The top 5 creative campaigns you need to know about right now

A good cinematic production always goes a long way, and we got a bunch of them this week—episodic campaigns for fashion, food and liquor, all with style and attitude to burn. Also in the mix, beyond the strong film work, was an innovative print campaign that relied less on craft than on subterfuge to be effective. Check out the full top 5 below. A-List & Creativity Awards Enter for a chance to be recognized as the best in advertising Submit your entry here 5. U.S. Navy: Hidden Sailors Agency: VML The U.S. Navy and agency VML have been doing interesting stuff across various media lately, including recruiting submariners with a puzzle game on Reddit. And in this campaign, they infiltrated other brands’ magazine ads—hiding Special Ops sailors in seven executions and challenging potential recruits to spot them. The media buy was modest—the ads ran in just one issue of water polo magazine SkipShot (the Navy considers water polo players to be high on the list of possible recruits)—but the scope of the brand collabs was impressive. And it’s nice to see VML sticking to the puzzle theme across touchpoints. 4. Burberry: It's Always Burberry Weather Agency: Frosty Just when we’d gotten used to Burberry’s visual extravaganzas in epic ads from Megaforce, they flip the script and go all character-driven on us. The fashion brand’s autumn campaign trades in the special effects for quieter moments, featuring seven celeb brand ambassadors (from Olivia Colman to Barry Keoghan to Cara Delevingne) enjoying the outdoors in Britain—in seven different Burberry fashions. Artfully shot by Smuggler’s rubberband, the films are part of a heavily nostaglic push whose theme line, “It’s Always Burberry Weather,” was plucked from the brand’s archives. 3. Getty: The Tale of Mr. Tight Ass Agency: BBDO LA The absurdist comedy of the week (we’re on a roll with these, after Kwik Fit last week and Roku the week before) came from art museum Getty, which gave us “The Tale of Mr. Tight Ass,” a short film about a man’s rectal dysfunction—and how art helps him loosen up. The whole campaign is nicely designed by BBDO LA, and the great Andreas Nilsson brings his unmatched eccentricity to the film as director. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here 2. Ghetto Gastro: BOP Line Director: Scottie Cameron Speaking of nostalgia, this Ghetto Gastro campaign is dripping in it. The culinary collective built a whole retro-tinged world around a hotline you can call (1-833-GHETTO-1) dedicated to the brand’s toaster pastries. There are lots of familiar faces in the films, from Gwyneth Paltrow to Maliibu Miitch. But the cinematography, humor and loving homages to decades-old advertising (and fashion) are the real stars here. Bonus points for the toaster-on-wheels, which they actually brought to Target stores, where the product is exclusively sold. 1. Tequila Don Gato: Saga of All Sagas Director: David Gordon Green You don’t have to be a Danny McBride fan to love this campaign, though it certainly helps. Fans of “Eastbound & Down” and “The Righteous Gemstones” will instantly vibe with the humor, as McBride introduces his new tequila with a ludicrous origin story involving a feline-loving luchador. McBride’s persona is as dumb, self-obsessed and crass as ever (unlike most rivals in the tequila space, he has no qualms about letting the F-bombs fly). And director David Gordon Green and co-star Steve Little make the whole production feel like the outtakes of an HBO show. More of this, please. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

The top 5 creative campaigns you need to know about right now

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