What’s that expression people use for when the cat’s away? In this case, it’s Santa who exits, leaving his elves to mind the home front as he departs to distribute their year’s labors.

And off-duty elves can party! The work, set to Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” was created by Leo Burnett for travel and leisure company Tui. In it, you’ll find Elf on a Shelf-type dolls setting off for a sun-soaked holiday jaunt the minute Santa’s reindeer hit altitude.

There’s something creepy about dolls with mostly inanimate faces getting into hijinks, but the minute-long spot quickly invests us in the fun. There’s a zeal here of shaking off the well-mannered employee shtick and cutting loose with peers. Two elves find love (or at least a memorable hookup), and there’s a moment of pure glee when one ignores Santa’s check-in call.

“Shaking up the yearly offering of Christmas clichés, our first Christmas campaign celebrates the feeling of downing tools and soaking up some much needed ‘me-time’,” says Sara Ali, director of brand and content at Tui U.K. and Ireland. “We are always looking for different ways to engage with our audience as part of our ‘Live Happy’ promise, so we’re very excited to spread some festive cheer this year.”

Ten custom puppet elves were created by London-based model-maker Andy Gent from Arch Model Studio. His bonafides include Wes Anderson works like Isle of Dogs, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel, plus Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride.

Directed by Alex Boutell of Rogue, Tui’s Christmas ad went live yesterday on Channel 4 in the U.K., during The Great British Bake Off finale and I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! To support it, elves-gone-wild will take over Tui’s social channels, sharing “Elfies” of their adventures. A sweepstakes will see 12 people win a Tui getaway, and an “Elfie AR filter” will rock Instagram and Facebook.

“We all know how hard Santa works, but what about all his little helpers? Surely they deserve a well-earned Tui holiday for all their efforts!” says chief creative officer Chaka Sobhani at Leo Burnett U.K. and global. “As we enter the cold winter months, we hope this campaign gives us something to look forward to and plan for the summer.” 

Ah, summer. We’ve already forgotten that was a thing.

CREDITS

ADVERTISING AGENCY: Leo Burnett   
CCO: Chaka Sobhani   
EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Mark Elwood   
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Rob Tenconi, Mark Franklin   
COPYWRITER: Matt Wood   
ART DIRECTOR: Tom Loveless   
PLANNERS: Aileen Baker, Beth MacKenzie    
BUSINESS LEAD: Lauren Martin    
ACCOUNT TEAM: Robert Ellen, Daisy Jackson, Libby Matthews, Selen Demirel, Ruben Forde   
CHIEF PRODUCTION OFFICER: Emily Marr   
AGENCY PRODUCER:  Dominique Strouthos   
MEDIA BUYING AGENCY: Essence Mediacom   
MEDIA PLANNER:  Mehr Chughtai   
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Rogue   
DIRECTOR: Alex Boutell   

EDITOR: Leo King – Stitch Editing   
PRODUCER: Tom Farley  
POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: Black Kite Studios   
AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION COMPANY: Wave Studios    
MODEL MAKER: Arch Model Studio    
PHOTOGRAPHER: Rob Tenconi   

TUI:  
GLOBAL BRAND AND CONTENT DIRECTOR: Toby Horry 
DIRECTOR OF BRAND AND CONTENT UK&I: Sara Ali 
HEAD OF GLOBAL ADVERTISING/MEDIA: Felicity Walker
GLOBAL HEAD OF CREATIVE/BRAND ID: Christian Torres
SENIOR GLOBAL ADVERTISING/MEDIA MANAGER: Jennifer Litherland 
GLOBAL ADVERTISING MANAGER: Jessica Briggs

Just in time for Halloween, Ikea’s dropped “Monsters Not Included” by Ogilvy’s Berlin and U.K. offices. It’s unfussy, making good use of lighting—and the anxiety-inducing absence of illumination—not to mention the tweaky or eerily hollow instrumentals that lead to jump scares.

The first ad in the set is a promo for the Släkt bedframe … though we wouldn’t mind copping one of those soothing bubble lamps, too:

The spot second is for the Småstad wardrobe:

We like the comedic tension here, assuaging fears even as it stokes them. As a responsible company, Ikea can pretty much only promise that monsters don’t come with the furniture. Once it’s at your house, though…

Just keep a nightlight handy. 

“Monsters Not Included” went live in Germany and the U.K. this month. The films are supported by outdoor and print. One of the latter, for Majgull curtains, appears below.

