Mum’s the word. Silence is golden. Certainly from our days as youngsters all the way to adulthood, public libraries have always been places of quiet. If you dared to make noise, you could count on an emphatic “Shush!” from the librarian and the evil eye from other patrons.
But this campaign extolling the virtues of what Alberta’s Libraries have to offer makes it difficult to be quiet. The offbeat yet somehow logical cause-and-effect humor of these four 15-second TV spots out of Vancouver, B.C.-based ad agency Rethink makes it impossible not to laugh. And of course, laughter is verboten in libraries.
In “Scrapbooking,” we open on a woman who’s looking through library shelves and finds what she’s looking for: a how-to book on scrapbooking. Next we see her at the check-out desk, happy to embark on what promises to be an entertaining arts and crafts learning experience.
Two days later, the same woman is back at the library, looking a bit off kilter and disoriented. She’s seated at a computer workstation, gazing at the monitor, pressing down on a stapler as if it were a computer mouse. She’s clearly out of it and we then see why on the computer monitor screen. She’s looking up the symptoms of and treatment for glue inhalation. Scrapbooking has turned her mind into scraps.
An Alberta’s Libraries logo appears on screen, stamped by the slogan, “Books and beyond,” and accompanied by a rundown of resources offered, including Internet, workshops and CDs.
Narrow victory “Scrapbook” narrowly beat out the three other spots in the campaign–“Kama Sutra,” “CPR” and “Mount Everest”–for inclusion in this week’s “Best Work” gallery. But the other three :15s still merit some descriptive acknowledgement from SHOOT.
In “Kama Sutra,” the focus is on a man who looks about nervously in the library, making sure no one is watching him. He finds a book on Kama Sutra, no doubt offering him various positional options for carnal pleasure.
An intervening super then informs us that the next scene is three years later–the same guy with a couple of kids in tow at the same library. One child is tugging at him to go somewhere. The other toddler is crying, perched in a frontal papoose being worn by the man. This time the guy is in the multimedia section of the library, checking out a DVD about the amazing no-scalpel vasectomy. The end tag is pretty much the same as the earlier “Books and beyond” slogan break, except the rundown of resources is a bit different: DVDs, Internet, workshops.
In “CPR,” a woman checks out a CPR handbook. A week later she returns to the library but with a huge cold sore on her lip. Now she’s checking out from the library a DVD on cold sore remedies.
And in “Mount Everest,” a clean shaven man finds a library book about climbing Everest.
One month later we see a bedraggled man with a scraggly beard, his right wrist and hand in a cast. He has his left arm awkwardly reaching across his body over to the right side of the computer, struggling to click the mouse to get what he needs. It then dawns on us that this is the same man who dared to explore Everest, where he undoubtedly took a nasty tumble. The computer screen reveals the info he’s seeking: “Left Handed Living.”
Adam & Dave All four spots–in which one library visit begets another–were directed by Adam & Dave (Adam Brodie, Dave Derewlany) of Holiday Films, Toronto. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the helming duo offered a joint statement which in part read, “We were both attracted to this job because neither of us can read, and we thought this would be a good excuse to go into a library for the first time.” Referring to Rethink copywriter Katie Ainsworth and art director Chad Kabigting, Adam & Dave continued, “We loved Katie’s and Chad’s scripts. They were simple and quite dark, and reminded us how libraries can lead you down the road to ruin, but then get you right back on track.”
The Rethink team included creative directors Ian Grais and Chris Staples, art director Kabigting, copywriter Ainsworth and producer Ann Rubenstein.
Josefina Nadurata was executive producer/producer for Holiday with Chris Pavoni the line producer. Jonny Cliff was the DP.
Editor was Melanie Snagg of Tonic Post, Vancouver, which also served as the VFX house. The :15s are airing on TV in the province of Alberta and online.
