The New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment has released its latest Reel Jobs campaign, and the message is clear: this is the place to be, to live, and to work if you want to make TV or movies. The five-spot effort, directed by Artists Company's Mike Rowles, features a skillful edit from Fluid Editorial and beautiful color grading, conform and mastering from Nice Shoes (all three companies are - no surprise - based in NYC).

A simple, unadorned classroom seat that millions upon millions of students sit in every day, every year, everywhere.

That iconic seat is the centerpiece of a new 45-second animated video created by Psyop and Ogilvy & Mather New York on behalf of Schools That Can, a national non-profit network of high-performing urban schools in under-served communities.

Helmed by Psyop Creative Director Gerald Ding, the spot depicts some of these aspirational occupations by piecing them together from playful illustrations of educational ephemera. Protractor-shaped spaceships zoom by in outer space and test tube clusters play the part of undersea coral.

I actually saw when this was happening, live, and am a little surprised I wasn't caught on camera as I passed by since I was gawking at that wall for some time watching the bars "unlock" around the big screen. Guantanamo has existed for ten years, and some people have been there for just as long, so Amnesty collected signatures on ipads around Stureplan in Stockholm, which then unlocked the bars from the prisoner on the big ad screen.

PETA's wants animals out of Hollywood. Good luck with that.

The campaign follows stereotypically slimy Devin Dentler, “super agent to the wild kingdom,” as he schmoozes his clients – chimps, bats, bears, giraffes, elephants, and lions – in their natural habitats. The viewer sees the :60 spots from the animals’ point of view as Dentler dials up the sleaze – scolding a bear for hibernating through pilot season, trying to sell a giraffe on horror B-movie “Giraffula,” and offering a chimp courtside basketball tickets.

DUCK, long known for its robust and versatile directorial roster, brought the full force of 10 of its best to bear on a monster 12-spot campaign for the United States Olympic Committee via Y&R. Each of the animated spots, which tell the story of one US Olympic athlete and the special relationships that helped them rise to the pinnacle of their sport, features a unique aesthetic and animated style.

A multi-tasking dentist reminds you to focus, in this comedic, yet slightly disturbing, Distracted Driving PSA.

Distracted driving is the number one killer of teens in America. This cringe-worthy PSA, directed by Olivier Agostini for Impact Teen Drivers, draws attention to this ugly truth with a little gore to grab the viewer's attention.

"The backbone of the spot was to create awareness on the dangers of distracted driving without relying on the use of ubiquitous scare imagery or graphic car-crash footage." Says Agostini.

As Let It Rain Films' producer Sam Kelly says:

“Making this PSA was a very humbling experience for us. We often use the metaphor ‘to walk in someone else’s shoes.’ Well this very brave lady, Christabella Zenzile, cannot walk – she is in a wheelchair – but spending a few days with her made us count our blessings tenfold and get the smallest taste of what living with a disability is all about. There is just so much we don’t know about and so much we all need to bring into our awareness to make South Africa more accessible to all.”

To stop reckless drivers in the Ukraine, a special device was built that would release a "human shaped balloon" at a pedestrian crossing, so the driver would have no choice but to show down. (in quite a panicked reaction, I might add).

Scary. I know I would freak the hell out of I saw this on a dark road. The device is also pretty clever in how it'll only release a ghost if the driver is speeding quite a bit, not when the drivers are sticking to the limit. I wonder if any of these ghosts caused an accident due to swerving-to-avoid-collision reactions?

Either way, impressive.

When the media is the message. Smartnewsolutions explains:

"Blood Transfusion Service" is a Russian state organization for blood donation and the support of volunteers in Russia. After the standard advertising campaign the client asked for an Internet project, capable of reaching the hearts of the target audience to turn them into regular donors. It is very important, because Blood Transfusion Station are no need one buzz-effect – blood has short period of use."