CREDITS

Chief Creative Officer (EMEA): Dr. Stephan Vogel
Chief Creative Officer (Germany): Dora Osinde
Global Executive Creative Director (UK): Daniel Fisher
Executive Creative Director (Germany): Felipe Galiano, Matt Longstaff
Global Creative Director (UK): Juliana Paracencio
Senior Copywriter (Germany): Rafael Quintal
Senior Art Director (Germany): Cheryl Lee
Senior Designer (UK): Laurence Blake
Senior Arabic Writer (UAE): Karim Sherif
Client Service Director (Germany): Melina Boelen
Hogarth Post Production Executive Producer (Germany): Meike Sinemus
Video Editor (Germany): Dominik Bull

Production Company: Flying Eye Studio
Director: Marcello Amora

Music: DaHouse
Music Supervisor: Wonder Bettin, Lucas Mayer, Silvio Erne
SFX: Wonder Bettin
Executive Producer: Cassiano Derenji

Color Grading: Basis Berlin
Colorist: Pippo Color

The first time I wore glasses, I walked home extra-slow. I could see every vein on every leaf. The world was breathtaking.

I thought about this moment while watching the 2-minute hero ad Mother Berlin made for German optician Fielmann. Though humans disproportionally rely on vision to navigate the world, learn and even diagnose many diseases, advertising in this category isn’t known for its big emotional impact … a surprisingly consistent missed opportunity.

None of this really occurred to us, though, until we watched “Your Glasses: Fielmann.” Then we remembered what it was like to put on specs and experience the world as though we’d never seen it before. The lushness of it filled our chests.

Directed by Joanna Nordahl, the film depicts a number of banal but poignant everyday moments: A man’s quiet time with his horse, a museum guard reminiscing, a couple falling in love, another separating, a bus driver working nights. It’s set to a classical reinterpretation of electronic band Moderat’s “New Error,” and is entirely shot on Kodak 35mm film. 

It ends, “Everyone sees life through a different lens. We make yours.”

The insight is neat, well handled, and precise. Same way you’d want your lenses done. The visuals are crisp but vulnerable to moving panels of light, a quality that engages, and plays with, our capacity to see. This is a work about perspective—how one sees, how one experiences life.

The out-of-home collateral has an unassuming, slice-of-life feel. Shot by photographer Christian Werner, each depicts portraits of ordinary people wearing glasses in everyday contexts. You can check them out below. The full campaign goes live this week throughout Central Europe.

CREDITS

Client – Fielmann
CMO: Benjamin Ludigs
Head of Content & Art Direction: Francesca Manuzzi
Senior Marketing Manager: Christina Appleton, Anja Reimann, Meike Meister
Content & Art Direction Team: Marie Julie Kopf, Ida Eskildsen
Senior Editor: Hanna Simons
Marketing Consultant: Katherine Atkin, Claudia Gebhardt
Media: Stefan Rohde, Patrick Schubring, Tobias Thelemann, Anna Lena Nickelsen, Florian Mueller

Creative, Strategy – Mother Berlin

Production – Anorak
Executive Producer: Christiane Dressler
Producer: Björn Krüger-Levy
Media: Joanna Nordahl
Camera: Erik Henriksson

Post Production: Anorak & Slaughterhouse
Editor: Andreas Arvidsson

Sound: Ponytail Sound

Media Agency – Zenith

What if your entire day, indeed your whole life, took place in spaces measuring one square meter? This is the case for the hero of HeimatTBWA’s latest visual stunner from Hornbach.

At the start of the :60 below, he awakens in a constricted world. He climbs a narrow passage with toast in his mouth. It’s a scene akin to Alice falling into Wonderland, but in reverse. He stops to spritz his mushrooms. Under a low slanted roof, he tries his hand at pottery. Then he slides away from the wheel, creation in hand, to savor a meal with company. The uneven pot now holds flowers.

The vibe’s claustrophobic and dreamlike. Stuff slides about, scenes shift in odd ways.

The ad is a creative response to the cost-of-living crisis that’s spread like a plague, making it harder to find adequate living space. “A square meter seems small, yet it is an endless space of ideas,” the YouTube description reads. And indeed, as the man progresses through spaces he lives in and shares, the walls never exceed that measure (a square meter is about 10.76 square feet).

Hornbach’s grittiness manifests beautifully here, and that madcap quality we’ve come to love shines in the protagonist’s eyes. But the subtle hand of Heimat can also be felt, which is what gives the DIY shop its unique brand identity: It’s a place for creativity unhinged, the stuff of too much time alone with a hammer, staring at something whose “artistic constraints” have begun to drive you a little mad—enough to push past barriers of convention.

You’ll find no neat Ikea aesthetics, clean lines interrupted only by the quirky accent marks of the furniture’s Swedish names. Instead, Hornbach’s world is rooty, wild, imperfect—a garden gone full English.

“We want to encourage and inspire people to creatively rethink and design rooms and spaces, both within their own four walls and beyond,” explains Thomas Schnaitmann, Hornbach’s head of international brand. “Particularly in places where affordable living space is becoming scarcer, the number of ideas per square meter needs to be even bigger.”

The work is fun to watch, each scene opening like a palimpsest you can live in, revealing layer upon layer of life. It must have been fun to make. Director Steve Rogers of TDF Berlin worked with set designer Steven Jones-Evans, whose team handcrafted everything you see.

“This film is the embodiment of the Hornbach brand. We’ve built everything by hand, from the bed to the vertical dining room. No special effects, only ideas,” says Guido Heffels, agency founder and CCO. 

