This new Hyundai Velostar has 3, instead of 4 doors. That’s a bit strange. We understand the concept when getting out of the car just next to a very busy road. But how about 95% of the cases when you don’t have to worry about the traffic on the driver’s side? Hyundai might argue that it’s a coupé, so that the third door is a bonus. But then we could argue that a coupé should look sexy and not be mutilated by a third door. Anyway, this scary commercial was banned by Hyundai’s head office. And that’s a pity, since it clearly communicates the car’s USP. It was created by Fitzroy and directed by Tom Rijpert.

Update: Rumor goes that Hyundai purposely banned the commercial (but allowed it on internet), because that would enhance its virality. That does sound plausible.
Update: (September, 1st) We received a letter from Hyundai explaining that the video we were showing online was infringing Hyundai’s copyrights. The film was never released on TV, because Hyundai’s head office found it too strong. Apparently the ‘online’ success was not planned and that’s why it has been banned there as well.

Fitzroy hired creative team Marvin The – what a cool surname! – (art) and Marius Lichtendahl (copy). The team about there move: “After a two year road trip through agencies like Kingsday, JWT Hamburg and Singapore, we finally found a place where our hybrid thinking will be of great value. We will work on newly won client Hero and further strengthen the team.“

O.k., so if you wonder why we hardly worked on Friday; here you go. Fitzroy‘s already infamous New Year’s bash on Thursday night had too much free booze flowing. Apart from throwing great parties, Fitzroy knows how to make cool compilations; a fat tune, some tattoos, beards, and pretty girls, and – last but not least – some sponsors. But what makes this compilation really nice is the ‘pop-up’ wallpapers, created by Silvia Quintanilla & Francesco Rugi, a Milan based art duo that goes by the name of Carnovsky. The wallpapers – staying on Fitzroy’s wall for one year – mutate and interact with the different chromatic stimulus, using the RBG color model. Pretty impressive, especially when drinking Mojitos as if it were your last day.

If you’ve worked on car brands, you probably recognize the it’s-the-most-spacious-in-its-class-briefing. There’s many solutions to that brief. But if the car feels luxurous as well and you’re Fitzroy, you just call it a 5 star hotel – think out of the box, remember. You can win a night in this Hyundai i30 Wagon – parked on the courtyard of the College Hotel – through Facebook. Not the most comfortable night you’ll ever experience, we can imagine. Unless, of course, the hot chick in this film comes with the room. Or are we jumping to conclusions here? If so, it’s probably the upskirt shot in the last Hyundai film that got our imagination going.

A complicated one this is. Not because of the dripping ice creams, sweaty girls, hard nipples and upskirt shot – that is actually what makes it the most simple advertising you can imagine. No it’s complicated, cause this is the second time a commercial created by Fitzroy is banned. And when you ask Fitzroy why and how it was banned, they say: ‘no comment.’ The first time this happened was last year, when a deadly accident promoted the Hyundai Velostar. At the time Hyundai Netherlands could still pretend that they didn’t expect the online rumour around the brand and blame the head office for banning it. But now of course we’re seeing a pattern. Creating shocking videos, seeding them online, and banning them shortly after the first publication. The modern equivalent of the forbidden fruit and thus all the more attractive. What makes it really complicated though is that there’s no similarity between all the different ads (in March this year the online audience was hypnotised to like the Hyundai i30), except a pay-off that reads ‘New thinking. New possibilities.’ We now understand that this brand proposition clearly only talks about the advertising, cause if there’s anything common about Hyundai, it’s the product itself. Thanks to Fitzroy though, we already look forward to the next ad.

When you send us a press release about Doritos facilitating threesomes with complete strangers, you have our attention – most FMCG’s aren’t that bold. This online activation is not what we hoped for though. First of all the corny trailer shows us that we’re not the target group. But more importantly, a threesome in this context simply means going out with two strangers in three cities – Istanbul, Berlin, and Moscow. That is, it’s not that simple, of course. On the website you need to check in with your Facebook profile and find some interesting ‘threesome’ partners in your (Google Maps) area. The recipients of your invitation can answer with ‘skip’ or ‘trip’. To increase your chance of winning a trip, you can initiate as many virtual threesomes as you like. A nice example of how a brand can become relevant for its consumers by acting as a connector. Created by Fitzroy.