Michael Phelps Proves Power of .01 Seconds in BBDO Brazil Olympic Spot

There are two primary reasons to love the Olympics: the games inspire a swell of national pride and a deluge of epic hero’s-journey ads. With their superhuman efforts, both athletes and their sponsors encourage Olympic watchers to live more fully, conquering their daily obstacles.  Lift the groceries higher! Cross the street faster!

The latest spot from Visa’s Go World campaign, which we’ve been told has yet to air, contributes to the uplifting nature of our favorite worldwide competition. Created by BBDO Brazil, the ad invites viewers to “just think of the cheers if lightning strikes twice.” Consider the roar if, in the time it takes lightning to strike, Michael Phelps wins another gold medal. Victory in 100^th of a second.

Narrated once again by Morgan Freeman (who, of course, has also shown his VO chops in March of the Penguins and Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole), this is the latest ad in a series that celebrates supportive fans and their loud noises. For those who can’t be at the games in person, Visa invites them to share their encouragement via Facebook and a “Cheer application.” The best cheers go on TV. 

Read more at: http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/michael-phelps-proves-power-of-01-seconds-in-bbdo-brazil-olympic-spot_b35949.

Parents, This is Your Baby on a Workout Plan

From Brussels-based Pride/TBWA comes a new hidden-camera style spot that compares feeding your toddler regular cereal to child abuse. No, seriously, it does.

What initially appears to be a PSA for fighting infant obesity is actually a commercial for Olvarit, a toddler-targeted Belgian cereal that comes in flavors like “Banana Stars,” “Honey Rings,” and “Choco Balls.” Ha! “Choco Balls,” you guys! The spot features two things that moms tend to share like crazy over social media and epically long email chains: Candid reactions and babies being adorable. In fact, add some sort of flash mob dancing around to the Mama Mia soundtrack/Michael Buble, and this may be the greatest mommy viral video in history.

So, next time you consider feeding your child Honey Nut Cheerios, remember that poor pacifier-sucking baby, and feed it Honey Rings instead. Your child should really switch up his or her favorite breakfast bee mascot from time to time. And, for the record, if this video gets more plays than the entire population of Belgium (about 11 million in 2011), we’re glad we helped.

(via Pop Goes the Week)

Read more at: http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/parents-this-is-your-baby-on-a-workout-plan_b34901

Life After ‘The Pitch’: A Convo (Barely) with Conversation’s Founder

Well, this was somewhat interesting. If we can go all the way back to a few weeks ago, our scribe Bob Marshall, in one of his weekly, epic The Pitch recaps, recapped the battle between NYC-based shop Conversation and Charlotte, NC-based BooneOakley for PopChips. Well, let’s fast-forward to recent times and tell you that we were pitched the opportunity to see what happened after the fact with this one particular episode.

According to the folks at Conversation, “the ‘Year of Pop’ website actually happened , and while we aren’t pursuing “The Greatest Viral Video Ever” we are still integrating user content in our campaign for [PopChips].” Great, but while we expecting something more matter of fact via a little Q+A on what’s happening from said episode’s star and Conversation founder Frank O’Brien, what we got was this:

So, how has life changed for Conversation after The Pitch?

It’s been nuts. We’ve had to increase our security detail because of all the screaming fans outside our office every day. Now we know how John, Paul, George and Ringo felt (only it’s been even crazier than that). David’s working on a new t-shirt line and Alex has been gone for a while since being out on tour with DJ Pauly D. We’re trying to fit time in for President Obama, as well. We didn’t even know he was a fan of the show (Biden too), but he has been BEGGING to stop by. Maybe we’ll squeeze him in sometime this fall.

The Popchips concept has somewhat shifted away the “Greatest Viral Video Ever” concept. Any particular reason why, and where are we at now?

See, that’s the thing about “The Greatest Viral Video Ever.” See, it’s beyond normal comprehension. All you know is that you really want to eat popchips right now. Or maybe, just maybe, it’ll pop up at the end of the year and you won’t even know that throughout the entire year, every movement, every action, every word that you spoke, was actually part of “The Year of Pop.” You’ll just have to wait and find out.

Do you see yourselves with Popchips on a continual basis moving forward?

I was a fan of popchips before we took on the assignment. So I’m with popchips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – eating, sleeping, breathing popchips. I actually keep a bag of the Sweet Potato flavor under my arm at night. And because of the visibility that “The Pitch” has brought us, popchips will forever be with us. It’s like Sting said: “Every breath you take, I’ll be watching you.”

Read more about this at: http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/life-after-the-pitch-a-convo-barely-with-conversations-founder_b34757