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Smoke wafts up from the cigarette between his fingers. The ember is dulled, buried beneath a layer of ash, but burning all the same. With a flick of his finger, the excess ash lands amidst the rest in the small ceramic tray on his desk. In his other hand he swirls a glass, causing the sole ice cube inside to clink against the sides. He brings the cigarette to his lips. The ember burns bright for a moment’s inhalation before being cloaked by a cloud of exhaled tobacco. The man is sitting back in his chair. To the rest of the world he appears to be doing nothing more than waiting to leave. To everyone in the office, though, he’s polishing up his next big pitch.

“I’m more of a Corona man.”

The sirens are far off now, no more than a faded memory lost to the streets of Los Angeles. The two men have slowed to a walk. Tonight’s threat has passed. Their hearts are still catching up, beating in rhythm with the music emanating from the house in front of them. Inside, the scene stands in stark contrast to the journey that’s brought them to this point. Nearly two dozen men and women are dancing and laughing and otherwise enjoying themselves in a familiar place. A home. One of the two men addresses a partygoer before returning with a bottle. “You can have any brew you want,” Dom says, handing the beer to Brian. “…as long as it’s a Corona.”

There’s a competitive gene in everyone. We all remember those times a family game of mini-golf turned ugly or when the best of three tournament in Mario Kart quickly became an all-night, thumb-numbing affair (we’re looking at you, Rainbow Road). The spirit of competition is alive in almost everything. The most popular shows are always put against each other in polls, and then again against the winner of this same poll from a generation earlier. Some of those shows are even based around people competing with each other, completing the circle. It isn’t much of a surprise that this same drive found a home in marketing and advertisement.

The quest for 1,000,000 views is eternal, having spread across the web of internet users and content creators like a virus. Sure, the number is nice and round and comes across clearly when included on a list of accomplishments. But going viral means far more than numbers alone. And the work doesn’t end there. Achieving that level of recognition presents a plethora of opportunities. It’s only just begun.

We may be halfway through with 2017 (take a moment to let that fact settle in), but already there are ad campaigns that make a strong contender for best of the year. Plenty can happen between now and December 31^st, sure, but we have a suspicion that these ads are still going to be in the conversation not just for this year, but going into 2018 as well.

"This chair was built for breaking things."

In writing, there is nothing like a strong refrain. It's why songs have choruses, right? The intention is to drive home a particular theme or point, with repetition. The goal for any writing stands: Make it simple and make it powerful. Yes, that includes brand and copywriting. Great, artful copy can be simple, beautiful, and effectively promote your brand while talking about something else, on the surface.

With the Rio Olympics now in the books, your good friends over here at GLAD WORKS are looking back at couple of our favorite advertising and branding moments surrounding the games. In a series we call "The Power of…", we'll breakdown what we see, using a marketer's eye.

The Power of Branding

When we get together as a group, we get most fired up and animated when we start talking about TV and TV ads. What can we say? Advertising is our jam, so of course it gets loud up in the studio when our favorite topic comes up. Since (spoiler alert!) summer is coming to a close on September 22, each member of the team decided to share what they thought was a super hot ad from the summer of 2015.

Gina:

The Internet is ablaze with discussion over Nationwide Insurance Company's choice to air an ad titled "Make Safe Happen" during the Super Bowl. The ad features a little boy narrating all of the things he won't do because he "couldn't grow up" since he "died from an accident." This ad hits anyone with a pulse right in the chest. Many were outraged over the buzz kill during the Super Bowl—a time when most people would prefer to think about the Carl's Jr. girl or lost puppies.

For those of you who have only just now dug out from under a pile of snow and have not seen it yet, here it is for review before we go on:

We've known for years that Purina has had it together when it comes to being a truly innovative and courageous brand. Remember a while back when they developed the first app made specifically for cats? That was superfantastic and really, very smart. Now they're at it again, teaming up with the folks over at BuzzFeed to create a very funny series of branded entertainment videos called "Dear Kitten." The success of these videos (16.2 million YouTube views and counting since June) may be the beginning of an exciting new trend in video marketing.