Zulu Alpha Kilo have kicked off the agency holiday card season with “Jingle Butts,” which is every bit as ridiculous as it sounds. The agency teamed up with Spanish percussionist Jorge Perez of jazz-fusion band PATAX for a butt-slapping, human resources-frightening rendition of the familiar holiday anthem.
In response to accusations of misogyny (while there are both male and female butts in the segment, the majority of it appears to focus on Perez slapping the butts of thong-clad women, at least initially), Zulu Alpha Kilo told Adweek, “Zulu has always been committed to supporting charitable causes and making contributions important to our team. In order to stay true to who we are as a company, we often do this in a cheeky and memorable way. The intent of this year’s holiday video is to show our support to Colon Cancer Canada. We assure you we are ‘equal bum opportunists.’ The video features both male and female models.”
Indeed much of the agency’s most high profile work this year was in support of charitable causes, including this “#FunRaising” campaign for Make-A-Wish Canada. Zulu Alpha Kilo also created a spot promoting the National Advertising Challenge back in February. Perhaps the agency’s most visible work, however, was a video the Toronto agency made for Strategy’s Agency of the Year awards (see below) calling attention to the RFP/spec work process by imagining how asking for free work would go over with other businesses. For their part, Zulu Alpha Kilo has refused to do spec work for five years.
It was a relatively quiet year for the agency in terms of departures and arrivals, although executive creative director Shane Ogilvie left near the beginning of the year to found The Garden North America with former Zulu executive planning director Shari Walczak.