Why bother to see if the guy’s OK? Pete’s too busy scarfing down Totino’s pizza rolls in football-themed spots that drop today from Dentsu Creative.

Next, he models a goofy tracksuit, turning the living-room into a high-tech pizza bash or something:

The brand tapped commercial stalwart Davidson based on his comic chops and cross-generational appeal among mainstream viewers.

“The campaign will resonate with both teens and their parents,” Taylor Roseberry, brand experience manager for Totino’s, tells Muse. 

“We know teens have heavy influence over the snacks their parents buy, so we needed to create a campaign that sparks teens’ interest that also shows parents the ease of choosing Totino’s Pizza Rolls,” Rosenberry says. “We see a lot of engagement from teens with our absurdly funny social content, and Pete’s sense of humor builds on that.”

Such schtick is Davidson’s specialty, honed to snarky-but-likable perfection for a range of brands. Here, he delivers bite-sized morsels that score without overstaying their welcome (much like the saucy/doughy nuggets themselves).

“Pete was great to work with on-set. He is truly as funny in-person, on the spot, as he is in the content he releases,” says Dentsu GCD Alyssa Ollis. “He loved to riff lines with his team— Judah Miller and Dave Sirus—who have been long-time partners with Pete. The chemistry and comedy was relaxed and as fun as you’d hope it would be.”

Kris Mercado directed.

The push includes a Spanish-language commercial that will run during Univision’s first-ever live Spanish Super Bowl coverage. Pete doesn’t appear in that one. It’s part of an integration that also hypes Tapatio brand hot sauce.

It’s spooky season, and brands have answered the call to give consumers a good scare.

Timed to Halloween, Burger King launched “The Call,” a 60-second whopper of a tale featuring a young woman, watching TV alone in the dark, who receives an unsettling call.

“It’s back. It’s coming for you,” says a voice like Ghostface. With no time to dilly-dally, she races to the fridge for her emergency milk and flees the premises.

Soon after, her car dies, the windows lock, a crow screeches and that unknown caller infiltrates her dashboard radio “You can’t run from the heat,” it says. We see a Ghost Pepper Whopper and Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries in the back seat. Good thing she grabbed that milk.

The spot, developed by Dentsu Creative, production company Wild Gift Content and director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, ends with the woman casually live-streaming her friends post-meal, bragging that she was able to handle the spice.

The kicker: Her voice turns demonic as she adds, “It’s coming for you, too.”

The ad is running online and in movie theaters.

For more scary antics, consumers can answer a customized call by signing up at TheCall.BK.com.

“The Call” was shot on the location used to film Jeepers Creepers, and the car appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Other fun facts: A spooky version of the “Whopper Whopper” jingle plays when food appears. On the livestream, our heroine’s profile picture morphs into a snap of Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries—with 1,954 viewers, a nod to BK’s founding in 1954.

“Friday the 13th is sacred ground for horror buffs, of which we have many within our team,” says Bridget Jewell, ECD of Dentsu Creative Social Creative Lab.

“When concepting ideas for the return of the Ghost Pepper Whopper, we wanted to embody the sticky scream queen with our own twist. The original horror camp of Scream and the ever-popular series American Horror Story were two inkwells we tapped to balance the spooky and spice.”

Gun suicides are on the rise, taking the lives of approximately 67 people a day. Often, such tragedies occur when an unsecured firearm is easily accessible. Keeping weapons in a gun safe can help avert disaster by adding time and distance during a moment of crisis.

The latest campaign from the Ad Council, the Brady Center and Dentsu doesn’t try to deter people from owning guns. Rather, it encourages owners to always store weapons in a gun safe to prevent suicides and save lives.

“Safe Stories” recounts real events of people whose lives were affected by gun suicide. The text comes bound in a thick storybook. Each volume includes an actual gun safe, where owners can securely place one unloaded handgun.

A husband came close to suicide after an argument with his wife, who was able to diffuse the situation. In another story, a mother lost her son to gun suicide and contemplated suicide herself—she now keeps her firearm securely locked away.

“We want gun owners to see the importance of safe gun storage, by exposing them to real stories of gun owners that contemplated gun suicide or lost a loved one to it,” Tim Schoenmaeckers, executive creative director of Dentsu Creative, tells Muse. “There are a ton of options for safe gun storage in the household—from big intricate built-in gun safes to ten-dollar gun locks. That’s why we decided to integrate a biometric gun safe to the backend of the book. We strongly believe that combining these stories with a solution can send a powerful message to all gun owners in the U.S. and inspire them to safely store their firearms—locked, unloaded and away from ammunition.”