The results speak for themselves. In a well-shot minute, the rooms we move through are compact while conveying scale. The ambiance possesses a liminal quality: Space seems to go on forever, holding endless potential. But it also feels a little too tight, evoking the times we’ve had to make do in tight quarters.

At the end of the ad, the protagonist tumbles out of the labyrinth and emerges, as though from the head of John Malkovich, onto a stage before an applauding audience. The background brasses play at their peak. This line appears: “Every square meter deserves to be the best in the world.”

Designers and artists from eight European countries—including Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, Austria, and the Netherlands—produced actual square-meter artworks for the supporting campaign, which will roll out from mid-September onward. They have evocative names like “The Square Farm,” “The Memory Room” and “BBQ Tower.” Their stories, and those of their designers, will also be told on social and digital supports.

Out-of-home, radio and event promotions will accompany the work.

CREDITS

Creative Agency: HeimatTBWA
Media Agency: Mediaplus
Director: Steve Rogers
Music Composition: Benjamin Woodgates, LELAND Music, London
Music Supervision: Ed Bailie, LELAND Music, London
Sound Design: David Arnold/ LOFT Berlin
Film Production: TPF Berlin
Producers: Michael Duttenhöfer, Florian von der Heydt

Today in nightmare fuel, and with help from adam&eve Berlin, German telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom has created a campaign called “Share with Care.”

Its hero video is designed to convince parents who overshare pics of their kids online (dubbed “sharenting”) to consider the consequences their offspring might face years from now. The work features a deepfake of one child, Ella, as a young adult, talking to her parents in a cringey self-referential style—like, “Hey mom and dad, look, it’s future me, isn’t technology neat? Here’s all the ways it’s not.”

Except in her own words, natch.

Ella then spins through a Rolodex of horrors. These range from cyberbullying to identity theft to—the crowning glory of filial terrors—child pornography. (It’s all theoretically worse than your mobile company making a deepfake of your kid to call you out in a room full of people.)

Of course, everyone here is an actor. But the scenario is still kafkaesque.

“Telekom offers the best and most secure network,” says Uli Klenke, chief brand officer. “But in addition to access to this network, we also need the necessary knowledge and tools for safe and responsible handling of data on the Internet. Because the development of artificial intelligence holds opportunities and risks. In the spot, we let the AI warn us about itself. And thus, underline fascination and awe at the same time. We have to learn to deal with both factors appropriately.” 

I don’t think this approach is the best way for Telekom to position itself as a secure network. Many cartoon supervillains have tried proving they deserve to decide the destinies of others by showcasing their incredible power, usually through bombastic, destructive methods. (Kind of like what Elon Musk is doing with Twitter.)

So, even if this ad is fiction, why would you, the telecom—the “pipes” enabling internet access—suggest publicly that you can see everyone’s data, then make deepfakes their kids while alluding to still more abject terrors? Even if it’s for a good reason, it’s a strange risk to take in strange times. And has time really taught us that fear and shame are the best ways to educate people? Is that what we’ve learned from the past few years?

Still, the approach raises a powerful point. “Every person has the right to decide on his or her own digital identity,” says Christian Loefert, Telekom Germany’s head of marketing communications. “Studies show that an average five-year-old child has already had around 1,500 pictures uploaded without their consent by those they trust most: their parents. This material is unprotected on the net.”

Per Telekom, experts say that by 2030, two-thirds of identity theft cases will spring from this trove of indexed data and faces. A legit smörgåsbord of issues can arise from this generous hose of personal information, for which the person most affected can’t have possibly given consent. (As if any of us understands data ownership, anyway.)

One thing that distinguishes millennials from other generations is that we were the first to grow up with social media, and will be the last living generation to remember what life was like before it changed everything. As social’s first guinea pigs, we’ve formed a reflex to archive everything.

Facebook contains the last 20 years, at least, of many of our lives, even if use of it has begun petering out. Our Instagrams bear witness to our long, drawn-out discovery of personal branding, which came to dominate our thoughts when it finally dawned on us that filters weren’t going to make us photographers, just better self-presenters.

There’s a baby in all this bathwater, literally. In the time we’ve begun producing offspring, our children have become the first in a worsening social experiment. Our compulsion to archive everything also compels us to create social-media presences for our kids, cradle-to-graving them into the public eye so their SEO isn’t hijacked by some faster, more enterprising kid or parent. All this stems from good intentions: The desire to share our lives with others, and also to give our kids a leg up in a digital world that fosters many well-paid careers.

There is the practice of choosing names with available URLs. One couple I know had an Instagram account for their daughter up and running from the day she was born. They count her months of growth in pizza slices, and create hashtags that pair her name with brands she wears. Another social media account I once followed, run by a pair of sociologists, documented every moment of life for their child, whose gender they refused to reveal.This was a fascinating thing to watch, as the child oscillated between various gender codes, but also creepy to consider from the youngster’s perspective.

