Santa is skinnier, cooler with a Palm Centro

Get ready this Christmas for a newer, cooler Santa Claus. In fact, don't even call him Santa. Call him Claüs. So the story goes, Santa was sitting up in the North Pole being fat and jolly, dealing with a 400-foot parchment list of the naughty and nice, when he got a package in the mail. It was a Palm Centro, and it changed Santa forever. He cut his hair, started eating hippie food and lost weight. A new wardrobe and some hot sunglasses later, he was Claüs. Or, as most of you will recognize him, one of those skinny, hot, rich douches often found in ads for luxury/aspirational goods. Claüs is so hip, he has his own Facebook page. Go there to become a fan, listen to his music (he remixes Xmas songs), watch his videos and write on his wall. Great creative and concept from Creature, a Seattle-based agency. But there's one problem: The Centro looks like last year's new device, and no amount of clever marketing will fix that. A wall comment from “Elliot” sums it up: "Can I have a free iPhone, Claüs?"

—Posted by Jeremy Greenfield

Published on December 3, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (13)
Filed under Creature, Greenfield, Holidays, Palm, Telecom

Copywriter totally sucks, gets decent job

Seattle agency Creature has hired 35-year-old copywriter Yutaka Tsujino, formerly of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, based almost solely on the consensus opinion that the guy completely sucks. Jim Haven, co-founder and creative director at Creature, seems to have based his hiring decision mostly on this letter and on the Yutaka Sucks Web site. The latter features humorous anti-Yutaka testimonials, one of which begins: “Yutaka is the biggest scumbag I’ve ever been around. He stinks. I know all the ideas he has ‘come up with’ are something he ripped off from weird ads in Japan. You know Japan is a crazy country, so there is tons of weird shit he steals from. It pisses me off because our creative directors here think it’s funny but don’t take us seriously.”

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 7, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (12)
Filed under Creature, Nudd

Sierra Mist Free gets super technical online

OK, so I can’t be my usual cantankerous self about Vive La Mist, the new Web site by Creature in Seattle for Sierra Mist Free. Because it’s pretty cool. (I’m not sure how you make a diet version of a drink that doesn’t taste like anything to begin with, but that’s beside the point.) Vive La Mist features the “Super Technical Liquid Challenge,” some product testimonials, and a helpful diagram of exactly how the product reacts with your tongue to produce taste (which, as I’ve said, it doesn’t). Finally, a soft-drink Web site unburdened by a stupid or derivative idea. Or by flavor.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on October 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Creature, Kiefaber

A word from the world’s finest club

Given the dire state of affairs at Manchester United, with Malcolm Glazer provoking anger, despair, outrage and thrown plates of fish ’n’ chips among actual and honorary Mancunians everywhere, we thought we’d reprise this nice civilized Man U ad, created by Creature in Seattle for the team’s tour of the U.S. a few years back. Whether Glazer’s takeover will disrupt the club’s proud legacy, or the bottom lines of its sponsors, is hard to say. At this point, we’re just hoping they beat Arsenal in Saturday’s F.A. Cup final.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on May 19, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Creature