CREDITS

Dentsu:
Rafael Rizuto – Chief Creative Officer US and Hispanic LATAM
Pedro Pérez – Chief Creative Officer Chicago
Niels Sienaert – Executive Creative Director
Tim Schoenmaeckers – Executive Creative Director
Matt Tarulli – Group Creative Director
Chris Pacetta – Group Creative Director
Brian Monahan – Global Client President
Angela E. Johnson – Integrated Client Lead
Lexi Kern – Account Manager
Sarah Gelbard – Account Director
Eve Leshaw- EVP, Managing Director
Claesine Lindberg – Art Director
Alex Floyd – Associate Copywriter
Zulema Orozco – Group Design Director
Dee Duncan – Design Director
Luis Valencia – Design Director
Damien Girardi – Group Design Director
Steph Wulz – Associate Design Director
Phil DeAngelis – Associate Creative Director
Kristen Cleghorn – Associate Creative Director
Moma Wilwayco – Senior Designer
Ana Andreeva – Senior Designer
Gema Putri – Senior Art Director
Eric Yoon – Senior Copywriter
Angel Delgado – Motion Designer
Darius Kirschner – Innovation Director
Claire Bartosic – Senior Experience Technologist
Wenjun Li – Associate Experience Technologist
Lara Hurnevich – Senior Producer
Kelley Varga – Senior Producer
Alicia Patrick – Senior Digital Producer
Maya Tank – Executive Producer
John Bleeden – Global Executive Creative Producer
Evelyn Santana-Ducos – Senior Producer
Polly Poulos-McCarthy – Senior Business Manager
Rosalyn Otero – Senior Project Manager
Zoë Moss – Manager, Creative Product & Operations
Shawna Ross – Chief Strategy Officer
Brad Alperin – EVP, Integrated Strategy

The Ad Council:
Michelle Hillman – Chief Campaign Development Officer
Ro Patrick – SVP, Group Campaign Director
Allison Palmer Baum – VP, Campaign Director
Kristi Rowe – Consultant
Regan Hill – VP, Strategy and Evaluation
Sammi Fischer – Campaign Manager
Brittany Bloom – Assistant Campaign Manager

Brady:
Kris Brown – President and CEO
Susan Lavington – Chief Operating Officer
Christian Heyne – VP, Policy & Programs
Colleen Creighton – Director, End Family Fire
Jennifer Tinch – Manager, End Family Fire
Priscilla Natkins – Consultant
Cordy Galligan – Consultant

Revival Film
Luis Peña – Director
Stephanie Farmer – Executive Producer
Terry Maxfield – Producer

Media: dentsu X
Post Production: Versus Design
Audio: Found Objects

For a recent ad campaign to promote its app, the Illinois Lottery booked up-and-coming hip-hop artist Drew The Kiiid. The brand partnered with iHeartMedia Chicago last week to give the budding rapper air time to perform part of his song, “Get It,” for a live online ad streamed by WGCI-FM.

The 30-second spot, from Dentsu Creative and dentsu X and directed by Courtney Phillips, shows the many places one can get the lottery app—on a walk, in the tub, in the club or on an elevator. It gives off BDE vibes (Big Download Energy), while also serving as a notice to up your rubber-ducky game.

“We had the idea of working with a local, up-and-coming hip hop artist—someone on the verge of ‘getting it’ themselves,” says Todd Brusnighan, GCD at Dentsu Creative. Not only is Drew The Kiiid a rising star, but he is the type of artist that can turn around music quickly. Drew basically wrote the song in 24 hours. And after our initial listen, it was all but done.” Take a listen below:

“We wanted to bring the energy of the campaign assets a step further—and have them live beyond the screen/page so that consumers could really experience the energy of the Illinois Lottery app,” Megan Bah, group director, planning, at dentsu X, tells Muse.

Before imploding spectacularly, the year started off so well for cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which enticed Larry David to star in his very first TV ad—on the Super Bowl no less. The spot, from DentsuMB, was well received during the game, though ironically, Larry’s reluctance in the ad to embrace FTX actually proved to be prescient.

Read more here.

9️⃣

Adidas Tweets Bare Breasts To Promote Its Inclusive Line of Sports Bras

In one of the year’s most provocative campaigns, Adidas hoped to normalize bare breasts of all shapes and sizes with #SupportIsEverything, a campaign that began with a tweet showing dozens of naked breasts to promote an upcoming line of sports bras that includes 43 styles and 72 sizes. In May, the U.K. Advertising Standards Agency decided the campaign—created by TBWANeboko—would “likely cause widespread offense” and it was banned.

Read more here.

8️⃣

Louis Vuitton’s Messi/Ronaldo Ad Is Even More Brilliant Than It Looks

The Qatar World Cup gave us plenty of great—and not-so-great—marketing moments, but none were as instantly iconic as Louis Vuitton’s print ad featuring Lionel Messi of Argentina, the eventual champion, playing Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo at chess. The positioning of the pieces—replicating a board from a 2017 match between grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura—was an all-time great easter egg as well.

