Best Ads of the Week: Maxine Peake’s class critique & Cash App’s personal finance guide

Every week, The Drum picks the top global campaigns from our Creative Works. You can submit your new work here.

This week, MoonPie tried to communicate with aliens, Rashida Jones took a Mitsubishi out for a joy ride and Heinz helped ketchup fans get inked with their favorite logo.

McDonald’s: The Big Mac Signature by DDB

Since its inception in 1967, McDonald’s Big Mac has become one of the world’s most popular fast-food items. So iconic, in fact, that the burger has had an economic index named after it and a museum dedicated to its history. Despite these impressive accolades, there is one thing that the Big Mac didn’t have that other ‘celebrities’ do – an autograph.

To remedy this, McDonald’s Sweden invited fans to create one together. 256,000 people left their contribution in the chain’s app in exchange for a free Big Mac. These suggestions have now been processed into one unique autograph. Devised by Nord DDB, the autograph was facilitated by AI algorithms that created one signature based on all the submissions. Since Big Mac cannot write, the actual signing is done by a robot adapted with a 3D-printed hand just for this purpose.

MoonPie: Alien Acquisition by Tombras

MoonPie, the cookie famously enjoyed with RC Cola, has officially declared its intent to capture the elusive extraterrestrial market in a bold campaign that literally reaches for the stars.

The otherworldy effort makes MoonPie the first brand to pioneer advertising for aliens. The initiative was sparked by a congressional hearing held on July 26, 2023, during which several experts testified under oath and confirmed the existence of unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, on Earth. MoonPie, alongside its creative agency of record, Tombras, reportedly embarked on a months-long journey consulting numerous UAP experts to help create an out-of-home campaign that only an intergalactic demographic can understand.

Dutch State Lottery: Believe in Luck by TBWANeboko

The Dutch State Lottery is pulling on heartstrings once again with a spot that sees a man have to choose between his true love and his New Year’s Eve lottery ticket. In ‘Believe in Luck,’ viewers meet a young man who finds a time machine in an antiques shop. His curiosity gets the better of him and he finds himself transported into various moments in his future. The constant throughout all the years is an intriguing woman who appears to be his partner.

Once he is safely back in the antiques store in 2023, he leaves knowing that he should buy a lottery ticket. After purchasing it, he accidentally bumps into the familiar woman from his future just as the ticket blows out of his hands. The protagonist must choose: should he go after the lottery ticket or the love of his life?

Mitsubishi: Confidence Integrated Care Program by The Sussman Agency

Mitsubishi Motors North America is poised to reveal its new holiday campaign this weekend, featuring none other than Rashida Jones of The Office and Parks and Recreation fame. With this commercial, Jones becomes the United States’ first brand-level spokesperson for Mitsubishi Motors North America in the company’s 40+ year history in the United States.

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In the ad, Jones takes the wheel of a Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid, confidently navigating through snow-covered terrain. Her assurance on the icy roads is attributed to the Mitsubishi Motors Confidence program, a comprehensive suite of maintenance, warranty, and roadside assistance programs designed to alleviate stress for drivers.

Aldi: Christmas EV by TBWAParis

The red suit-wearing icon decides that he, too, should enjoy Christmas Eve with loved ones this year. Aldi France has released a touching new tale that features a super sleek modern-day Father Christmas who has decided to be proactive this festive season and deliver gifts to people around the world a day early.

This means that he can spend December 24 with his nearest and dearest, cooking meals from all the produce he got at his local Aldi store. The campaign was devised by creative agency TBWAParis and will be rolled out across television, online video, digital, press and, for the first time, cinema.

Cash App: Bread by New Distribution House, Olympic Studio, Porto Roch

Cash App, a mobile payment platform, has today announced the launch of ‘Bread,’ a new magazine designed to make financial education more accessible.

Under the slang term for money, the free, limited-edition magazine, or “zine,” uses retro graphic design and human stories to make personal finance more intriguing for readers. The inaugural issue is dedicated to reshaping the perception of the digital asset, bitcoin, “in a new, more inclusive light,” per a release from the brand. In its pages, various artists, designers and writers, including Allison P Davis, Richard Turley and Daisuke provide unique perspectives on the topic, such as bitcoin mining, the necessity for a bitcoin rebrand and the mystery surrounding bitcoin’s creator.

Maxine Peake: Sans Vetements by Meanwhile

The fashion world has been abuzz with word of Chanel’s annual Metiers D’Art Show in Manchester, England. As exciting as this event is for many, it also highlights a stark divide in the ‘Rainy City.’ You see, for the roughly 7,400 homeless people living in Manchester, clothes aren’t a luxury; they are a necessity.

A quick jaunt from Chanel’s fashion show is the offices of Manchester’s oldest homeless charity, Lifeshare. The team at the creative agency Meanwhile reached out to the non-profit with an idea for a campaign to bring the city’s homelessness statistics to life. It proposed making a different kind of collection dedicated to tackling clothing poverty.

SAP: Office Cat by BBDO

Generative AI exploded on to the cultural scene in 2023. Many of us oohed and aahed at its ability to create fluid prose, generate photorealistic images, and write code, among other uses. With AI hype in full swing over the past several months, brands have rushed in to capitalize on the technology. But many businesses are likely asking themselves: How can we actually, practically leverage this technology in our day-to-day operations? A new ad from German software giant SAP aims to start answering that very question.

The video spot, created by BBDO and promoting SAP’s Business AI software, features an animated cat painted in the style of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. It then prances around a series of workplace environments, naming some concrete applications of AI that can be found in each.

Heinz: Tattoo Label by Rethink, Publicis 57

Heinz Ketchup knows that it has some hardcore fans out there. People love the brand so much that they have had its image permanently tattooed on to their skin. Sadly, though, some of the ink looks a little weird.

To combat this, the ketchup brand has turned its iconic label into a stencil that fans can take to tattoo shops to get a precise and accurate replica. Created by Canadian independent agency Rethink in collaboration with Publicis 57, the ad follows on from the tattoo ink stunt that made headlines earlier this year. ‘Tattoo Bottle’ is part of the brand’s ongoing ‘It Has to Be Heinz’ campaign.

Rockstar: Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 1

After it leaked online, developer Rockstar officially released the trailer for the latest installment of the Grand Theft Autio franchise. The GTA 6 promo opens with a female protagonist called Lucia, who appears to be incarcerated due to “bad luck,” as she puts it.

The film then pans over the fictional Vice City, which was last seen in 2006’s GTA: Vice City Stories, showing some of the wild, mostly illegal scenes that fans of the open-world game have become accustomed to. There are car chases, hardcore parties, dancing, strip clubs, robberies and heists. To tout the release and play to a new generation of gamers, there are also TikTok-inspired videos in the trailer. Soundtracked by the Tom Petty tune Love is a Long Road, the teaser has been a long time coming for fans of the game.

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