You’d guess that selling lottery tickets during a crisis is easy. But when you hire an international celebrity on his return, you start to wonder. Then again, maybe David Hasselhoff is the perfect character to emphasize the fact that the ‘Millions Game’ lottery doesn’t just have one big prize, but many ‘small’ prizes of 1 million. After all, once the south of France is infested with Dutch millionaires, ‘the Hoff’ makes a credible loser: “Who are all these people?” Created by Joe Public and directed by Rogier van der Ploeg (Czar).

Get It Done is an online crowdfunding platform for small human-needs development projects all over the world. Amsterdam-based freelancers Philip Brink and Hugo van Woerden (Philip & Hugo), together with production agency CZAR, last week set up a project in Capetown, South Africa. The concept was simple; every donation (to reach a total of €10,000) was worth some singing, acrobatics, acting, or dancing, by the students of the Ubuntu Academy. Within one day (of 12 hours) they created 170 thank-you-videos. A few examples: Dutch singer Guus Meeuwis received his own song in South African, DJ Don Diablo a rap, and copywriter Johan Eleveld the Haka. See more videos here.

Mobile provider Hi and FHV/BBDO add yet another humorous commercial to the 3-friends series – earlier we featured ‘Who needs phone calls?’ and ‘Hi Likes Facebook.’ A good example of a relatively simple (in the positive meaning of the word) concept that rises above itself through the awesome (art) direction – kudos for director Jeroen Annokkee (CZAR). Minor deception is the final scene, possibly dragged in by the client; the chef chopping the mobile phone in pieces. Another – more serious – deception is the fact that ‘All you can eat’ is not really all you can eat; the subscription comes with a data limit. Which typically is the most limiting element in todays mobile subscriptions. So what’s new in this proposition? Reminds us of the saying: “Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product.”

Centraal Beheer (CB) is an insurer known for showing the shit hitting the fan in their ads. Their commercials always end with the famous pay off ‘Just call us.’ Khanna \ Reidinga, inspired by Red Bull and Felix Baumgartner, created a spoof on CB’s advertising format; with an Austrian-like accent Baumgartner begs ground control to send him higher and higher. Until… tada… he is in space. Hesling Reiding from K\R; “We were surprised that Baumgartner’s jump got so much attention in the media. Even the respectable BBC broadcasted a 60-minute during documentary about it. That’s how we picked up this idea.” Just like the previous Boss Noodles ‘viral’ a sympathetic way to create some free exposure around their new ad agency. Directed by Gerrit Willemsen (CZAR), post production by Justin Baker (the Bakery), and sound by Feike de Wit (Soundcircus Kees Kroot).

Pensions are intrinsically complicated. So when people talk about your pension, it would be nice if they speak your language – not Chinese as in this film. An attractive way by Delta Lloyd to tell its customers they answer “financial questions in normal Dutch.” The film was created by TBWA and directed by Bart Timmer and Willem Bos of Czar. Here’s another one with two flight attendants speaking Swahili – representing mortgage-talk. The only thing we don’t get is the pay-off “Critical at the right moment” – what do you mean ‘at the right moment?’ “We speak your language” or something would have much better wrapped up the film, so we’re guessing the current pay-off was developed for a different campaign.

This online film, created by Khanna \ Reidinga (K\R) and directed by Willem Gerritsen (CZAR), announces the arrival of TomTom’s navigation software for Android OS. It was the iconic Android robot that inspired the agency to let TomTom ‘do the robot’ – ironically enough to humanize the navigation brand. The last time TomTom tried to make its brand more likeable, it painfully failed with a dancing John Cleese. This one, with real (!) TomTom employees and a very distinctive, catchy track, works a lot better. The film also features the Danish ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ winners Nick and Jeppe – whoever that may be. According Hesling Reidinga, the short and tall guy were used in the moodfilm and looked so credibly ‘office-like’ that they decided to use them in the commercial as well. With or without them, an attractive film.