Read more here.

7️⃣

Pringles Will Pay You $25,000 to Work as an NPC in a Video Game

We saw a bunch of engaging gaming campaigns this year, but this effort from Pringles U.K. and Grey London stood out by offering player a chance to work in a video game as an NPC (non-player character), refilling Pringles vending machines in Train Sim World. The idea emerged from the overarching campaign theme, “Stay in the game,” due to Pringles being less messy than other snacks and easier to eat while gaming.

Read more here.

6️⃣

British Airways’ New Ads Will Make You Love Copywriting Again

Uncommon in London created one of our favorite print/OOH campaigns of 2022, crafting an impressive 500 unique executions—with no visuals whatsoever, just simple and evocative copy lines. The ads were modeled after the forms you fill out upon arrival in a new destination—though in addition to “business” or “leisure,” each execution added a third option, exploring the variety of reasons so many of us travel.

Read more here.

5️⃣

The Story Behind Nike’s Amazing 3-D Air Max Billboard in Japan

For the 35th anniversary of Nike Air Max Day, Nike Japan pulled out all the stops, working with creative collective CEKAI to make a eye-catching 3-D billboard outside Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. We saw a number of 3-D billboards like this in 2022, but this was one of the best.

Read more here.

4️⃣

DirecTV Lampoons Ghostbusters With Help From 4 Baseball Greats

DirecTV and TBWAChiatDay L.A. stuffed this spot full of retired baseball greats—Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Ken Griffey Jr. and Randy Johnson—who teamed up as the “GOATbusters” (Ghostbusters: Afterlife had just arrived on DirecTV) to battle a giant version of Cincinnati Reds mascot Mr. Redlegs. 

Read more here.

3️⃣

Coinbase and Its QR Code Win the Super Clio as Super Bowl’s Best Ad

The Super Bowl is always full of spectacle: celebs, special effects, Puppy Monkey Babies. But this year, the Super Clio—bestowed by a jury of top industry creatives—was awarded to the most captivatingly lo-fi spot of the game. Accenture Interactive’s ad for crypto brand Coinbase featured 60 seconds of a QR code bouncing around a screen, one of the most audacious direct-marketing ploys in history.

Read more here.

2️⃣

What’s Up With Prime Video’s Freakishly Elongated Football?

Prime Video took over coverage of Thursday Night Football this fall, and its marketing for the broadcasts included this completely bogus story about an elongated football that quarterbacks could throw further—more than the length of a football field, supposedly. Wilson created 33 of the balls for real, and even though everyone knew it was a prank, the campaign, from agency Atlantic New York, was all over mainstream media.

Read more here.

1️⃣

Bud Light’s ‘Real Men of Genius.’ The Making of a Radio Classic

Season 2 of our Tagline podcast rolled out back in the spring, and it was the fourth episode, about the making of Bud Light’s “Real Men of Genius” campaign, that got the most listens. We revisited the campaign’s greatest hits with folks on the agency, client and production sides—to see how a the idea blossomed into a decade-long entertainment franchise that spawned 200 radio spots, as well as TV ads, compilation CDs and even live events.

Read more here.

The jokes you find inside Christmas crackers are notoriously terrible. But this holiday, Dentsu Creative is taking groan-worthy cracker comedy to new heights (or lows) with the Artificial Intell-a-Joke D25—”the cracker joke generator of the future.”

For Americans unaware of the tradition, Christmas crackers—a staple of U.K. holiday festivities—are colorful table decorations designed to be pulled open by two people. They make a snapping sound when opened and usually contain a small gift, along with a paper hat and a joke.

For its holiday card this year, Dentsu Creative U.K. built an A.I. cracker and challenged it to come up with some funny jokes.

“2022 was the year of A.I.,” the agency says. “It can paint like Rembrandt, predict the future, and even screen for disease. Working with the likes of Midjourney and DALL-E 2, we’ve all become obsessed with its bizarre, beautiful and scary possibilities. But can A.I. take on Christmas? Can it make the final leap to becoming sentient? Can it be funny?”

Check out the Artificial Intell-a-Joke D25 here, and see if it can make you laugh.

Reassuringly, the jokes are decidedly unfunny. In fact, they don’t even really make sense. So, as much as A.I. has been frightening creatives with its lightning-fast image-making, we can take solace in the fact that it hasn’t cracked what truly makes us human—the art of humor.

“After the year we’ve all had, we all need a good laugh, but is an A.I. cracker the one to bring it?” says Sue Higgs, ECD of Dentsu Creative U.K. “Turns out, probably not, but we had a laugh trying, and we can all rest assured A.I. isn’t coming for our chuckle muscles. Humour is safe in the hands and minds of humans.” 

