By Robert Goldrich

With the winner of the primetime commercial Emmy Award scheduled to be announced and honored during the Creative Arts ceremony next month in Los Angeles, 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 nominees which this year consists of: Grey Poupon’s “The Chase” directed by Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man for Crispin Porter+Bogusky; Google Chrome’s “Jess Time” helmed by Nanette Burstein of Hungry Man for Google’s Creative Lab; Nike’s “Jogger” directed by Lance Acord of Park Pictures for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore.; and Canon’s “Inspired” directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ for Grey New York.
    “The Chase” debuted on this year’s Oscar telecast and begins in the same way as the original Grey Poupon “Pardon Me” commercial of some 16 years earlier–an aristocratic English gent is being chauffeured in the countryside when another car pulls alongside at a stop. The back window rolls down and a second man asks in a snooty accent, “Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?”
    The first man obliges with a “but of course” and hands him a jar out the window.
    However in this latest version, that familiar end scene is just the beginning as the second car speeds off without returning the mustard. A wild car chase ensues, replete with pyrotechnics reminiscent of an action-adventure movie.
    “Jess Time” shows a father and daughter staying connected after she goes off to start college. Her mom has passed on, as both she and her dad allude to their sense of loss. The daughter is fighting some homesickness and adjusting to living independently for the first time but finds comfort in staying connected with her father via their video chats over the web. He too is delighted to have this link to his “little girl,” except perhaps when he sees online her boyfriend for the first time.
    “Jogger” was part of the “Find Your Greatness” campaign which Nike and W+K tied into the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The work eloquently captures the greatness in everyday people looking to improve themselves, an inspired creative detour from marquee star athletes during the Olympics. In “Jogger,” the simplicity of a heavyset youngster jogging in silence down a road speaks volumes.
    And Canon’s “Inspired” depicts the lengths people will go in order to take a special photograph. A man leans precariously over the side of a home’s snowy rooftop, with camera in hand to capture a scene we cannot see. A woman frantically flees from a fast charging giraffe yet still manages to get off some shots of the animal with a camera held at different awkward angles. A guy shoots seafood on ice at an outdoor Chinese market only to be shooed away by the proprietor. A man climbs a huge reef with camera at the ready. A mom looks to snap the perfect shot of her daughter blowing out the candles on her birthday cake.  Another man finds himself running helter skelter away from swarming bats who were presumably riled up when his flash lit up their dwelling. A guy has his head nearly submerged in a lake but holds his camera up high enough to get a shot of something or someone out of our view. A man has a badly scraped knee, a wound evidently suffered while trying to get his camera someplace it shouldn’t have been. And a young gent with skates on his feet and a skateboard under his back swoops down a steep street to follow a tire on fire rolling down a steep thoroughfare.
    A super then appears on screen which simply reads: “Long live imagination.”
    All these earnest photographers are introduced to us with the musical accompaniment of a specially arranged rendition of the song “Beautiful Dreamer” as vocalized by Rachel Fannan of Only You. Her performance also is the aural backdrop to a series of still photos we next see that were shot in action by these photographers who dared to pursue their dream shots. It turns out, for example, that the man on the snowy rooftop was shooting a friend luxuriating in a backyard pool surrounded by snow and ice.
    A voiceover concludes, “What will you imagine with the new Rebel EOS T4i from Canon?”
    Leverence sees parallels between “The Chase” and James Bond–albeit with tongue firmly in cheek–as well as between “Jogger” and The Biggest Loser, showcasing how a winner’s determination comes in all shapes and sizes.
    “Jess Time” reminds Lawrence of the tug-at-the-heartstrings Hallmark commercials. And he describes “Inspired” as simply an inspiring, clever, entertaining homage to photographers and their quest to get the shot.
    Here are Leverence’s full takes on this year’s primetime Emmy-nominated commercials:

