Seen and noted

BEST TV
Fave: Newcastle Band of Brands. Newcastle's subversive take on Big Game advertising just seems to get better every year. It's great when you can have one of the most talked about campaigns without even placing a buy during the game. I hope this project hits its crowdfunding goal because it's always great watching the master of sarcasm, Aubrey Plaza, do what she does best.

Runner up: Weight Watchers: My Butt. W+K hits on a human truth about what can be a person's best friend or worst enemy: their backside. The storytelling and execution of this spot is as solid as the insight behind it all.

BEST PRINT
Fave: Tiffany and Company. It's wonderful to see a brand that epitomizes love throwing it's weight behind the love is love movement. Plus, the writing is beautiful.

Runner Up: Carlsberg Don't Drink and Drive. I love beautifully simple visual solutions, especially ones for such an important cause.

BEST OUTDOOR
Fave: #PackAttack. It's always great to see projects where one afternoon of production can influence a whole campaign across endless media channels. #PackAttack does that, hits on a truth, and lets the internet see the thing it loves most: cats being weird.

Runner Up: Pepsi Max. Watching those pingpong balls run through that Rube Goldberg machine was hypnotizing and oddly soothing.

BEST INTERACTIVE
Fave: Swedish Snow Rescuers. This seems to be a very useful tool for an unforgiving environment that I, living in California, don't know anything about. That said, this is an amazingly smart way to tout a superior product on a level, but icy, playing field.

Runner up: CTRL Finding Peace. This campaign is a nice example of creating a digital easter egg and watching the online community find and appreciate it. And what's a better use of social media than spreading peace?




This week's guest judge is Xanthe Wells, chief creative officer and partner at Pitch in California.

Xanthe joined Pitch in January 2013, and as CCO and partner, she's helped the agency realize double digit growth in both revenue and talent by landing Burger King general market business in North America as well as Bonefish Grill, Pepsi, Konami, San Manuel Casino, Citrix, Weingart Center for the Homeless, Meineke, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Maaco, Closet Factory, Pinkberry and Living Spaces over the past two years. Agency size more than doubled in 15 months of leadership, growing from 27 to 61 people.

Recognized by numerous press outlets, including AdWeek, AdAge, Creativity and the New York Times for her recent work at Pitch, her work has helped boost the agency into the national spotlight. Pitch has also been named 'Agency to Watch' by AdAge's Agency A-List and received a Silver in the Small Agency Awards last year. Xanthe is an active participant in the 3% Conference every year and helms the agency's internship program.

Prior to joining Pitch, Xanthe worked at TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles where she led efforts on Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Kraft, Pinkberry, Bare Escentuals and Stacy's Chips. She's also worked on ESPN, Budweiser, Playstation, Visa, Hillshire Farm. A designer at heart, she was born and raised in the heart of San Francisco but now lives in Pacific Palisades with her husband, her daughter and their two Olde English Bulldogges, Winston and Duke.