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Welcome to a live episode of the top 5 creative brand ideas you need to know about right now.

Ad Age's Creativity Editor Ann-Christine Diaz and Creativity Associate Editors Alexandra Jardine and I-Hsien Sherwood count down the creative highlights of the week, including a revealing mind game and more holiday mischief.

5. Dutch State Lottery: Frummel
Agency: TBWA/Neboko

We often associate lottery ads with scenes of people basking in upgraded lifestyles and the conveniences they afford, but for this holiday season the Dutch State Lottery takes a turn for the generous in this sweet tale about a man and his adopted black kitten. Despite the stigma black cats have long been associated with, the little guy, named Frummel, brings nothing but good luck to his papa—and others. It’s one of this year’s sweetest holiday tales and follows last year’s ad starring Frekkel, a scruffy pup with an Ugly Duckling complex.
 

4. Burger King: There’s more to life than the Whopper
Agency: Buzzman

We’re used to seeing clever, snappy moves from Burger King that sometimes come with a bite to its biggest competitor. In this social campaign from Buzzman, however, that cleverness is applied to something a bit more endearing. In France, the brand is using its Instagram channel to help get word out about indie restaurants, which have all been struggling during the pandemic. 
 

3. RC Cola: Basta
Agency: Gigil

Last week during our Top 5 Live, we discussed a recent ad from RC Cola in the Philippines that was hands down the weirdest we’d seen all year, featuring a family with origins you’d never be able to predict. But the brand and agency Gigil went on to follow that up with a worthy, perhaps even more bizarre sequel, which has also gained plenty of traction on social media. The campaign is an example of both agency and client just going for it. Targeting the Gen Z audience, RC Cola said the weirdness “was quite easy” to approve—and gave it the green light after the first presentation and with no revision. “We really wanted to create characters that reflected the mentality of our target market,” James Loverio, head of marketing at ARC Refreshments Corporation, RC Cola’s parent in the Philippines, told Ad Age. 

2. Frida Mom: Avoid Dicks
Agency: Maximum Effort

In 2020, Ryan Reynolds’ reach as a marketer expanded massively. Not only was he shilling for his own brands like Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile, or for his friends’ brands like Hugh Jackman’s Laughing Man Coffee, he and his agency Maximum Effort started to bring their unconventionally honest approach to other companies. Earlier, we saw a Satanic love story for Match.com, and this week, Maximum Effort created this in-your-face PSA for mother-care brand Frida Mom, starring two medical professionals with importance advice: “Avoid dicks.”

1. Ballantine’s: Me and my other me
Agency: Slap Global

These days, it’s especially hard to tell where our “real” lives and “digital” lives end and begin—and also to discern which one of those represents our "true" self. Pernod Ricard Scotch whisky brand Ballantine’s explores that idea in this eye-opening campaign, the first work from Slap Global, the creative consultancy formed by agency vets Maxi Itzkoff and Gerry Graf. The effort included a study and experiment examining the divide between how people describe themselves and how they behave online. The results are pretty startling and are meant to illustrate Ballantine’s platform, “Stay True.”
 

That's it for the Top 5. Make sure to check out more of the best in brand creativity at Adage.com/Creativity.