Work + News

All the top advertising agency news you’d expect. Along with award-winning work from our San Francisco and Los Angeles offices. Along with smatterings of goofy marginalia you didn’t know you needed until just this moment.

All Work News

Animating anti-smoking

The spots are animated. The struggle is real. True tales of former smokers on the perilous path to quitting.

Vaccination: our state’s best shot

As reported in AdAge and Adweek, DC was awarded the state’s $40 million campaign to bolster public confidence in Covid-19 vaccinations. And work is already underway on this critical effort.

InnovAsian: The Next Generation

DC is back with seconds of our award-winning, supply-chain-busting InnovAsian Occasion campaign now running on stations across the nation.
female presenting person wearing teal shirt and white e.l.f. branded face mask, holding orange pumpkin while sitting inside pop-up vehicle with purple sparkly wall behind her with the words

e.l.f. 2020 Halloween activation

Duncan Channon’s LA team kept the halloween spirit alive by bringing a spooky holiday pop-up straight to beauty influencers’ homes.

Kona Brewing

Not only did viewers rank the TV spots above those of market leaders Corona and Dos Equis, they gave them the third highest score for any alcohol-related ad that year. Which might be one good reason for a frothy 37% sales increase.
Female identified person with short-cropped brown hair, holding a baby to her chest. DC and Covered California Logos overlay the image on left and right, respectively.

Covered CA on Adweek’s cover

DC is thrilled to announce that we were awarded the five-year, $400-million Covered CA account. We are resolute in helping at this crucial time when more Californians need coverage than ever.

Beautyscape in the Bahamas

Created by DCLA for e.l.f., the fifth installment of the award-winning influencer program is now underway in the Bahamas. And garnering more heat than ever.

“They can’t take your ballot”

At a time of unprecedented voter suppression, the mission of Vote From Home 2020 is more essential than ever. Our new “Suppress This” campaign helps them get ballots into the hands of disenfranchised voters of color. You can help, too.
Two female presenting teens are at a table in a school library. One female with dark curly hair is sitting down with her back to the frame. The other is standing over the table with SweeTarts gummies in both hands and smiling.

SweeTARTS' Be Both is back

After the sweet success of last year’s 'Be Both' launch, SweeTARTS is doubling down on the campaign to Gen Z with brand new work in market now — and more to come in 2021.

Beautyscape influencers launch e.l.f. collection

It’s a beautiful day at DCLA with the launch of the e.l.f. Cosmetics Retro Paradise collection — the new collection from e.l.f.’s Beautyscape winners Alissa Holmes, Diana Curmei, Elicia Aragon, Jessa Green and Valeria Loren.

CBS x Alfred Coffee · Emmy Awards

DCLA partnered CBS Studios with Alfred Coffee to reach Emmy voters and garner support for Star Trek: Picard. The timely work tapped into the diversity and inclusion central to Gene Roddenberry’s original vision.
Nicotine equals brain poison. Two images in a grid. Image to the left is the campaign example featuring two male presenting teens with their heads down smoking a vape pen with a copy overlay that reads Nicotine equals brain poison. The right image is the gold Clio award on a black background.

Nicotine = Brain Poison = Clio

Our work for CTCP has awakened parents to the teen vaping epidemic and won a slew of awards in the process (not nearly as important, but nice). The latest is that most venerable of ad accolades: the Clio.
Action shot of a pink nike shoe as it hits the concrete. The person wearing the shoe is running. A pink Rakuten logo appears above the shoe as if it popped out from her shoe indicating the runner is a Rakuten user.

Rakuten

Loyalty or discount program advertising often dwells in the downscale world of the coupon clipper — a turnoff to savvier online shoppers. Our strategy was to present Rakuten as every bit as premium as the brands it offered rebates on.
A grey-blue background with a circle of screenshots of various people speaking in a video conference call. In the center of the screenshot is text in white text letters that reads “Work Together.

Million-dollar talent from Upwork

To support COVID-19 projects, Upwork is donating a million dollars of time from their network of independent professionals. And who better to tell us about it than the pros themselves?

StubHub

Even the mild-mannered have something inside that drives them wild. And thanks to StubHub that wild thing is busting out all over.
Grid image of 20 US employees on video conference call together. They are diverse in their age and their genders. They all appear smiling and some chatting like they are familiar with each other and enjoy working together.

Cotteleer in Campaign US

DC’s chief experience officer speaks with Campaign about the virtual world and how COVID-19 has actually brought DC’s SF and LA offices closer.

Gap · Dress Normal

Gap asked us to build consideration and generate trial for their newly launched “Dress Normal” brand platform. Thirty influential Instagram photogs helped us do just that.
A mother of two lays in a hammock in her backyard. In the hammock with her is her two children. She appears a strong mother balancing work and motherhood. Her two daughters are smiling.

