Nike "Shoxploitation"> Nike Shoxploitation is a wonderful contradiction. Four star athletes (Rasheed Wallace, Clinton Portis, Gary Sheffield and Brian Urlacher) are portrayed as street heroes in high-intensity vignettes that combine 2D and 3D animation with a muted palette of blues, grays and purples. Its artful, painterly visual quality seems to challenge the gritty and aggressive action. That it's based on Blaxploitation aesthetics explains much, but shades of animé, street art and video games also inform the look - a look much unlike anything we've seen in advertising, and one that we'd love to see more of.

Production Company: PSYOP, New York
Writer: Steve Raymond
Directors: Kylie Matulick, Todd Mueller
Executive Producer: Justin Booth-Clibborn
Producer: Boo Wong
Senior Compositor: Eben Mears
Associate Producers: Joe Hobaica, Mariya Shikher
Editor: Jed Boyar
Character/Prop/Background Designers: Brian Wood, Toby Cyprus, John Frye, Daniel Piwowarczyk
Sound: Jed Boyar (Music producer), Studio G
Graphics Designer: Pal Moore
Graphics Animator: Jonathan Garin

View the spots

Trailer
Rush
Sledge
Joe Freeze
Clutch

Audi "Letters"> Rarely is such elegance and intensity found in a car commercial - especially when there's an obvious lack of running footage. That's what sets Audi's latest apart from the pack. Created by animation whizzes Pleix and Moving Picture Company, it starts with an isolated Audi parked upon a rooftop. Heavy drones of music lead you in before the car explodes into a visual cacophony. Car parts float slowly through the air revealing themselves as letters, which proceed to spell out Audi's tagline (Vorsprung, Durch, Technik), before the car reassembles itself at another location. Stunning.

Agency: BBH, London
Creative Director: Russell Ramsey
Creatives: David Chalu, David Lang
Agency Producer: Michelle Kendrick
Production Company: Blink, London
Director: Pleix
DP: Patrick Duroux
Offline Editor: John McManus @ Jonny Bongo
Post-Production: The Moving Picture Company
Creative Head of 3D: Jim Radford
Inferno Artists: Christophe Allender, Frank Lambertz.
Telecine: Jean-Clément Soret
Music/Audio Post: Bleip

FedEx "Sweeps"> FedEx is in the business of helping everyone with their business needs - even chimney sweeps. Here, a trio of sooty souls chatter over a coffee about how FedEx can help them expand. Seemingly possessing little self-awareness - or more likely, they just don't care - plumes of black smoke come wafting from their mouths with every utterance. In the face of their business' global boom one long-faced chap meekly asks, "We don't have to give up our chimney sweep jobs, do we?" "Of course not," bellows the other, proving that with FedEx, you can have your soot and eat it too.

View "Sweeps"

Agency: BBDO, New York
Chief Creative Officer: David Lubars
Executive Creative Director: Eric Silver
Copywriter: Ari Weiss
Art Director: Aaron Adler
Production Company: hungry man, New York
Director: Hank Perlman
Executive Producer: Elise Greiche
Editorial Company: MacKenzie Cutler Editorial, New York
Editor: Gavin Cutler
VFX: The Mill, New York

Travelocity "Airline"> Travelocity confirms that a nattily dressed Englishman out of his element is a kind of comfort food. The first of three ads, this one opens with an urbane gent as he pulls up his blinders and brings his chair back to an upright position - in his bedroom - before motoring around exotic locales while belted into his First Class seat. The absurd juxtaposition between a character in a Saville Row three-piece suit with tropical destinations is worth the price of admission. We can't wait for the follow-ups - which involve a flashing moustache and fervent guitar slapping mariachi style.

View "Airline"

Agency: MCBD
Agency Producer: Russell Taylor
Art Director: Emer Stamp
Copywriter: Ben Tollett
Production Company: Stink, London
Director: Neil Harris
Production Company Producer: Jess Aan De Wiel

Nextel "Bees"> This is one of those spots that starts out with your usual fare and then takes off in a direction that you would never expect - literally. Two working stiffs wait for an elevator. Simple enough, until the elevator opens and its occupants start fluttering about, arms and legs in a frenzy. The concept of working together like a colony of bees supports the campaign's core idea: "Nextel helps groups get things done." Kudos to The Mill, whose VFX are startling and fresh. Though we did wonder why everyone took the elevator when they could fly,...we suppose it's easier on the legs.

View "Bees"

Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York
Executive Creative Director: Gerry Graf
CD/Art Director: Joel Rodriguez
Copywriters: John Patroulis, Scott Kaplan
Dir. of Broadcast Prod: Ozzie Spenningsby
Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Stylewar
DP: Joe DeSalvo
EPs: Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody
Editorial: Jun Diaz, MacKenzie Cutler, New York
VFX: The Mill, New York
Music: Fluid Music, New York
Audio Post Production: Sound Lounge , NY