Kids in ’80s TV used to say, “I didn’t ask to be here!” Maybe future ones will instead shout, “I didn’t ask to be published!”

“We want to prevent children from becoming victims of cybercrime through no fault of their own,” says Marike Mehlmann-Tripp, who heads social engagement and group corporate responsibility at Telekom. “For all people to be able to participate in the digital world, it is essential that they can move safely, self-determinedly and confidently in the digital space. Media competence is an integral part of digital participation. That is why we are committed to promoting digital skills through numerous initiatives.” 

In addition to this freaky video, Telekom is also promoting safe digital use with a Teachtoday initiative and associated toolbox. The “Germany Safe on the Net” initiative offers a “digital drivers license” called the DsiN, a certification program recognized throughout Germany that teaches people digital security skills. Telekom Security GmbH is also sharing their own tips with a special guidebook.

Learn more about what they’re doing at the dedicated Share with Care subsite.

CREDITS

Client: Deutsche Telekom
Agency: DDB Germany, adam&eveBerlin
Brand: Deutsche Telekom
Project/Campaign name: Without Consent
Client: Ulrich Klenke (Chief Brand Officer), Dr. Christian Hahn (VP Marketing Communication Strategy & Media), Dr. Christian Loefert (SVP Marketing Communications TDG), Philipp Friedel (VP Market Communication Telekom Deutschland)
Group Executive Creative Director: 
Chief Creative Officer: Jens Pfau, Diana Sukopp, Richard Brim
Chief Strategy Officer: George Strakhov, Philipp Schwartz
Executive Creative Director/s:
Creative Director/s: Christian El Asmar, René Herder
Creative Team: Ophelia Dartey, Lars-Frederic Rexa
Sr. Copywriter: Fabio Santos
Agency producer/s: Meike van Meegen
Planner/s: Gillian Orth    
CEO:
Managing Director: Christina Antes
Business Director/s:
Account Director/s:
Senior Account Manager/s: Florian Kröger
Account Manager/s:
Account Executive/s:
Designer/Typographer:
AR-Filter Designer: Patrick Huber
Machine Learning Engineering Lead: Denis Leonov
Media agency:
Media planner/s:
Production company: Tempomedia Berlin
Executive Producer: Uli Jason Ulbrich
Producer: Julia Moya
Director: Sergej Moya
Cinematographer: Armin Franzen
D.O.P:
Casting: Juntke Casting
Editing Company:
Editor: Andrej Gontcharov
Post Production: SPC / Supercontinent
Post Producer: Sebastian Raphael, Felix Schröder
VFX Supervisor: Mario Bertsch
2D Artist:
3D Artist:
Colourist: Benedikt Hugendubel
Illustrator:
Music Supervisor:
Audio Post Production: Supreme Music
Soundtrack name and composer: Supreme Music
 

Philips Refurb Editions—an offshot of the Philips brand, and whose name succinctly describes its product line—made its grand debut at a Hamburg-based pop-up store in mid-June.

The “Better Than New” campaign jabs at the notion that new usually equals better, and showcases refurbished personal-care electronics using a retro-futuristic aesthetic with a strangely soothing audiovisual palette.

The creative is below, featuring a razor, a hair dryer and an epilator.

According to Philips, 38 percent of customers are willing to pay more for a durable product; 40 percent buy secondhand. Environmental impact is a big psychological motivator. But going into refurbs makes sense for companies, too, as critical raw materials, hidden within the shiny carapaces of so many electronics, get harder to come by.

Thus, for Philips, innovation these days is about designing products that can survive multiple generations of use (in this case representing multiple consumers). That puts the onus on brands to build for longevity, while also making refurb products look as attractive as possible for their next owners.

“We believe that innovation should be about making quality products that you can enjoy for a long time,” says Josefien Olij, the brand’s global senior director of marketing and communications. “The ‘Better Than New’ campaign is about creating greater awareness of the benefits of reusing perfectly good products, so consumers can use less and reuse more in a fun, easy, accessible way.” 

“Better Than New” springs from a collab between the brand, Amsterdam-based LePub, artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. The last two are co-founders of an Italian image-only magazine called Toiletpaper.

“Philips has a great heritage in innovation,” explains LePub’s chief creative officer Milos Obradovic. “To launch this new initiative  and show how a technology company can lead us into the future in a new way, we revisited the company’s rich past with a fresh take on what innovation can mean for the future.” 

LePub worked with Toiletpaper to scour Philips’ ad archives, and came up with the idea of refreshing some of the brand’s old-school print ads. The result is a mashup of the latter, with retro-futurist touches coming from Toiletpaper, which often uses that aesthetic as a signature.

At the pop-up store where it launched, “Better Than New” advanced the idea that refurbs can lead to a better shared future. Attendees were invited to buy products virtually. Since then, it’s rolled out in outdoor media, print and social media.

According to Philips, the Refurb Editions line—which Olij proudly does dub an innovation—saved the brand 139 tons of e-waste in 2022. That year, over 39,000 refurbished products found new homes.

