Feel like you missed the best agency projects, ad campaigns, and creative videos from this month?
No worries -- we've got you covered.
March brought us some delightfully unexpected ad concepts, including a floating house, a child replacement program for dog lovers, and an e-commerce version of Hamlet we didn't even know we needed.
We're rounding up the best of March below.
10 of the Best Ads from March
1) Heinz
With AMC's Mad Men celebrating the 10th anniversary of the premier this year, it seems like the perfect time to revive one of Don Draper's memorable ad pitches: his rejected Pass the Heinz campaign.
Originally pitched in an episode of the hit drama by Draper's fictional 1960s ad firm Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, the print campaign features tantalizing close-ups of french fries, burgers, and steak, all missing one important thing: Heinz. The folks at (real-life) ad agency David Miami ran the exact designs from the show for the 2017 campaign, with approval and input from Mad Men's original creator, Matthew Weiner.
Image credit: Heinz/David Miami
2) YouTube
To promote their new six second ad format, YouTube enlisted help from a number of top agencies and filmmakers, asking them to develop ultra-short summaries of classic works of literature. The resulting 19 video campaign proves you can cram quite a lot of plot into just six short seconds.
From this minimalist take on Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, to this delightful puppy-version of Romeo & Juliet, there isn't a single video in the bunch that isn't worth watching more than once. But since we had to pick just one to showcase, we chose Rethink's clever, e-commerce-driven retelling of Hamlet. Watch it below.
3) Telia
This comically cynical ad campaign for Swedish wireless company Telia warns us that not everything on the internet is actually as good in real life. Take cats for example: On the internet, cats are always up to some form of hilarious mischief. In real life? Not so much.
"Most of Telia’s competitors tell people to turn their devices off every now and then, to 'carpe diem' and all that crap," Martin Ringqvist of Swedish agency Forsman and Bodenfors told Adweek. "We decided to go the other way -- to embrace the wonderful life online and to wash away people's bad conscience. Because life, at least sometimes, is way better on the mobile, isn't it?"
4) CoorDown
The phrase "special needs" seems to float inevitably around every conversation about people with disabilities. This ad for CoorDown, Italy's national organization for people with Down Syndome, wants to us to ask ourselves: Is it really fair to characterize the needs of people living with disabilities as "special?" Don't they need what everybody else needs?
Produced by Publicis New York, the extended spot stars Glee's Lauren Potter, who discusses some needs that would actually be fair to classify as "special", such as eating an exclusive diet of dinosaur eggs, or necessitating regular massages from a cat masseuse.
5) Leroy Merlin
In this cinematic ad for French home improvement retailer Leroy Merlin, agency BETC Shopper chose a poetic metaphor to reflect the sometimes turbulent process of renovating a home: a house floating on the sea.
The video follows a young couple as they go through the (sometimes literal) ups and downs of repairing their modest house -- their triumphs and setbacks illustrated by the unpredictable waters they float on. It's an ambitious campaign that took an expert team of divers, drones, and helicopters to execute.
6) Dominos
In a resolute appeal to 1980s nostalgia, CP+B produced a nearly shot-for-shot remake of the famous running home scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Joe Keery, of the 80s-era Netflix drama Stranger Things, stands in as Ferris, racing home to greet the Dominos delivery guy.
The ad gets major points for attention to detail, packing in every fence jump, trampoline bounce, and sidewalk sprint from the original. And although the original Ferris -- Matthew Broderick -- never makes an appearance (as he did in this similarly Bueller-inspired Honda campaign from 2012), we do get a cameo from Alan Ruck, who played Ferris' reluctant pal Cameron.
7) Pedigree
What do you do when your beloved son or daughter leaves for college and the empty nest syndrome starts sinking in? Replace your kid with a dog, says this new Pedigree spot from Colenso BBDO.
The cheekily named "Child Replacement Program" campaign is running in New Zealand, where Colenso BBDO creative group head Simon Vicars says many members of the country's aging population could benefit immensely from the company of a new four-legged friend.
8) National Canadian Film Day
If you're going to trust one person to give you an honest film review, shouldn't it be someone who's literally incapable of lying?
Leo Burnett developed this quirky ad to promote National Canadian Film Day, and cast Grey's Anatomy actress Sandra Oh as "the woman who can't lie."
9) Aardman Animations
The studio behind Wallace & Gromit released this clever, animated take on client conference calls that will certainly get some knowing chuckles from agency folks. In "Visualise This," the group debates the merits of various abstract strategies ("We need something big! Something epic!") without ever getting into specifics or details. It's not just funny, it's an impressive demonstration of what Aardman is capable of.
"I really wanted to create a piece that could showcase a variety of disciplines I’ve learnt along the way at Aardman, as well as my passions and influences in street culture," said Aardman designer and director Danny Capozzi, in an interview with Adweek. "Around this same period, I had a series of perplexing conference calls, and that’s when the lightning bolt hit me, to merge the spitballing and often circular nature of a call with a scatter gunning of eye-candy visuals."
10) State Street Global Advisors
On International Women's Day, Wall Street awoke to a new resident: The Fearless Girl, a bronze statue of a defiant young girl facing down the famous "Charging Bull" statue.
Developed by McCann New York for its client State Street Global Advisors, the relatively small statue was intended to spark a big conversation around female leadership in business.
"We are firm believers in the principles of stewardship," State Street Global Advisors chief marketing officer Stephen said in an interview with Adweek. "And we want to reflect that in everything we do -- especially as it pertains to our commitment in ESG [environmental, social and governance] investing. The placement of 'The Fearless Girl' in the epicenter of the world’s financial capital helps not only promote our commitment to women in leadership today and tomorrow, but it also establishes an interesting emotional and rational aspect to responsible investing."
What were your favorite agency projects from March? Let us know in the comments.
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