Watch: The top 5 creative brand ideas you need to know about right now
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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, Creativity Associate Editors Alexandra Jardine and I-Hsien Sherwood, and Reporter Jessica Wohl review the week's best ideas, including one very confusing burger campaign, a provocative weed push and more.
5. Jeep: 2021 Earth Odyssey
Agency: Highdive
Here is, arguably, one of the creative highlights of the Golden Globe Awards. During the broadcast, Jeep and agency Highdive debuted this fresh take on “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The spot, directed by Park Pictures’ Lance Acord, showcases the electric Jeep Wrangler 4xe among the wondrous, wildlife of this very planet, as animals of all kinds appear to be belting out their own versions of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” the iconic tune from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film. In the final scene, apes gather around what appears to be the movie’s iconic monolith, but it turns out to be something quite different.
4) Postmates: No Cookbook
Agency: Mother L.A.
The Postmates brand has been very forgiving to those of us who aren’t good in the kitchen or who just can’t be bothered with cooking, period. Its previous ads with Martha Stewart, for example, showed the hospitality expert advising those not as skilled as she is to “Just Postmate It.” Now, in the brand’s latest creative push from Mother L.A., it has debuted a cookbook. Though it features popular dishes like spaghetti, tacos, kale salad and even poke and sushi, the book’s “recipes” don’t actually teach you how to make them. Rather, they provide a quicker way to get the meals on your table, with a series of instructions that basically, like Martha, tell you to “Postmate It.” At the end of each, there’s a QR code that takes you directly into the Postmates app and to the food of your choice.
3) F!ve Drinks Co.: Buy F!ve Drinks Co.
Agency: Gut Miami
Canned cocktail brand F!ve Drinks Co. is trying to get on the celebrity bandwagon. A new campaign from Gut Miami stars CEO and co-founder Felipe Szpigel trying to woo a famous person to buy his company, throwing out enticing stats and trying to bring out the green-eyed monster in stars who don’t already own their own liquor brand. There’s even a sly dig at those who already do. The campaign is running on digital as well as outdoor in Los Angeles, where it’s more likely to be seen by its target audience. F!ve Drinks is also throwing regular people a bone. The first to tag the brand in a social post with a celebrity who ends up buying the company will get a check for 1% of the total sale.
2) Burger King: Confusing Times
Agency: David Madrid
The times have been very overwhelming, and over the past year, we’ve seen a lot of brands try to help us navigate through it all. There was the New York Times’ visual poem, for example, and Potbelly's haven for stressed-out parents. Now, enter Burger King, with a campaign that does just the opposite and adds to all the confusion. The series of hilarious radio ads discusses just how the world continues to mess with our heads, but to top it off, there’s Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, which tastes like a Whopper, but isn’t meat. What? Yes. Confusing.
1) Monogram: Hypocrisy
Agency: Mischief @ No Fixed Address
Jay-Z hasn’t pulled any punches when it comes to branding his cannabis company Monogram. When the brand debuted last fall, he and his team created a campaign that highlighted the inconsistencies in cannabis legislation via mobile billboards that were parked at the borders of states representing a legal/illegal divide. Now in a new effort created with Mischief @ No Fixed Address, Monogram is calling out the hypocrisies of cannabis legislation by pointing out how laws ban cannabis-related activities yet don’t restrict questionable behaviors—like cannibalism or bestiality. It consists of outdoor ads with the bold proclamations, set against the portraits of individuals who have been charged for cannabis-related offenses.

That's it for the Top 5. Make sure to check out more of the best in brand creativity at Adage.com/Creativity. And for an even deeper dive into great creative work, watch the first episode of Ad Age's "Backstory," our documentary series exploring landmark campaigns. The first one explores the origins and evolution of The New York Times' "The Truth Is" campaign from Droga5.