SHOOT: Let’s start with Grey Poupon’s “The Chase.”Leverence: Everybody remembers the classic “Pardon Me” commercial. Now we have a James Bond version of it. Somebody had to do it–I’m glad that Hungry Man did. We have champagne cork gatling guns, a caviar slick [akin to the oil slick released by Bond’s Aston Martin]. Even the cool, courteous demeanor of Bond is reflected in the two main characters as they are in the midst of a wild car chase tearing up a golf course, through city streets, and then jumping a bridge under construction and then crash landing in a supermarket–all with a bit of slapstick thrown in. When they hit the supermarket and see a large display of Grey Poupon, I thought the aristocratic gentlemen would say, “Are we in heaven?” Instead one of the guys says, “Are we dead?” The creative team must have gone back and forth on that line.
    The production house and ad agency did a good job of standing on the shoulders of the original classic commercial. They also captured the 1980s look of that spot with a lot of little touches–like there being elevator music in the supermarket.

SHOOT: What was your takeaway from Canon’s “Inspired”?Leverence: If I were a photographer, I’d take that to be a most flattering ad. You do what you have to do to get the shot. The first scene was very clever where the man is up on his roof taking a picture of someone below. There’s snow on the roof yet behind him are all these Southern California palm trees–a nice little touch, underscoring that with that camera you go to unusual places. Getting the photo puts you in an inspired netherworld.
    The woman running with a giraffe after her is also quite a sight. And then there’s the guy who seems to be an investigative reporter climbing over rocks and surf. The spot never shows him snapping the picture but we later see him hobbling back to this filthy room, his leg banged up as if he had a dangerous confrontation. It’s not clear what he was doing but it is clear that this is what photojournalists do, getting the shot no matter the peril.
    Then you have the burning tire going down the hill with a skateboarder keeping up alongside it, camera in hand. I enjoyed the parallel structuring of it with us seeing several of the different still photographs at the end.

SHOOT: What about Nike’s “Jogger” which was tied to the Olympics?Leverence: I’m glad you provided that context. We’re used to seeing the perfectly shaped athlete in Nike ads. And of course the Olympic athlete personifies this image so to have this overweight youngster simply running towards us is quite a departure–yet at the same time it isn’t as we see his will and determination. From a TV programming perspective, it’s The Biggest Loser paradigm where there are obese people striving to lose weight and those who succeed end up enjoying a personal triumph.
    The simplicity of the camerawork plays beautifully. The pace of the jogger comes right at you on the screen. He’s on an awful asphalt road on a cloudy afternoon. There’s not an awful lot of cheer and sunshine. There was a consciously good job done of keeping the tone solemn–there’s a quietude so the focus is on him as he comes into view. His sheer concentration and steadfastness are coming right at you. The voiceover is kind of monotone with a little bit of emphasis on how greatness is something we made up. It’s a very successful blending of the word and the image. There’s a subtle artistry which allows us to see this youngster in a different light.

SHOOT: That leaves us with Google Chrome’s “Jess Time.”Leverence: Every year there’s a commercial that has viewers in tears. Usually it’s a Hallmark commercial. In this spot, we understand that the mom is gone and that father and daughter are staying in touch through Google Chrome. It’s keeping their bond intact after she goes away to college. The old color saturated photo we see was clearly the mother back when she was in college. This is a real heart-tugging commercial. The girl was very good and expressive. We see tiny photos of her having fun with her roommates. But we also see her upset and struggling. The father is supportive yet you see him agitated when he sees her boyfriend for the first time. This commercial does a great job of putting you on an emotional roller coaster and tugging at your heart. The Academy voters always like a heart-tugging ad.

SHOOT: This looks like a tough field of spots to judge.Leverence: You have a tearjerker, inspiring pieces for Nike and Canon, the James Bond cliches in Grey Poupon. It’s very hard to predict which spot will appeal most to Academy members. I don’t envy the voters who will have to rank these commercials in their judging.

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