Picking Up Girls With Lamborghini Web Video Speaks Volumes The silent treatment scores big on viral charts

Is the best pickup line a fancy ride? If YouTube content creator VitalyzdTV’s clip of himwordlessly inviting women into his Lamborghini is any indicator, then a luxury vehicle is the best way to woo a lady. 

The video—which has been viewed upward of 10.5 million times since it was uploaded on June 19—shows VitalyzdTV randomly driving up to women on the street and, solely relying on the power of hand gestures and nods, successfully getting several people to jump into his Lamborghini. It's shocking how these women are all-too-willing to sit in the passenger seat, especially considering the stranger driving the vehicle is creepily not uttering a single word.

Also, making it onto this week's top Web series chart is Epic Rap Battles of History's Sir Isaac Newton vs. Bill Nye duel. The series got a huge boost in publicity after it was featured in YouTube's ad campaigns featuring its top creators. This specific clip about the accomplishments of the scientific duo has drawn in more than 12.1 million pairs of eyeballs since the clip was uploaded on June 16.

Target Asks Customers Not to Bring Guns to Its Stores

Target is asking customers to refrain from bringing firearms into its stores, via a blog post on its corporate website.

Target "respectfully request[s] that guests not bring firearms to Target—even in communities where it is permitted by law."

Gun control group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America praised the decision,reported Bloomberg Businessweek, saying "Like Chipotle, Starbucks, Facebook (FB), Jack in the Box, Sonic (SONC), and Chili’s (EAT), Target recognized that moms are a powerful customer base and political force—and you can respect the 2nd Amendment and the safety of customers at the same time."

The Michael Bloomberg-backed group put pressure on Target to change its policy in states where open carry is legal via a Twitter campaign and petition which received nearly 400,000 signatures. The issue originally came to light following open carry demonstrations at Target locations by radical gun rights groups, including Open Carry Texas, an organization even the NRA can't get behind. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America circulated a photo of that group carrying around semi-automatic rifles in a Texas Target location during a March demonstration, fueling widespread condemnation across the Internet.

"This is a complicated issue, but it boils down to a simple belief: Bringing firearms to Target creates an environment that is at odds with the family-friendly shopping and work experience we strive to create," said Target's acting chief executive, John Mulligan, in a statement.

Target's blog post received more than 700 comments within two hours of being posted. While the majority of them were supportive, several commenters vowed to disregard the company's request. It seems only a matter of time until Target is tested on how it will respond when someone inevitably does bring a firearm into a location where open carry is legal.

Northwestern Mutual Picks a New Lead Agency

The company spent about $50 million in media last year.

Northwestern Mutual has found a new lead creative agency.

GSD&M landed the assignment after a review, according to sources. The company spent nearly $50 million in media last year, according to Kantar Media.

Four other shops vied for the account. Sources identified the others as mcgarrybowen in Chicago, Deutsch in New York, TBWA\Chiat\Day in New York and The Distillery Project in Chicago.

The winner succeeds Olson, an independent in Minneapolis that did not defend. Olson has handled the account since 2010.

GSD&M referred calls to Northwestern Mutual, which could not immediately be reached. But sources said that the company had told contenders of its selection. The new agency's first work is expected in the fall.

Media responsibilities were not in play and remain at Publicis Groupe's Spark in Chicago.

Gillette's Facial Hair Through the Ages a Viral Hit A little scruff never hurt anyone

Clean-shaven, bearded or mustashioed: Men have rocked it all with style and aplomb. Gillette's 100 Years of Hair celebrates the most popular facial hairstyles of the last decade, showing that while fashion may change the need for grooming hasn't.

And, that message is resonating with consumers: The video has been viewed almost 7.9 million times since it was uploaded on YouTube on June 24.

Notable this week is Verizon's Inspire Her Mind, a clip that hopes to foster the growth of women in science and math careers. The short 1 minute ad shows off-handed comments may inhibit budding interest in the STEM fields. It's been viewed about 3.1 million times since it was uploaded on June 2.

Ad of the Day: Guinness Has Made the Only Ad You Need to See This Fourth of July

BBDO teams with Noam Murro for another evocative spot about everyday heroes.

Guinness is on a roll globally with its "Made of More" advertising. Now, for the Fourth of July, the brand has released the latest installment of the campaign in the U.S.—the lovely, quietly patriotic spot below, called "Empty Chair."