“They said AI couldn’t be funny. They said machines have no sense of humour. They may have had a point,” add creative directors Sarah Watson and Nick O’Brien. “It turns out Christmas is too much, even for artificial intelligence. More dud joke than dad joke, at least the D25’s gags are paper and plastic free.”  

CREDITS

Agency: DENTSU CREATIVE UK 
ECD: Sue Higgs 
Creative Directors: Sarah Watson and Nick O’Brien 
Creatives: Beck Dunn and Freddie Mickshik 
Head of Design: Alex Fairman 
3D Animator: Harry Prentos 
Design Team: Harry Prentos, Fabrizio Festa, Jo Miller, Chris Holiday, Lydia Oldham 
Digital Technical Director: Paul Martin 
Sound Engineer: James Hughes, Daniel Lozinski 
Sound Producer: Maria Hann, Billie Hogg 
Producer: Elaine Coyle 

“With the organic result the process produced, an issue that had been discussed for some time, and that El Ojo has worked on for years, became irrefutable,” says El Ojo founder and CEO Santiago Keller. “In line with the aims of the festival, we wanted to make a clear statement this year, with a strong call to action to help change things faster for the future of our industry. That is why Joao gave the opening Keynote, highlighting the situation and reaffirming El Ojo’s commitments in this area.” 

Those commitments have been expressed in four concrete actions, Keller added:

• Better gender parity on juries, with 45 percent of jury presidents now being women
• The +Mujere (+Women) award honoring female creative leaders and filmmakers
• A strong representation of women and the diverstity theme in the conference and workshops
• A 35% discount (reflecting the average global pay gap between men and women) on entries and conference tickets for independent agencies led by women with less than 50 employees

“This creative process has been one of our favorites to date,” says Marisa González, managing director of Dentsu Creative Spain. “We have loved being part of this journey with Santiago and his team, to celebrate the high-quality creativity that we have in Ibero-America, while helping advance this purpose with creative work that helps change society for the better, and more accurately reflects what audiences want.”

El Ojo de Iberoamérica was held Nov. 9-11 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

CREDITS

CLIENT AND CAMPAIGN: El Ojo de Iberoamérica – The first AI Creative.
CLIENT: Santiago Keller  Sarmiento – Founder and President El Ojo de Iberoamérica
CLIENT ACCOUNT MANAGER: Ana Carolina Degiuseppe – El Ojo de Iberoamérica
ADVERTISING AGENCY: Denstu Creative
MANAGING DIRECTOR: Marisa González
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Álvaro Rodríguez-Solano
HEAD OF CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY: Roberto Torres
HEAD OF CRAFT: Luis María García
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Miriam Alonso
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Vicente Silvestre – The Royal Production Company
ZBRUSH & UNREAL METAHUMAN DESIGNER: Carlos F. Cuervo – Metahuman Designer
MOTION DESIGNER: Miguel Velacoracho
AI: Fabián Doñaque – Fabs Robotics
SOUND STUDIO: Fran Viedma – BlackOut Studios 

Gil Correia and Ivo Purvis, creative directors at Dentsu, tell Muse that Midjourney offered up four possible paths for each prompt it was given.

“Then we go deeper and deeper until we reach the final images,” thet say. “We wanted to blend the festival’s artists with nature, so with time and experience, we improved the phrases that worked and it became easier to get to the results. But it didn’t always go as we expected. And that’s a good thing.”

This element of the unexpected created the kind of “novelty and discomfort that often lead to great work,” the pair say. “We knew that we were going to have something fresh and that we would accept what the machine gave us, because we felt that unique and unrepeatable works of art were being created. It surpassed any expectations we had, to the point where most people couldn’t believe they weren’t made by humans. But they have a random factor, some beautiful errors, that make them even more special.”

The creatives say the project taught them about the possibilities, but also the limitations, of A.I. creativity.

“We will certainly see great developments in the near future that will dazzle us all, but it won’t replace anyone,” they say. “Like other technologies that have emerged before, they are great tools, but they always need someone to guide them in the creation process, and this one is no exception.”

See more about the project in the video below:

Campaign: “Jardim Sonoro: Blended with Nature”
Client name: Jose Diogo Vinagre, Director Jardim Sonoro
CCO: Lourenço Thomaz
ECD: Ivo Purvis
CD: Gil Correia
Art Director: Gil Correia, Ivo Purvis
A.I. Prompt Master: Fred Van Zeller
Copywriter: João Moura
Designer: Emanuel Serôdio, Tiago Rodrigues
Motion Graphics: Fabio Magalhães
Sound effects: Guel
Soundtrack: WhoMadeWho, “Hi & Low”