To get your hands on one, check out this list of participating record stores and arrive early, for it’s first come, first serve to score a free album. And each record store only has one copy.

CREDITS

Disney Entertainment
Jackson George, SVP Creative Advertising
Andy Baker, VP Creative Marketing
Zack Jerome, VP Marketing Strategy
Nicole Short, Director, Operations
Heather Piche, Project Manager

Agency: Callen
Chief Creative Officer: Craig Allen
President: David Hughes
Head of Production: Amy Kommatas
Group Brand Director: Courtney LeBlanc
Group Strategy Director: Britton Taylor
Executive Producer: Cordelia Kipp
Art Director: Matt Nall
Copywriter: Kyle Davis
Art Director: Ben Hallam
Copywriter: Weston Bliobenes
Copywriter: Ethan Sims

Does solar power rock? People, I said: DOES SOLAR POWER ROCK?!

It sure does in a pair of electrifyingly silly spots from Freedom Solar Power and Callen. They star ordinary homeowners transformed into freaky hero-headbangers (or something) after going solar.

First, we meet Jane, who’s…

“A super-powerful lady.
She’s crankin’ her AC to the lowest degree.
Now the summer can’t melt your bones.
Look, she’s flying over tiny homes!”

As for Carl, he’s…

“A mega-powerful man
Who has more money than previously!”

That’s the whole song. What else needs to be said?

Though CGI came into play, much of the spot was produced via practical effects.

“Sawing puppet-dogs in half. Knitting sweaters for pianos. Cutting holes in the studio floor for mailmen’s legs to ‘melt’ through. And constructing a giant 20-foot-tall TV. It all happened and more,” says agency CCO Craig Callen.

Of course, riffing on ’80s bombast is nothing new. It’s as old as … 1990, probably. Still, these deliver the message with enough stupid style to please. (Callen’s picked up the Barton F. Graf mantle for zippy humor, with this effort and loopy work for Ibotta, Nickelodeon and Pabst Blue Ribbon effectively mining our shared sense of nostalgia and the pervading zeitgeist.)

“We’re telling the world about the transformative power of solar through writing and recording unique ’80s power ballad songs,” says David Hughes, managing director of Callen. “There is nothing more powerful than an ’80s power ballad, that’s what homeowners are scream-singing to themselves in their living rooms anyway, right?”

*Scream-sings* THAT’S RIIIGHT! 

Bacon director Carl Sundemo nails the tacky spectacle of early-MTV videos. Note the many fun details, like tiny houses, appliances strewn about some kind of wasteland with big-ass monitors.

Musically, it channels “Real Men of Genius” (the sly, jokey brand-vibe) and, I dunno, Survivor? Night Ranger? Whitesnake? 

That’d be one hell of a bill. Nail solar panels to their amps and crank it up!

CREDITS

Client – Freedom Solar Power
Chief Executive Officer: Bret Biggart
President: Ryan Hunter
Chief Marketing Officer: Sherren Harter
Senior Marketing Manager: Lauren Martin

Agency – Callen
Chief Creative Officer: Craig Allen
Creative Director: Matt Sorrell 
Art Director: Matt Nall
Copywriter: Kyle Davis
Head of Production: Amy Kommatas
Head of Strategy: Julianna Simon 
Managing Director: David Hughes 
Account Supervisor: Payton Brown 
Account Coordinator: Anna Campbell

Production Company – Bacon
Director: Carl Sundemo
EP: Samuel Cantor
Co-EP: Megan Murphee
Producer: Axel Herrlin
Producer: Øystein Dyb
DOP: Fredrik Bäckar
PD: Agustin Moreaux
VFX Company – Bacon X

Co-Production – Epoch Films
Managing Executive Producer: Melissa Culligan
Co-EP: Megan Murphee

Service Company – Icon Films BG
EP: Emil Rangelov
Producer: Deyan Dobrev

Edit House – MackCut
Editor: Gavin Cutler
Assistant Editor: Louisa Phillips
Executive Producer: Gina Pagano
Sound Design: Sam Shaffer

