Brazilian soccer fans are some of the most dedicated in the world, but an ad campaign from Ogilvy Mather let them know there was one more thing they could do if they wanted to be sure that their heart beat for their team forever: be an organ donor. 

The “Immortal Fans” campaign, which just took top honors in the Promo & Activations category at Cannes Lions, focused on the Sport Club Recife team. In the spot, actual patients that were waiting for organs spoke to fans directly, saying things like, "I promise that your eyes will keep on watching Sport Club Recife" or "I promise that your lungs will keep on breathing for Sport Club Recife."Continue reading...

Increasingly flexing its muscle as the premier ad platform for digital, Twitter is joining forces with Everyday Health to deliver public-health alerts and sell health-related ad packages through a joint “HealthBeat” product. 

“We’ll be looking at the key health terms flaring up every day, and when something is indexing in an abnormal way we'll let Twitter know and we'll supply content about what to do,” Michael Keriakos, Everyday Health’s president, told AdAge.

The publisher, which owns several properties including Daily Glow and Jillian Michaels, said that not all content will be sponsored, but it is seeking advertisers for broader health topics like allergies and insomnia, which would leverage Twitter's ad targeting abilities.Continue reading...

In a constant quest for cash, the NBA and sports teams in general have managed to slap their team names and logos on just about everything, bringing in revenue from countless apparel and gear deals, not to mention ticket sales, concessions and broadcast deals. Miami Heat garden gnome, anyone?

Though, in a new bid for revenue, the NBA won't be selling its own wares, but others. The league's governing body has approved a deal that would open up advertising space on backboards and court itself, according to Sports Business Daily. 

Just a year ago, it appeared that the NBA might approve advertising on team jerseys, but that idea was quickly tabled for the current ad deal, which could net teams anywhere from a couple hundred thousand to upwards of $2 million per year.Continue reading...

While tobacco ads have been banned from TV since 1971, the FDA has yet to ban ads for the industry's latest innovation, electronic cigarettes. With that, R.J. Reynolds, the parent of Camel and the brand behind Vuse e-cigarettes is taking advantage of the lack of oversight and advertising what the company claims will be a “game changer," AdAge reports. 

At the start, the ads will only appear in Colorado, but the plan is for an eventual national rollout. The campaign will also include print and direct-mail marketing. However, things could change if the FDA announces that it intends to regulate e-cigarettes. Reynolds American CEO Daniel Delen said he believes such an announcement could be “imminent."

Since the Vuse experience is designed to be one that closely mirrors the action of traditional smoking, the target audience, the publication notes, are smokers who have wanted to transition to e-cigarettes. According to AdAge, “more than 40 percent of smokers have tried e-cigarettes, but approximately 80 percent go back to exclusively smoking traditional cigarettes.”Continue reading...

General Mills is in the center of social media firestorm over a Cheerios ad it posted to its YouTube channel. The ad, which features a mixed-race family, ignited a racist backlash, forcing the brand to disable comments on the video due to the nature of the responses.

Posted late last week, the ad, titled "Just Checking" features a caucasian mother, an African-American father and a mixed-race daughter. The spot touts the ongoing Heart Healthy campaign and remains true to the brand's ethos of family and old-fashioned Americana. However, the ad, which has over 2 million views on YouTube, garnered a number of racist remarks. 

Despite the negative reaction to the ad, General Mills is standing behind its efforts. "We are a family brand and not all of the comments were family-friendly," Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for Cheerios told USA Today. "There are many kinds of families, and Cheerios celebrates them all.”Continue reading...

Kmart is on a roll with humorous ad messaging with a follow-up to its viral "Ship My Pants" ad. The retailer released "Big Gas Savings" and the spot has already racked up nearly 1.5 million views. The campaign touts the benefits of the brand's Shop Your Way rewards program, which offers free shipping and discounts at Kmart gas pumps. 

A promise of 30 cents on the gallon savings, coupled with talent and wordplay on “big gas” may signal a continuing theme for Kmart with creative produced on these two ads from DraftFCB, but rival McCann is in the mix pitching for the account going forward.

Here's a few more ads and campaigns that caught our eye this week:Continue reading...

In a brilliant move by PETA, aided and abetted by BBDO, a new ad depicts the strain of animal use for entertainment, and demonstrates quite literally the ideal way to combat the trend. 

The ad depicts an ape—so tortured and confined that he’s considering suicide—being 98 percent human. He picks up a gun, places it under his chin and prepares to shoot, as the ad cuts to black with the PETA logo and web address for GreatApePledge.org, followed by a line of white type: "No real apes were used in this commercial."Continue reading...

Continuing its full-on assault to gain share in the US retail market, Kraft Foods’ Gevalia coffee is counting on spokesman “Johan” to open the java-gates as the brand tries its best to convince consumers to pick up its coffee over Starbucks.

The brand has launched a new web series, "Cup of Knowledge," as another outlet to help the brand market the results of an independent taste test commissioned by the brand, which reportedly showed that 59.7 percent of coffee drinkers preferred the taste of Gevalia's House Blend over Starbucks Breakfast Blend. This isn't the first time the brands have battled on the taste test front.

Back in February, the U.S. National Advertising Division ordered Kraft Foods to discontinue its marketing claims that Gevalia tastes like Starbucks, with marketing copy like, "New! If you like Starbucks Breakfast Blend, try this!"Continue reading...