13 creative campaigns to know about today

Among today’s highlights, AI provider Northern Data unveils a surreal and artful short film; Vanilla Ice stars in a New Zealand beer campaign; and why Toyota is lugging around a 3.5-ton headline made of steel. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here Buchanan’s The whisky brand launched a campaign to give workers more Christmas Eves (Más Noches Buenas) by donating $150,000 to nonprofits supporting food and beverage industry employees who have to work during the holidays. Events include three festive dinners in New York, Los Angeles and Houston where food service workers will enjoy a night off and a meal prepared by talents including Chef Manolo Lopez, and a one-day holiday merch drop in collaboration with Los Angeles lifestyle brand Kids of Immigrants. Duolingo x Netflix The brands released the full music video from Duolingo’s partnership with Netflix’s season 2 of “Squid Game.” Export Ultra The brewer’s latest New Zealand campaign from Special NZ (and RSA Films director Peter Martin) stars Vanilla Ice, who introduces a new “Cold Call Back Service” to stops people from accidentally exploding their beers in the freezer this Kiwi summer and holiday season. Kids of Immigrants x Nike Lifestyle brand Kids of Immigrants (KOI) and Nike are celebrating the launch of their collaboration, The Kids of Immigrants Nike Air Max SNDR, with a short film directed by David Camarena from the creative studio Even/Odd. Set in New York, the story features KOI founder Daniel Buezo and other community members waiting for a chance to use a pay phone to call their family a world away. Lucid E.J. Schultz has a look at Giant Spoon’s debut campaign for Lucid, the electric vehicle marketer. The spot includes appearances from Muhammad Ali, Nina Simone and Neil Armstrong. Murder Hornet The agency is sending clients a cheese cleaver this holiday, playfully suggesting they use it to “murder” their holiday cheese board. This follows last year’s gift, which was a bottle of Clase Azul Gold tequila paired with a small corked glass bottle containing a real Japanese murder hornet. NBA The league released a sequel to its cult classic “Jingle Hoops” holiday spot from 2013. The new spot from Translation features the players as action figures. Nivis The boutique skiwear company unveiled its first campaign, “The Mountain Doesn’t Care,” made by creatives Geoff Castillo and Conor McFarland. The film aims to capture what the hardcore skier or rider feels on the mountain where the conditions may be far from ideal. Production partners on the work included Preymaker, Tilt, Overcoast and Cabin Editing. Northern Data The AI and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions provider unveiled a surreal short film by Shona Heath (an Oscar winner in production design for “Poor Things”) called “The Glass Hermit,” featuring performer Ruby Gaskell. The film, created by Team Lewis and produced by HELO, has a sustainability message at the core, aligned with Northern Data’s ethos of having a limited impact on the planet. Rogers A long-distance couple stay connected during the holidays through endless video calls with help from Canadian telecommunications company Rogers, in the brand’s first long-form Christmas spot from Publicis Toronto. Secret Level The agency made a 90-minute yule log video featuring of hundreds of funny and surreal, 10-second, AI-generated scenes—one after another. Perfect for your holiday party. Still G.I.N. Jon Springer has the details on West Coast rap legends Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre meeting AI-generated Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. at a high-end cocktail bar in a new spot for Dre and Snoop’s gin brand Still G.I.N. The brand worked with Rosewood Creative and entertainment-focused generative AI company Metaphysic on the ad. Toyota New Zealand The automaker has been towing around a giant sculpture, made from 3.5 tons of steel, in the shape of a headline that reads, “Just a Hilux Hybrid towing a 3.5-tonne headline.” It was designed by Ben Lockwood of The Craft Shop and engineered by Andrew Turney from Gyro in a warehouse west of Auckland. It’s part of a Saatchi & Saatchi campaign for the new 2024 Hilux range, which is now exclusively all Hybrids. Here’s more about the project. See all our daily creativity roundups here. Read Ad Age’s Best of 2024 stories here

13 creative campaigns to know about today

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