Portfolio night is here again, and the budding little ad-men embryos will use all of their creative skills to get in the biz. Striking visual, instead of a sperm heading toward the egg it's a pin aiming to poke the condom. Which will result in a very sloppily broken condom much like a pin meeting a balloon does. So wait, the new generation of adkids are going to destroy advertising? That makes sense. Get me some of those for my agency plzkthxbai.

Yes, the portfolio night tour is on again and if you want some experienced eyes on your work kids, look up your city and get ready to rumble. MAY 23, 2012 is the date to remember, and you can attend in Stockholm, Dublin, Shanghai, Athens, Beijing, Budapest... etc and so on.

In a visual that clearly translated to a photographer "being screwed", the UPP wishes to draw attention to the plight of photographers in the era of the re-sharable file on the internet.

Every day, photographers work and reflect the reality through their eyes. Every day photographers risk their lives to keep us informed.
Every day, photos are published on the internet, in newspapers, books, commercials, bringing the value.
But the photographer continues to be treated as if it produced nothing. His work has no value. It's not that bad or is that his work is worth nothing.
This is much simpler.
Every day, his photographs are used by thousands of people (press, publishers, advertisers, communicators) who act as if they had found them on the floor.

You know, I've recently given up my pack-a-day habit and it's not really a good thing if your visual makes me twitch looking for a lighter. It's also not so good if the whole 'sculpt a picture out of cigarettes' execution been used before like with the Hitler and Bin Ladin posters created from cigarettes. To make it even more badlandery, the idea of how much money you spend (read waste) on smoking has been explored before as well. Still, it's a rather arresting visual so I hope it does hit home with some in the target.

It starts out like a typical night in the red light district. Men mulling about outside of the red lit windows where barely clad ladies are flaunting their stuff. But then something happens, a woman shakes and another and another, all the while music by Raveyards grows louder over the canal. The six women perform a nicely synchronized dance in the windows of this building and attract even more onlookers. When their routine is done the impressed onlookers spontaneously applaud. That's when the sign above the building appears, and I applaud.

The word "Chevrolet" can instantly conjure images of beastly trucks slamming through the mud, high-powered sports cars speeding into the horizon, or titanic SUVs carting the family around town. But after a series of mini promos documenting the automobile legend's massive support of eco-initiatives across the country, Chevrolet may be redefined with one word: green.

It starts out innocent enough, with those funny questions and observations only kids can make. "Mommy do babies know how to laugh or does their mommy teach them?" It gets a lot less funny and quite a bit creepier as it runs along. Sure to hit a nerve, director Amanda Boyle has made all the kids perform naturally, so even the most disturbing phrases feel all to real and makes one worry. If you're worried about a child, don't wait. Call the NSPCC.

Nice Shoes Colorist Ron Sudul recently finished a pair of stirring international spots for the nonprofit group One Million Trees. The studio teamed up with The Academy of Film & the Arts Directors Armondo Acosta, Frederik Cassiers and Martijn De Schrijver, expertly modifying their raw black-and-white footage with wisps of color.

The projects are journeys through the forests of Flanders, Brakelbos and Overpelt in Belgium. A mix of aerial views and shots from the dense forest floors, the spots explore the human relationship with trees. Friends in Trees features a man and young girl ascending into the soaring branches. Lost without Them follows a fleet of helicopters in pursuit of one man wandering through the woods.

The animation presents two young boys: David, an Israeli, and Ali, a Palestinian. They play carelessly on the beach in a hypothetical, but poignantly real future time of peace. As they speak of the unthinkable violence of the past, images of suicide bombers, scrambling jet fighters, and an impenetrable wall boil over the screen. The pair, relieved that the chaos has ended so they can be friends, end the 2:00 animation by discarding their shirts and sprinting into the ocean.

Continuing the theme from 2010's campaign, where both the girl and the boy witnessed themselves from the outside, the Home Office wants you to take a good look at what you're doing when you get pushy around sex.