Weekly wrapup: McDonald's FTW, Aldi's unpleasant eye

FTW or fail

Each week we select one campaign or marketing move that we agree is 'FTW' (for the win) and one that...isn't.

FTW: McDonald's, with Leo Burnett, for adjusting the brand's tone to subtly deliver an encouraging message in the Philippines post-typhoon.

Honourable mentions:

• Colgate-Palmolive, with VML and GPY&R, for cleverly connecting online housecleaning with its IRL Ajax Wipes.
• Virgin Atlantic, with Y&R, for its artful and fun Chinese New Year envelopes featuring Richard Branson as the God of Fortune.
• The Guardian, with BBH, for this spot promoting the weekend edition:

 

Fail: BMF and Aldi in Australia for this thoroughly unappealing effort (both the visuals and the copy).

Top stories

The most-read items on CampaignAsia.com for the week of 10 through 16 January.

• Pepsi to pitch China media business; OMD not taking part
• Don't mistake technology for creativity: Sir John Hegarty
• David Rose soars to the head of Virgin Atlantic Asia Pacific
• LinkedIn appoints Derek Shen as first China president
• DATA POINTS: Report details mobile, social use across 30 APAC nations
• Challenger brand takes on Coke and Pepsi
• ZenithOptimedia hires strategy lead from Mindshare, creates development role
• Gordon Domlija takes on new role as CSO in MediaCom China
• Saatchi & Saatchi snatches 'sizable' Volkswagen business from DDB Guoan in China
• Defining trends in China: 2013 and 2014

 
Distractions

A few items that crossed our glowing screens this week, most of which are at least tangentially related to marketing.

1. The by-now infamous 'Devil baby attack' video. It's disgusting on many levels, but that hasn't stopped it from nearing 30 million views (and yes, we realize we're contributing to that). How low can prank marketing go? Hopefully no lower than a bloody-faced, vomiting baby scaring people who are not only innocent but actually trying to do the right thing.

 

2. Kangkung! Comments by Malaysia's prime minister lead to a green meme explosion. The BBC covered it quite well, and Yahoo News Malaysia compiled some of the funnier image-Tweets. Here's the Facebook page.

 

3. Also in Malaysia, news website Malaysiakiki started a crowdfunding campaign to help it move to new offices. It was not prepared for the response.

 

4. We love these LOL trailers for the upcoming Muppets movie coming out in March.

 

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading Campaign Asia-Pacific.