Deep Focus Creates Doggy-Powered Rube Goldberg Machine for Beneful

Beneful Rube Golberg Machine

Rube Goldberg was an American sculptor, writer, inventor, but he was best known at time as a cartoonist in the early part of the 1920s and 1930s.

One of his cartoon characters, Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, was famous for inventing outlandish machines to accomplish very simple tasks. Goldberg became so well-known for illustrating these machines that in 1931 that Merriam-Webster dictionary included the word “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective for accomplishing something simple through complex means.

The advertising world has borrowed heavily from the Rube Goldberg machine concept, with dozens of ads and viral clips being created for brands over the years, including ‘The Cog’ for Honda and Panera Bread, and dozens of others.

The latest example, created by New York-based digital agency Deep Focus, with production handed by Quiet Man, for Beneful dog food may may just be the cutest. Dogs are everywhere; tossing “and” catching a frisbee, chasing tennis balls, wagging their tails, or just sitting in a small wagon looking cute as all heck.

[via Mashable]

USA

Huggies’ Pregnancy Belt Lets Dads Feel Their Baby’s Kick

Huggies - Pregnant Dads

Sometimes I can’t decide whether projects like this one are brilliant or ridiculous. Maybe it’s a little from column A, a little from columnb B. What I am sure of is that everyday something wildly creative and unexpected is being produced the ad agencies in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.

In this case, Ogilvy Argentina and Huggies spent 4 months developing a belt that replicates the baby’s movements and kicks in real-time from the mom’s belly to the dad’s belly. There’s no mention whether the belts would be used beyond the development of this ad.

The belts look a bit silly, but the dad’s in the video look genuinely touched by the experience.

[via Creative Criminals]

Argentina

Temptations Create “Work It Kitty”, the Ultimate Aerobic Workout for Cats

Temptations "Work it Kitty"

The internet has transformed global communications in ways that no one could have fully predicted, and daily provides over 1.7 billion people worldwide with instant access to… well, cat videos.

Continuing along on the theme of “everything cat”, DDB Chicago has teamed up with Temptations for “Work It Kitty™”, a aerobic workout for your cat purportedly created by professional cat boarders Kate and George of The Best Little Cat House. You can read more about their story at workitkitty.com, along with bios of the dedicated cathletes like Banjo, Harley and Mr. Freckles.

If your cat is ready to go — assuming you’ve been able to wake him or her up from his 23.5 hours of daily kitty slumber — then download the track “I Don’t Wanna Dance” by Alex Gaudino ft. Taboo and get started.

USA

For Breath That Sizzles… Scope Introduces Bacon-Flavoured Mouthwash (Maybe)

Scope Bacon Mouthwash

Proctor & Gamble has launched a sizzling new addition to its line of products. New Scope Bacon Mouthwash is said to kill 99% of bad breath with 100% bacon taste.

Considering that Monday is April Fools Day, there’s little doubt that this product announcement is a joke. However, products such as bacon-flavoured lip balm, toothpaste, vodka and envelopes actually do exist.

So, maybe there is a chance that you will soon enjoy a bacon-flavoured swish after a hearty morning breakfast.

USA

French Ad for Toilet Paper Shows That Even Digital Technology Has It’s Limits

Le Trefle - Digital Has It's Limits

A new ad for Le Trèfle toilet paper shows one man’s obsessive quest to replace paper with digital in his home, constantly chiding his partner and child to use a digital tablet as the “better way” of creating art, leaving notes on the fridge door, playing a game or simply reading a book in bed.

But digital technology has it’s limits, and his whole mission unravels when he finds himself sitting on the toilet with nothing but an empty roll of toilet paper. Then it’s time for ‘Emma’ to get her revenge.

While there may not be a virtual bidet app, the toilet paper manufacturer has created a free iPhone app called ‘Où sont les toilettes?‘ that helps people find the nearest, and hopefully well-stocked washroom.

The ad was created by Leo Burnett France.

[via LSA]

France

Candle Ads Feature Striking Images of Nude Dancers Dripped in Warm Wax

Ecoya 'Just Add Candlelight'

Auckland-based agency Special Group and Australian fashion photographer Jez Smith, have collaborated to create a series of striking ads for Ecoya Soy candles. The ads feature two dancers from The Sydney Dance Company embracing each other as warm wax from the candles in dripped over their nude bodies.