CREDITS

Agency: LePub
Campaign: Philips Sustainability – “Refurb Is the future”
Advertiser: Philips

Philips
Head of Marketing Center of Excellence: Claudia Calori  
Global Sr. Director Marketing Communications: Josefien Olij 
Marketing Planning & Operations Director: Timo Wassermeier  
Senior Integrated producer: Gustavo Velho 

LePub
Global CEO LePub, Global CCO Publicis Worldwide & CCO Publicis Groupe Italy: Bruno Bertelli 
LePub Global Creative Team 
Chief Creative officer: Milos Obradovic 
Creative Director: Jessica Kersten 
Creative Director: Sandrine Le Goff 
Jr Art Director: Alejandro Gutierrez 
Jr Copy Writer: Nikolaj Malchev 
LePub Global Strategist & Chief Strategy Office: Isabella Mulholland
Strategic Planner: Martina Rinciari
LePub Global Account Team
General Manager Publicis Italy: David Pagnoni 
Business Director: Francesca Baldrighi 
Account Director: Sanne Kragten  
Account Manager: Ayuningtyas Baskoro Djarot 
Chief Production Officer: Francesca Zazzera  
Head of Video Production: Anna Sica  
Art buyer: Rossana Coruzzi 
Producer: Sabrina Sanfratello 
Post producer: Alina Chaplygina 
Digital Art Director: Ariberto Anastasi 
Production e Print Manager: Tina Paolella 
Digital Project Manager: Ornella Scarparo
Digital Producer Supervisor: Simona Caldarini 
Motion Graphic Designers: Prodigious Stefano Moretto, Matteo Marzano
LePub Global PR Team
Global Head of PR & Communication: Isabella Cecconi
Global Senior PR & Communication Manager: Julie Foulet

Toiletpaper 
Photographers: Maurizio Cattelan, Pierpaolo Ferrari
Creative Director: Micol Talso 
Art Director: Antonio Colomboni  
Art Director Assistant: Sara Matacena 
First Assistant Photographer: Chiara Quadri
Second Assistant Photographer: Andrea Ceppi
Stylist: Elisa Zaccanti
Stylist Assistant: Bianca Luini 
Casting Director: Simone Bart 
Casting Assistant: Alessandra Richiardi 
Set designer: Michela Natella 
Set builder: Lorenzo Dispensa 
Set designer Assistant: Giulia Varisco 
Hair & makeup Artist: Lorenzo Zavatta 
Hair & makeup Artist Assistant: Federica Russo Digitall, Tommaso Bressan 

Creative Retouching Studio: Martin & Rainone Production
Coordinator: Stefania Biliato
Production Assistant: Fjoralba Murati
Production General Assistant: Alessandro Pagani
Backstage Photographer: Manfredi Prestigiacomo

Media Agency : OMD

To promote recycling, David’s São Paulo and Bogotá offices have created “Coronaless,” which is running in Europe and Latin America.

The campaign’s billboards and online media reflect pretty standard Corona fare: exotic locales, time with friends or romantic partners. But the Coronas which should be hanging from loose wrists, or firmly embedded in the sand like stalwart pals, are nowhere to be found, leaving indentations and empty lobster-grips where bottles should appear.

The copy reads: “We returned the bottle of this ad. Return yours.”

There’s no small degree of virtue signaling here: Hey, we pulled up our bootstraps. How about you do your part?

Having suffered through hours of excruciating pack-shot conversations in the production phase of advertising, we get that it’s a big deal for a brand to “take the risk” of not showing its product. Marketers are obsessed with themselves, trying to make the most of every moment—no second of eyeball time wasted, as if any lost opp could lead to collective, irreversible consumer amnesia.

When we initially looked at this campaign, we thought Corona was trying to say its bottles could be returned for reuse. That would’ve been admirable. It implies local buy-in, and means a bunch of glass doesn’t have to be broken down to make the same thing it was already. This would save time, energy and money.

Instead, this work is just about “[encouraging] people to dispose of empty Corona packaging correctly, without polluting beaches and oceans,” according to the press release.

This campaign is running in Germany, Uruguay and Brazil. Germany is among the most mindful nations from a recycling perspective, so why they’d need a reminder to recycle we don’t know. Uruguay has an informal recycling sector; Brazil recycles just 1 percent of waste. In the latter two cases, recycling is not an easily available choice. (And even when it is, that doesn’t mean recycling is working as it should.)

People reuse stuff around their houses all the time. But brands have historically made it nigh-on impossible to reuse or refill anything they repeatedly sell us. It’s tolerated, like a charming character quirk. Facilitated reuse is the one place Corona could be helpful if it’s that worried about polluted beaches (never mind that glass is the least of a beach’s pollution problems; it eventually becomes sand again). 

