Las Vegas dreams up another bogus holiday

R&R Partners attempts to evolve its faux-holiday-themed campaign for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority with this spot about "Jolly Roger Day," another excuse to ditch boring work commitments and head to Vegas. Roger's pirates are jolly, all right, singing and dancing on deck while the ship goes down. All of which begs a question: Where are the chinchillas?! The client's fake-holiday direction began last year with a pair of sublimely silly, superbly stupid "Chinchilli Day" spots with psychotic, cartoonishly violent critters as the star. Those ads succeeded because they were over-the-top ridiculous and impossible to ignore. Musical pirates, unless they're from Penzance ... meh. Now, if bloodthirsty chinchillas had sunk the ship, we'd have a winner. Instead, the British Navy does the pirates in. And Brits are clearly not bloodthirsty rodents. Except for Gordon Brown.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

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Trips to Vegas won't keep you out of heaven

R&R Partners injects new (eternal?) life into its long-running "What happens here, stays here" campaign for Las Vegas tourism with this spot set at the Pearly Gates. "That's odd, there seem to be a few weekends missing," says St. Peter as he flips through the record of a newly deceased guy's earthly existence. I guess Sin City's powers are divine after all. I'd wager the ultra-violent, crazed chinchillas from Vegas's recent ads are off tormenting less fortunate souls in warmer climes.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

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Killer Vegas chinchillas still wreaking havoc

The killer chinchillas are back in this "Three Musketeers" spot, set in France, by R&R Partners for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. It's as absurdly entertaining as the critters' June debut in a south-of-the-border mini-epic that introduced the concept of "Chinchilli Day," a fake holiday used by office drones to take time off from work and hit the Vegas Strip. Once more, the furry-faced hell-raisers unleash comic mayhem on humankind, using swords this time instead of guns and explosives. The chinchillas have no real Vegas connection, and yet the rage-filled rodents have become, in my mind at least, inextricably linked with Sin City. They're the anti-ad icons, brand mascots trapped in a campaign they never made. If they were feted at Advertising Week, they'd blow up the Walk of Fame because, well, that's what they seem to do best. At the very least, they'd give Ronald McDonald fleas. Here's hoping.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

See also:
Las Vegas tourism ad stars killer chinchillas
Las Vegas ads now just all sex and violence
Las Vegas begs small-town America to visit

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Las Vegas tourism ad stars killer chinchillas

Chinchillas armed with rifles and explosives—it's everyone's darkest nightmare. (It's a recurring dream of mine, anyway.) R&R Partners brings the furry furies to violent life in this new spot for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The chinchilla that "goes for the throat" reminds me a bit of the killer rabbit in Monty Python & the Holy Grail. Overall, however, these little devils have a better arsenal. The mayhem provides a a bored office worker with his unlikely excuse for needing a long weekend in Vegas. He's just commemorate a gory cultural holiday. "Every year my people celebrate the victory over the revolt," he explains to his boss. In my dreams, I'm the one with the hairy jowls and whiskers wielding the guns. Viva la revolución!

—Posted by David Gianatasio

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Las Vegas ads now just all sex and violence

In general, I dislike ads that employ faux-newscast scenarios, because they invariably trivialize a difficult and demanding profession. It's tough to pronounce people's names correctly on camera and not trip over the microphone cord while doing so. (Maria Bartiromo typically ends up flat on her face whenever she tries to say "Bernanke.") R&R Partners' latest tourism spot for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, however, scores by giving viewers what we've always wanted to see but know we never will: a hot on-camera babe peeling off her jacket to reveal a bikini beneath and party attitude to match. OK, we'll probably see it someday soon on Fox News or CNBC, but not on any reputable network. There's also a new "Shin Whack" ad (below). It shows middle-aged male doctors who thankfully keep their scrubs on, because I don't wanna know what they're wearing underneath. Lots of people have probably been "whacked" in Vegas through the years, what with the whole gangland element.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

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Las Vegas begs small-town America to visit

We never thought we'd see Las Vegas try to market itself as a non-threatening retreat for cash-strapped rural Americans, but times being what they are, the City That Never Sleeps Alone is taking a crack at it. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, with help from R&R Partners, invited all residents of Cranfills Gap, Texas, to Las Vegas for a five-day visit in mid-December. About 100 people—more than one-quarter of the Gap's residents—took them up on it. Their exploits will be YouTubed, of course, and the whole adventure has its own Web site, too, as Vegas sets out to prove that a city with no survival resources beyond tourism will thrive during a severe economic downturn. Other revitalization projects include widening the roads, because they need to be even harder to cross on foot, we guess.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

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Las Vegas enjoys lots of bipartisan support

Nevada may have flipped from red to blue in this presidential election, but Las Vegas remains decidedly non-partisan, as you can gather from this spot inviting Democrats and Republicans to shed their differences (to say nothing of their clothing) with a sybaritic jaunt to that city. R&R Partners of Las Vegas cooked up the post-election spot for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

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A few beers will impair anyone's judgment

Along with promoting real brands, advertising has brought to life any number of fictitious brands over the years. This ad for the Paris Las Vegas casino, by that city's R&R Partners, adds some nice ones to the roster—especially the Napoleon Stout and the Marie Antoinette Ale. (See the full ad here.) But when's the last time a man walked into a bar anywhere other than France and found two French beers on tap? Other readers will be scandalized by the notion that Napoleon would betray the ideals of the French Revolution by dallying with Marie Antoinette, of all aristos. But this does lend support to the "Everything's sexier in Paris Las Vegas" theme line.

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

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