With the Super Bowl, Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day coming all at once to drain brands' marketing budgets, our inboxes this last week have been groaning under the weight of new work. So this was never going to be a dud of a Work of the Week. In fact, choosing between the ambitious, star-studded and expertly crafted campaigns that we've been introduced to this week has been quite a task. So if your brand, agency or company's work didn't make it in this week, don't feel too bad. You had some tough competition.
Read on to find out exactly what that competition looked like.
Chicken Licken - When Love Is Tough, Love Me Tender
Love is in the air this week and brands have been awkwardly involving themselves in our romantic lives all over the place to mark Valentine's Day. But when they do that with as much panache and fun as South African fast food chain Chicken Licken have, we welcome it. Fleshing out the mythology around Saint Valentine and Cupid, the brand's agency Joe Public follows multiple generations of the lineage of legendary matchmaker 'Baba Valentino' as he devises ways to bring romance to people's lives. But love has been getting tough lately, so Baba Valentino's latest way to unite lovers is the Love Me Tender burger. And what better way to declare your feelings than fried chicken?
Specsavers - Misheard
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For various reasons, Rick Astley is having a bit of a renaissance in the UK right now. We're here for it. And so is British optician brand Specsavers. To promote its hearing test service, this radio ad took Rick's eternal earworm 'Never Gonna Give You Up' and had him re-record the vocals to commonly misheard lines in the song, such as "Never gonna run around with dessert spoons" and "you wouldn’t catch nits from any other guy". The effect of hearing it on the radio must be quite an experience - an ingenious way to prick up someone's ears, and hopefully get them tested.
Victoria Government, Department of Justice and Community Safety - Fire Safety
Bushfires are terrifying. And the Australian Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) wants Victorians to take them seriously. Partnering with VML, they've just launched this state-wide public service campaign encouraging all Victorians to be better prepared and leave early this fire season. Directed by Rune Milton with production house AirBag, the campaign shows the unpredictability and dangers of fire, including smoke disorientation, sudden wind change affecting fire direction, and being overrun by flames when staying to defend property. The campaign also includes a digital tool to help people with bushfire planning, preparation and readiness. It's trying to save lives and hopefully it will be effective.
CeraVe - Michael CeraVe
The actual Super Bowl commercial for CeraVe was just the culmination of a masterclass in seeding, ahead of the event for the skincare brand. Firstly, the joke is really silly and we love it. It really doesn't go much deeper than the actor's name being the same as the brand. That's the gag. But the TikTok campaign leading up to the event was what really sang. ‘Security footage’ showed Michael Cera signing bottles of CeraVe lotion at a store. A video seeming to be an impromptu tour of his movie trailer veered into weird territory when it turned out to be full of skincare products. The brand sent kits to influencers with the actor's face on shirts, stickers, lotion bottles, etc. A conspiracy theory spun out across the internet that the 'Arrested Development' star was the founder of the brand and the brand were able to 'debunk' this rumour in turn. Ogilvy just schooled us all in manipulating online narratives.
Verizon - Can’t B Broken
The debate over who 'won' this year’s Super Bowl (aside from the Kansas City Chiefs) has raged throughout this week. Taylor Swift seems to have somehow come out as one of the major beneficiaries of the big game, by virtue of being the most high-profile partner of one of the players. But many have argued it was actually Queen B who came out on top, using the occasion of her fronting a Verizon commercial as the perfect moment to drop new music. After the big game ad aired on Sunday, Beyonce revealed a new album, 'Act II' and released two tracks taking her sound in a country-and-western direction. 'Texas Hold 'em' and '16 Carriages' mark a surprising change of direction for the album that looks set to arrive on March 29th.
Duolingo - No Buts
Duolingo knows how to behave as part of the social media discourse. Largely, this consists of going where other brands would be terrified to go, paired with a big dollop of weirdness. It's also a brand that listens to the online conversation, which is why Duo the Owl's ample derrière - already the subject of much internet chatter - became the focus of its five-second Super Bowl spot. Specifically, the multi-lingual mascot farts out his own face. Simultaneously with the unexpected spot, roughly four million Duolingo learners across the seven cities the ad aired in received a real-time push notification prompting them to get back to their lessons. Now none of is can get this bizarre and confusing image out of our minds, so that's got to be some kind of success.
Doordash - All the Ads
When advertising sets viewers homework that they actually want to do, that's when you know something's working. First of all, kudos for focusing on the brand rather than using a celebrity like so many of the big game spots. Secondly, the idea was totally original. Showing that DoorDash can deliver almost any product by delivering one of every product advertised in the Super Bowl to one lucky customer who works out the longest promo code we've ever seen? Chef's kiss. For something that's technically just a competition, it really got people engaged with the brand.
Volkswagen - An American Love Story
This one is just real good advertising, no gimmicks. When a brand's got heritage like Volkswagen and an anniversary to mark like 75 years in America, you don't need celebrities or clever media hacks. All Johannes Leonardo, with the help of director Lance Acord, had to do was tell the emotional story that the automotive brand has played in the lives of Americans for three quarters of a century, hitting every beat just right and pushing every level of craft to its maximum. No problem at all, especially with a helping hand from Neil Diamond.
Dunkin’ - The DunKings
Super Bowl spots use big celebrities. It's route one for many brands. And why not? If you're going to spend big on the media, you might as well do everything you can to make sure your brand cuts through. But using celebrities to their full potential isn't easy. And the great thing about Dunkin's ad is that it shows its cast's talents off. Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Tom Brady, Jack Harlow and Fat Joe are all working hard here to tell a story that ties into the brand. Props to the stars for agreeing to this too. It could have been an embarrassment, but it's paid off for them. I was charmed by them all.
