that, throughout history, the best ideas always go right to the top," says Noel Cottrell, chief creative officer at Fitzgerald & Co. (part of McCann) who helmed the campaign, on the Clio site."There are very few times when bad ideas have trumped. If you think about fashion, or politics, or life generally, the best ideas win. We think it's a great expression of that."



The campaign is alternately goofy and serious. Cottrell—who is from South Africa, and feels a strong connection to the Mandela-Verwoerd ad—says that flexibility is a strength.

"One image could be Nelson Mandela and Hendrik Verwoerd, another could be Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner, and still the best idea wins," he says. "I love that the campaign can stretch like that, from being sort of flip and funny to serious and controversial. I'm hoping we can carry on doing this."

More images below.

(Note: Clio and Adweek are both owned by affiliates of Guggenheim Partners.)

CREDITS
Agency: Fitzgerald & Co.
Chief Creative Officer: Noel Cottrell
Group Creative Director, Art Director: Ryan Boblett
Group Creative Director, Copywriter: Brad Harvey
Creative Director, Art Director: Andrew Whitehouse
Network Creative Manager: Eric Monnet
Director, Project Management: Cris Tally
Assistant Account Manager: Siera Williams
Senior Integrated Producer: Deb Archambault
Senior Vice President, Director, Talent Partnerships: Kimberly Kress
Talent Manager: Gordon Corte

Since it's been part of the program's storyline from practically the beginning, McCann has been tweeting about Mad Men episodes for years. But for the final season, it has been cast as an extreme antagonist as it swallows up the fictional subsidiary Sterling Cooper & Partners, the lifeblood of the show's narrative.

Spoiler alert, folks: Save this story for later if you're not caught up on this season.

During the last four Sundays of the AMC drama—there are just three left—the real McCann has had some fun with being the "bad guy." For instance, when the curvy redhead Joan Holloway visited McCann to discuss a pantyhose marketing plan in one episode, the shop's fictitious all-male team across the table acted incredibly sexist. Here was the real-life agency's tweet in response. 

This meeting is so awkward. Our apologies on a purely theoretical basis. #MadMen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 6, 2015

During last week's episode, when Don Draper and his team's last-ditch effort to save the agency was all for naught, McCann tweeted this. 

That didn't go well. #MadMen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 27, 2015

And after it became painfully clear that Sterling Cooper was losing its name and offices, McCann followed up with this pithy note and a near-perfect accompanying image.

Hey guys. It's not so bad here! #MadMenpic.twitter.com/QpoA5KyC3y

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 27, 2015

We wondered how all of this could impact McCann's business, so we asked Amobee Brand Intelligence to scour the Web for mentions-based data. Compared to the weeks leading into Mad Men's April 5 season premiere, online mentions/impressions for McCann are up 46 percent. Thirteen percent of all digital mentions for the agency are Mad Men-related, said Amobee. And, the Foster City, Calif.-based data company found that McCann's 40-odd tweets about the show in the last month have been retweeted nearly 1,000 times. 

It's probably reasonable to assume the show itself—which is popular with general consumers as well as the ad industry—is helping drive McCann's recent social media successes. But give the agency credit for having a good time with it—and the tweets are definitely helping the cause. 

When we asked McCann reps to comment on how their efforts are going this season, the PR team coyly responded on Twitter instead of replying to the emailed inquiry. 

@Chris_Heine@Adweek We're not evil. We're just dramaticized that way.

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 30, 2015

@Chris_Heine@Adweek And, We're going to be the first agency to get a SAG card. #MadMen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 30, 2015

Lastly, here's a handful of our favorite tweets from the 113-year-old agency. 

We do not believe you love veal, Peggy. But we love you. #MadMen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 6, 2015

What is Roger hiding under the 'stache? Something subconscious or metaphysical? #MadMen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 6, 2015

Thank God we didn't play the "McCann" drinking game with our boss or we'd be dead already. #MadMen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 6, 2015

"Black Irish Thugs" + "The Mick in McCann". We should call HR. #MadMen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 6, 2015

We're still a Coca-Cola agency. And yes, we've killed people. #madmen

— McCann (@McCann_WW) April 20, 2015

Sunday's Mad Men finale featured a few delightful surprises, included a captivating blend of real-world creative and fictional backstory involving Coca-Cola and agency McCann Erickson. 

