Confronted with a miniscule production budget and a need to make a major impact, Austin, Texas-based agency GSD&M has for the second consecutive year turned to stock footage to promote a walk-a-thon fundraiser for AIDS Services of Austin. Last year’s effort, "AIDS Walk/ Footage," made "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (SHOOT, 5/8/98, p. 17) and also won an ANDY. That spot deployed stock black-and-white footage of a person’s two feet threading a needle. The scene then faded to a supered message across a dark screen: "Your feet can do more than you think." The date of the AIDS walk was revealed, accompanied by a phone number for further information.
This time around, stock footage was used as an attention-grabber in an entirely different way. Entitled "The End," this :30 PSA begins with the conclusion of an old black-and-white movie in which a camera pans across a table that appears to be part of a chemist’s workshop. A musical fanfare plays as we see heated coils, a Bunsen burner and beakers with boiling liquid contents. "The End" is supered across this scene. For a moment you feel as if you’ve missed something—perhaps the TV station made a mistake and this snippet of film shouldn’t have aired at all.
"The End" remains supered across the TV screen, but now it’s against a black background. Then the sentence is completed to read "The End … of AIDS is not in sight." The first set of end credits lays out the method to this cinematic madness. Carrying the title "AIDS Walk Austin 1999," credits appear with all the vital details: "Starring…Thousands of Austinites." "Premiere…Sunday, Oct. 24." "Set Design…Waterloo Park." "Showtime…2 p.m." "Tickets… 452-WALK."
The next set of credits fills the screen, including: "Art Direction…Autumn"; "Sound…Shoes On Pavement"; and "Lighting…The Sun. The Clouds."
Once the credits come to a close, a simple message appears, still true to the black-and-white movie motif: "Every thirteen minutes, one American is infected with HIV. Keep walking, we’re not there yet."
GSD&M’s creative team consisted of creative director/writer Brian Brooker and creative director/art director Brent Ladd, who both served as creative directors on last year’s "AIDS Walk/Footage."
"The common thread between last year’s and this year’s work for AIDS Services of Austin is that we kept the concepts simple," observed Brooker. But that simplicity had a dual purpose in "The End." Brooker explained that "because drugs such as the ‘HIV Cocktail’ keep people living with AIDS alive longer, many people have become apathetic about the crisis. Our challenge in promoting the walk was to also turn up the burner on the issue."
The opening stock footage for "The End" came from The Image Bank, headquartered in Dallas. Produced for less than $1,000, the spot was edited by Stephen Bohls at Match Frame Post Production, San Antonio. Brooker credited Bohls and Ladd with teaming to design the credits. "We looked at various vintage black-and-white movies to get a feel for the closing credits, and took a compilation of our observations and translated them into the look and feel of the credits you see in the PSA," related Brooker.
Stock music was obtained from audio mixing house Digital Domain of Austin. "We were able to find music that starts out very dramatic, with a nice, swelling finish, for the movie portion of the PSA—and then the tone and tempo change [and] become more unobtrusive when the credits come up," said Brooker. "It was exactly what we wanted to hear."
Helping to bring the elements together for the PSA were a pair of GSD&M producers, Alison Lambert and Tori Weathersby.
