Rover’s pet-sitting spot used animation and music to tell a story from a dog’s point of view.
You can’t go wrong with a cute dog commercial—and we got several this week that took very different approaches. We also got a fun start to football season thanks to the NFL, an eye-catching spot from “Got Milk?” and an amusingly over-the-top apology campaign from KFC Canada.
Below, check out the Top 5 campaigns of the week.
It can’t be easy coming up with fresh ideas year after year for the NFL’s kickoff campaign. But 72andSunny came up with a true winner this time, as it imagined an alternate reality where the entire season is literally scripted. The spots take place at a table read, where Keegan-Michael Key leads a group of players—who in this fantasy world are merely actors—through promisingly outlandish ideas for this season’s storylines. The launch spot is strong on its own, but this is more than a kickoff campaign—with future installments of the series set to air all season long.
See also: Our blog of NFL and college football marketing news
The dairy industry is under siege from non-dairy milk alternatives, but this “Got Milk?” spot memorably reminded consumers which beverage was there first. Gallegos United used AI to bring a host of imagined milk substitutes to life—poking fun at rivals in a visually rich way. The campaign comes from the California Milk Processor Board, which was behind the original “Got Milk?” campaign some 30 years ago (before the national dairy group MilkPEP took it national). It will take more than one spot for milk to fend off competitors, but this is a step in the right direction.
If you were to come up with a list of topics with tear-jerker potential, dogs with prosthetics would be pretty close to the top. And Apple employs its usual expert craft (with help from director India Sleem) to tell the story of “Trip,” a dog born with physical deformities who’s able to live a full life thanks to a 3D-printed leg—created with help from iPhone’s scanning technologies. Along with “Shot on iPhone,” the brand added a “Made with iPhone” tag to this short film, emphasizing that the iPhone’s impressive tech extends well beyond the camera.
KFC excels at the apology campaign. Remember the “FCK” work from KFC U.K. a few years back, during the chicken shortage? Classic. Now, we get a more tongue-in-cheek apology effort from KFC Canada, which is saying sorry to utensils everywhere who feel underutilized by KFC eaters. The brand’s chicken isn’t utensil-lickin’ good, after all. The campaign began as a print idea (see those executions at the link above), but the TV spot—with its apt use of a perfect Air Supply track—is delicious as well.
KFC Canada and Courage also recently appeared in our Top 5 food and beverage ranking for a campaign about fries that suck—that’s not editorializing, that was their own word choice to describe the chain’s prior spuds.
There’s so much to love about this campaign from Rover—from the insight (how difficult it can be to leave pets at home when you’re traveling) to the idea (telling a pet-sitting story from the pet’s point of view) to the execution (the pleasantly off-kilter animation and childlike music). But perhaps most inspired are the song lyrics—perfectly imagined dogspeak, which comes to life wonderfully when sung by a 10-year-old boy. This is the kind of spot you can watch a dozen times and not tire of it—a fully realized, adorable and optimistic world with the brand at the very center.
