CLIENT
Virgin Mobile USA.
PRODUCTION CO.
Smuggler, Beverly Hills, Calif.
Brian Beletic, director; Jo Molitoris, DP; Patrick Milling Smith and Brian Carmody, executive producers; Aris McGarry, producer; Joby Barnhart, head of production. Shot on location in Los Angeles.
AGENCY
Leagas Delaney, San Francisco.
Vince Engel, creative director; Jae Goodman, associate creative director/copywriter; Andrew Ault, copywriter; Jesse Coulter, art director; Robyn Wilkinson, producer.
EDITORIAL
Cosmo Street Editorial,
Santa Monica.
Katz and Jon Stefansson, editors; Bernardo Revilla and Brian Freundlich, assistant editors; Yvette Cobarrubias, executive producer; Tania Thiele, producer.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Hollywood Digital.
Arnold Ramm, colorist.
The Mill, London.
Phillip Crowe, compositor; Austen Humphries, producer.
AUDIO POST
POP Sound, Santa Monica.
Peter Rincon, mixer; Sam Casas, assistant mixer.
MUSIC
Smuggler.
Ben Moore, composer.
SOUND DESIGN
Asche & Spencer, Venice, Calif.
Dean Menta and Lem Jay Ignacio, sound designers; Janelle Schmitt, producer.
THE SPOTS
Four wacky spots highlight Virgin Mobile’s phone service. "Cheese Sandwich" (:60) features a young woman in the middle of a noisy parking lot at her local store. She notices two trailers ahead of her: one is titled "Virgin Mobile," while the other is marked "Common Cell Phone." The woman steps inside the "Common" trailer and is met by an older man in tight shorts. He yells to his assistant to play music on a boom box, setting the mood for impending meal. The older man displays his vending machine full of $20.00 cheese sandwiches and gives one to the woman. She spits it out, complaining that the sandwich has fur. The man tells her to pay—$57.67 with surcharges—but she distracts him by shouting that there’s an eagle, and exits the trailer. The woman then tries out the "Virgin Mobile" trailer, where she’s greeted by a smiling waiter and is fed pancakes, which she only has to pay for by-the-bite. The background fades to black and the viewer is entertained by a male vocalist singing in Spanish and holding a Virgin mobile phone. "Art Class" (:60) takes place in a school, where the professor begins his lecture, subtitles translating his words. "Dear children. Tonight we will interpret, nay, express, how we feel about your cell phone," the teacher states. The student take out their phones for inspiration, and the camera follows the professor as he walks around the room observing the students’ drawings. A female, who uses Virgin Mobile, is different from all the others. The teacher views her drawing and dances in delight at her work. Suddenly the woman’s artwork comes to life as a handsome man on a unicorn zooms off the canvas and into the middle of the classroom. The female student gets on the unicorn with the good-looking man and the trio take off into outer space, surrounded by stars and rainbows. A voiceover states, "Virgin Mobile. Come to life." In "Diarama 1" (:15), a Barbie-style mermaid doll and a fish have a "bubbly" conversation about Virgin’s services (no hidden charges or contracts), while the :15 "Diarama 2" show Barbie and Ken-type dolls—clad in winter ski lodge attire—and an abominable snowman figure discussing Virgin’s text messaging feature, while a man behind the diarama does the dolls’
voices.
Spots broke in August.
