By Robert Goldrich

SHOOT continues its annual tradition of sounding out John Leverence, sr. VP of awards at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, for an entertainment industry perspective on the field of commercials nominated for the primetime Emmy which this year consists of: Apple’s “Misunderstood” directed by Lance Acord of Park Pictures for TBWAMedia Arts Lab, Los Angeles; Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” and “Hero’s Welcome” directed, respectively, by Jake Scott of RSA Films and The Malloys of HSI for NY agency Anomaly; GE’s “Childlike Imagination” directed by Dante Ariola of MJZ for BBDO New York; and Nike’s “Possibilities” directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.

In “Misunderstood, a young man seems detached from his family and their holiday celebration. But quite the opposite turns out to be true.

“Childlike Imagination” depicts a little girl dreaming about the amazing things her mom makes as a GE employee. This piece underscores how GE is stretching the limits of human imagination to create brilliant machines which positively impact society. While GE’s inventions can appear as if they could only come from the inner workings of a child’s imagination, in reality GE is working on advancements that seem other worldly but have amazing implications for the real world.

“Hero’s Welcome,” a Super Bowl spot, shows an entire town welcoming home a soldier (Lt. Chuck Nadd), replete with a ticker tape parade.

Another Bud Super Bowl commercial, “Puppy Love,” captures the bond between a puppy and a Clydesdale.

And “Possibilities” offers a running account of endless possibilities for us all as we strive to raise our personal bar of athleticism and achievement.

The primetime commercial Emmy winner will be announced and honored at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 16, in the Nokia Theater at L.A. Live.

SHOOT: Let’s start with GE’s “Childlike Imagination.” What’s your take on this spot?

Leverence: GE could have simply said they make smart turbines, aircraft engines, mobile medical devices, 3D printers, eco-friendly innovations. But they added something magical by depicting that roster of products as seen through a child’s eyes. With dream-like images and wonderful music, they’ve shifted from the literal into the realm of the fantastic. This isn’t just about stuff made at GE but how this stuff is perceived in a child’s imagination. All of a sudden, you have a total that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. This is a very charming, highly imaginative, beautifully rendered film driven by a tone of wonder, which is so hard to do.

If you were to go from that end of the spectrum to exactly the opposite end, you would probably have “Hero’s Welcome,” one of the two Budweiser spots. Here rather than some kind of fantasy situation, we have the reality of a lieutenant coming home after serving his country. It rachets up from his wife greeting him to what turns out to be an entire town celebrating his return with a parade. Budweiser is brought into it with the Clydesdales pulling the wagon in the parade. It’s celebratory American parade imagery but at the same time there’s an underlying feeling of solemnity–at least for me. A caisson with a solider aboard can be an entirely different kind of homecoming. That’s lurking in the background for me–the fact that not all homecomings are happy occasions. That makes this happy return of this soldier all the more something to deeply appreciate.

SHOOT: What’s your takeaway from Nike’s “Possibilities”?

Leverence: Nike is the Greek word for “victory,” in this case victory against all odds. If you can run a mile, you can run a race. Heck, you can run a marathon, you can outrun a movie star. There’s a constant ratcheting up of possibilities. Structurally dead center in the middle of this piece, though, is a whole anti-bullying message where a bully has to pick on someone his own size, and that keeps getting ratcheted up. While everything else depicted are people striving to do better–in basketball, in riding a bull–there’s this antithetical element where a bully gets his comeuppance as his “victim” becomes powerful enough to make him the victim. I like very much that this message is in there. So much of sports is kind of macho. This is a nod in another and very worthwhile direction.

SHOOT: We still have two other nominated commercials: Budweiser’s other Super Bowl ad, “Puppy Love,” and Apple’s “Misunderstood.”

Leverence: I kind of put these two together. Both involve subjects that are misunderstood. In the Apple commercial, what we thought was going on really was something quite different. An objective third party camera sweeps through various events in which a seemingly distracted teen is preoccupied with his hand-held device. He keeps at arm’s length from his family as they are sledding, doing domestic stuff, are in the snow. His iPhone appears to be a hindrance to familial affection and domestic harmony.

But we later discover that he’s been chronicling the family doing the holidays, making a film that captures the love and warmth. The phone and the kid were not off to one side but instead really right in the middle of what was happening. At the end we get it. It’s almost like a Christmas miracle. I love the very end where the mother is weeping because she sees that he is a good kid and that he cares. The dad gives him a hug. The kid and Apple are ultimately redeemed–they are not outsiders who are contrary to the spirit of the season.

Similarly we have a puppy who too is misunderstood. He keeps leaving his Warm Springs puppy adoption home to go to a guy’s horse ranch next door. The woman at the puppy home and the rancher think the dog is kind of a rogue puppy who doesn’t want to be part of anything. The fact is that he’s already been adopted–by a Clydesdale. It’s a relationship that nobody understands until finally at the end there’s kind of a showdown and we see that the man and woman who care for their animals have come to understand the bond between their animals.

The overall range of the nominated work is impressive. We have the touching “Puppy Love” story, the astonishing imagery in GE’s “Childlike Imagination,” the heartfelt familial affection in Apple’s “Misunderstood,” the anti-bullying theme that develops in Nike’s “Possibilities” as part of a mantra about living proud and strong as best you can, and the wonderful homecoming for a soldier in “A Hero’s Welcome,” which for me also carries a touch of solemn melancholy. As far as deciding which one is the Emmy winner, I don’t envy the judges.

To see the nominated spots and credits for each, click here. Which nominated spot would get your vote for the primetime commercial Emmy Award? Vote here.

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