(Warning: spoilers ahead for those who haven't yet caught the final episode.)

In the final moments of the AMC series, Coca-Cola's famed 1971 "Hilltop" ad took center stage, with the implication being that Don Draper created the spot after being inspired at a meditation retreat.

@thefilmcynic Proof! RT @emillersmith: Did anyone else notice this? #MadMenFinalepic.twitter.com/yAod46kPRB

— Jennifer Campbell (@jbdcampbell) May 18, 2015

So did the brand and the agency behind the spot (McCann, where Draper works in the show) know  that the famous ad would be featured in the closing scene? Yes, they tell Adweek, though they didn't know the details of how the ad would be used in the episode.

"We've had limited awareness around the brand's role in the series' final episodes," said a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola. "Mad Men is one of the most popular TV shows of all time, and 'Hilltop' is an iconic piece of Coca-Cola history. The finale gave everyone inside and outside the company—some for the first time—a chance to experience the magic of 'Hilltop' within the context of its creation and the times."

Allowing the show to use the spot proved to be a good move for both Coca-Cola and McCann on social media. According to Amobee data, in the three hours following the finale, there were 21,204 tweets around Coca-Cola and 2,925 around McCann. 

Asked for comment, a spokesman for McCann referred Adweek to the agency's Twitter feed—the same feed that had lifted the shop's agency mentions by 46 percent earlier this season: 

Thanks, Don. About time you came up with a good idea. https://t.co/0IdUE4KFoR#MadMen#MadMenFinale

— McCann (@McCann_WW) May 18, 2015

Coca-Cola was a bit slower on the draw, posting its own tweet with the spot about an hour later.

The "Hilltop" ad did stem from a McCann creative, though of course it wasn't the fictional Don Draper. It was creative director Bill Backer who created the 1971 spot.

Backer is said to have been inspired by travel woes: After a flight to London was grounded due to heavy fog, passengers were irritated and Backer noticed that they bonded together in the airport cafe. Coca-Cola posted the whole story here. 

Check out the spot below: 

Transparent, honest, human. Are these three words that describe one of the largest technology brands of our time? Probably not. But that's what Microsoft's Kathleen Hall, corporate vp of global advertising and media, is working toward with the brand's next major marketing push: the Windows 10 campaign.

Slated for release this summer, Windows 10 will be a massive operating system overhaul as well as a chance for its new browser called Microsoft Edge to make a splash. And with these product changes comes a great marketing opportunity.

Microsoft and M:United, the Microsoft arm of McCann, are hard at work on the new campaign, Hall said during a recent Creative Week panel.

"When you aim for transparent and honest as your main mantras, it makes life easier," said Hall. "As challenging as some of the experiences of the past might have been, it always gets better. So, you talk about the better part."

The new Edge browser offers the capability of "going to a website and being able to annotate that website and send that to somebody else with one button push," Hall said. "That's pretty freaking amazing. People forgive how bad something else might have been when they see how good something new is pretty quickly, so we focus on that."

While concrete details of the new campaign are yet to come it's clear that Microsoft understands the challenge it is facing. When it comes to younger consumers, the brand may be fighting an uphill battle, especially with those whose technology allegiance is firmly with Apple or Samsung products.

As it turns out, shifting that allegiance is one of the marketing objectives of the new campaign. "One of the goals is getting people to try it," said Rob Reilly, global creative chairman for McCann Worldwide, during the panel. "If you can convince people sitting in this audience to move to Microsoft, then you've won." 

But what marketing tactics will get consumers eager to try Windows 10? Emphasizing the scope of the update as well as the human experience inherent to the new operating system, analysts say.

"Microsoft needs to highlight that this is the most immersive operating system update ever and probably the most immersive OS on the market, period," said David McIninch, vp of marketing at Acquisio. "They should look at the ad messaging and imagery as being highly emotive, focused on the 'moments' that the apps can create to connect people to each other and to the important moments in their lives. For example, it's not helping you look for directions to a restaurant, it's enabling you to catch up with an old friend." 