Music Studio – Butter Music and Sound
CCO: Andrew Sherman
Composer: Andrew Sherman
EP: Renée Massé
ECD: Dan Zank
Producer: Warren Wolfe

Audio Post – Mr. Bronx
Sound Design/Mix: Eric Hoffman
Assistant Mixers: Michael Artuso and Elvira Gutierrez
Audio Post EP: Hanna Choi
Audio Post Associate Producer: Maggie Norsworthy

Though it ranks as the most popular kids’ network, Viacom-owned Nick has struggled of late. The spots, breaking this week, evolve the brand’s famous aesthetic in a bid to jumpstart momentum and regain some mojo.

“We were already fans of Nickelodeon from our youth, so working with them was the fulfillment of a childhood dream, reinvented for our own kids,” Callen strategy lead Julianna Simon tells Muse. “The insight that we were working with was that today’s kids are running out of spaces where it’s okay to enjoy childhood. We want the ‘Splat!’ to become a symbol for finding fun. It’s a portal to outrageous fun waiting for any kid (or kid-at-heart) willing to explore it!”

“We tried to collaborate with each artist heavily upfront and take our hands off the wheel a bit in production so that we didn’t lose all the magical stuff that we went to them for in the first place,” says agency founder and CCO Craig Callen.

“In ‘Quartet,’ [a nod to Nick ads of yore] we dumped a ton of real slime on the kid. It was freezing cold, but he loved it. Each fish was puppeteered by hand which took our partners, Kevin VFX, a good amount of time to piece it together.”

“The whole process felt like going back to art school in college,” he says. “Messy, unpredictable and insane—in all the very best ways!”

The work recalls Hulu’s bid last year with various talent reimagining its logo, and fits Callen’s absurdist, oft-retro approach, previously deployed for Ibotta and Pabst, among others.

CREDITS

Agency: Callen
Chief Creative Officer: Craig Allen
Creative Director: Matt Sorrell
Art Director: Casey Phillips
Copywriter: Dave Canning
Copywriter: Russ Rizzo
Copywriter: Weston Bliobenes
Copywriter: Ethan Sims
Head of Production: Amy Kommatas
Head of Strategy: Julianna Simon 
Managing Director: David Hughes 
Account Supervisor: Payton Brown 
Account Coordinator: Anna Campbell

Client: Nickelodeon
EVP, Global Kids & Family Marketing, Nickelodeon and Paramount+: Sabrina Caluori
SVP, Executive Creative Director: Vincent Aricco
SVP, Creative Director, Brand Design: Michael Waldron
VP, Kids & Family Programming Marketing, Nickelodeon and Paramount+: Brian Chiger
VP, Creative Director: Erica Ottenberg
VP, Creative Strategy, Editorial: Liza Steinberg
Senior Director of Production: Josh Powers
Producer/PMO, Nickelodeon Rebrand: Danielle Jotham & Justin Mushnick
VP, Brand Strategy & Digital Platforms: Jordan Cardinale
Director, Brand Marketing & Experiential: Anna Blake
Manager, Brand Marketing & Strategic Planning: Asdrid Vasquez
VP, Media: Alissa Tofias

Production Studio: Riff Raff Films
Executive Producer: Tracey Cooper
Director: Max Siedentopf
Producer: Matt Posner
Production Manager: Georgia Wall
Production Coordinator: Miranda Bucknell-Whalley
Production Assistant: Benjy Alfreds
Claymation Animator: Alistair Nicholls

CG Animators: Yonk

Music Company: duotone audio group
Creative Director/Founder: Peter Nashel
Executive Producer: Ross Hopman
Producer: Gio Lobato
Sound Designer/Mixer: Andy Green
Executive Producer, Audio Post: Greg Tiefenbrun