We won't spoil the plot. But leave it to an Irish brewer to make the most proudly American commercial of this Independence Day season. (An English brewer, meanwhile, has made some of the funniest Fourth of July ads this year. And where are the U.S. brewers? Mostly doing cartoonish work by comparison, it seems.)

For "Empty Chair," BBDO New York teamed up again with Biscuit Filmworks director Noam Murro, who directed last fall's brilliant "Basketball" spot. Once again the delayed reveal is deftly handled, and it's an approach that nicely embodies the tagline. The ads themselves, like the everyday heroes they celebrate, are "Made of More" than they seem at first—rewarding the viewer for sticking with them.

"Basketball" was weirdly overlooked in Cannes last month (it wasn't shortlisted in Film or Film Craft), as the judges handed five Lions to AMV BBDO's "Sapeurs" for Guinness Europe instead. But as "Empty Chair" shows, Guinness can be as proud of its U.S. marketing as anything else it's doing globally right now.

Millennial Women Are Not Cutting the Cord But that doesn't mean they're not on digital

Cable television isn't going anywhere, says a study on Nielsen data from the CAB | Photo: Getty Images

A new report from the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau says that millennials, women 18-24 in particular, are not cutting the cord as quickly as previously thought. In fact, TV's share of viewing hours grew from 84 to 88 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 (data in the study was sourced from the Nielsen Cross-Platform Report), from 129 total hours out of 133 overall to 111 hours out of 113 overall. Yes, that's still shrinkage in terms of absolute time spent (and the cable-free rate for men is higher), but it is notably less time watching digital video.

Further, the study found that young women spend nearly four times as much of their time watching cable as they do broadcast—more than 16 hours surfing cable vs. 4.5 with the broadcast networks. Much of that may simply be that the women in this survey are predominately college students, but the CAB sees it as a hopeful sign.

Danielle Delauro, svp, strategic sales insights for CAB, concedes that digital video is getting bigger, but says that that's not necessarily a bad thing for TV. "[Young women] are consuming more video than ever before in their lives, but that's additive to television," she said. "People are always just looking for whatever the best screen available is, and the best screen is television across all demographics."

While it is admittedly in the business of television, the CAB says it has data to back up the claim that people prefer the TV to the mobile phone or the tablet. "We've done multiple studies that show the larger the screen size the more people are likely to sit down for a long period of time," Delauro said. "It's just because the picture's better and it's more comfortable for them to watch. If you set all the devices down in front of them and said, 'You can watch your favorite show on any of them,' they'd pick TV every time."

But the big hurdle for companies producing content that relies on advertising revenue isn't competing with upstart video companies; it's monetizing the content they already have. "Once [content owners] figure out mobile measurement, I think they're going to be able to get that into all of the mobile devices," said Delauro. "I think if they can figure out a way to get it into some of the devices, there's a way to get it into all the mobile devices."

Oddly, she said, the passing of Apple's founder may allow video-makers to catch up to consumer adoption. "Without Steve Jobs around, there just isn't as much innovation," she said. "We hit the tablet, but I don't see anything coming in the next year or two."

The innovation, she stressed, has been a good thing, though. "Everyone's working as quickly as they can, but unfortunately—actually, no, fortunately—consumer adoption and appetite for content outpaces what we're able to do as an industry," she said.

You can check out the full presentation here.

Rolling Stone Names New Publisher Associate publisher Michael Provus promoted

Following last week’s spate of executive departures, Rolling Stone has named a replacement for publisher Chris McLoughlin, who resigned after less than a year on the job. Michael Provus, the magazine’s associate publisher, will take over for McLoughlin as publisher, effective immediately.

Provus has been Rolling Stone’s associate publisher since 2010, when he joined Wenner Media from Condé Nast. Previously, he had been the national advertising director for GQ and an advertising director at Vanity Fair.

The magazine’s advertising, which has struggled in recent years (full-year ad pages have been down every year since 2011), saw a considerable boost in the past several months under McLoughlin. In the first half of 2014, ad pages rose 5 percent, according to the Publishers’ Information Bureau.

The publisher position at Rolling Stone is notorious for its high turnover rate. McLoughlin, who announced last week that he would be leaving Wenner to become vp of sales at digital ad sales company Undertone, had only had the job since last August. He replaced Matt Mastrangelo, who held the position for three years. Mastrangelo’s predecessor, Will Schwenk, had been the magazine’s publisher for just over two years before leaving for Condé Nast.