Wild Brain Drops Some Animation Acid For Psychedelic Cookie Spot Via FCB, NY.
CLIENT
Nabisco/Chips Ahoy!.
PRODUCTION CO.
Wild Brain, San Francisco. Gordon Clark, director; Adam Beckman, DP; John Lowe, assistant director;
Jeff Fino, executive producer; Paul Golden, executive producer/commercials; Liz Gazzano, producer; Lisa
Quinn, production manager; Leslie Arvio, animation production manager; Jason Porter, technical director;
Bob Raggazine, 1st assistant camera; Marc Galvan, digital production manager; Aaron Sorenson, layout;
Amber MacLean, models; Aaron Sorenson and JT O’Neal, animation; Dick Hill, Billy Burger, Sam Hood,
Victor Gascon, Dan Hopper and Amber MacLean, assistants; Ben Fischler, David Brandt, Nick Wiegal and
Jason Porter, CG artists; Eric Schweickert and Kristen Borges, Mac artists; Andy Feder, After FX.
AGENCY
Foote, Cone & Belding, New York. Bob Neuman, group creative director; Bob Phillips, senior creative
director; Scott Rosenblit, senior VP/senior creative director/copywriter; Miguel Nogueras, VP/senior
creative director/art director; Heidi David, producer; Melissa Morra, assistant producer.
EDITORIAL
Wild Brain. Mike Tuorney, editor.
POST
Spy Post, San Francisco. Darren Orr, online editor/Flint/Jaleo. The Tape House Editorial Company, New
York. Milan Boncich, colorist.
AUDIO POST
alchemy, New York. Wayne Sharpe, mixer/engineer.
MUSIC
alchemy. Wayne Sharpe, composer.
BY SANDRA GARCIA
Will the ’60s ever die? Apparently not. In fact, the whole retro thing has been riding a popularity high for at
least 10 years. There was the resurgence of Woodstock, the return of the Volkswagen Beetle and the
smashing success of the first Austin Powers flick with a sequel on the way. It seems as though no matter
how old the ’60s gets, it’s still cool.
Using the ’60s to promote a brand is no new technique to the ad world, but the trick is to find a way to
reinvent it without betraying the true spirit of the time. With the :30 "Groovy," Foote, Cone & Belding,
New York, and San Francisco-based Wild Brain found a way to create an updated version of the
psychedelic era for Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy!.
Faced with the task of conceptualizing the first Chips Ahoy! spot to speak to the teen market, FCB
copywriter Scott Rosenblit and art director Miguel Nogueras set out to find what would be most relevant to
teens today. They only had to look as far as the streets of New York to see kids wearing flared pants against
a backdrop of posters advertising Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, to know which direction to
take their client in.
The spot opens to a live-action scene of teenagers hanging out in a ’60s-style rec room, complete with
brown wood paneling and a lava lamp. As one boy hands a girl a Chips Ahoy! cookie, the iconic Chips
Ahoy! exclamation point jumps off the bag and proceeds to guide the viewer through a psychedelic
experience. Like magic, the exclamation point first appears in the bubbling lava lamp environment, and
continues to move through a visual kaleidoscope of go-go dancers, psychedelic patterns, dancing flowers,
butterflies and raining chocolate chips, all moving in sync to a kicking techno/psychedelic music track. The
spot is wrapped up with a four-armed Aladdin sitting cross-legged on his magic carpet as a tripped out
voiceover drones, "The Chips Ahoy! 1,000 chip experience." Whooooaaaa dude … Pass the bong please!
Two things that keep the spot from being clich are the animation and the music. While the viewer knows
that he or she is seeing something that hearkens back to the flower power days of Jimi Hendrix, the
sophistication of the animation, as well an undercurrent of techno beats makes it feel very contemporary.
Wild Brain director Gordon Clark, along with an army of animators, employed several techniques to create
the psychedelic cookie experience, including a combination of live action, 2-D and 3-D computer effects,
with some traditional 2-D animated elements.
Like putting together pieces of a puzzle, all the elements in the spot, including the live action go-go
dancers, the Aladdin and the backgrounds, were done separately and then placed together to create a fluid
end product. Since there wasn’t enough screen time to do any luxurious transitions, Clark had to be
conscious of the fact that the psychedelic tour is a floating experience. The backgrounds, inspired by artists
like Peter Max and Milton Glaser, had to be laid out every step of the way to make sure all the elements
were moving slowly and in sync.
