Zaxby's reimagines 'Guy on a Buffalo' video with a tasty twist and brands unite to help Colorado wildfire victims

Zaxby’s is putting a new spin on a viral video series from over 10 years ago. The ad mimics the quirkiness and absurdity of the original “Guy on a Buffalo” series of videos—except this time around the commercial’s cowboy protagonist is riding a buffalo wing rather than a buffalo. The original video content has gained fans online over the years, with one YouTube video amassing over 15 million viewers. Tombras, the restaurant chain’s creative agency of record, brought back the videos promoting the band Jomo and Possum Posse. The spot features a lone cowboy riding a buffalo wing while discovering a Boneless Wings Meal from Zaxby’s, featuring its new Buffalo Garlic Blaze sauce. The cowboy also comes across a host of animals, including a bobcat, squirrel, fox and hedgehog. The whole experience is narrated in a style similar to a folk-tale in a show or movie. In homage to the original videos, the cowboy who starred in them appears at the end of the spot and gives a wink to the audience. The campaign, which debuted nationally during the College Football Playoff National Championship Game this week, will also air regionally during the Super Bowl. Relief for wildfire victims In response to recent Colorado wildfires that burned over 1,000 homes and displaced tens of thousands of residents, Boulder-based agency Fortnight Collective is teaming up with big brands and non-profit Conscious Alliance to create a series of Colorado Community Care Packages for those affected. The initiative, called “We Got This," is already backed by a growing collection of companies and brands including Noodles & Co., Yasso, Hain Celestial (including Live Clean Hand Sanitizer and Celestial Seasonings Tea), Danone North America (including Horizon Organic, Silk and Oikos) and much more. The care packages will be frequently deployed over the next 12-18 months. We Got This is also launching an in-person retail pop-up where merchandise including shirts, tote bags and yard signs will be sold, with all proceeds going to those impacted by the fires. Merchandise will be available inside the Marshall Fire Support Stores called Basecamp Collective in Louisville, Colorado. This isn’t the first instance of the agency teaming up with companies following a tragic event. In May, Fortnight Collective linked up with a collection of local Boulder breweries to create “Colorado Care Can,” an assortment of community-crafted beers, with sales going to The Colorado Healing Fund to help those directly affected by the Boulder supermarket shooting in March. Dentsu hires a new global chief operating officer Dentsu International has appointed Nnenna Ilomechina as global chief operating officer and she will join the business in May of this year, as Neil Gissier retires from the global role. Ilomechina joins Dentsu with over 20 years of leadership experience in driving digital and organizational transformation. She comes from Accenture Strategy, where she has been managing director and partner, head of communications, media and high tech strategy practice for UK and Ireland since 2016. “Nnenna’s proven capability and rich experience leading transformative outcomes across digital, technology, media, and business services make her the perfect addition to our global executive team,” said Wendy Clark, global CEO of Dentsu International. “She’s an exceptional leader with the rare combination of business savvy, operational know-how, cultural sensitivity and a deep understanding of people and their motivations. This fusion of capability is critical for Dentsu as we move into the final phases of our own transformation. ” In April of 2021, Dentsu hired Kedma Pognon Brown as its new chief operating officer for the Americas. In November, Hiroshi Igarashi became the new CEO of Dentsu Group, succeeding Toshihiro Yamamoto. In December the agency hired Alex Hesz as global chief strategy officer, reporting directly to Clark. Most recently it tapped Keith Camoosa for its newly created chief addressability officer role. More key executive hires: Adam Hessel has been appointed as the new chief creative officer of Ogilvy Health, replacing Renata Florio, who was promoted at the end of last year to executive creative lead for Ogilvy’s Nestle portfolio in North America. Hessel joins from healthcare marketing agency Harrison & Star, where he spent the last two years as chief creative officer. In this new role Hessel will oversee all creative output for Ogilvy Health in North America and serve on Ogilvy Health’s executive leadership team. He will also join Ogilvy’s Worldwide Creative Council. VCCP has promoted Darren Bailes to become its first global chief creative officer. The agency also promoted Creative Directors Jonny Parker and Chris Birch to succeed Darren Bailes as joint executive creative directors of its London agency. Bailes will be tasked with overseeing the creative output of VCCP’s eight offices, located in London, Madrid, Prague, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. Wunderman Thompson has appointed Carrie Philpott as its North America chief client officer, replacing Jason Burby, who retired in November. She takes on this role in addition to her role as president of Atlanta and will report to Audrey Melofchik, who was recently announced as CEO of Wunderman Thompson North America. DDB Chicago wins Orkin Orkin has selected DDB Chicago as its strategic business and creative agency of record following a competitive review. This is the first win for DDB Chicago “following an agency transformation and number of new hires under the leadership of its CEO Andrea Diquez,” since joining in May, according to a statement by the agency. Recently the Chicago office named Rodrigo Jatene as its chief creative officer, Milo Chao as its chief strategy officer and Sandra Alfaro as head of business leadership. The account was previously held by The Richards Group, which is currently undergoing plans to change its agency name and logo to TRG. Mojo Supermarket takes a four-day weekend While most companies will be enjoying a three-day weekend due to observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Mojo