Work of the Week: 17/01/25

There's an air about this of the early noughties football ads from a certain adidas competitor that I was obsessed with as a teenager. So, yeah, I'm into it. I officially support Paul from accounts now. Thank you to agency The Midnight Club, production company Business Club, and director Tom Emmerson for helping me see the light.

            

Apple has delivered yet again with the latest installment of its ‘Shot on iPhone’ series, with an almost 12-minute-long music and dance filled spot directed by Michael Gracey, who’s best known for ‘The Greatest Showman’ and ‘Better Man’. Created by TBWA\ Media Arts Lab Shanghai, the film, launched in time for this Chinese New Year, navigates the complexities of dating culture amidst family pressures and the weight of expectation. 

Shot entirely on the iPhone 16 Pro, the film combines dreams and realism, with visually stunning group dance sequences contrasted by slower, lyrical ballet moments, all captured with the iPhone’s camera. Taking us back to the ‘90s, the film, which is captioned in English, reminds us that no matter what country or time we’re in, love is a universal language that we can all relate to. 

Every generation gets slated by its elders. It's a custom: people were complaining about the softness of the youth in the 2010s, 1950s, 1770s, even as far back as the fourth century… BC. Now, it’s gen z’s turn to be at the receiving end.

Luckily for us, we’ve got youth employment agency YoungCapital in our corner. Its new integrated campaign from ACE – ‘Boost Your Boomer’ – aims to bridge the gap between generations by highlighting that, actually, gen z is working more than ever, and so-called boomers would be better off embracing them.

An absurd film directed by Hamlet’s Angelo Cerisara imagines what would happen if gen z extract was infused into energy drinks (150,000 of which are in fact available to buy) and slurped up by boomers in the workplace. Supercharged, they join hands with their younger colleagues and thrive with renewed vigour. It’s weird, ironic, and at times, really quite gross. Enjoy!

How is it still January? With Christmas now in the distant past and still so much dreary winter to go, I find myself daydreaming of exotic locales. Or, if I’m really honest, anywhere with actual, visible sunlight. Lufthansa’s ‘All It Takes Is a Yes’ is a wishful reminder of everything that makes travel so appealing: getting lost somewhere new, immersing yourself in local culture, channeling main character energy… and Lufthansa – with the help of Serviceplan and Iconoclast – makes achieving this look as easy as typing a destination into a search bar. 

Director Niclas Larsson channeled magic realism to transport the heroine from one locale to the next, and every shot is steeped in a dream-like colour palette that wouldn’t feel out of place in an indie film. 

The film asks us to say ‘yes’ to our next adventure and promises that we won’t regret doing so. 

The humble plate has been turned into a powerful symbol of advocacy with Dentsu Vietnam's awareness and fundraising campaign for UNICEF: ‘Malnutrition Plates’. A significant yet overlooked issue in Vietnam, malnutrition affects millions of children across the country. To help address this, fine-porcelain brand Minh Long collaborated on the project to release a curated collection of ceramic plates, each designed to engage and inspire by visually representing the devastating effect of malnutrition. On the back, printed statistics provide more detail on the breadth of the issue. 

In the space of fundraising, this beautifully executed out-of-the-box campaign shows that sometimes, simplicity can be the most striking and impactful solution.

 

While it may seem like an obvious strategy in the age that we’ll almost certainly describe as pre-apocalyptic in decades to come, I can’t recall a car advertising campaign ever focusing on the zombie-proof attributes of its latest model. 

Well, finally, the industry has got there. Created by Innocean Australia and directed by Francois Rousselet, this collection of cheeky TVCs and faux social media creator content takes the quiet and sturdiness of the Kia EV range and proceeds to do a cinematic product demonstration in the face of the undead. It’s all good fun and is made with the exquisite craft you’d expect from such a top-class director. Let’s just hope Kia doesn’t have to live up to its zombie-proof promise in the real world.

‘Severance’ is a superb TV show about the psychological separation of your working self from your off-work self. It’s a stroke of marketing genius, then, to construct a pop-up ad for it in the middle of Grand Central Station, catching New York’s commuters in the midst of their own bleary-eyed transition from home to work. 

What made this now-viral effort even more eye-catching was its star factor, with the likes of Adam Scott, Britt Lower, and even director Ben Stiller all being part of the act. Whatever might be driving this post-’Barbie’ trend of ambitious and imaginative out-of-home advertising for film and TV (like the Emerald City in St Pancras Station to promote ‘Wicked’, or the guards from ‘Squid Game’ patrolling the streets of London), long may it continue. 

‘Dip your ego through the nine layers of hell’. 

It’s a funny thing to mention ‘ego’ in the final typography of the film, because there are moments throughout the spot that feel like a heavy acid trip gone tantalisingly wrong. 

In a promo for their very own hot sauce, directing duo Bounty/Banana merge the real world with the make-believe – a place where animations bounce off of and interact with the human protagonists. 

Often, while watching, you aren’t sure where you stand. The visuals are striking, the artwork immense, and the animations hypnotic; it’s all achieved through a combination of live action, 2D and 3D animation, AI, and mixed media. The production was supported by Wizz, which represents the duo in France (while 1stAve Machine reps them in the UK). 

The standard for launching a hot sauce has been taken to a whole new level. 

Sports advertising tends to thrive on high-octane energy – booming soundtracks, frenetic cuts, and sweat-drenched close-ups. Yet, AGIT8’s latest campaign for ASICS takes a refreshingly different approach, offering a gentler, more curated perspective. With its unhurried pace, striking compositions and fluid choreography, the ad feels like a quiet revolution from category norms.

The featured athletes move gracefully, dancing though shots to remind me that sport isn’t always about competition or victory. For me, exercising is a practice of finding rhythm and restoring stillness in life's daily chaos. So, it's nice to see these focuses captured so beautifully on screen.

Who doesn’t love a good mockumentary? That perfect juxtaposition of intimate realism with the knowledge that none of it is actually real never fails to entertain, and, crucially, leave a strong impression, one way or another.

This is exactly what New York Festivals has captured in its latest film, ‘100% Bull***’, which headlines the new creative campaign promoting the show’s 2025 awards season, ‘No BS Allowed’. Taking a stand against the industry’s love of meaningless statistics and metrics, the spot, created by Grey New York and directed by Hungry Man’s Ben Callner, hilariously utilises case study metrics such as impressions as labels for bags of manure. Depicting real farmers receiving these special sacks, it’s a great opportunity to not only savour the confusion and comedy that comes with these handoffs, but also contemplate the real values and metrics advertising award shows must consider.