The subject of today is ‘sexposition’. Now, if you’ve never heard of this term, there is no need to question your vast and superior knowledge of filmmaking techniques. It’s a rather hidden gem. I only stumbled upon it by accident, whilst being utterly lost on Wikipedia. Again. Damn you internet! Anyway, the word itself is a neologism of ‘sex’ and ‘exposition.’ According to Wikipedia, sexposition is the “practice of providing exposition – that is, background information required for the viewer’s understanding – against a backdrop of sex or nudity.” More…

One Big Agency created this handy ‘Live with it!’ app. But as you quickly find out, it’s not made in collaboration with Shell, but with Friends of the Earth (or: Milieudefensie). In fact, it’s not even an app; the URL at the end leads you to ‘Worse than bad.’ The locals of the Niger Delta can use the fictional app to earn Shell points (that can be exchanged for “helpful survival gear”) by being the first to spot oil spills. The same goes for reporting contaminated water. The app also indicates where the locals can find alternative water sources and it maps gas flares and pipelines. It will be interesting to see what Shell will do against this spoof. Will they act against it – “David Ruse is not our Chief Facade Officer – we have someone else for that!” Or will they sit still until the storm is over? Probably (and wisely) the latter. In any case, the spoof made us think of Chevron’s ‘We Agree’ campaign that was hijacked in 2010; immediately after the release ‘The Yes Men’ launched their own ‘We Agree’ campaign. Their spoof used phrases like “Oil companies should clean up their messes,” instead of Chevron’s copy saying “The world needs more than oil.” One Big Agency’s app also reminded us of this column on Amsterdam Ad Blog (“Shell and clean don’t match in advertising”). It’s good to see that oil companies cannot get away anymore with trying to come across as environmentally constructive – let alone friendly.

When buying a car, it’s common practice to go for a couple of test-drives before making your purchase decision. Whether you’re in the market for a brand new Gallardo or a third-hand Multipla, you want to make sure your hard-earned money isn’t wasted on a lemon. Even though all the test-drives in the world could never make the Multipla anything but a sour piece of fruit. But even if the ugliest car ever built somehow made it to your wish list, you’d still want to make sure there’s nothing – mechanically – wrong with it. More…

PostPanic and director Mischa Rozema never fail to impress us. Take this beaut of a TV commercial for the Finnish soft drink Jaffa – commissioned by Finnish agency Sek - using a blend of 2D and 3D animated graphics, vintage stock footage, and a live action shoot at the studio of the 85-year old graphic designer Erik Bruun – an institution in Finland. Bruun has been responsible for Jaffa’s iconic logos and posters since the 50s – the brand was founded in 1949. Jaffa – nowadays owned by Heineken – is still in the top 3 of most popular soft drinks in Finland. Rozema about the project: “The story needed to be told using the actual posters of Erik Bruun. This meant we had to create an imaginary landscape to allow us to move from one poster to another. I was particularly inspired by the simplicity and retro feeling of Bruun’s designs, which actually reminded me of Saul Bass’ work. Bruun’s work has that same contemporary feeling and use of textures that makes it stand out and feel very tactile.”

The shop manager of DIY store Hubo on the Wittenburgergracht was frustrated by the amount of plastic cups he and his colleagues were using. That is why he made these cup holders on the wall of the store. Using mugs would even be more environmental friendly. But every bit helps.

Anomaly – opening its Amsterdam office at the end of last year – has hired Gaston Serpenti as Digital Creative Officer. Serpenti is coming from Boondoggle Amsterdam, the agency he founded about 5 years ago with Tom de Bruyne – who left Boondoggle last year to found Sue Amsterdam with Astrid Groenewegen. The hire has been made partly possible by both Nike and Converse, recently appointing Anomaly to handle local business initiatives. Serpenti has an impressive track record, winning Spins, Webbies, and Lions. His most successful cases were Take Mokum for Nike and KLM Surprise. These cases also helped to make Boondoggle Digital Agency of the Year in 2011. Hazelle Klonhammer, MD at Anomaly about Serpenti’s hire: “Exceptional digital talent is rare in this industry. That’s why we feel very fortunate to have him onboard.” We’ll be looking forward to see his work for Anomaly.

Just announced; hybrid production agency Post Panic is organising the next long-awaited, 5th edition of Panic Room on the 7th of June. Panic Room is an evening during which Post Panic invites international names to come and share their current inspirations with a relatively small creative crowd, primarily made up from Amsterdam’s agencies. Past speakers have included Shynola, Si Scott, Dvein, Pleix, Lucy McRae and Niels Shoe Meulman. The next edition is featuring Belgian photographer and film maker Vincent Fournier, Eindhoven design duo HeyHeyHey (it wouldn’t surprise us if Mini Melvin makes an appearance) and LA-based director Andrew Huang, who has been causing a sensation with his short film Solipsist. Unfortunately the Panic Room is invite only, but we’ve managed to get our hands on 5 tickets to give away. We thought it might be nice to give them to some younger creatives who haven never been to a Panic Room – it’s usually the senior creatives ending up on the guest list. If you fancy going then please send us an email with your age and reason why you deserve a ticket. We hope to see you at the whiskey bar on the night.

Mobile telco provider Hi embraced Facebook over the past years and especially the ‘Like’ icon. And since in Hi’s most recent commercial the brand shows how we sometimes neglect our moms, it introduced this Mother’s Day tattoo, created by Morrison Schiffmacher (the daughter of the famous tattooist Henk Schiffmacher) to make ‘mama’ feel special. It is an app that allows you to create a virtual tattoo through your webcam. You can scale it, turn it, blur it, etc. to make sure it looks like a real tattoo. And then, of course, you can make it your profile picture or – better even – send it to your mom to freak her out and make her love you at the same time. What a great idea. On top of this, you can even win the tattoo in real ink, if you give Hi a good reason for wanting it – and not have much taste, for that matter. Created by FHV/BBDO.

If you don’t mind I will barge right into the matter of things. And the matter is my argument that the only good idea is an executed idea. I think it is time that we start to realize and foremost recognize the fact that campaigns that have made a difference are actually ideas that were realized. And lately I have noticed a development that I think is killing for good cases to come to life. More…

Weird, but with mileage is how we judged this concept for Autodrop (‘car liquorice’) in October 2010. Last week we came accross this one; ‘secret passage.’ Compared to the first one it feels slightly more accessible. And we like it. Created by DDB Amsterdam and directed by Hans Knaapen (Electric Zoo).