VFX/ Post:Kevin
Executive Creative Director/ Partner: Tim Davies
Senior Executive Producer/ Partner: Sue Troyan
Lead VFX Artist: Robert Murdock
VFX Producer: Andrew Cowderoy
On Set VFX Supervisor: Pete Smith
Colorist: Adam Scott
Compositors: Chris Sonia, Luke Yalva, Marisa Chin, Ryan Raith

Arcade Edit 
Editor: Paul Martinez
Assistant Editor: Paulo Miramontes 
Senior Producer: Kristen Thon-Webb
Executive Producer: Crissy DeSimone

Some folks just can’t get enough cash back for everyday purchases. Especially when it’s spraying like green/sparkly geysers into their smiley faces from household goods and everyday items bought through Ibotta, an app that provides rebates. 

Callen and director Ulf Johansson reprise last year’s loopy campaign with a fresh round of spots dropping nationwide this week. The mom character from 2022 returns, once more portrayed by Katie Northlich, whose unflappable performance really shines. We see her at home and at work (as a couples therapist), buffeted by ludicrous quantities of banknotes and loose change.

Though all three clips entertain, the counseling session yields the biggest comic payoff.

WOMAN: I just wish he was more like Ibotta.

THERAPIST: It is nice. Ibotta gives us cash back on everything we buy…

WOMAN: …asking nothing in return.

MAN: Sorry! I’m not a user-friendly app that can just give and give… I have needs and feelings!

“Everyone loves getting cash back, that’s an easy story to tell,” says Callen managing director David Hughes. “But as a business, helping consumers hack inflation—that’s a great position to be in.”

As we noted in covering the campaign’s first round, there’s a classic Skittles/Old Spice vibe at play. That’s understandable, as agency CCO Craig Allen had a hand in crafting both, while Johansson lensed Skittles’ initial absurdist foray, a stylistic trendsetter, nearly 20 years ago.

Ibotta’s effort is equally funny and frenetic. Its humor and energy expertly serve the brand message, vividly illustrating exactly what the app delivers in no uncertain terms.

“The books, the milk carton, the radio, coffee creamer—everything that spews money in spots was a practical rig that we custom built to shoot actual money,” says Callen copywriter Kyle Davis. “Was it an absolute mess? Yes. Did it lead to possible coin inhalation? Yes. Did crew members take coins to the eyeball? Occasionally. Did a crew of fifteen have to use old dusty brooms to sweep up billions of coins after each take? 100%. Could you say they were very impractical, practical effects? Sure, you could.”

CREDITS

Client – Ibotta
Chief Marketing Officer: Rich Donahue
Director of Production: Matt Andersen
Creative Director: Christopher Webster
Senior Art Director: Kevin Gish

Agency – CALLEN
Chief Creative Officer: Craig Allen
Managing Director: David Hughes 
Head of Strategy : Julianna Simon 
Head of Production: Amy Kommatas
Art Director: Matt Nall
Copywriter: Kyle Davis
Account Supervisor: Payton Brown 
Account Coordinator: Anna Campbell

Production Company – Smith & Jones Films Ltd
Director: Ulf Johansson
Director of Photography: Andrzej Sekula
Executive Producer: Philippa Smith
Production Designer: Steve Smithwick

Editorial – HutchCo Technologies, Inc
Editor: Jim Hutchins
Executive Producer: Jane Hutchins
Assistant Editor: Gino Renzulli

VFX / Finishing – Kevin
Executive Creative Director/ Partner: Tim Davies
Senior Executive Producer/ Partner: Sue Troyan
VFX Lead: Gareth Parr
VFX Producer: Andrew Cowderoy
On-Set VFX Supervisor: Pete Smith
Compositors:
Dag Ivarsoy
Robert Murdock
Leif Peterson
Rob Winfield
Susanne Scharping

Music Company – Duotone Audio Group
Creative Director/Founder: Peter Nashel
Executive Producer: Ross Hopman
Head of Music Strategy: David Leinheardt
Producer: Gio Lobato

Audio Post Production – Duotone Audio Post
Sound Designer/Mixer: Andy Green
Executive Producer, Audio Post: Greg Tiefenbrun

Color – Trafik
Colorist: Daniel de Vue
Color Assistant: Sam Ziaie
EP: Meghan Lang Bice
Producer: Samantha Cesan

Not long ago, college athletes had to cut the mustard as pros before signing big-bucks brand deals. Even then, getting their own line of merchandise was usually reserved for elites like Michael Jordan, Serena Williams and Stan Smith.

