By Mike Woods, Framestore  

Fantastic clip this week. Ecotricity are trying to change the behaviour of energy companies in the UK, and have made a great promo video. More info here http://www.facebook.com/ecotricity

We rarely carry agency stories on Cream, although as with most rules, there are always notable exceptions. 

I'm going to resist the temptation to make jokes about disaster-themed storylines on the Archers, and instead just share the news that Inferno has joined forces with Farm. 

Inferno has hired the founders and Executive Creative Directors of Farm, Owen Lee and Gary Robinson, along with other Farm staff to bolster its talent pool in light of the agency’s spate of new business wins, including Nokia, NSPCC and Legal & General. A number of key clients will also be moving with the Farm team.

Cream regulars will recognise Inferno for its contributions from Bambos Neophytou and Robin Jaffray. As a special treat, you can also catch Inferno's strategic planner Jani Cortesini, deliver his brilliant presentation from Extra Life: The gaming guide for brands. 

Browsing through the small ads is one of my guilty pleasures. It never ceases to amaze me the strange and bizarre things that people will advertise. Even in a prosaic title such as the Metro, the rubbish-but-popular free paper that litters the London Underground, there are opportunities to take part in clinical trials, go on a date, start a lawsuit or become an adult film actor. 

It's rare that brands bother with space in the classifieds. The sometimes off-beat and often sexual nature of the content would make most brands jittery - but not, it appears Hendrick's Gin. 

Hendrick's is spirit brand with an image built on the unusual and quirky, so if anybody was going to be found amongst the dodgy solicitors and seedy hotels - the red light district of advertising - it was going to be Hendrick's. On this occasion the gin connoissieur's favourite used the opportunity to warn its male consumers about the marriage proposal dangers of 29 February. 

Check out some other classifieds brand case studies on Cream:

Love your crisps | Tayto, Ireland

Lighting up the housing market | EPM, Colombia

Ads in the classifieds | 7UP, UAE

Originally posted on the M&M blog.

Superheroes, like science fiction, are now acceptable to like in public. This trend can be attributed to a number of events: the cult series Heroes, the popularity of the DVD box-set that helped cult TV go mainstream and the new maturity of superhero representations on the big screen. The corny comic-book adaptations of the 1980s are now cult cinema curios compared to the superhero films that will hit screens in 2012; Christopher Reeve's square-jawed Superman would get a proper kicking from Christian Bale's Dark Knight. Confirmation of the hero concept as trend, if any were needed, arrives in form of the new Lego Superhero series that hits shops soon.

When we were working on the branding concept for the BRAVES, superheroes became part of the imagery very early on. An award that celebrated the heroes of video, needed to have some heroic figures to represent them. Eventually, the perfect amount of caffeine and lively discussion created a brief for the characters who would become The BRAVES, and this brief was brought to life by the brilliant artist, Noma Bar. 

Bar is famous for his deceptively complex graphic illustrations. Using blocks of colour and simple shapes, the man is a master of negative space and efficient graphic style. In short, he's a bit of a genius, and it's a bit of a coup for the BRAVES that he agreed to produce our characters.

Introducing: TEAM BRAVES

CAMPAIGN BRAVE

Smart and strategic, Campaign BRAVE has a plan and is in control. A master of innovation and insight, his mission is to promote the best use of video in advertising campaigns. The Campaign BRAVES category promotes the best in video campaign innovation and creative planning. 

CONTENT BRAVE

Content BRAVE is an artist, always looking to capture that moving image and experiment with new techniques and aesthetics. The Content BRAVES celebrate the art in video and specifically reward the role of branded video content where there brand has been involved from the outset. 

TECHNICAL BRAVE

Nobody knows where he came from. With tools for platforms, players, analytics and distribution, strong, silent Technical BRAVE is essential to the video ecosystem. His best work often goes unnoticed, so the Technical BRAVES are designed to recognise the best technical contributions and innovations to the video landscape.

Information about the BRAVES.

Video-based case studies found on Cream.

An interview with Noma Bar.  

Going to watch a film in the cinema is, for me, something of a ritual. For starters - I go to 'the pictures', and not 'the movies' or 'the flicks'. I don't like to so close that I can't see the entire screen at once without moving my head, nor do I like to sit so far back I might as well be watching it on the TV at home. Another key component of my picture-going experience is some sweet popcorn (not to be shared) and a Coke. 

This ritual has been in place for as long as I can remember (I was obviously a difficult child), and the only thing that has changed is that I now choose Coke Zero in a futile attempt to ward off the type-2 diabetes that races closer with each passing year. 

Coke's relationship with the movies goes way beyond my fussy cinema demands. I'm going to resist the temptation to name famous cinematic Coke-references here (a full list for trivia fans can be found on the Cokelore page), but the soft drink's association with the silver screen and its evolution has been captured nicely in this ad from Puerto Rico by DraftFCB.

Coca-Cola has even been known to set up its own cinema for a launch stunt in Colombia. See the full 'Traffic jam cinema' case study here. 

Finally, it only seems right to share my favourite Coke-in-film moment, from the brilliant 'Good bye Lenin' where a Coca-Cola poster plays a pivotal role...

The News:

Social media networks were set ablaze late last year with the release of an advertising campaign for HEMA, a chain of Dutch department stores. The campaign for the store’s new ‘Mega Push-Up Bra’ is fronted by androgynous male model, Andrej Pejic.

The innovative marketing department at the Dutch retail chain decided to hire the flat chested 20 year-old male to prove their claim that their ‘Mega Push-Up Bra’ could truly “boost your bust by two sizes”. The advertisers named the model in small writing at the bottom of the images, leaving the publicity and news stories to whip up a storm surrounding the campaign.

This pioneering approach to lingerie advertising trended on Twitter hours after the images were released. The campaign has caused mixed reactions.

Behind the News:

Pejic’s agent was very positive about the campaign, stating, “It’s revolutionary. I’ve never known a man to do a women’s lingerie campaign before”.

Andrej Pejic has caused a stir in the fashion world over the past year, modelling both women and men’s clothing, most notably closing Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture bridal show earlier this year.

Pejic’s feminine features caused Barnes & Noble and Borders book stores to consider banning the magazine ‘Dossier Journal’ because he appeared shirtless on the cover. The book stores said that he might be mistaken for a woman and as a result, sold the magazines in a brown wrapper.

This liberal approach to advertising was seen in other recent news as A Thai airline hired transsexuals to set itself apart from competitors. Both HEMA and A Thai have crossed the boundaries of gender roles. Transgenders and transsexuals have greater visibility in Thailand than in many other nations and in the Netherlands there is widespead support, tolerance and equal rights for LGBT people.

I don't make a habit of sharing office forwards, they're rarely funny or relevant. This example however, is both of those things - even if it is a little unkind about Google +. (Although I'm still undecided on that one myself)