Call it a personal bias, but the public service and low-budget categories at this year’s AICP Show caught my eye, because each had an honoree that had first gained widespread industry exposure in "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery. While SHOOT takes great pleasure in uncovering obscure, creatively worthwhile spots via that gallery, there’s a heightened gratification when some of that fare goes on to gain additional major recognition.
The human heart and spray paint bring warmth to cold steel in "Ironworkers," a spot designed to help the Jimmy Fund raise money for cancer research (SHOOT, 6/23/00, p. 15). Directed by Craig Champion of bicoastal Headquarters for Glastonbury, Conn. ad agency Cronin & Company, the piece reenacts a true story about a group of construction workers who built a research center for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
A worker recollects that initially it was "just another job," until he and his colleagues looked across from the construction site into the window of the Dana-Farber clinic. Children who are cancer patients are shown staring out of those windows, waving "hi" to the workers. Scenes of the men putting up the steel framework are juxtaposed with the kids constructing arts-and-crafts projects. Some of those creations are signs on which the children put their names, offering good wishes and greetings to the workers. The kids hang those signs on the windows of the clinic’s playroom for the construction workers to see. The men reciprocate, spray-painting greetings—that often include the kids’ names—on the steel girders.
The workers then begin to take up collections for the Jimmy Fund, Dana-Farber’s 50-year-old grassroots-funding arm. Voiceovers from the construction men relate their feelings, underscoring the positive effect that the kids had on them in terms of raising their awareness of cancer and their compassion for others. A hardhat worker observes, "The beauty of building that building is, if they find a cure, they’ll never have to build another one like that. That would be a wonderful thing."
A supered message then appears across a black background: "Your dollars have helped raise the cure rate for childhood cancers to over 70 percent. Please give generously."
Actual construction workers and kids who are battling cancer as Dana-Farber patients were cast for the spot, which broke last year in theaters on the East Coast. "Iron Workers" was honored in the low-budget category of the AICP Show.
From tugging the heartstrings to tickling the funny bone—that’s where we’re taken by the second AICP Show-recognized spot that made "The Best Work You May Never See" (SHOOT, 1/12, p. 17). Honored in the PSA category, "Low Rider" for the San Francisco Jazz Festival was directed by Brandon Dickerson of kaboom productions, San Francisco, for ad agency Butler, Shine & Stern, San Francisco.
The spot centers on three cool dudes—a driver and two passengers—cruising the city in a low-rider convertible. They’re kicking back and enjoying some jazz music on the radio. However, when they near an intersection where a young man is waiting to cross the street, the convertible guys convert their mellow personas into tough low-riders, switching to a radio station playing hard-driving rap music. The yuppie pedestrian is clearly intimidated as the convertible bounces up and down, flexing its shock absorber might.
Once they’ve driven safely out of the pedestrian’s earshot, the car’s driver and two passengers switch back to the jazz radio station and their easygoing nature. They haven’t blown their tough-guy cover. An explanatory closing super against a black background simply reads: "It’s that time of year … The San Francisco Jazz Festival."
