Director Eden Diebel of Great Guns, London–who recently shifted his stateside representation to greatguns:usa (SHOOT, 3/11, p. 7), giving him sales continuity on both sides of the Atlantic–has attained a delicate balance with a campaign of Web spots for appealnow.com. The commercials are both humorous and serious, addressing abuses by traffic wardens in the U.K., which at times result in people being ticketed unfairly for alleged infractions. Indeed the darkly comedic spots address a real issue in the U.K. but do so in such an entertaining manner that their creative reach has virally extended well beyond England to assorted other countries.
In “Kicking,” for example, a man walks across the street and is suddenly tackled by a traffic warden. The male warden forcefully pins down the victim, who struggles to get away, but to no avail. Meanwhile a nearby female warden looks at her watch, waiting for time to elapse so she can slap a parking ticket on the victim’s car.
She does just that, then kicks the already pummeled man before jumping over his body, which lies in the middle of the street, and making good her escape with the other warden. A tagline advises people who’ve been wrongly ticketed to log onto appealnow.com.
Created by agency Nitro, London, and Diebel for the Appealnow.com Web site, the campaign also includes two other similarly themed spots. In “Bingo,” a gang of traffic wardens attacks a parked car. They violently jostle the car up and down until they successfully dislodge a handicapped driver placard–at which point they ticket the car and run off. The car’s owner then comes into view; she walks with a cane and implores the wardens to come back but they are long gone.
And in “Dead Cert,” a traffic warden tries to be inconspicuous as he approaches a car and places a ticket on its windshield. The camera then reveals that the car is a disabled wreck as it has crashed into a lamppost. The car’s driver has been thrown through the windshield. He lays motionless atop the vehicle’s hood. This horrific sight is of no concern to the traffic warden who takes off after ticketing the car for a parking violation.
The Appealnow.com campaign recently earned the People’s Prize, an honor based on votes cast via the Internet, at The Viral Awards, London. The spots were shot on location in London, leading to some incidents that underscore the public’s low regard for traffic wardens. During the lensing of “Bingo,” for example, drivers passing by hurled verbal abuse at the spot’s performers, thinking they were traffic wardens “bouncing” a disabled person’s car.
Diebel’s support team at Great Guns, London, included executive producer Laura Gregory and producer Polly du Plessis. Cameraman was Oliver Schofield.
The Nitro creative ensemble consisted of creative director Paul Shearer and writers/art directors Alan Cinnamond and Sandy Cinnamond.
Editor was Andy Phillips of Great Guns, London. Colorist was Steffan Perry of Framestore, London. Henry artist was Framestore’s Oliver Bersey, with Stuart Robinson serving as post producer. Audio post mixer was Jack Sedgwick of Wave Recording Studios, London.
The principal actors in “Kicking” were Charlotte Eaton, Henry Winkler (not the actor of “Fonz” character fame) and Dave Barret.
