Hyatt Hotels Corp. has launched a new series of video ads on the Funny or Die website to push its meetings business. The ads show all kinds of things going horribly wrong at meetings, and end with the premise that these things do not happen at Hyatt properties.

Hyatt Meetings Video ad 'Ultra Lounge' on Funny or Die

The first video, titled ‘Ultra-Lounge’ begins with a meeting about to begin and the meetings planner who put it together bragging to his boss about the hip lounge next door which they can hit after the meeting.

As the presentation begins, the slide falls over and then the music begins to throb and no one can hear anything else.

To make things worse, a young couple crashes in from the lounge next door and starts making out on the conference table.

The video ends with the boss shouting to the planner that he’s fired, and then the Hyatt tag line “Bad meetings happen. Just not here.”

Hyatt Meetings Video ad 'Benihana' on Funny or Die

The second video titled ‘Benihana’ is just as enjoyable. Starts with a boss mad at the planner because everyone is busy enjoying the chef’s antics, and a 15 minute snack break got turned into a 2 hour fun fest.

There’s only 7 minutes of scheduled meeting time left. The fun loving planner reluctantly clears the table and just as the boss starts talking about fourth quarter profits, a mime tiptoes into the room and the meeting again comes to a halt. Cue the tag line.

The deal with Funny or Die was put together for Hyatt by its media agency PHD, and Hyatt ended up paying less than $300,000 for the entire project – including production and advertising.

Original thinking by Hyatt’s ad guys, and given how bitingly funny the videos are, safe to say that Hyatt is going to get a huge ROI on its $300,000 investment on this campaign.

The Hyatt Meetings videos debut on Funny or Die (http://www.funnyordie.com) on Thursday. Meanwhile, you can see the videos here and here.

A Super Bowl ad by KIA Motors with sock puppets in Vegas is drawing heavy fire from the NFL for violating its ban on Vegas casinos. The NFL must be very peeved, because the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) got to have the outlawed cake and eat it too, since they didn’t pay for an ad this year.

KIA Super Bowl ad

Titled Joyride Dream, the 60-second third quarter KIA spot follows a colorful cast of life-size children’s characters – including Muno, Sock Monkey, MR. X, Robot and Teddy Bear – who take a Sorento CUV for a spin through a series of dream-like adventures.

In Vegas, the ad starts with the gang in front of the Fabulous Las Vegas sign, and goes on to show them rolling past the Statue of Liberty at the New York-New York casino and then into the Monte Carlo casino, and dancing in a nighclub. Both properties are owned by MGM Mirage.

An NFL spokesman told Portfolio that they did not see the ad before it aired, and it was CBS’ responsibility to make sure the ads did not violate NFL policy. The NFL did not allow Vegas to advertise until December last year, at which time the rules were loosened to allow Vegas to advertise itself as a destination, so long as the ads didn’t show the Strip, casinos, drinking, or sexual activity.

It seems the creators of the ad, Los Angeles ad agency David&Goliath, has both KIA and Monte Carlo as its clients and while the ad was made with the approval and cooperation of all parties concerned, it somehow still managed to avoid getting flagged by CBS.

To make it even more of a raw deal for the NFL, the LVCVA decided to forego a Super Bowl ad this year and instead spent $1.4m on targeted markets, aimed at getting people to visit Vegas for the Super Bowl weekend.

End result – Vegas got free air-time during the Super Bowl courtesy KIA’s sock puppets, and used the ad money saved to good effect by bringing in 280,000 people to Vegas for the game, much more than the approximately 100,000 people who were in Miami.