The mix of nominees for the seventh annual primetime commercial Emmy has John Leverence, VP, awards, for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS), taking an "absurd" view of spotmaking. Each year, SHOOT checks in with Leverence to get his TV entertainment perspective on the Emmy-nominated ads. The Emmy will be presented at the Creative Arts Awards ceremony on Sept. 13 in Los Angeles.
As earlier reported (SHOOT, 8/1-14, p. 1), this year’s five nominees are: Pepsi Twist’s "The Osbournes" directed by Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international Hungry Man for BBDO New York; Visa’s "Sheens" helmed by Hungry Man’s Allen Coulter, also for BBDO; Nike Presto footwear’s "Angry Chicken" directed by the collective Traktor from bicoastal/international Partizan for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; Volkswagen’s "Squares" directed by Malcolm Venville of bicoastal Anonymous Content via Arnold Worldwide, Boston; and PBS’ "Fish" directed by Alfonso Cuaron of Independent Media, Santa Monica, for Fallon, Minneapolis.
Leverence noted that the "theater of the absurd"—in the best sense of that term—figures prominently in this year’s Emmy ad field. "The Osbournes" certainly qualifies, showing family patriarch Ozzy talking to his kids Jack and Kelly who peel off their faces to reveal that they’re not the Osbournes, but actually the Osmonds. The sight of Donny and Marie Osmond elicits a hellish scream from Ozzy, who thankfully awakens in bed from his nightmare. But it’s not his wife Sharon who rolls over to console him; instead, it’s Brady Bunch TV mom Florence Henderson.
By contrast, we have the absurd proposition of "Angry Chicken," an offbeat chase in which a relentless chicken pursues a Nike shoes-wearing guy all over town. To say that the acrobatic man has a hard time eluding his fowl pursuer is an understatement.
"It’s the difference between homegrown domestic absurdism—’The Osbournes,’ in which things aren’t what they seem for silly reasons—and foreign cinema, in that ‘Angry Chicken’ has an existential feel. We never really understand why things are; [it’s] seemingly right out of a Godard movie," related Leverence. "That taste of Paris urban architecture combined with this goofy French existentialism in a roundabout way makes ‘Angry Chicken’ the most intellectually satisfying of the [Emmy-nominated] commercials."
PBS’ "Fish" shows an ambitious goldfish making an incredible journey from his bowl to the great outdoors, where he gets to swim upstream with salmon, just as he saw on PBS. The tagline: "Be more empowered."
Leverence described "Fish" as a journey in which "the beginning becomes the end—and a happy ending at that."
"Sheens" promotes the Visa Check Card. The spot shows Charlie Sheen waiting so long for a check to clear at a video store that he ages into his dad, Martin Sheen. "It’s another great take on things not going your way—like Bob Dole needing to show two forms of ID to pass a check," said Leverence.
"Squares" features squared-off objects—a bar code, a sponge, a piece of toast, an electrical outlet, etc.—that give way to the rounded contours of the Volkswagen Beetle.
"It’s not until the end that you realize the reason you’re seeing all those square-shaped objects," related Leverence. "That mystery or payoff is a common thread running through the entries. You start by wondering, ‘What’s being advertised here? What’s going on?’ You don’t get it until the end. The work almost has the structural quality you have in TV mysteries and thrillers—to find out who did it and why.
"There’s something engaging and entertaining about each entry," continued Leverence. "The work is highly structured in terms of the visual experience and in conveying a message—underscoring the parallels between what interests both the ad business and television program creators."
