Each week SHOOT highlights two spots in its "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery. These ads can be public service announcements, regional fare, test market spots, spec work, or international efforts. The purpose is to give exposure to spotwork that would otherwise languish in obscurity. Below is a look at five of the standouts from 2002. They range from PSAs promoting voting among young people to a beer ad that supposes ale is more precious than women and children when catastrophe strikes.
"Haircut"
Have it your way." "The customer is always right." Those business-promoting adages ring particularly true in "Haircut," in which the customer gets what he asks for even though he doesn’t need it.
There’s a lofty purpose in fulfilling his request—benefiting both him and the community at large—in this :30 conceived by Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York. The client is The Alliance for Downtown New York, a not-for-profit organization that manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District (BID). "Haircut" is part of a two-spot pro bono campaign designed to help struggling small businesses and cultural institutions near ground zero.
Directed by Gary McKendry of bicoastal Go Film, "Haircut" takes place in a barber shop, where a male customer—with nary a strand of visible hair atop his head—asks the female barber/stylist to "take a little off the top." She, another customer and the other barbers give fleeting looks of disbelief at the balding man’s request. The woman barber convincingly eyes the man’s scalp and does her best to make like she’s actually doing something.
A two-part super offers a big-picture explanation for what turns out to be a purposeful scenario: "You might not need it." / "But Downtown does."
A Robert De Niro voiceover intervenes: "Antonella’s Barber Shop on Beekman Street. Just one of the many businesses in Downtown New York that need your support."
The scene changes to a tag—also voiced by De Niro: "The Downtown Alliance. Remember. Rebuild."
The spots broke in New York around the holiday season to boost shopping prospects. "It is particularly important to remind New Yorkers that businesses below Chambers Street really need customers now," said Debra Simon, VP of marketing for the Downtown Alliance. "So many are saying, ‘What can I do to help in Lower Manhattan?’ Our campaign responds, ‘Spend some time and money Downtown.’ "
Kirshenbaum Bond’s creative ensemble consisted of creative director Logan Wilmont, art director Megan Skelly, copywriters Susan La Scala and Mark Mendelis, director of broadcast production Randy Cohen and executive producer Sharon Harte.
McKendry’s support team at Go Film included executive producers Robert Wherry and Jonathan Weinstein, and producer Dave Nelson. The spots were shot by DP George Motz.
Tom Scherma of Mad River Post/New York edited the campaign. Online editor was Judd Parson of The ANX, New York. Eli Friedman of SMA Realtime, New York, served as colorist. Audio mixer was Bob Giammarco of Photomag, New York. (Giammarco is now with audioEngine, New York.)
Music composers were Nick Leman and Tony Strong of Amber Music, New York.
"High School Chorus"
A choir of clean-cut youngsters stands on a tiny high school auditorium stage, flanked by a U.S. flag and an accompanist at an upright piano. This slice of Americana would do Norman Rockwell proud. A cross-section of our country’s youth—boys and girls from different ethnic backgrounds—begins what promises to be a stirring rendition of "My Country ‘Tis of Thee."
What’s poignantly stirred, however, are thoughts and reflections about equal rights and justice. While the tune is familiar, the lyrics are another matter. To the tune of "My Country ‘Tis of Thee" we hear:
"This country’s equal rights
Change if your skin’s not white
Or you’re ethnic.
If you’re from foreign lands,
You’re not American
Or even if you seem too tan,
You look suspicious."
The camera pulls back to show the adults in the front rows of the audience. They sit silently staring at the stage; there is no applause. Against this tableau, a two-part supered message appears: "If equal rights are important to you," / "Rock The Vote." At the bottom of the screen, we see the nonprofit organization’s Web site address (www. rockthevote.org).
Titled "High School Chorus," this is one of three spots in a public service campaign directed and shot by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA. The campaign is the first work to come out of the recently formed Rock The Vote Action Group, a pro bono coalition spearheaded by Los Angeles-based Squeak Pictures. Several months ago, Squeak and Rock The Vote entered into a long-term production partnership. Squeak founder Pam Tarr then organized the Action Group, bringing several diverse entities into the fold, including TBWA/ Chiat/Day, to help create the PSAs as well as future longform endeavors.
Tarr and TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, gravitated towards Pytka as the ideal director for the PSAs. According to Tarr, Pytka contributed generously to the campaign creatively, visually, emotionally and financially. The other two PSAs—"Campfire" and "Classroom"—address the issues of freedom of speech and the environment, respectively.