Reuse is something brands can encourage without having to get involved with politicians. Corona could work with existing distributors, maybe get other companies involved to incentivize people to bring stuff back. That’s some sound circular economy stuff. You feel like you’re part of a community that’s doing something, with brands leading the charge. But it’s usually local brands that initiate acts like this, rather than global conglomerates, which makes the missed opportunity for true virtue all the more flagrant.

Recycling, on the other hand, is an infrastructure issue, not something average folks can control most of the time. Passing the buck to them, and so smugly, feels distasteful. What’s more, we’re well past the point when encouraging people to recycle feels like the move. We have entered the midnight of climate change, where no amount of individual recycling will compensate for indifferent government policy and relentless corporate lobbying.

The level, degree and scope of wasteful production we’re dealing with is bigger than a bunch of Brazilians buying six-packs for a Saturday afternoon. This feels like relatively common knowledge now, and one of the unfortunate reasons why the trouble we’re in feels like such a stranglehold.

In case you’re looking for inspiration, Corona, here’s a Toronto-based beer shop that explains its entire bottle-reuse infrastructure. Take notes!

More campaign images below. Click to enlarge:

CREDITS

Agency: DAVID São Paulo, DAVID Bogotá

Campaign: Coronaless

Client: ABI

Product: Corona

Partner and Global CCO: Pancho Cassis

Global COO: Sylvia Panico

ECD: Edgard Gianesi, Renata Leão

Creative Director: Fabrício Pretto, Rogério Chaves

Art Director: Felipe Revite

Copywriter: Filipe Rosado

Account: Juan Pablo Garcia, Catalina Cordoba, Amanda Mezejewski

Production team: Fernanda Peixoto, Ana Marques, Mariana Marinho, Letícia Brito

Global PR Director: Sandra Azedo

Production Company: Sicarios

Photographer: Thierry des Fontaines

Executive Producer: João Luz

Line Producer: Rafa Pinto

Operations: Lindin Lima

Photography assistant: Ícaro Torres Correia, Artur Leite

Account: Babi Kosloff, Ju Bahia, Yuri Fuly

Editor: Sicarios, Juary Leocardio

In the end, a thoughtful visit from one of the previously rowdy youngsters begins to turn the tide. Granny’s cracked specs mend as if by magic. The whole world doesn’t instantly brighten, but there’s hope that her lot will improve. That’s honest. And human. More than enough for any commercial to convey. Penny does so in simple yet powerful terms, crafting an intimate, personal, deeply meaningful story amid chaos and disorder.

The end line, “Let’s heal the rifts in our society,” aims pretty high. But the film provides a template for getting there: Fix one crack at a time, and perhaps better days will follow.

“With the start of the pandemic, every one of us has experienced cracks in the foundation of their everyday lives,” Serviceplan creative director Moritz Dornig tells Muse. “Friendships are tested over vaccine discussions, we witness prejudices wherever we go, people treat each other with less kindness, and not a week goes by without a protest in the streets—hard winds are blowing. When talking about these trends in our creative team and with the client, everyone felt that this is the subject that deserves a larger platform this year.”

He continues: “Just like everybody had their own conflicts to deal with, everyone had different ideas of how those divisions should be portrayed in the film: cracks, rifts, trenches, canyons? It was director Seb Edwards‘ idea to let these rifts appear as literal cracks throughout the building in different shapes and sizes—a small crack in the glasses, dented metal in the elevator, walls that break away. They’re just as individual as the divisions occurring between people.”

Edwards created a previous holiday classic with John Lewis’ 2018 film about Elton John. That one was awesome, with vibrant scope and energy. Here, he explores utterly different territory, marked by unsettling images that heighten the tension without becoming showy distractions.

“The cracks were like the third main character of the film,” says Matthias Schuster, also a CD at Serviceplan. “It was important that each crack does not always appear in the same way, but develops, like the other protagonists.”

To achieve maximum realism while filming at a high-rise in Bucharest and on nearby sound stages, “our set designers carved them directly into the set—starting with the glasses’ lenses, to the cracks in the wall in the stairwell, up to the broken keys of the piano. In post-production, the cracks were airbrushed out for early scenes, so we could show a fluid development. Dust particles and numerous other special effects, such as the unrolling of the wallpaper, added further authenticity.” (Naturally, on location, the crew cleaned up afterwards.)

None of this would work, however, if the lead actors—Edie Samland and Philip Kapell—didn’t deliver such compelling performances. They say little but convey an impressive range of emotion with body language, looks and gestures. Displaying personal growth, empathy and insight with nods and glances is a tough act to pull off, even in feature films and episodic dramas, where actors have far more to work with. Here, Samland and Kapell deliver in every frame, in complete sympathy with the gritty spectacle transpiring around them.

“To find the perfect cast, the director developed the actors’ characters together in remote casting sessions that lasted several hours,” Schuster recalls. “This resulted in two extremely focused, professional and strong protagonists.”

All told, “The Rift” should go a long way toward boosting Penny, which keeps a low profile during the film, letting the story unfold naturally, without awkward branding or placements.