Empowering the pandemic parent

Amy, along with our CEO Andy, talking to MediaPost about the agency’s support plan for working parents suddenly at home with kids.

This way to health insurance

Today marks the launch of our first campaign for Covered California as part of a five-year, $400-million effort to help all Californians get the health insurance they need.
ADWEEK. A scene from the Disney movie Frozen. Elsa, Anna, Olaf, and Sven are posing on a purple background.

Cotteleer talks COVID-19 in Adweek

As we seek to chart our way through the uncharted, DC’s Amy Cotteleer shares her thoughts on brands’ best course of action during the pandemic.

Kettle Brand

The “Stirring the Pot” work celebrates Kettle Brand's counterculture legacy and all those that zig when others zag.
Black Forest, so juicy, so good. The Black Forest logo appears with a red gummy bear hanging over the top. In the background is a lush green forest. Sunlight peaks through and shines on a patch of green plants.

Another sweet new client

If you missed it in Adweek and Ad Age, DC went to the Black Forest and hit the gummy bear motherlode.
A gold beer can with the black and gold designed Brewlab label on a white background. The label is fully rolled out as an image so you can see all the design elements and text that appears on the label. The label is black and the text is gold and white.

Redhook Brewlab

Craft beer is like indie music. If you get too popular, you’re no longer cool. Just ask Redhook. In the early ’80s, they took off like a rocket, Anheuser Busch came calling and the brand was labeled a sellout. “Budhook!” the beer nerds snickered.

Safety precautions

We have all made sacrifices.

Flavors Hook Kids

Evoking moments all parents remember; watching their kids find their favorite foods. Set in stark contrast with teens taking their first flavored steps into addiction.

Upwork goes nationwide

This week marks the launch of Upwork’s first national campaign. Broadcast TV, digital video and radio show us how all our offices could, in fact, be much larger than we realize.

Upwork

As a global network of freelance talent, Upwork needed to overcome their target’s gig-economy skepticism.
Noel Johnson, Director of Marketing & Client Engagement at Duncan Channon, poses for a headshot in front of black and white vintage wallpaper.

New business and beyond

DC is pleased to announce the arrival of Noel Johnson as our first director of marketing and client engagements.

Nabela Noor poses with her e.l.f. Lipstick as if she is applying it. She's dressed in all pink with gold accessories and full on hair and make-up glam. In the background is greenery with the same gold accents.

Nabela Noor for e.l.f.

DCLA created a can’t-miss launch event for Bangladeshi-American sensation Nabela Noor’s collaboration with e.l.f. Cosmetics.
Gary Stein, Duncan Channon’s chief integration officer, poses for a headshot in front of black and white vintage wallpaper.

A new leader in a new role

Gary Stein joins DC as our first chief integration officer. He’s here to accelerate collaboration between strategy, media and creative.

Gap

With the Be Bright campaign, we secured the rights for Gap to be the official concert tee at the summer’s hottest music festivals.

Amy Cotteleer poses for a headshot in front of black and white vintage wallpaper. Below her image in red with white text reads “40 over 40 campaign”

40 over 40

Amy Cotteleer was tapped by Campaign US for its annual digital 40 over 40 list. The honor is bestowed upon those at the forefront of digital transformation.
A diverse group of young adults pose and smile in front of the universal studios lifesize logo in Orlando, Florida.

Universal Orlando

Universal Orlando leveraged DCX’s stable of influencers to reach the difficult-to-reach teen and tween audience — and succeeded 40 million times over.
Bus stop billboard ad. Featuring male presenting teen leans into his locker at school and takes a drag of a vape pen. There is text over the image in black and white that reads “Nicotine: looks like tech, works like poison. “Flavorshookkids.org” is in the bottom right side of the image.

Nicotine: the teen nightmare

Nicotine is a neurotoxin whose changes to the teen brain could be permanent. And that’s what our campaign sets out to communicate.
Black and white photo of a group of Golden State Warriors basketball players sitting on the sidelines. They are laughing and poking good fun at each other. The team’s logo is in the top left corner in golden yellow and on the bottom right corner is text that reads “game recognize game” but the second “game” is upside down.

Golden State Warriors

One of the greatest teams ever assembled was just about to leave the city that supported them through thick and thin for 47 years. How do they say good-bye?
An energetic graphic design centers a bag of SweeTARTS candy. The background of the design is red with a lighter red lightning bolt. In the center of the image is a skateboard, ballet slippers, and a bookbag. The book bag is open and the SweeTARTS candy sits in the bag.

How sweet (and also tart) it is

It’s not just the sugar talking when we say that we’re so fired up about our new client: iconic candy brand and childhood favorite, SweeTARTS.

I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.