For "High School Chorus," the creative team from TBWA/Chiat/ Day, San Francisco, consisted of executive creative director Chuck McBride, creative director/writer Rob Smiley (who has since left the agency), art director/writer Eric King and executive producer Jennifer Golub.
The campaign was produced by PYTKA and Squeak Pictures. Tarr was creative executive producer; PYTKA’s Tara Fitzpatrick was exec producer, with Karen Chen line producing. Pytka lensed "High School Chorus" on location at Eagle Rock Women’s Club, Eagle Rock, Calif.
Freelancer John Norvet edited "High School Chorus," with Andy Lee serving as assistant editor. Colorist was Mike Pethel of Company 3, Santa Monica. Denise Brown was telecine producer. Online editing was done by Company 3’s Libor Zednicek, with Christine Carr producing. Audio mixer was Eric Garcia of 48 Windows, Santa Monica.
"HOSE"
In front of his house, a toddler plays with a garden hose. Water runs from it steadily, dampening the potted plants. But our youngster isn’t content to water the greenery. He heads up the walkway to the front door. Trouble is clearly in the offing.
Sure enough, the boy inserts the hose into the mail slot. Unseen by us, on the other side of that door the floor is getting soaked—and there’s no adult in sight to stop the mini-flood.
If you’re a parent, you’re about to pull your hair out. But wait, a big-picture perspective puts this kid’s play in its proper context. A super fills the screen: "It’s okay."
The spot cuts to a long shot of the door. The kid presses his face up to the mail slot; intently curious, he watches the water pour into the house. With this scene as a backdrop, the super explains why everything’s hunky-dory: "Because life after a brain tumor can be beautiful."
A message appears against a white background: "Last year, we helped more than 100,000 kids get back to being kids."
This segues to a logo—a teddy bear holding a stethoscope—for the Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. The hospital’s slogan, "Specialists in life," is accompanied by a Web site address (www.dcchildrens.com) and a toll-free phone number (1-888-884-BEAR).
Titled "Hose," this :30 is one of six similarly themed spots in a Children’s National Medical Center campaign conceived by Earle Palmer Brown, Bethesda, Md. The creative team at Earle Palmer Brown consisted of creative director Woody Kay, art director Imadan Achda, copywriter Dave Schafer and producer Will McDonald.
The spots were directed by Neil Tardio, Jr., of Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart. His support team at A Band Apart included exec producer Adam Bloom and line producer Jeremy Hammonds. The campaign was shot by DP Tami Reiker.
Editor/sound designer was Steve Hamilton of Mad Mad Judy, New York. Ed Patrowicz and Chris Ryan of Nice Shoes, New York, served as online editor and colorist, respectively. Audio mixer was Glen Landrum of Lower East Side, New York. (Landrum is now with Sound Lounge, New York.) Type design was done by Donna Pittman and Mark Hensley of Los Angeles-based Pittman Hensley.
"Eye"
Two years ago, director Marcel Langenegger, who was then with now defunct Propaganda Films, directed "Borders," a PSA for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) out of agency Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich, Switzerland.
"Borders"—which earned distinction in our The Best Work You May Never See gallery (SHOOT, 9/15/00, p. 12)—showed us stitches closing a wound in human flesh. While one might tend to turn away from such a sight, this bit of suturing instead piqued viewer curiosity. The lightning-quick scenes commanded attention. Bomb-like, muffled blasts of sound contrasted with stately and encouraging instrumental music. Through a confusion of blurred, then focused, images and jagged flashes of light, the pattern of the wound emerges. Calmly, methodically, the sewing continued, the stitches following the odd curves of the gash. Then becoming visible, faintly, on the skin were tattooed words, including "Kosovo." As the mending is concluded, the camera pulls back, revealing that the stitching mapped the borders separating Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia.
The cartography spoke volumes. The surgery helped to heal the torn borders between countries. The map sewn on its flesh-like canvas figuratively represented what Doctors Without Borders is all about. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning group, headquartered in France, provides medical care to hot spots throughout the world during times of warfare and catastrophe.
