Have you noticed the change in commercials these days? Coming off half a decade or so of ever-increasing pyrotechnics on the small screen, advertisers seem to be steering clear of the nearly indiscriminate—and exorbitantly expensive—animation and effects we’ve all become so used to.
Sure, there are still plenty of effects spots out there, but it seems somehow different from [the spots of] only a few years ago. Remember Pepsi’s dancing bears or Nike’s Planet Jordan? Now more than ever it seems the creative concept is driving the spot, rather than some cool visual effect. Even this year’s Super Bowl featured only a handful of all-out, gee-whiz effects spots. Ironically, perhaps the biggest visual effect spot at this year’s Super Bowl—Levi’s "Stampede"—was recently called "a poor Super Bowl spot" by the company’s president/CEO, Phil Marineau. (Presumably, that comment has nothing to do with the fine compositing work done by The Mill, London.)
The point is, the times have changed. There are, no doubt, a myriad of reasons for the change. Some of them are obvious; some of them are not so. Cost is certainly a factor. With the economy and industry the way it is now, clients are looking to save all the time and money they can. Interestingly enough, if a somewhat more traditional approach to commercial design and production can make things cheaper, it is bound to represent a "brand new" trend.
Fortunately for those of us vying for the work, as the period of intense special effects has tapered off, the power and affordability of desktop solutions has ramped up. When my partners—Brendan Werner and Daniel Gonzalez—and myself decided to launch Perception in early 2002, the faltering economy and post-Sept. 11 mood in New York forced us to occasionally question our collective sanity, but also to find a new, more efficient way of working.
Instead of using the high-end boxes—Flame, Inferno, Avid—that clients had long been demanding for design and effects, we’ve been using Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects to give our clients exactly what they need in these difficult times: great work, just as fast as before, at a fraction of the cost.
Beyond technology, however, a certain evolutionary simplification of the advertising industry seems to be occurring. Advertising and design may be coming full circle and getting back to the basics again. The pure essence of the message, without the gloss of super special effects, may once again be rising to the top. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, the advertising message, not the medium, is once again the message.
An old professor of mine once summed it up for me. He said, "Don’t just try to be different. Try to be good—good is different enough." In other words, designing and creating great spots is what our work is—and always has been—all about.