Today, however, with the NCAA’s name, image and likeness (NIL) rules in full force, it’s a whole new game for budding stars like Bijan Robinson, the University of Texas running back and Heisman Trophy hopeful.

Robinson is already hot-dogging it with C4 Energy and Lamborghini endorsements, so it only seems right that he’s launched his own specialty dijon mustard, too.

Developed with Austin agency Callen and local chef Joe Gentempo, the condiment is called Bijan Mustardson—what else?—and the faux spi-saaay clip below promises it tastes “like a touchdown in your mouth!”

“We are in business with him to make a product because there is a life outside of sports,” says Callen managing director David Hughes. “We had a great idea, so we reached out to his agent on social media to initiate the conversation. The next thing we knew, we were sitting at the table with him laughing and ordering different mustards to taste.”

Fans can order two 9-ounce squeeze bottles of the product for $15.90, along with mustard-themed T-shirts, trucker hats, stickers, koozies and more. Weekly game collectibles will set you back $75, but you’ll get an autograph and updated stats.

Bijan Mustardson is also available in select Texas stores, as well as Austin-based restaurants Pluckers, Bangers and Dirty Martins. At Lone Star fave Amy’s Ice Cream, they’re scooping ice cream infused with the stuff, too.

“Brands we worked with in the past used to tell us that we were the best 10 percent of their day,” Hughes says. “And now we understand what the other 90 percent entails. It’s so much more business than an agency is used to.”

Bijan says he hopes the brand “will continue to grow with my career.” If the dude wins the Heisman, maybe he’ll bring a few dozen cases of Mustardson to a certain special house for Tim Tebow and the gang.

You know what would go great with that branded household swag you scored in Pabst Blue Ribbon’s last big promo? A 15-gallon, pastel-painted keg vaguely resembling an Easter egg, that’s what!

PBR and creative agency Callen call ’em “Easter Keggs.” The duo discretely placed a few around Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Tampa and Portland, Oregon, for fans (21 and over) to track down this weekend. Clues start posting across PBR’s social channels Friday at 11 a.m.

Owing to alcohol-in-public statutes, these are empty vessels. But each winner gets a gift card for a free keg of beer. That surely beats “chocolate or a dumb quarter,” as this cute clip explains, with mimes, ducks and bulging eyeballs to stoke the holiday spirit:

Yeah, eggs suck, no matter what this campaign from two years ago says.

“Even though PBR is a classic brand, we love making non-traditional work that puts an off-center spin on things,” Nick Reely, VP of marketing at the brewer, tells Muse. “The intention isn’t just to get across people’s screens for a couple seconds, but to encourage people to be spontaneous, social and lean into a nostalgic time from the past.” (Easter egg hunts conjure fond memories for some. Presumably.)

Along with last year’s PBR home invasion—referenced above—other fun efforts include putting a fresh spin on its ’50s jingle, with input from diverse creators.

“The mission isn’t necessarily to tie in with pop culture, but of course we do want the brand to be topical,” Neely says. “The audience we aim to connect with likes to be creative and express their individuality. They are driven by excitement and novelty.”

For its “Easter Kegg Hunt,” PBR chose markets where it enjoys strong equity. The brand will place multiple kegs—oh all right, keggs!—in some cities.

“Being an adult can burn you out,” Reely says. “We hope this event allows people to feel young at heart.”

For those seeking brandtastic self-awareness carried to silly extremes, this new campaign from Ibotta really pays off.

Working with creative agency Callen and director Ulf Johansson, the app—which provides cash-back rebates for everyday purchases—skewers advertising tropes with a not-so-typical American family who keep breaking the fourth wall.

