A Week in Creative: Paddy Power’s Euro 96 spoof and Adidas’ swimming pool billboard
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Adidas erects liquid billboard to get more women swimming
Adidas wants more women to embrace the waters, regardless of their shape, ability or religion, and benefit from the mental and physical benefits that come with it. The sports brand began encouraging women to get into swimming back in June when it brought out ‘Beyond the Surface’ – a film that featured a poem from spoken word poet and sports inclusivity activist Asma Albadawi.
Now, to get more women to test the waters, it has erected a liquid billboard in Dubai. Billed as a first-of-its-kind stunt, the five-meter-high swimming pool holds 11,500 gallons of water (163 bathtubs). Ladies who visit Dubai’s popular beach are invited to take a leap of faith and dive ‘beyond the surface’.
Oatly doesn’t like following rules. “It’s not one of our core competencies,” insists its in-house creative director Kevin Lynch. “We realize billboards are supposed to be short and to the point.” So when it came to announcing the oat milk brand’s arrival in New Zealand, it naturally took up two billboards just to get ‘one thing’ across.
McDonald’s France is marking the reopening of restaurants across the country with a display of pixel art concealing menu favorites behind blocky low-resolution imagery. Relying entirely on existing customer knowledge, the ‘No Logo’ campaign adopts a minimalist approach, accompanied by the question ‘Guess who’s back?’.
Aw, remember when football actually ‘came home’ in 1996? OK, England was actually knocked out in the semis by Germany, but the lasting imprint of Euro 96 on people’s memories has some people forgetting they didn’t actually win the tournament – including some football legends, according to Paddy Power’s spoof Euro 2020 ad.
The funny ad stars ex-England internationals Teddy Sheringham, Sol Campbell, and Peter Crouch, alongside a surprising cameo from Shaun Williamson (yes, Barry from Eastenders), who each testify their phony ‘fond memories’ of England winning at Wembley.
Visit Iceland’s ‘Looks Like You Need An Adventure’ turns lockdown sweatpants into boots – or more accurately, the first 100 visitors who book a spot at the pop-up shop in Reykjavik will have their old, tired sweatpants transformed by hand by Icelandic designer Ýr Jóhannsdóttir into a pair of bespoke hiking boots. The work was created by M&C Saatchi Group and SS+K.
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