"The difference between this project and traditional animation was that the design stage lasted all the way
throughout the job. We couldn’t just lay down the backgrounds first, so we never had a sense of what it was
going to look like until the end, which was a bit nerve-racking," related Clark.
Unlike many spots these days where the music isn’t sorted out until the ad is almost finished, the agency
and Wild Brain agreed that the music was going to be crucial to the development of the spot. "It was
important to get the music down early on for no other reason than the go-go dancers needed to have a beat
to dance to," explained Clark. But to Rosenblit and Nogueras, the music posed a more interesting dilemma.
For years, the agency has used Benny Goodman’s "Sing, Sing, Sing" as the Chips Ahoy! theme, and it was
not something they could completely walk away from in terms of keeping in line with the brand’s identity.
Knowing that Goodman’s music didn’t mean much to teenagers, the agency commissioned New York-
based alchemy composer Wayne Sharpe to put a funkier version of "Sing, Sing, Sing" to the commercial’s
live-action intro, and then transition it into a more ’60s-inspired sound, which includes sitars, fuzz guitar
and wah-wahs, once the animation portion of the spot begins.
Rosenblit and Nogueras both viewed the project as a huge success on a couple of different levels—first,
that they got along fabulously with everyone that worked on the spot, but more importantly, that they got it
past the client. "For a client that is usually very conservative, this is a big victory because Nabisco really
trusted us in terms of knowing what’s happening with teens," concluded Nogueras.
Charlex Builds
Bridge For Lucent
CLIENT
Lucent Technologies.
PRODUCTION CO.
Michael Schrom & Company, New York. Michael Schrom, director/DP; Jon Knoop, assistant director; Carl
Sturges, executive producer; Ned Rote, production manager. Shot at Michael Schrom & Company studio.
AGENCY
McCann-Erickson, New York. Peter Friedman, senior VP/director of broadcast production; Patti McGuire,
VP/executive producer; Lauren Henry, assistant producer; Paul Behnen, senior VP/ senior creative
director/art; Gib Marquardt, senior VP/senior creative director; Ward Parker, senior copywriter.
EDITORIAL
Consulate, New York. Gillian McCarthy, editor.
POST
Post Perfect, New York. Mark Tyler, online editor. The Tape House Editorial Company, New York. Milan
Boncich, colorist.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Charlex, New York. Alex Weil, director of visual effects; Greg Oyen, Flame/effects artist; Amy Kindred,
executive producer; Steve Chiarello, producer.
AUDIO POST
Howard Schwartz Recording, New York. Steve Rosen, engineer.
THE SPOT
In the :30 "Bridge," hands build a bridge with Lucent business cards, as a voiceover states, "Building
communications networks today takes more than ever. They need to carry voice, data, be fast, reliable, and
all work together … How do networks get to where they are now to where they need to be?" The camera
and falling business cards accelerate and come to an abrupt halt in front of a computer. The Lucent logo
appears on the monitor screen along with the super, "We make the things that make communications
work."
Spot broke March 24.
Wildchild Shouts
For Herbal Essence
CLIENT
Clairol Herbal Essence.
PRODUCTION CO.
Propaganda Films, Hollywood. Andy Morahan, director; Mark Plummer, DP; Roger Zorovich, executive
producer; Jeff Tanner, producer. Shot on location in Baker and Cedar Glen, Calif.
AGENCY
The Kaplan Thaler Group, New York. Linda Kaplan Thaler, creative director; Lisa Bifulco, head of
production; Sharon Petro, producer; Whitney Pillsbury, art director; Andy Landorf, copywriter.
EDITORIAL
Wildchild Editorial, New York. Stewart Shevin, editor; Elissa Muddell, executive producer.
POST
Nice Shoes, New York. Ed Patrowicz, online editor; Scott Burch, colorist.
AUDIO POST
East Side Audio, New York. Steve Weisbrot, mixer.
MUSIC
Macrose Music, New York. Fred Thaler, composer/arranger.
SOUND DESIGN
Marshall Grupp Sound Design, New York. Marshall Grupp, sound designer.
THE SPOT
In the :30 "Gas Station," a woman, disheveled and dirty after her sportscar has broken down, asks the gas
station mechanic where she can freshen up. The man tosses her the keys to the bathroom as he begins to
work on her vehicle. In the ladies’ room, the woman takes a bottle of Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo out
of her purse and shouts with pleasure as she lathers up. The mechanic, hearing the sounds emanating from
the ladies’ room, becomes flustered. As she heads back toward him (this time with gorgeous, bouncing
hair), she asks him when the car will be ready. He replies that it’s going to take a while longer.
Spot broke Ma
