Commercial

Every Rise, Every Fall

I’m probably not going to watch any of the winter Olympics this year. I’m just not into it anymore and the live schedule is just nuts. I’m not tuning in at three in the morning to watch Curling teams duke it out on the ice in slow motion. Although Curling action can be quite riveting and is a definite draw for me.

OK, with all that said, there is a new spot from Uncommon London that is extremely creative and executed so well. The two-minute online spot “Every rise, every fall, every victory – we’re in it together” does a great job of capturing the essence of the games and how it relates to viewers around the world. How the games pull you in and captivate. This is the most Olympic action I’m going to see this year, and it was worth 2 minutes of my time just to see the construction guy acting out snowboard ariels.

TRIPWIRE Daydream

I often step back when I see an ad and ask myself “What do you think the pitch was like when presenting to the client?” This ad for Tripwire is one of those ads. The 60-second spot takes the viewer on a trippy little adventure, and the payoff doesn’t arrive until the very end.

I’m not saying the ad is bad, in fact, the production value is top-notch, and once you get to the end of the piece and realize what is going on it works. I’m just wondering how the team sold this concept to the marketing department at an IT / Data Security software company, and what the pitch deck would have looked like.

Agency: PMG
ECD: Kyle Kelley
ECD: Andrew Harper
ACD: Lori Wittig – lori.wittig@pmg.com
ACD: Justin Prichard
Writer: Benjy Joung
AD: Kevin Yurasovich

Camp Lucky
Director: Adam Littke
EP: Brandon Tapp
Producer: Elizabeth Spiva
Editor: Logan Hefflefinger
Assistant Editor/Junior VFX: Jake Odgers
Graphic Artist: Seth Olson
Color: Neil Anderson
Audio: Scottie Richardson
Finish: Mark Sullivan
EP: Jessica Berry

A Fist Full of Bourbon

As a bourbon drinker, this brand had me at the name. Scotch whisky maker William Grant is jumping into the bourbon market with new brand “Fistful of Bourbon”. To kick off the launch they teamed up with Quaker City Mercantile and Saturday Night Live director Paul Briganti, and Tool of North America to produce a tongue in cheek play on a classic spaghetti western and the results are so good.

The spot imagines two cowboys waxing poetic about the use of sunscreen, reading Gwyneth Paltrow’s blog Goop, silk pajamas and more. The writing is fun, and the two main actors set the mood. The only thing they need is a Ennio Moriccone soundtrack and some overdubbed voices on the supporting cast.

Taking full advantage of YouTube, Briganti pushes this to 2 minutes in length allowing for more absurdity. It almost seems to go a on a bit long with some sight gags in the bar scene being overplayed, but for the most part it works. At least it did for me, doing exactly what advertising is supposed to do. Hook you, hold you, keep you engaged, remember the product, and the brand.

“Dominoes”, No I Don’t Mean Pizza.

Power house video effects and production company Imaginary Forces have created a new spot to introduce the new Toyota fuel cell vehicle. The spot is deceptively simple, which is why I have posted the behind the scenes video first. This shows a great example of blending live action with CG effects using some very sophisticated motion control cameras. One of the things I like about the making of / behind the scenes video is the fact that they talk about the concept as much as the production. They could have just shown how the commercial was shot, but the tech is only one leg of the chair. How Imaginary Forces ties the creative, and storytelling component in is equally compelling. It’s a simple idea on the surface with many complex layers underneath.