Roy DeYoung, senior vp of creative strategy for PM Digital, agrees. "The messaging should focus on the benefits," he said. "Keep the branding fluff minimal, and get right on to the rationale behind the changes." 

But making sure the brand messaging is consistent is key, says Fluent's evp of product and technology Sean Cullen, who noted that consumers could be confused by the unexplained jump from Windows 8 to Windows 10. 

Consumers bowled over by the recent return of French Toast Crunch after a nine-year hiatus should enjoy "The Tiny & The Tasty," a strange and silly soap-opera parody that casts dolls as actors to reintroduce the General Mills cereal. McCann, Picture Mill and Beacon Street collaborated on the campaign.

All the classic daytime-drama tropes—amnesia, family intrigue, murder mysteries, surprise pregnancies—are played out in overwrought fashion on finely detailed miniature sets by poseable Ken- and Barbie-style action figures whose mouths never move.

Bill Wright, global executive creative director at McCann, says the idea stemmed partly from "the 1990s origin of French Toast Crunch. That was the decade when daytime dramas were at their height of popularity. So when you take soap operas and cross them with tiny dolls, you get a strangely awesome mashup."

Real soap opera actors do a fine job of hamming it up on the tongue-in-cheek, breakfast-themed scripts. And director Matt Piedmont, a writer for Saturday Night Live, establishes just the right tone. The spots channel the vibe of early SNL films by Walter Williams or Tom Schiller, though they're less manic and, of course, more on brand.

Served up in brief, tasty bites, this serial really satisfies.

Here's a fun and inventive before-and-after test from L'Oréal and McCann Mexico.

The cosmetics company invited 100 women to a movie. Before the screening, they had their makeup done by L'Oréal beauty experts, who applied waterproof mascara. As part of the prep, the women also had their photo taken.

Then they were taken into the theater for the movie—and it certainly was an emotional one. Before long, the women were sobbing, as a story of "impossible love" played out. By the end, their makeup should have been a disaster—indeed, the women had their photo taken a second time after the screening to see how it held up.



It's a nice stunt, and a believable one (even if details like the 162 minutes of tears are exaggerated). And in some ways it's perfect that they don't mention the name of the film. This was surely a simple rights issue, but it gives the video a small extra dose of humor.

CREDITS
Client: L'Oréal
Agency: McCann México
Creative VP: Javi Carro
Creative Account Group Director: Joanna López
Associate Creative Director: Roberto Martínez
Senior Copywriter: Adria Jáuregui
Art Director: Myriam Barrios
Account Director: Audrey Amselli
Production Company: Unidad 59
Director: David "Leche" Ruiz
Production director: Juan González
Production: Rafael López

If you want to see a contender for the year's most bizarre ad, here's one about a bunch of people stroking a giant sausage on a beach.

McCann Mexico created the spot for online travel agency Best Day.

Why, you might ask? Because, spoiler alert, when you're sitting in cramped coach class on an airplane, a mashup of you and your neighbor's newspaper headlines might cause you to confuse a novelty butcher product with a stranded whale. But if you book with BestDay, you'll get a roomier, less weird seat.



Perhaps to its credit, it's less explicitly phallic than the billboard sausage that a Costa Rican beer brand erected over a highway last month. It's kind of a silly idea, a bit too charmed by its own desire to be clever and provocative, but not entirely without entertainment value.

In fact, its biggest problem is probably the totally ridiculous notion that anybody reads newspapers anymore.

CREDITS
Client: BestDay
Product: Online Agency Travel (OTA)
Agency: McCann Mexico City
Chief creative officer: Javi Carro
Creative director: Breno Cotta
Copywriter: Breno Cotta / Juan Pablo Balcazar / Eduardo Espinoza
Art director: Alejandro López
Production team: Juan González / Rafael López
Production house: The Maestros
Director: Gonzalo Oliveró
Production Team: Enrique Nava
Sound production: Look As Audio

The popular knock against the lottery is that you can play it, but you're an idiot if you do, because nobody ever wins. But a new campaign for the New York Lottery is about a different kind of problem—someone who actually won, but who's yet to claim the $7 million prize, and almost a year later, is about to run out of time.

