Croatia Tourism x John Malkovich
The Croatia National Tourist Board released a short film called "I Hear It's Beautiful" starring John Malkovich.
Malkovich discovered his Croatian roots this year and was formally granted Croatian citizenship, and received his Croatian passport at the team's first public appearance at the World Cup.
The film, directed by 45-time Emmy winner Pete Radovich (who previously directed the Cannes Lions-winning "Teasing John Malkovich"), is a romcom where Malkovich is sent by his fictional agent on a trip to Croatia, visiting Dubrovnik, Zagreb, and the world's smallest town Hum. He spends a big chunk of the runtime refusing to admit he's enjoying himself. His final verdict: "It's not bad. Not bad at all." The film dropped hours before Croatia's World Cup opener against England.
The Real Story: These tourism board films can be very dull, but this is fun, engaging, and once you have some of the backstory about Malkovich discovering his Croatian roots, it makes a lot of sense. Letting him look annoyed the entire time was on brand, and being himself while showing how beautiful Croatia is - this really landed for me.
Nike x Knicks
Everybody and their brother has spoken about this spot at this point, but damn it was good. After the Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years on June 13, Nike released a film set to Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind." Directed by Josh Safdie (the Uncut Gems guy, and a lifelong Knicks fan), the Wieden+Kennedy spot follows a young fan in a Jalen Brunson jersey racing through the city before finding a sea of New Yorkers celebrating together. It closes with: "Never slept. Always dreamed."
The film was the culmination of a broader campaign called "Always Knicks" that started earlier in the playoffs, when Nike put up portraits by photographer Jonathan Mannion on the billboard at 34th and 7th, outside MSG. The portraits featured a cross-section of Knicks fans, from Spike Lee to a three-year-old.
The Real Story: Josh Safdie was a really cool choice for this, the spot has the energy and frantic-ness of his films. The tagline at the end is gonna bring a tear to any real Knicks fan’s eye.
Molson “Made by Canadians”
Molson is a Canadian beer brand (they merged with Coors back in 2005), known as one of the bigger players in the Canadian market. For this campaign, they hid, gave out, and made available online a bunch of disposable cameras. The idea was to have Canadians capture what it means to be Canadian.
The footage became the brand's Canada Day campaign: skateboarders in an abandoned Halifax pool, someone kissing a fish in Quebec, that sorta thing. The film connects to Molson's long-running "I AM CANADIAN" platform, but this time the definition comes from actual Canadians.
The Real Story: Real people, real images isn’t a new concept, but this execution is really nice and heartfelt. Something about the aesthetic look of a disposable camera’s image will always make me feel nostalgic for my youth, so this one worked for me.
If you’re new here, I write a monthly serialized novel called Everything is Advertising, about a burned-out Creative Director and his cynical team that accidentally create QAnon through a viral marketing campaign. If you like that kind of thing, you can start at Part One and catch up from there.
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