A new series of ads for Kraft center on highly engaging portraits of New Orleans families who share a great fondness for food—and each other. Directed by Madheart’s Jan Gleie for Chicago agency McGarryBowen, the spots are the latest in an ongoing branding campaign featuring real people who use Kraft products to “make something amazing.”

It's all fun and games. Sure. Until an innocent piece of chocolatey covered puffed grain cereal gets eaten by a
cold-hearted kid.

Frieze Films and Rob Malpage direct this spot for power company Eskom for Saatchi and Saatchi Johannesburg.

The circumstances surrounding the shoot were a bit tricky. Rob wanted to shoot Telkom’s National Control Room, because power grids are awesome, doncha know. But the place has severely restricted access. So Rob recreated it thanks to the magic of art direction and CGI.

The message is pretty much what you'd expect from a power company:

Land O’Lakes’ new “Mom Wins” spot by Campbell Mithun serves up a dinner victory for moms as it kicks off a national advertising effort to launch the Sauté Express® Sauté Starter product to consumers. The spot celebrates the “one step, no prep” ease of making quick and delicious meals – courtesy of the sauté starter with butter, olive oil, herbs and spices – along with a mom’s other daily victories in a busy household.

You'll rule the bake sale, by using pre-made mixes, of course.

See also ravenous and Laundry.

Hybrid production studio Vitamin has teamed with Tallahassee agency Bright Red to create a multi-platform ad campaign for Pilot Corporation of America, makers of high quality, innovative writing instruments, to highlight the many ways Pilot’s unique pens help people make their own distinctive mark.

If a fat, hairy, shirtless man showed up at your front door, would you trust him to come inside and hug your mother? Probably not, and you shouldn't trust just anyone with your car, either, as Backyard Productions makes clear in a hilarious spot promoting AAMCO's comprehensive car repair services. Director Rob Pritts teamed up with Qorvis Communications on this latest effort, just one among several collaborations between the two.

Being a mom is the hardest job in the world. But it's also the best.

This idea survives only by the down to earth execution of it, as it veers very close to extra-cheesy territory. We see mothers all over the world live their routines. They do dishes, wash clothes, make dinner and wake up the wee one early in the morning to take their children to practice, practice, practice. It's these moms whose dedication help athletes fulfill their olympic potential. So P&G celebrates all the moms who wash, dry, bake and wake the next generation of olympians. Everyone say aawe.

On behalf of Brand New School, it's our pleasure to share this spot that director Jonathan Notaro and his BNS colleagues have recently created for advertising agency Mother New York as part of its "Love Thy Pits" campaign for Mitchum.

The campaign contributions from BNS include three :30 spots in total, including this latest one entitled "Dawson's Kid."

Jonathan and BNS producer Toby Sowers provided this summary of the project's unique production approach:

I love how 90% of this dialogue wouldn't have made any sense whatsoever fifteen years ago. Part of the SAS campaign that pitches you "with more flights you can have more time for other things".

The VIA Agency created this spot for Samsung to highlight the wifi-enabled touchscreen available on the Samsung four-door fridge.

A young girl ponders how one knows who is is the right man to marry, and asks her mother, who is a little too helpful with her informative reply.

Artist owned-and-operated bi-coastal digital studio Brickyard VFX recently completed work on Target’s “All Things Merry” campaign. Central to Brickyard’s work on the campaign was digitally replicating a super mom as she seemingly accomplishes ten things at once to prepare for the holidays in “Mrs. Claus Ain’t Got Nothing On Me.” Lead VFX artist Mandy Sorenson explains: “Our team helped map out this particular spot weeks in advance. We worked with Dayton/Faris to create a pre-visualization of the shot which helped us choreograph the multiple moms and determine the framing and camera movements to best tell the story.

Here's something we can all identify with, the hustle-and-bustle as the weekend approaches. Ladies gossip in the restroom about their plans, mom leaves work early and is picked up by dad and her kids in a car full of camping gear, men are seen dragging the familiar systembolaget* bags home heavy with wine, favorite dinner ingredients are picked up in the supermarket. In short, it's the weekend.

"Weekend. Just one of the many reasons why more people should have a job".
Subtagline: Sweden's only workers party.

* In Sweden, alcohol can only be bought at special stores called Systembolaget.

Is this a five minute skit with product placement or a really long unfunny commercial?

Jason Bateman and Will Arnett play dad and prom-date from hell/teacher respectively. It starts out lukewarm and recognisable, the parents fuss as the "just legal" daughter is getting ready for her senior prom. Enter the date from hell, who is also her social studies teacher. Along comes Orbit and cleans things up. Orbit might be able to clean the dirtiest of mouths, but I'm pretty sure this won't be cleaning up at the awards.

In gender-fairness, even if this seems like yet another case of doofus-dad in advertising, the missus is equally thick. Television for geniuses, indeed.

Microsoft takes on Google with this UK ad, where they show what information overload has done to us all. Bing is positioning itself as the"decision engine". This ad launches a campaign today, that Microsoft is backing with $2bn in media and creative.

"This is a big moment – we are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath," said the managing director and vice-president of consumer and online at Microsoft UK, Ashley Highfield, adding that he believed Bing met a real desire from both consumers and advertisers.

The latest from Psyop for Nurofen.

From Psyop:
Nuro's personality was largely inspired by superhero actions and gestures, and the pains had to be menacing and mischievous, but not evil. For us, the most effective way to create a message of relief would be in the subtlety of the animation; small moments that had enough action to convey the message of Nuro's strength without over-articulating his power to kill pain.

This year Cars.com reasons "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" and basically repeat David Abernathy from Super Bowl XLIII. Except Timothy puts out a grease fire from his highchair. Bypassed the training wheel stage while learning to ride a bike. Helped a damsel on the beach suffering from a jellyfish sting, in perfect italian. Delivered breached Bengal cubs. And rescued a cheerleading squad from a tornado.