Meet Your Inner Finn. Apply for Fear. Go Green. Experience Synaesthesia
"Don't watch this if you're busy." That's a tall statement for a video that looks like a Disney cartoon, but Above & Beyond CCO Dom Goldman is right: This is worth it. Narrated by Olivia Coleman, it burrows into the happily-ever-after meant for a prince and princess. We won't give anything away by revealing the client. It went live yesterday on the UK's Channel 4 news … and as Goldman points out, "They don't air ads on the news. They made an exception." The ending twists up all our innards. (For bonus weeping, spend six hours listening to this.)
A lot of fun tourism stuff popped up this week … right as tourism season slows to a crawl. This director's cut for Burgenland Tourism, by Wien Nord Serviceplan and starring stage actor Nicholas Ofczarek, is indie-film surreal. Was it supposed to make us hungry?
Less method, more mirth: Our Finland's on Instagram punting a free "Masterclass of Happiness," using an ad that starts like a meme about being a reclusive (or just tired) thirty-something. There's never been a more Finnish punchline.
Also on Insta: Awkward but legit questions, like "How do I know if I like girls or boys? Is foreplay sex? My pregnancy test is positive … what do I do?" (We asked ourselves that last question recently. The first answer we found was "stop drinking but act natural." Six months in, we still haven't found a better one.) In this collab between Netflix France, Gaze Magazine, Media.Monks Paris and Le Planning Familial (the French Planned Parenthood), kiosk ads all over Paris are promoting a "Sex Education hotline." You can guess what this is for, but also, this marks the first time Le Planning Familial's had its number broadcast on such a large scale. Vive sex ed! And if you speak French, you might find this fun:
Less fun, more fear: Apply here. Swedish amusement park Liseberg is seeking volunteers for a "peak fear experiment," which sounds literally unbearable, but we will never judge your kink.
In the Netherlands, Creatives for Climate is creating a coalition of agencies and industry pros dedicated to dropping greenwashy, climate-abusive clients, notably oil companies. This is big: Agencies have long argued they're the easiest asset to fire on a client's roster, an excuse to say they're at the wallet guy's mercy. The first part of that is true. The second is false. Great creative is the business of influence. That starts with your partners. Also, if you're in Copenhagen next week, drop by a C4C meetup on the 27th to meet more creatives gone rad green.
Bottoms up: Liev Schreiber is doing a cocktail show on Insta for Sláinte Irish Whiskey. It feels unintentionally Mr. Rogersy, and is called "Cocktails with Liev."
Looking for something to play with before your next pomodoro round? Sound boutique DLMDD redid their website, which now features kinetic typography. Created with design studio Holke79, it’s a nifty bit of sonic branding. From Holke79’s founder Borja Holke Rezola: "I always visualize my animations with rhythm and even frequencies in mind … we played with the baseline of the hero text to express DLMDD's unique way of creating sound. Something unexpected and playful."
Moving and shaking: Serviceplan Munich scooped up Lufthansa's creative budget. Halal Amsterdam is repping Brazilian director Vellas, whom they hope will up their gaming creds. Alex Pineda left TBWA\RAAD for the CCO role at TBWA\Helsinki (because he found his inner Finn). Chuck Studios added a bunch of new hires—Vince Bouchier, Martijn van de Vrie, Kim van Gelder, Fernando Garcia, and Leonardo Grassi—which we only care about because the foodvertising studio bills itself as "Where food goes to get famous." We die.