Now Langenegger, who’s with Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks, has re-teamed with Advico Young & Rubicam for Doctors Without Borders. He helmed this latest job through BRW, Milan and Rome, and Chocolate Films, Zurich. Once again, the collaboration between Langenegger and Advico Young & Rubicam entails stitches—except this time the sutures aren’t closing a wound, but rather they’re being removed from a shut eyelid. As each stitch is taken out, the spot, called "Eye," cuts to news footage-like scenes in which we see people who are in need, ravaged by war, hunger and disease in different parts of the world.
After the first scissors’ snip of a suture, we are taken to Burundi, where we view malnourished children, with distended stomachs. The PSA then returns to the eyelid and another stitch is removed. Next up is a scene from Angola, with tanks rolling through neighborhoods. Back to the eye, from which a third stitch is cut—just in time for us to see the blight in Chechnya. We return to the eye for snip number four, at which point the spot brings us to Sudan, where we witness hunger-stricken kids, some whose faces are covered with insects.
Finally, with all the stitches cut away, the eye fully opens. As a shot of the pupil fills the screen, a supered message simply reads, "Thanks for not looking away."
The creative team at Advico Young & Rubicam consisted of creative director/art director Martin Spillmann, art director Denis Schwarz, copywriter Juerg Brechbuehl and producer Daniel Berther.
Chicco Mazzini and Nadia Rosasco were executive producers for BRW and Chocolate, respectively. The DP was Agostino Castiglioni.
The commercial was edited by Angela Zanini of BRW, Milan. Colorist was Adriano Meestroni of Milan-based Interactive. Other postproduction services were provided by On-Line Video, Zurich. Serving as music composer and audio mixer was Zurich-based Alex Kirschner.
"Lava"
In a state of emergency, the women and children come first—except in a small village where the rescue effort centers on something else quite "precious."
We open on a parked car covered in black ash. The camera reveals in the distance the cause of this black rain—a volcano that has blown its top. The lava flow has resulted in small fires throughout a European village. We see two women carting off their worldly possessions, scurrying away from danger. A man is carrying another person to safety, but he puts down his human cargo upon hearing a villager scream, "The bar!"
Another woman interjects with a sense of justifiable priority, "But the orphanage … " However her call to sanity is ignored as villagers instead rush to the pub. On the way, we see a power pole topple, other villagers trying to hose down scattered fires, a heavyset woman in undergarments rushing to take her wash off an outdoor clothesline, and a hog in heaven. The latter is munching on a wedding cake that was probably on display in a bakery window before the lava rolled into town.
Yet in the middle of this chaos and confusion, the male citizenry has found a curious rallying point: a tavern, which is charred yet still standing. A wall has given way to reveal kegs of ale. One keg has fallen to the ground, where the heat causes it to burst, spraying ale at a group of townspeople.
Lava-heated ground, fire and burning embers make it next to impossible to get into the pub—that is, until one brave soul, the aforementioned man who dropped a person to come to the rescue of the tavern, takes off his shoes and walks barefooted toward his desired destination.
He disappears from view as he enters the bar. Silent onlookers watch, their faces carrying expressions of desperation, with flickers of faint hope. The feeling of tension is palpable, but happily broken when the man emerges out of the burnt-out building, hoisting two glasses of ale. The bar is still in good working order. The crowd rejoices as out of the ashes, a party has arisen. Guinness flows freer than the lava did in this curious display of pub celebration. However, there’s cause for pause when a group of women arrive on the scene, incredulous that their male counterparts are whooping it up in the midst of a town in ruins.
"Lava" was directed by Rupert Sanders of London-based Outsider for agency AMV BBDO, London. Sanders is repped stateside by Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica.
The agency team consisted of creative director Peter Souter, copywriter Tony Strong, art director Mike Durban and producer Yvonne Chalkley.
Robert Campbell was executive producer for Outsider, with Paul McPadden serving as producer. Also facilitating the shoot were Stillking Films, London, and Cracow and Warsaw, Poland, with their respective executive producers Richard Skepper and Adrian Ciaglinski. The spot was shot by DP Jess Hall.
Editor was Neil Smith of The Whitehouse, London. Artisans from The Mill, London, were colorist Fergus McCall, CGI artist Russell Tickner and Flame artist/online editor Antony Walsham. Audio mixer was Johnnie Burns of Wave Studios, London.
The band Menlo Park composed the music used in the soundtrack and worked with the project’s sound designer—Pete Rayburn of Soundtree Music, London—to adapt it to the commercial.
