Last Month in Marketing: August 2022

It’s been quite the marketing month, with ad agencies kicking it into creative summer overdrive, producing clever, eye-catching (and eye-popping) ads. This month, we loved spots for things as disparate as exercise apps, blood, and good old-fashioned self-promotion. 

And, as we do every month, Lemonade is here to recap last month’s most notable marketing moments with our regular series, Last Month in Marketing. Here, we highlight the work that inspires us, that makes us giggle, and that maybe even convinces us to question our summer travel plans (more on that later). Oh yeah, and we are starting with a nearly-nude Christopher Meloni.

Christopher Meloni Gives the People (and Peloton) What They Want

A 90-second, tongue-in-cheek Peloton spot from Maximum Effort features a nearly nude Christopher Meloni (he is wearing shoes and socks after all) exercising with Peloton’s new dedicated fitness coaching app. 

With a product that is neither revolutionary nor splashy—it’s a personal fitness app, nothing more, nothing less—the onus was on the creative team to grab attention and not let go. They obviously read the brief. 

Look, the first rule in marketing is to give the people what they want, and with sweaty yoga, open-legged meditation, and gratuitous squats, Christopher Meloni—long the object of Daddy-oriented desire in gay and straight communities alike—does exactly that. Sure it might gild the lily at the end with a Law & Order inspired voice over that feels too cute by half but, frankly, nobody will even remember. They’ll remember the squats.

McCann Reminds Us How to be the Hero Even When You are the Villain

Marketing giant McCann took a nostalgic trip down memory lane, posting a deck to their social channels highlighting their inspiring social media management during the height of Mad Men’s popularity. For those who don’t recall, the later seasons of Mad Men positioned a fictionalized version of McCann as the big bad, an idea-crushing corporate agency unwilling to adapt to social change.

Rather than going into damage control, McCann’s team got in on the fun, live tweeting during episodes, offering theoretical apologies for fictional plot developments and for all-too-real representations of rampant sexism and racism. As the deck reminds us, this was incredibly well received at the time, driving engagement and impressions as well as the adoration of the marketing world. 

Today, by reminding us of their wins, the agency feels like an institution that has evolved with, and helped to evolve, marketing and popular culture. Well earned self-promotion should be inspiring, and this social campaign certainly fits the bill, touting wins and offering lessons while reminding us that it’s oftentimes better to get in on a fun joke about yourself than to explain to people why they shouldn’t be laughing. 

Horror Hero Neve Campbell Helps The American Red Cross Drive Blood Donations

BBDO New York hooked Neve Campbell with the American Red Cross to help combat a troubling statistical fact: only 3% of Americans donate blood. Taking a fun spin on a serious topic, the 70-second video decries all the many many gallons of blood wasted by characters in horror movies who, instead of making poor decisions that lead to their bloody deaths, could have instead simply opted to donate that blood to the American Red Cross.

The ad features Campbell and other horror film characters in increasingly-ludicrous situations, regretting their untimely deaths and wasted blood donation opportunities (our favorite: the babysitter alone in a lightning storm with an escaped cannibal on the loose). 

It finds the perfect tonal blend between satire and seriousness, mocking the contrivances of horror movie plotting while also reminding us that blood donations are necessary to help people fight cancer, through pregnancies and surgeries, and, yes, even when they are stabbed multiple times by a man in a mask. 

HP Puns its Way into the Remote-Hybrid Debate

HP’s consumer electronics arm reached into the current conversations about remote work, siding with consumers who want to fit more of their life into their work-life balance. The ad begins with a stodgy old guard management figure lecturing younger generations of workers on the type of dedication it takes to be successful. Each cliche (e.g. “burning the midnight oil”), however, has a real world counterpart showing the hybrid, on-the-go lifestyle that HP products enable. 

While the ad shows the types of fun adventuring that hybrid work allows (camping while writing, conferencing while gardening), it also shows how HP products help workers find quality family time, with parents playing with their children while competently managing their work life. 

Implicit is the idea that successful workers should be empowered by both their bosses and their technology to determine their own work-life balance so long as they continue to produce. The old guard employer figure comes off as an out-of-touch-throwback from a previous generation, the young employees feel vibrant and contemporary. 

As debates rage about where and when work should be completed, HP has found a fun way to draft off these debates, showing the types of work-life balance possible with their products, leaning into a younger, hipper generation.

Making Dirt, Rocks, and Water Extraordinary (and BEAUTIFUL!) in Oregon

Finally, Travel Oregon teamed up with W+K to produce three 30-second videos highlighting Oregon as a tourist destination for naturalists and urban adventurers alike as it looked to capitalize on the 2022 World Athletic Championships. Come for the games, stay for the sights!

To show off the extraordinary beauty of the Beaver State, the campaign focuses on the seemingly ordinary—soil, rocks, and water—in a hybrid of stop motion, CGI, practical effects, and actual film footage. The result is truly remarkable. Honestly, no description can do these videos justice so just check them out. 

Each video turns a potentially-exhausting laundry list of sights and experiences into a joyous adventure, ending with a Simone De Salvatore landscape to end all landscapes. The art and the concept are equally amazing and we tip our hat.