A young high school student shows the girl he has a crush on the art piece he has created in her honor. He brings her to the school’s art center and puts on the song “Hello” by Lionel Richie. The work of art is a likeness of the girl formed out of Starburst candy. When the sculpture is displayed the girl looks frightened and disgusted but the student is excited by his work and begins to describe how he used lemon candies for the hair because her hair is fragrant like fresh lemons and red cherry candies for her lips, because her lips are juicy like cherries. He kisses the cherry candy sculpture lips and the girl begins to back out of the room. When the student describes the nose he bites it and passionately begins to devour the Starburst sculpture. The commercial ends with the Starburst candy being displayed on a solid screen.
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day, Inc Gerry Graf, executive creative director; Ian Reichenthal and Scott Vitrone, group creative directors; Ashley Davis, copywriter; Craig Allen, art director; Ozzie Spenningsby, director of broadcast production; Laura Ferguson, producer. Production Company: MJZ Rocky Morton, director; Julian Whatley, DP; Jeff Scrutin, executive producer; Helen Hollien, producer. Shot on location in Los Angeles. Editorial: MacKenzie Cutler Dave Koza, editor; Mona Salma, assistant editor; Melissa Miller, producer. Postproduction: Schmigital,Company 3 New York Matt Monson, online editor; Juliet Conti, online producer.,Tim Masick, colorist. Visual Effects: Stardust Jake Banks, creative director; Dan Sormani, producer; PJ Richardson, art director; Lauren Hartstone, designer/animator. Audio: Sound Lounge,MacKenzie Cutler Glen Landrum, mixer.,Marc Healy, sound designer.
Top Spot of the Week: Apple, TBWA\Media Arts Lab L.A., Director Henry-Alex Rubin Tug At The “Heartstrings”
Apple’s holiday ad--“Heartstrings,” launched ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities--introduces us to a father with mild-moderate hearing loss. But thanks to the clinical grade Hearing Aid feature on AirPods Pro 2, he can now hear his daughter playing the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young classic “Our House” on her new guitar, just unwrapped on Christmas morning. The breakthrough ability to hear clearly is all the more impactful in that it comes after we journey with the dad down memory lane as he recalls his daughter’s first guitar, her birthday, her first day of school--though the sound of his flashbacks is muffled. But once he activates the Hearing Aid feature, dad can properly hear his daughter in the present--and with that even the memories can be heard clearly. “Heartstrings” was directed by Henry-Alex Rubin of production house SMUGGLER for TBWAMedia Arts Lab Los Angeles, with sound design by three-time Oscar winner Paul N.J. Ottoson who helps us experience the father’s hearing loss and then its restoration. (Ottoson won two Oscars for The Hurt Locker--for best sound mixing and best sound mixing--and another for best sound editing for Zero Dark Thirty.) Read More