By Robert Goldrich
This spot takes the legs out from under the classic saying, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” We open on a man in a Santa’s outfit sitting at the kitchen table, shoveling food into his mouth. He’s pulled his fake beard down in order to eat. Behind him stands a little girl who’s excited to see Santa in her home.
However, her happy expression turns to one of disappointment when Santa turns around and she recognizes that it’s just her dad dressed as old St. Nick.
It’s the kind of a moment that could leave an emotional scar. There’s no quick fix for something like this–or is there?
Enter McCain’s Smooth-eez, which we see whipped up quickly before our eyes. A frozen mix concoction is thrown into a blender, milk is added, and voile, a refreshing strawberry smoothie sits tall in an inviting glass.
Next the girl is happy, slurping the smoothie through a straw. Happily the Santa fiasco is a distant memory. A voiceover relates, “New Smooth-eez from McCain. Ready, just in time.”
This :15 was one in a package directed by Michael Downing via Untitled, Toronto, for agency Taxi, Toronto. (Downing directs stateside via harvest, Santa Monica.)
Peter Davis executive produced for Untitled, with Tom Evelyn serving as producer. The DP was Andre Pienaar.
The Taxi creative team consisted of executive creative director Zak Mroueh, associate creative director Lance Martin, copywriter Ryan Wagman, art director Guybrush Taylor and producer Jennifer Mete.
Editor was Aaron Dark of School Editing, Toronto. Colorist was Bill Ferwerda of Notch, Toronto. Inferno artist was David Whitesen of Crush, Toronto. Audio director/mixer was Rocco Gagliese of The Eggplant, Toronto. Principal actors were Marvin Hinz and Shae Norris.
Tim Burton Discusses His Dread Of AI As An Exhibition of His Work Opens In London
The imagination of Tim Burton has produced ghosts and ghouls, Martians, monsters and misfits โ all on display at an exhibition that is opening in London just in time for Halloween.
But you know what really scares him? Artificial intelligence.
Burton said Wednesday that seeing a website that had used AI to blend his drawings with Disney characters "really disturbed me."
"It wasn't an intellectual thought โ it was just an internal, visceral feeling," Burton told reporters during a preview of "The World of Tim Burton" exhibition at London's Design Museum. "I looked at those things and I thought, 'Some of these are pretty good.' โฆ (But) it gave me a weird sort of scary feeling inside."
Burton said he thinks AI is unstoppable, because "once you can do it, people will do it." But he scoffed when asked if he'd use the technology in this work.
"To take over the world?" he laughed.
The exhibition reveals Burton to be an analogue artist, who started off as a child in the 1960s experimenting with paints and colored pencils in his suburban Californian home.
"I wasn't, early on, a very verbal person," Burton said. "Drawing was a way of expressing myself."
Decades later, after films including "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman," "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Beetlejuice," his ideas still begin with drawing. The exhibition includes 600 items from movie studio collections and Burton's personal archive, and traces those ideas as they advance from sketches through collaboration with set, production and costume designers on the way to the big screen.
London is the exhibition's final stop on a decade-long tour of 14 cities in 11 countries. It has been reconfigured and expanded with 90 new objects for its run in... Read More