McCann New York has posted street fliers in Canarsie, the Brooklyn neighborhood that's home to Milky Way Deli, where the winning ticket in a Cash4Life game last summer was bought. A sketch of the ticket and the headline "Have You Seen Me?" adorns one flier. A stick figure smiles dumbly on a second with the headline "Is This You?" The subtext of both is: Are you the fool who's about to let seven figures slip through your fingers?

In other words, the whole thing is devious and hilarious because it's playful and it also reinforces the perception that people actually win—and invites everyone who sees it to imagine how much smarter they would be if they did.



Of course, it doesn't really seem like the New York Lottery's heart is really in the mission of finding the lucky lost soul. The winner, whoever he or she is, bought the ticket last July 24 (and needs to come forward by the same date this year, or the money goes back into the pool). But the lottery only started its canvassing campaign yesterday (July 22)—and the super high production values of its posters pretty much say it all.

Maybe the whole thing is a grand hoax—and the organization has the real winner stashed away somewhere, to roll out at the last minute—or there's no winner at all. Then again, none of that really matters in the end, because whatever $4 million lump sum pittance would be left after taxes still isn't enough to live in New York anyway.

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner was nothing if not detail-oriented—each scene had to have the right wardrobe, furniture, tchotchkes, and so forth, for the time period—so it makes sense that at the end of the show's seven-season run there would be quite a few props leftover.

Roughly 1,400 items are currently up for auction on Screenbid until Aug. 6, and they range from iconic and practical to altogether odd. (Sadly Ginsberg's nipple isn't for sale.) 

Here are the weirdest (and yes, there will be spoilers for those who haven't watched all the way through):

Lane's Rope — $225

Description: "It all became too much for Lane. He was found in his office late in Season 5, hanging from this rope just inside the door." 

Only someone who's a fan of the macabre would want this. 

Ken's Eye Patch — $200

Description: "The things Ken Cosgrove did for his clients. In the twelfth episode of Season 6, he returns to the office wearing this eye patch, after a duck hunting trip with his clients at Chevrolet results in him accidentally being shot in the face." 

Just think about how much sweat from actor Aaron Staton's face is on that patch. 

Roger's LSD Sugar Cane Tray — $300 

Description: "Yes, you too can imagine you're watching the 1919 World Series! From a bathtub! While on LSD! This Suisse Langenthal ceramic plate with golden-colored plating was used to serve Roger and his wife LSD in the sixth episode of Season 5." 

If you're looking to have a trip like Roger, purchasing this tray isn't the way to do it. Plus, this is certainly more expensive.  

Duck's Duck Print — $175 

Description: "Herman 'Duck' Phillips took his nickname seriously. This is one of two large, framed duck prints we found in his office."

Duck's drinking problem makes more and more sense. 

Sally's Psychiatric Evaluation Folder — $125

Description: "Sally Draper needs a shrink ... or so her mother is convinced. Sally exhibits some disturbing behavior in the fifth episode of Season 4 and Betty wastes no time trying to find out what is happening to her little girl. Here is a black folder containing young Sally's psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Edna Keener." 

Yes, the psychiatric evaluation of a fictional teenage character is valued at $125. 

Don's Note to Megan on Whale Picture — $325

Description: "In the ninth episode of Season 5, Betty discovers this drawing of a harpooned whale ("Why is he smiling?") and a note from Don to Megan on the back ("Lovely Megan ..."). This leads Betty to reveal part of Don's past to Sally." 

While the note did factor into the show's plot in a major way, the actual whale drawing, credited to a young Bobby Draper, really isn't much better than any other small child would do. 

Joan's Ceramic Clown in Frame — $100  

Description: "This ceramic Chinese girl sits alone in a black frame, with no back cover. An interesting piece that belonged to Joan." 

Not even the auctioneers knew how to sell this one. And no one should ever own clown art, even if it belonged to Joan Harris.

Playtex Media Plans — $125

Description: "'Playtex protects a woman's touch,' some excellent work from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's star copywriter, Peggy Olson. Here are two of the Playtex Media Plans offered to executives in Season 4, Episode 11 of 'Mad Men.'"