Below, Mom starts dinner with a salute: “Here’s to Ibotta, for giving us cash back on the items we already buy, at the stores we already shop at!” Banknotes and coins spew from food containers and a cuckoo clock, illustrating the motto, “There’s cash back in everything you buy.”

“We’re a fake TV family made up to illustrate the extreme monetary value of using Ibotta!” Dad proclaims. They freely embrace their commercial existence, chatting about “visual metaphors” and urging viewers to sign up with the brand.

So, let’s kick back as legal tender shoots from shirts, sofas, headphones, a fire extinguisher and more:

We’re rocking an old-school Skittles vibe here—not surprisingly, as Callen founder and CCO Craig Allen had a hand in those ground-breaking campaigns at TBWAChiatDay. And Johansson directed that campaign’s first round of ads way back in 2004.

The pacing and tone also channel Old Spice classics with Isaiah Mustafa and Terry Crews, which Allen helped Wieden+Kennedy create.

Yet Ibotta takes the template in a fresh direction, gleefully smashing the fourth wall in work that almost feels like a parody of ad parodies (and an homage of sorts to beloved spots of yore).

“Writing self-aware ads is something I’ve done most of my career,” Allen tells Muse. “It’s always best when people can be along for the ride. When they’re part of the joke. When you have money shooting out of every crevice of a house, it’s hard not to be aware of what’s going on” and have to acknowledge the sales pitch on screen.

“The idea that you’d leave free money behind when it’s offered to you is absurd,” Allen says. “Any reasonable person, offered cash for buying something they already intended to buy, would take that money. When you have an offer that powerful and simple, it seemed best to go straight at the thing. So we doubled down on both the ridiculousness and reality of what we were saying.”

To deliver the visual goods, the team used practical effects wherever possible. Alas, not every gag worked according to plan.

“Originally, the dad in ‘Dinner’ cut into a turkey and cash spilled out,” Callen recalls. “It was great in theory. But in execution, it always looked like the turkey was pooping out money. So, we cut that joke. I felt for the poor crew members who had to sweep a bajillion coins off the floor after every take.”

Ibotta joins a recent trend of marketers who spoof advertising in one way or another. Examples include Expedia’s commercials with Ewan McGregor, the Kraft/Netflix team-up featuring Ryan Reynolds, and Postmates’ satire about folks who can’t concentrate because they’re so damn hungry.

Old Navy and Pabst Blue Ribbon have also played with marketing tropes, the latter courtesy of Callen, which offered to turn fans’ homes into huge, shameless ads.

“Our meat-inspired menu tastes so much like real human, after just one bite you’ll be waiting for the police to arrive.”

As a treat for Halloween, canned-water company Liquid Death is joining with delivery service Postmates to offer a “Vegan Cannibal Steakhouse” menu in New York and Los Angeles.

This culturally driven brand always pops, and recently drew real human blood—Tony Hawk’s, no less!—for a fun promotion. Here, however, the fare features no actual people-flesh or bodily fluids, as we learn in the clip below:

Those diners really need some wetnaps! Clean-up at table five!

“Halloween is the one time of the year when the whole world embraces our brand aesthetic,” says Liquid Death VP of creative Andy Pearson, who developed the creepy campaign with agency partner Callen. “You see skeletons at grocery stores, kids dress up as ghosts, etc. So, we figure, how can we go even further and create something that genuinely scares people a little bit? And naturally, we thought: What if we could bring the health and sustainability angle we have with our mountain water to something a little more terrifying, like eating humans?”

There’s no physical restaurant, but the menu is real, available for a limited-time, and packed with plant-based, cruelty-free items such as:

• New Yorkerless Strip Steak: “Vegan human steak served with blood red reduction, whipped garlic potatoes, and spiced heirloom carrots.”
• Guiltless Grilled Rack of Sam: “Vegan human ribs served with minted mango-cerebrospinal-free chutney, sautéed haricot vert, and fingerling potatoes.”
• Manless Meatballs in Marinara: “Vegan human meatballs served on a bed of bucatini and garnished with brain-free cheese and fresh basil.”

