The creative proposition relies on contrasts: Use a mundane slice-of-Sunday-life to compel viewers to take action.
This challenging strategy is successfully executed in "Metal Detector," one of six spots (three :30s and three :15 variations on them) in a campaign created by Austin, Texas-based ad agency GSD&M. The goal was to help drum up participation in AIDS Walks 2001, a fund-raiser for client AIDS Services of Austin. (The AIDS Walk took place on Sun., Oct. 14.)
The spot shows a middle-aged man in jumpsuit and baseball cap, sweeping his metal detector across a barren field. In the background, vapors rise from a chemical or power plant. The detector makes an annoying, intermittent whirring sound, signaling the fact that the man is failing to find any buried treasure on his boring, fruitless expedition. His body language indicates that he’s pretty much given up. As he nears the camera, he raises the metal detector high above the ground, seemingly conceding that there’s no spare change—much less any uranium—to be mined on this patch of terra firma.
A super appears on the field, immediately after his exit, asking the question, "What are you doing this Sunday?" Another super provides an answer: "Come to the AIDS Walk." The date of the event and a phone number then come up on screen.
The concept is that this man’s Sunday downtime—and ours—would be better spent doing something positive for the community and for ourselves: walking to raise money that will combat AIDS and help fund services for those with the disease.
Other spots in the campaign capture similarly dull moments of Sunday life: mowing the lawn, trying to start the lawn mower, taking dirty clothes to a Laundromat. All of the ads feature very simple locked-off camera shots of a single scene. We become voyeurs of the mundane. The moment plays out simply before our eyes, but all the while we’re expecting something more to happen. The "more" payoff comes in the form of the supered message.
This is the fourth year in a row that GSD&M’s public service fare for the annual AIDS Walk of Austin has made SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery. This time around, the director and the principal creatives are the same as for last year’s "Pharmacy" spot, which filled a sobering prescription underscoring the public’s general unawareness of AIDS (SHOOT, 10/6/00, p. 12).
Ken Lewin of Xopix Productions, Austin, directed "Pharmacy" and this year’s package of spots. Justin Corsbie and Holly Francis served as his executive producer and line producer, respectively. The ads were shot on location in Austin by DP Ian Ellis. The low-budget campaign was lensed in 24P hi-def video.
The GSD&M creative team consisted of group creative director/art director Brent Ladd and group creative director/writer Steve Miller. (There was no agency producer on this assignment.)
Editor/Henry artist/colorist was Jim Reed of 501 Studios, Austin. George O’Dwyer executive produced for 501. Sound designer/audio mixer was Corey Roberts of Austin-based Sound to Image.
