"Ooh, it’s raining rhubarb again."

This week's most interesting videos, made by and for organisations.

All creative work is a negotiation, between the maker and the audience. But there are different kinds of negotiation. 

There’s the playful haggling at a tourist bazaar. And then there’s the full SWAT Team, loud hailer, “You can speak to your ex-wife if you just let those people go” experience.

They have different rules, so it’s good to know which game you’re playing in any given project. 

Now, videos. 

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High art meets picky feedback in smart and funny AICP campaign (2m 45s)

I’ve seen this idea before – what if iconic artworks were treated like client work? Here though there’s a quiet but relentless absurdism in the way this builds from that familiar starting point. 

Made for the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), it’s beautifully written and well acted – I like the contrast between the haughty Frida Kahlo and the increasingly-bemused Van Gogh. (Watch on Vimeo)   

A clever way to highlight the madness of not voting (30s)

It’s hard to bring an abstract and potentially dry idea to life in a fresh and engaging way. It’s even harder when you have to do that time and again as an organisation. 

Encouraging people to vote is exactly that sort of challenge, but the Irish Electoral Commission found a neat way to humanise the message.

By shifting the context to a couple trying to book a holiday, and showing how annoying it would be to let someone else dictate your plans, they highlight the importance of getting out to vote. (Watch on LinkedIn)

Punchy film challenges our assumptions abut Down syndrome (1m 30s)

While there has been a lot of love for this spot, some people have questioned its “Us vs them” tone, especially as it relates to parents and teachers.

I think it works, because it’s possible to get frustrated with hard-working and well-meaning people in your life – in fact they often annoy you the most. Made for Down syndrome advocacy charity CoorDown, this is the right sort of confrontational, built around a clear and clever central idea. (Watch on YouTube) 

Behold, the bed-making machine (25s)

Influencer partnerships are not rocket science. And yet… 

Here’s how to do it. Josephsmachines builds silly but impressively-engineered Rube Goldberg style contraptions. Silent Night sells beds. So Silent Night commissioned Josephsmachines to make a bed-making machine. 

The Wallace & Gromit vibes make this all the better, in particular when that eye mask hovers into view. (Watch on Instagram)

Poignant spot illustrates how Alzheimer’s creates multiple endings (1m 30s)

This popped up, rather incongruously, in the ad break of Friday’s Gogglebox and my wife and I both let out an “oof” when it finished. 

It powerfully reframes how Alzheimer's disease takes people away from their loved ones bit by bit, and celebrates the things that make each of us loved. (Watch on YouTube) 

Madrid’s Prado and Telefónica artfully announce new project (3 mins)

I really like it when organisations take care to elevate a simple message into something more compelling. The key information here is very simple – these famous paintings are going on show at these galleries across Spain. 

But it’s communicated in such an interesting way, with each gallery emerging from the hinterland of the relevant painting. Lovely stuff. (Watch on YouTube)

It’s baseball Ken, but not as we know it (1m 30s)

The Savannah Bananas are an exhibition baseball team whose mission is to entertain the crowd rather than, you know, win any matches. 

Here, they pay tribute to Ryan Gosling’s performance of I Am Ken at the Oscars, recreating it with an admirable attention-to-detail. And then, right at the end, you realise this isn’t happening during a break in the game. He’s coming into bat… (Watch on TikTok)

Ffern perfume goes rhubarb crazy in new campaign (1m 20s)

Ffern is an artisan perfume maker which releases four scents a year, at the turn of each season. Its Spring 24 fragrance recreates the smell of rhubarb, and the brand has released a series of assets inspired by, and filmed in, northern England’s Rhubarb Triangle. 

I like this short documentary, but I really like these reviews by the good old boys of the Featherstone Male Voice choir, who feel a world away from the usual perfume influencers. (Watch on Instagram)

Kahlua takes on Ireland’s all-powerful pint in cheeky St Paddy’s Day spot (35s)

You’ve got to love a bit of creative chutzpah. To wit – here's Kahlua f***ing with Guinness – and its iconic imagery – in its St Patrick's Day spot. The shocked toucan is an especially nice touch. (Watch on YouTube)

Justin Timberlake’s Tiny Desk Concert is all that (25 mins)

NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert is one of those long-running formats that is so consistently great, it’s easy to take it for granted.

So it’s good to remind yourself how well this idea works, through the ebullient joys of Justin Timberlake’s back catalogue. (Watch on YouTube)

“We are creating a world where the smartest way to survive is to be bland.” 

Jon Ronson