Ha, “fingerling”—good one, Liquid Death! (It’s fingerless, too.)

Maybe we’ve got a trend afoot (or some other body part), as Swedish company Oumph! just introduced a “Human Meat Plant-Based Burger” to celebrate All Hallows. (Meatballs being a tad too on the nose, perhaps.) 

“For us, the most human way of having a burger is a plant-based one,” says Oumph! global brand lead Henrik Åkerman. In this promo from LOLA MullenLowe Madrid, a chef sports black-leather gore-flick gloves:

As for Liquid Death’s offering, “we researched what real cannibals have described human meat to be like,” says Pearson. “One said it ‘tastes like pork, a little bit more bitter.’ Another said it’s ‘like good, fully developed veal—not young, but not yet beef.’ Then we worked with a chef to bring that experience to life, so to speak.”

Suddenly, I’m not hungry anymore.

“Our audience is always people who appreciate humor,” Pearson says. “In this case, maybe it’s people totally terrified of the idea, too. Also, by partnering with Postmates to make delivery available, we’re tapping into a whole scene of foodies.

“We wanted to give people the opportunity to try human meat—without having to actually kill anyone, of course.”

Ah well, maybe for the next campaign.

CREDITS

Client:
Liquid Death
Co-Founder and CEO – Mike Cessario
VP of Creative – Andy Pearson
VP of Marketing – Greg Fass

Agency:
CALLEN
CCO/ Founder – Craig Allen
Art Director – Matt Nall
Writer – Kyle Davis
Director: Craig Allen
DP: James Lee Phelan
Producer: Janice Woods
Producer: Katie Jewett

If you’ve always wanted to plaster your living space with ads for Pabst Blue Ribbon, now’s the perfect time to explore this decorating fantasy, as the brewer will pay you to display its red, white and blue iconography all around your home.

Just visit this site through Sept. 24 and “shop” for branded household items, ranging from toilet lids and shower curtains to rugs and tablecloths. You can choose sticker options and decals, too. Pabst will ship you the goods free of charge, and folks who post images of their newly tricked-out abodes, tagging @pabstblueribbon, qualify for payouts in the $10 to $50 range. (They’re currently “sold out”—but more merch will hit the virtual shelves by Wednesday.)

Digital options are also available. Rename your WiFi network PBRSOGOOD and you could make money. Not a whole lot, but still, what are you earning with MYWIFI or some other LAMEHOMENETWORK name these days?

The agency Callen helped develop the silly spin on in-house marketing, and created this zippy video explainer:

“The idea came from a really practical place,” explains PRB VP of marketing Nick Reely. “We were talking about ways to effectively increase brand awareness and kept getting hung up on the budget required to sufficiently reach a lot of people because of how expensive media can be. Jokingly, we said ‘What if we just paid people to put really overt ads in their apartments, condos, homes, dorm rooms, wherever? It would cost less than billboards—and be funny!’ “

“Funny” is a relative term. This is more … offbeat or quirky, along those lines? Stupid yet satirical? Beery?

In terms of merchandise, “we wanted to offer a mix of big items that are semi-ridiculous based on their size—like an area rug,” Reely says, “but also thought there was something inherently funny about small items with really nominal payout values, too—like a sticker that can go on a banana.” (That particular elongated fruit being the “in” promotional vehicle these days.)

“Also, we wanted to offer a range of things for a variety of rooms,” he adds, “so we could take the place over with our logo—I mean, so we could pay people more for generously lending their unused space to our ads!”

CREDITS

CALLEN
Founder/Chief Creative Officer: Craig Allen
Writer: Kyle Davis
Art Director: Matt Nall
Head of Strategy: Julianna Simon
Account Supervisor: Payton Brown
Producer: Janice Woods
Producer: Harrison Watkins
Editor/VFX: Davy Force