“The essence of Penny is community,” says Serviceplan managing partner Christoph Everke. “Penny has 29,000 employees who come into direct customer contact every day and are exposed to all these conflicts that we describe in our film. At Penny markets, all people, opinions and their disputes meet. They are the neighborhood market that stands for closeness and community. So, the message comes directly from the heart of the brand.”

“Our communication is not only for customers, but also for those 29,000 employees,” he explains. “One of them commented on Facebook, when we posted the spot, ‘I wish we could show it on a screen in the market.’ “

“The Rift” will run across Penny’s social media channels as well as in German cinemas. Digital, print and OOH elements figure into the mix. Notably, there’s a guide for starting constructive conversations and reaching out to those in need.

CREDITS

Penny Markt GmbH:
Dr. Stefan Görgens / COO PENNY Markt GmbH
Marcus Haus / Bereichsleiter Marketing
Werner Hesse Quack / Head of Brand Marketing
Thomas Raupach / Head of Digital Marketing
Friederike Pater / Senior Digital Marketing Managerin

Serviceplan:
Christoph Everke / Serviceplan Campaign / Managing Director
Michael Jaeger / Serviceplan Campaign / Managing Partner
Moritz Dornig / Serviceplan Campaign / Creative Director
Matthias Schuster / Serviceplan Campaign / Creative Director
Katharina King / Serviceplan Campaign / Copywriter
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Alessia Scheffler / Serviceplan Campaign / Junior Account Managerin
Frederike Striegel / Serviceplan Campaign / Account Director
Marén Echtermeyer / Freelance / Account Management
Aisha Blackwell / NEVEREST GmbH & Co Kg / Executive Producer
Jennifer Meisels / Freelance / Producer

Film Production:
ANORAK Film GmbH / Production company
ICON films / Serviceproduction
Seb Edwards / Director
Kasper Tuxen / DOP
Kave Quinn / Production Design
Fritzi Ngenci / Costume Design
Adi Popescu / SFX Supervisor
Stephen Grasso / VFX Supervisor
Tom Lindsay / Editor
Nicolas Becker / Sound design
Ken Yasumoto / Soundmix
Ben Lukas Boysen / Music
Christoph Petzenhauser / Executive Producer
Björn Krüger-Levy / Producer
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Alex Molea / Service Producer
TRIM / Offline Edit
TIME BASED ARTS / VFX studio
Julia Todorow / Casting

Till Diestel, one of the most awarded German creatives, was appointed chief creative officer for Germany at Serviceplan in June 2022. He was previously chief creative officer at BBDO Germany.

Till had already worked for Serviceplan in Hamburg from 2006 to 2014, reaching the level of ECD during his time there. He then moved to adam&eveDDB London, where he developed prominent campaigns such as H&M Come Together, the John Lewis Christmas campaign, and the Skittles Romance Super Bowl ad.

In 2018, after three years in London, Diestel joined BBDO Berlin as a managing director. In 2019 he was appointed chief creative officer of BBDO Germany, overseeing creative output for clients including WhatsApp, WWF and Ford, and led BBDO to the top of the creative rankings in Germany for the first time.

We spent two minutes with Till to learn more about his background, his creative inspirations, and recent work he’s admired.

Till, tell us…

Where you grew up, and where you live now. 

I grew up in a small town in northern Germany, and now live in Berlin. 

How you first realized you were creative. 

When building with my Lego bricks. I always threw away the instructions and built my own different crazy creations, and played my own stories.  

A person you idolized creatively early on. 

George Lucas. Star Wars all day.

A moment from high school or college that changed your life. 

My school gap year in New Zealand at the age of 15. Spending one year away from Germany. Literally the furthest away you can be from home. At a time with only email or expensive phone calls to connect back home. Being alone far away, it really helped my self-confidence, got me interested in people and woke my curiosity for the new and unexplored.

A visual artist or band/musician you admire. 

Banksy for me. Showing the world a constant mirror. Banksy doesn’t hold back or follow the rules while still maintaining the anonymity. Every stunt Banksy makes, makes me go “Shit, wish I would have thought about that or had the bravery to do it.” 

A book, movie, TV show or podcast you recently found inspiring. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once by The Daniels. I mean, it is all in the title.  

Your favorite fictional character. 

Linus van Pelt from Peanuts.  

Someone or something worth following in social media. 

@unnecessaryinventions because they mostly are really necessary.  

How Covid-19 changed your life, personally or professionally. 

Had to get glasses. Working too much in front of the screen, I guess. It was tough to work from home over such a long period. I really felt there was a disconnect between the teams, the agency. It took a hit on agency culture, how we work. The small chats in between just don’t work via Teams/Zoom. We are in the people business, and great things happen because of the exchange of chemistry.  

One of your favorite creative projects you’ve ever worked on. 

The H&M Christmas campaign “Come Together” directed by Wes Anderson. Because it showed me that having an impossible idea in your head—”Maybe Wes could direct this film”—can actually become a reality if you believe in it and work hard for it.

