In its 2008 Spanish-language TV campaign entitled “Leyendas” (“Legends”), the California Milk Processor Board (CMPB), has wrapped the spots “Elfo” (“Elf”) and “Bruja” (“Witch”) directed by Pucho Mentasti of Blue Productora, Buenos Aires, for agency Grupo Gallegos, Long Beach, Calif.
There are 30- and 60-second versions of “Elfo” and “Bruja.” The latter is the first to debut and opens on a broom-riding witch chasing off frightened children and turning them into pigs. Legend has it that scaring the townspeople is a monthly ritual for the witch. But during this particular trip, she decides to drink a glass of milk that one of the residents left out on her spell table. Her demeanor then magically transforms, causing the witch to spread good deeds instead of evil among the townspeople. The ad ends with the tagline stressing one of milk’s key health benefits: “The calcium in milk reduces PMS symptoms. Toma Leche [Drink Milk].”
The agency team included creative directors Favio Ucedo and Juan Oubina, associate creative director Saul Escobar, copywriters Fernando Fryd and Lulu Renal, and producer Carlos Barciela.
WORK OF GENIUS Great Genius and Profound Stupidity, a 30-minute television documentary produced and directed by Benita Raphan, has been selected for a worldwide premiere in competition at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. Lin Polito of Jump, New York, edited the film. Robert Miller (now with stimmung, Santa Monica) composed the score, and Marshall Grupp, partner in Sound Lounge, New York, created the sound design and supervised all audio. The Sound Lounge mixed the film with sound re-recording mixer Paul Weiss. Visual effects were split among three noted N.Y.-based effects houses: Semerad, Manic and Coda. Hoon Chong created the title sequences while he was at Freestyle Collective, New York. The principal DP was David Morabito. DP Mark Schmidt from Sex and The City and Oz, lensed time lapse shots. The 3D was completed at Spontaneous, New York.
The film is slated to be broadcast worldwide on The Sundance Channel in 2009. Great Genius and Profound Stupidity is the fourth in a series of TV episodes and shorts that Raphan produced and directed entitled They Were The Future, which focuses on an elusive mix of genius with such subjects as R. Buckminster Fuller, Edwin Land and John Forbes Nash Jr.
PEOPLE IN THE NEWS San Francisco ad agency Cutwater has brought Walter Smith on board as president. He succeeds Brad Harrington who has left the agency to pursue personal interests. An ad veteran with a career that spans three decades, Smith worked with Chiat/Day in both the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices in the 1980s. In the ’90’s he was with Hal Riney & Partners, San Francisco, before joining TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles in the early 2000s. He has spent the past three years as the executive managing director of TBWAG1-Europe in Paris……Director Michael Chaves has joined the roster of Southern California shop Subliminal for exclusive U.S. spot representation. He comes over from Backyard, Venice, Calif…..New York-based editorial and VFX/motion design company Version2 has added art director/VFX designer Niklaus Schlumpf whose credits include work on HBO’s The Sopranos for the Resurrection episode, spots for Cadillac, the Garnier campaign with Sarah Jessica Parker and the Lil Mama music video “Lip Gloss.”