These might be a good investment, if you had a one-on-one pitch meeting with Peggy.  

Don's Why I'm Quitting Tobacco Newspaper Ad — $3600

Description: "It's among the more memorable moments in the entire run of 'Mad Men.' In the 12th episode of Season 4, without informing the other partners, Don pens the letter 'Why I'm Quitting Tobacco,' which is placed as a full-page ad in the Sept. 16, 1965 edition of The New York Times." 

Buying this piece of memorabilia isn't all that odd, but its price sure is. 

Don's Typed Pages About Advertising — $950

Description: "'It's bigger than a car. It's everything.' In the eighth episode of Season 6, Don typed this rambling page of thoughts on advertising while in a drug-induced haze." 

We watched Don Draper pontificate about the ad business for seven seasons. Is it really worth buying a printed version of his Jack Kerouac-esq ramblings, too? 

New parents eventually get so sick of advice, they'll want to wipe their baby's butt with it. And now, infant feeding brand Tommee Tippee has made that possible—with a limited run of baby wipes made from actual parenting advice.

The new Advice Wipes—made from a recycled mix of parenting books, magazine articles, printed-out blog posts and more—aren't available for sale to the public (yet—they might be someday). Rather, they've been made in a limited edition for special distribution as part of a new campaign from McCann themed "#ParentOn," which aims to give parents the confidence to put away the baby books and trust their instincts when it comes to raising their kids.

Check out the brand's new video about the Advice Wipes here:



An established baby brand in the U.K. that is looking to expand further in the U.S., Tommee Tippee came to McCann with Eric Silver when he arrived earlier this year as North American chief creative officer. (Silver + Partners had picked up the brand earlier.) It's been a while since Silver was a new father—his daughters are 16 and 14—but he's still plenty familiar with the pressures of modern parenting, which Tommee Tippee is trying to ease.

"One of the lines we used early on with the client was, 'Humans were having babies for 200,000 years before the first baby book was written,' " he says. "We're saying to new parents, 'You got this. You know what you're doing.' "

Not only weren't there baby books in prehistoric times, there also wasn't an Internet half a century ago (when Tommee Tippee was founded) to amplify the pressure on parents, as the brand's #ParentOn site reminds us.

"When questions were raised on how to raise a child, you just figured it out," says a post on the Tumblr-like site. "There was parent and child. There was instinct. And there was Tommee Tippee. For 50 years we've made products that are smart and simple, innovative and intuitive. For 50 years, we've helped parents parent the way they were made to."

The site also includes this anthem spot:



The baby-products industry in many ways is invested in making parents feel insecure—so the products can be the antidote. And while a handful of brands, including Similac and Plum Organics, have acknowledged that fact, and turned it on its head, the Tommee Tippee campaign is one of the first to say parents can really do just fine on their own.

And it does so with an approachable, fun-loving vibe—and with elements like the Advice Wipes that could get some buzz. Says Silver: "We thought it would be funny to take all that advice and actually wipe a baby's ass with it."

For more about the avalanche of advice doled out to new parents, check out the Tommee Tippee infographic below, based on the brand's survey of 1,000 U.S. moms:

It says something about the world that reporters consider it news to mention when Facebook or Twitter are down for more than a few minutes. With this in mind, KFC Romania and agency McCann came up with a clever idea: To defray global panic, KFC will offer free food to people whose social networks of choice are down.

The principle was simple: For the life of the campaign, visitors to www.dontpanicman.ro could automatically confirm whether sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tinder or Instagram were down. If any of them were, they received a code for a free KFC meal (and an admonishment not to panic).



The campaign resportedly boosted KFC attendance by 30 percent during what the brand took to calling "Social Media Outage Days." Per the agency, within the first month, outages on Twitter, Yahoo, iTunes and Tinder resulted in thousands of free meals.

That's a lot of meals. We're assuming the objective was to own top-of-mind presence among digital natives whenever their amygdalas go into overdrive—in which case, congratulations! But if the objective was to generate higher sales as demonstrated by actual money, well, that's awkward. Hopefully those thousands of free meals cultivated paid ones down the line, versus, say, a culture of eager (and hungry!) DDOS attackers. 