Tony Bradbourne, Creative Director at Special Group told Campaign Brief: “We were really trying to evoke the idea of more pleasure, more romance, more sensuality – but in a simple, striking, visual way. We thought the idea of pouring wax over naked bodies, but just leaving the wax for the viewer to see, could achieve this.”

[via Campaign Brief]

New Zealand

Swiss Garnier Fructis Ads Feature ‘Rocker Dude’ Beard Illusion

At first glance this recently released series of ads created by Publicis Zurich for Garnier Fructis features a trio of tough-looking rocker dudes with full healthy beards that would make the guys in ZZ Top jealous.

It may take you a second to notice that the beards are actually the flowing hair of women standing in front of the men. The ad copy reads “For any hair type”, and promotes that Garnier Fructis’ hair care products will work great for both men and women.

The eye-catching illusions were captured by Berlin-based photographers Billy & Hells.

Garnier Fructis - "For any hair type"

Garnier Fructis - "For any hair type"

Garnier Fructis - "For any hair type"

[via PetaPixel]

switzerland

South African Bug Killer Brand Promoted with Massive Billboard Made of Shoes

DOOM - Wall of Shoes

South African bug killer brand Doom and TBWA South Africa sought to illustrate their product’s killing power by comparing it to the most common form of “spur-of-the-moment” bug control, the shoe.

With nearly 100,000 species of bugs found in the country, that’s a lot of shoe smacking. The agency constructed a 22 metre tall billboard featuring 5771 shoes, carefully positioned to create a massive mosaic of a can of Doom. The public was then given the opportunity to win cash prizes by guessing the total number of shoes on the billboard.

This massive outdoor execution is in sharp contrast to the tiny bug dioramas set up in small building cracks earlier this year by DOOM and their agency.

South Africa

Kingsford Surprises Social Media ‘Nice Guy’ with Charcoal for Christmas

Kingsford Christmas charcoal

As a kid, there being a few years when I probably should have been given a lump of coal in my Christmas stocking, but somehow I always managed to eek out a place on the ‘nice list’ at the last minute.

But, these are modern times and being naughty online can easily be tracked. Kingsford partnered with social media monitoring tool Sysomos (disclosure: Sysomos is a Delvinia vendor), to find the nicest person on social media. Sysomos engineers created a script that could analyze which users tweeted “please”, “thank you” and “thanks”, didn’t curse and scored well on “positive sentiment”.

In the end, Clifford Brown of Waukesha, Wisc was the selected as Mr. Social Media Nice Guy, and was rewarded with a year’s supply of Kingsford charcoal, a Kingsford kettle grill and other grilling accessories.

Now Kingsford is moving onto phase 2 of the campaign, and are asking Twitter users to tweet #benicegetcoal, nominating themselves or someone else for a chance to win their own Kingsford grill and year supply of charcoal. More details at www.Grilling.com/BeNiceGetCoal.

USA

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/nicest-person-in-social-media-gets-coal-for-christmas-1737909.htm

Old Spice Recruits Dikembe Mutombo’s to ‘Save the World’ from Mayan Prophesy

Old Spice: Dikembe Mutombo's 4 1/2 Weeks to Save the World

If we needed someone to step up and save the world from the Mayan prediction of the end of the world on December 21, we couldn’t ask for a better candidate than the gravelly-voiced 8-time NBA All-Star, humanitarian and philanthropist Dikembe Mutombo. Old Spice has recruited Mutombo to undergo a series of 8-bit challenges to help carve more time into the Mayan calendar, and he’s got only 4 1/2 weeks to do it.

In week 1: “The Great 2012 Dance Crisis”, Dikembe’s trusted bear friend, Science the Bear (just go with me here) informs him that Americans may be too distracted to vote by a South Korean dance craze. You must help Dikembe successfully deliver election ballots to dancing American voters.

If that doesn’t sound batshit-crazy enough for you, the site is linked to a live video of a machine carving out a new ring onto a reproduction of the Mayan calendar.

The campaign was created by Wieden + Kennedy Portland.

USA