A recent project you’re proud of. 

A few I really liked, but if I go back a bit, I will say the campaign WWF “Eurythenes Plasticus” I worked on at my time at BBDO. Coming up with the idea of finding a new species contaminated by plastic pollution and giving it a new name. It was so far out there that it took us two years to pull this off. But we partnered with one of the leading scientists on our planet, discovered a new species in 7,000-meter depth and entered it into the permanent taxonomic record to now become an ambassador to the damage we doing to our planet. Again, it proved to me “anything is possible” when you put the right team on it and fully believe in it.

Someone else’s work that inspired you years ago. 

Must be Richard Brim from adam&eveDDB. A constant force of creating new and powerful campaigns that resonate in culture. Always trying to find the new, the weird, the emotions.

Someone else’s work you admired lately. 

As a gamer, I really admire the work of Neil Druckmann, who created and wrote the series The Last of Us. Gaming, for me, is the most interesting form of entertainment, and if a game can glue you to the screen for dozens of hours by a single narrative, it is just amazing. Better than any movie or show. Honestly believe we can learn so much from good games for our industry as well. Immersive storytelling done right.

Your main strength as a creative person. 

Connecting the dots.  

Your biggest weakness. 

Too many things that I find interesting. Gotta keep focus!  

One thing that always makes you happy. 

Building with Lego bricks. 

One thing that always makes you sad. 

Not having spent enough time with family. Got to get better at this.

What you’d be doing if you weren’t in advertising. 

Special effects or animation for movies. Hello, Pixar.

Blind taste tests were all the rage back in the day. Who remembers the Pepsi Challenge?

Nowadays, there’s online reviews. And most are savage. Curtice Brothers, a ketchup maker, did a solid for low-ranked restaurants in Berlin with “Ketchup to the Rescue.” It was a long game, but reviews improved—marginally—for these subpar establishments.

One restaurant went from “walk on by” to “not the worst option.” Another was “horrible” and now it’s “OKish.” One-star restaurants now boasted … two stars. One restaurant jumped four spaces in its ranking, from 5,656 to 5,652.

Ogilvy Berlin scoured the lowest Tripadvisor-rated restaurants, gave them bottles of Curtice Brothers to place on their tables, and sat back and waited for new reviews.

Once that happened, OOH ads were created and placed close by the establishments to draw additional attention. Ads showed before-and-after reviews along, with the footnote that Curtice Brothers has been “making not OK food OK since 1868.” The campaign will expand to additional countries, with England most likely next.

So how did a brand that won best ketchup in Germany in 2020 align with such a tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating campaign?

Muse spoke with Felipe Galiano and David Krueger, creative directors at Ogilvy Berlin about the “Ketchup to the Rescue” campaign and how an award-winning condiment can only do so much.

How did you come up with the idea?

Felipe Galiano: We were researching all the awards and endorsements that attract people to certain food brands and found that the most brutal critics were not necessarily the big chefs or international competitions, but the online public. There is an honesty you get there that you won’t find anywhere else. People have the freedom and transparency to say what they really think without any filter, and they do. That’s when we realized this would be the ultimate test. That’s where we would see if there is a difference that Curtice Brothers ketchup could make.

What did Curtice Brothers think, and how did the restaurants react?  

David Krueger: Curtice Brothers were skeptical at first because they normally align with high-end restaurants, so they were nervous of being associated with low-rated restaurants. But realizing they are a niche brand trying to make a big impact, they rose to the challenge. The restaurants were obviously very pleased with the positive effect of the campaign and were incredibly collaborative.   

How long until feedback came through?  

Felipe Galiano: This ranged from restaurant to restaurant, but in general it took about two months.  

What was the overall campaign goal?  

David Krueger: The ultimate taste test to prove with neutral and unbiased participants the power of really good, organic, fresh tomato ketchup.   

Were there any challenges to creating the campaign?  

Felipe Galiano: It was hard to get the restaurants to face the fact that they have a low rating. A lot of the restaurants were in denial regarding their quality. Getting them on board was tough. And the internal struggle within Curtice Brothers to have their premium brand associated with low-end restaurants was a very difficult discussion. But they really pulled through, and their bravery was rewarded.  

Anything else we should know about the campaign?  

David Krueger: Media logistics were very challenging. To match the locations with the restaurants required a lot of media planning on OOHs and digital geo location banners. We knew how important it was to find the right locations to deliver our message across. 

CREDITS

Agency: Ogilvy Berlin
Creative Chairman: Dr. Stephan Vogel
Chief Creative Officer: Björn Bremer
Executive Creative Director: Florian Hucker
Creative Director: Felipe Galiano, David Krueger
Art Director: Rodrigo Sganzerla
Copywriter: Rafael Quintal|
Account Management: Alexandra Teodoreci
Designer: Timon Osche
Producer: Raquel Fedato
DOP: Bastian Kempf
Editor: Marcello Amora / Flying Eye
Music: DaHouse Audio