Supermarket decided to take it a step further. According to a Linkedin post by the agency’s founder, Mo Said, it has become a rule for the agency to turn any three-day weekend into a four-day weekend, thanks to a “mandate” by its managing director, Kendra Schaaf, who joined the agency in 2020. “It’s my first agency job where project management really focuses on clearing us from weekend or holiday work,” Said said in the post. “I love working at Mojo Supermarket. But I also love not working. And I’m glad I work in a creative culture where loving both is possible (without making me feel like an unambitious piece of garbage whose creative career will go nowhere just because I like weekends).” Ad Age Agency Report 2022: Call for entries The upcoming Ad Age Agency Report 2022 will include the industry’s definitive ranking of agencies, agency networks and agency companies. Make sure your agency is included by completing Ad Age Datacenter’s questionnaire. Please download the questionnaire at AdAge.com/arq. Deadline is Feb. 4. Ad Age’s 78th annual Agency Report comes out online and in print on April 25. See last year’s report: AdAge.com/agencyreport2021. The island spirit Creative agency Duncan Channon teamed up with Kona Brewing Co. to show that getting together with friends and sitting around with a cold one can happen more often than just during a football tailgating party. The latest 15-second-long videos are a part of Kona’s “Dear Mainland” campaign and are meant to build off of the brand's success with audiences from when it released its MLB commercials with the laid-back, straight-talking “Bruddahs.” “Kona’s beloved Hawaiian brothers have spent years serving up island perspective to help us see things differently, so it’s fun to see them agree with mainlanders when it comes to tailgating,” said Parker Channon, creative director for the campaign at Duncan Channon. “Game or no game, our new ‘Tailgate’ spot reminds us that it’s always a good idea to grab some friends, food, and Kona beer.” In the new spot, the brothers give a nod to tailgating, but reveal that they don’t need a football game to create a reason to be with friends, grill up some food and open a Kona beer. The second spot, called “Island Time,” shows the islanders relaxing and not feeling the pressure of island time with a cold one in hand. All-star worthy logo The Premier Hockey Federation unveiled the logo for the 2022 PHF All-Star Showcase and three team jersey designs to be worn during the Federation’s top talents converge in Toronto on Jan. 29. The logo was designed by Heartlent Group, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Denver and Connecticut. The new logo and jerseys are being worn by 37 athletes, representing all six PHF teams at the All-Star Showcase. “As the Premier Hockey Federation kicks off its first All-Star game with a new name, Heartlent Group is thrilled to help celebrate the game and the league with a dynamic logo that embodies the dedication and vision of its players and staff,” said Elliot Gerard, head of creative at Heartlent Group. The jerseys and logo were inspired by both the city of Toronto and the theme of “Breaking Boundaries,” which is on the design. It includes right blue, pink and purple colors, along with a trio of stars to represent all three teams. Just briefly Fig has gone on a hiring frenzy, filling seven spots. Samantha Deevy was named to the newly created role of partner of communications after being hired as executive director of communications in 2021. Leila Seghrouchini Gage joins Fig as executive director of production after a role as director of production at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Omid Amidi is the newest executive creative director, following a stint as creative director at Johannes Leonardo. Justin Walsh takes the role of executive design director at Fig, the same title he had while at Dentsu MB. The newest group strategy director is Karin Santiago, who was previously VP planning director at BBDO. Julianna Katrancha, who formerly served as global strategy director at McCann New York running the Chick-fil-A account, also joins as group strategy director. Benton Roman is the final new hire, taking on the role of group executive producer, the same position he held at Johannes Leonardo. Colle McVoy is preparing for double-digit growth by hiring two new executive creative directors. Gil Muiños has joined as the agency’s execuive creative director after working on the corporate side of Best Buy, and Dustin Black has been promoted to the same role, but will still continue to maintain many of his current responsibilities as group creative director. Arts & Letters Creative Co. has hired Ignasi Tudela as the agency’s creative director, a position that the agency has been trying to fill for a while. Tudela was most recently the global creative director at Polaroid in Amsterdam and in his new role he will work on the Google account and report to Charles Hodges, founder and executive creative director of A&L. Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners has brought on Cierra Moore as strategy director, a newly created position for the agency. Moore comes to BSSP from Endeavor’s 160over90, where she served as the Associate Director of Strategy. She will lead strategy for the agency’s long-term clients like Blue Shield of California and ESPN. Interpublic Group of Cos. health agency Area 23 has tapped Franklin Williams as the newly created executive VP, director of experience role, reporting to Chief Creative Officer Tim Hawkey. Williams will lead the agency’s digital creative output and a team of designers and user experience architects to handle the creation of all digital products. Williams is a trained technologist and has spent his entire career working at agencies inside and outside of pharma. Media by Mother, which was founded in early 2021, has hired Maria Van Buskirk as its first head of communication strategy for its New York office. This week, data analytics company 4 Mile Analytics merged with Media.Monks.

Zaxby's reimagines 'Guy on a Buffalo' video with a tasty twist and brands unite to help Colorado wildfire victims

Featured Stories