This :30 is part of a series of vignette spots shown on the Web to promote Advertising Week in New York City, a celebration of the art and its commerce that wrapped last month. The campaign introduces us to an aspiring ad icon—a man dressed in a giant eyeball costume that might be of interest to such advertisers as Visine or Lenscrafters. The eye guy is walking across the country to get to New York and make his mark at Advertising Week.
Along the way, the eye encounters a young man looking to chronicle—and exploit—the icon’s trek to Madison Avenue. The man shares his thoughts about how he’s going to get ahead by making a documentary about the eye. "Once he gets to New York," he says of the eye guy, "you’re going to see him on the top of the advertising heap, icon-wise. I’m going to ride this thing to the top … ride his coattails."
The man continues, "Documentaries are blowing up, dog." In a reference to Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 911, he adds, "Some fat guy just made a hundred mil. I needs me a piece of that pie. I needs me two pieces. I’m going to get all the pie that fat guy hasn’t eaten yet. I’ll be doing him a favor."
This entire "Icon Journey" campaign looks at other adventures of the eye, who encounters a strange person in each of the other spots, including a topless man who offers him a ride in his pickup truck and an intimidating inmate picking up trash on the roadside.
The campaign was directed by Jeff Kling, a noted creative at Euro RSCG Worldwide, New York. Kling also served as executive creative director, heading a team from Euro RSCG that included executive creative director/production Mark Sitley, art director Anthony Sperduti, copywriter Joe Ventura, art directors/copywriters Brandon Henderson and Karl Lieberman, executive producer Sherry Lubbers, and producers Dan Kaplan, Maryann Feierstein and Chas Lacaillade.
The production crew consisted of director Kling, DP Todd Somodevilla, audio man Ty Bertrand and producer Kaplan.
Outside Editorial, New York, served as edit and visual effects house, with a coterie of talent consisting of editor Jeff Ferruzzo, assistant Dave Madden, post producers Patricia Flannigan and Melissa Kirz, and visual effects artists Charlie Tang and Ashby Wratchford. Audio engineer/mixer and sound designer was Eric Thompson of Berwyn Editorial, New York.