Though we concede that would be hilarious.

The opening lines of Chapter 9 of Keith Richards' autobiography Life, in which he describes the Rolling Stones' debaucherous 1972 tour, were all McCann needed to get started on its latest stylish campaign for Jose Cuervo tequila.

"The whole entourage had exploded in terms of numbers, of roadies and technicians, and of hangers-on and groupies," the Stones guitarist writes. "For the first time, we traveled in our own hired plane, with the lapping tongue painted on. We had become a pirate nation, moving on a huge scale under our own flag, with lawyers, clowns, attendants."

The '72 tour was known informally as the "Cocaine and Tequila Sunrise tour," Richards reveals, which is where Cuervo comes in. McCann did some digging, and found out that the Stones were allegedly introduced to the tequila sunrise (a then largely unknown cocktail, actually invented in the '30s with a different recipe) right before the tour started—at a bar in San Francisco called The Trident. Whether or not they were made with Cuervo (this ad claims they were, though of course it hardly matters), the band ended up sucking them down all through June and July on a tour that became a legendary two-month bender.

McCann's new spot doesn't feature the Stones, but is set during that '72 tour—on the Lapping Tongue plane (which here is remarkably lengthy, even if it's meant to be half-fantasy). Daniel Kleinman directed the spot, with Paco Delgado, an Oscar nominee for his wardrobe designs on Lés Miserables, doing the costumes.

The soundtrack is the Stones' "Miss You," from 1978.



A "Drink responsibly" message, this isn't. But it is certainly groovy, in a mellow way, and seems designed to appeal to millennials who might find some appealing mystery in a notorious party scene from 40 years ago.

The spot kicks off an integrated campaign, including online and social, that will roll out over the next six months. And now that you've checked out the tequila sunrise portion of the era, head over here to see the cocaine ads.

CREDITS
Client: Jose Cuervo
Scott Green, Chief Marketing Officer
Daniel Mandelbaum, Brand Director
Joergen Boyschau, Brand Manager

Agency: McCann New York
Eric Silver, Regional CCO, North America
Tom Murphy, Co-CCO, New York
Sean Bryan, Co-CCO, New York
Mat Bisher, Executive Creative Director
Jason Ashlock, Creative Director
Sean LaBounty, Creative Director
Tom Weingard, Associate Creative Director
Ferdinand Daniele, Associate Creative Director
Nathy Aviram, Chief Production Officer
Chance Basset, Senior Producer
Steve Zaroff, Chief Strategy Officer
Julien Delatte, Group Strategy Director
Lauren LaValle – Group Account Director
Jon Armstrong, Account Director
Molly Vossler, Account Executive

Rattling Stick, Production Company
Daniel Kleinman, Director
Johnnie Frankel, Line Producer / President
Joe Biggins, Executive Producer

Rock Paper Scissors, Editorial Company
Carlos Arias, Editor
Lisa Barnable, Post Producer

Framestore, VPX
Martin Lazaro, Lead VFX Artist
Christa Cox, VFX Producer

CO3
Tom Poole, Colorist

Sonic Union
Steve Rosen, Mixer

There's no shortage of lists ranking ad people—people profess to hate them, but of course, everybody reads them. And now, Lex Singer and Jesse Yowell have unveiled the bloated, bloviating mother of them all—the 500 Under 500. That's right, 500 people, each of them under 500 years old, who are doing great and/or really innocuous things in the business.

"We saw how seriously people take all these industry lists, so we wanted to make the most absurd version of it possible," says Singer, a copywriter who partners with Yowell, an art director, at McCann New York. "At first we thought we'd do 1,000 under 1,000 and then we decided to make it slightly more manageable."

We find it exhausting to even do lists of 100, so hats off to Singer and Yowell for pulling off this impressive feat—with blurbs that really get to the heart of each honoree's strengths. (They set the tone right away with No. 500, DDB global creative chief Amir Kassaei. His blurb, succinct and factually unimpeachable: "Shit, this guy's done a lot of stuff."

There's also plenty of Adweek people on the list, including myself, so you know it's legit.