Serious turns unexpectedly silly in this John West Canned Tuna spot out of Leo Burnett, London. Entitled "Shark," the ad is the long-awaited successor to the outlandish, lauded "Bear" spot in which a man and a grizzly fight over John West Salmon. Among the many honors bestowed upon "Bear" last year was a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.
This time, however, the fur of the bear is exchanged for the gills of a menacing shark—and the battle is from within, literally. In the :30, which debuted last month in the U.K., a huge shark has been captured by a group of marine biologists on a boat. Thrashing about in a harness, the shark—with its powerful jaws opening and closing—is being carefully lowered onto the ship’s deck. The shark has plenty of fight in him, moving about violently, leading us to wonder if the harness can hold up under the assault.
Suddenly, a large live tuna fish shoots out of the shark’s mouth, as we contemplate what else—digested and undigested—might be contained within this predatory creature. The camera then reveals the unthinkable—a live man is inside the shark. And it was this man who threw the tuna fish out from within the shark onto the boat’s deck. We first see the guy’s head, as he struggles his way out of the shark. Amazingly unscathed by the shark’s powerful jaws and razor-sharp teeth, the man emerges safe and sound. He then calmly hoses down his catch of tuna, much to the bewildered astonishment of the marine biologists.
A voiceover then gives marketing context to what we’ve just witnessed: "John West endures the worst to bring you the best."
This offbeat commercial was directed by the Traktor collective from bicoastal/international Partizan. The creative team at Leo Burnett consisted of creative director Nick Bell, art director Steve Jones, copywriter Martin Loraine and producer Graeme Light.
"Shark" entailed extensive postproduction and visual effects at The Moving Picture Company (MPC), London. An animatronic shark was used for the shoot, with electric cables to control its movements.
The MPC team, headed by Inferno artist Christophe Allender, removed the cables in post and recreated the background. Animation was added in order to give the shark a more life-like, organic feel. Allender took references from footage of real sharks in order to recreate the movements of the mouth and rolling eyes. The post work was complex as each time Allender animated the shark’s head and mouth, he then had to recreate the backgrounds to ensure that the movement of the shadows from the shark and from people’s feet matched exactly. This involved rebuilding shadows using tracking and re-texturing. The post work took 10 days.
Philippa Smith produced for Partizan. The DP was Andrzej Sekula.
MPC’s contingent included Allender, Inferno artist Alex Lovejoy, post producer Graham Bird, Fire artist Marcus Moffatt and colorist Jean-Clement Soret. Editor was Rick Russell of Final Cut, London. Audio mixer/ sound designer was Warren Hamilton of Wave, London.
This spot’s principal actor was Julian Rivett; the SAG/AFTRA Commercials Contract Standing Committee has granted a waiver to allow commercials to be available for viewing on SHOOTonline.com. The spots cannot be copied, downloaded or emailed.
