Everyone knows there are cockroaches in New York, but not everyone knows how to exploit them for an advertising campaign. Agency davidandgoliath/Los Angeles created a campaign for Ecko: Zoo York, that uses cockroaches to promote their footwear and skateboards in two online video ads that are also running on TV. The spots were produced by Rockhard Films/Los Angeles.
Tough, a :30, features two cockroaches sitting on a park bench discussing how tough they are until a skateboarder wearing Zoo York shoes lands on the bench and crushes one of the roaches. Spread the Word, a :60, features the Zoo York Skate team, who traverse down Wall Street with bags of roaches and empty them onto the street, shocking pedestrians.
“Zoo York is proud of their unbreakable New York spirit,” said Colin Jeffery, executive creative director of davidandgoliath. “When you think of New York cockroaches, they’re unbreakable. They’re the only thing that could live through a nuclear blast on the streets, but maybe Zoo York is even tougher than the cockroaches.
“In Tough, you see two New York cockroaches talking about how tough they are, with the dialogue and New York accents. In Spread the Word we took a different tack, we fused the street culture with the cockroaches. We said what would happen if we took on the man using cockroaches, so we went down the corporate part of town and put the man back in his box.”
The spots are playing at www.ZooYork.com/Roaches, YouTube, AOL Video, Google Video and a variety of blog sites. They began playing online and on TV (MTV, Fuel TV and ESPN), on April 1.
Tony Petrossian, the Rockhard Films director, said Tough was a simple shoot. “We were letting the cockroaches do their thing. Nothing crazy camera wise, we didn’t want to get in the way.” Spread the Word “was more complex. We wanted it to seem like the skaters went out and shot it Blair Witch style. We wanted to make it look slick without looking directed, so we made sure it looked like it could have been shot by someone, and if a kid couldn’t be holding the camera we didn’t use that shot.”
For Tough, Petrossian had to shoot two cockroaches, which wasn’t easy since the spot was shot in November in cold weather. “They were freezing, so the handler and I figured out a way to keep them moving and we were able to get some cool animated gestures,” he said.
Petrossian used a Arri Super 16mm camera for Tough and shot Spread the Word with a Panasonic DVX100 HD camera. “We wanted a filmic look for Tough and a real documentary style look for Spread the Word,” he said.
This is the first work davidandgoliath has done for Ecko: Zoo York. The company had done viral advertising in-house previously, Jeffery said. He selected Rockhard Films and Petrossian because he wanted a director who “moves fast and thinks on his feet. He understands skateboard culture and shot it run-and-gun style.”
Gene Hackman and His Wife Are Found Dead In Their Santa Fe Home; Oscar-Winning Actor Was 95
Gene Hackman, the prolific Oscar-winning actor whose studied portraits ranged from reluctant heroes to conniving villains made him one of the industry's most respected and honored performers, has been found dead along with his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, at their home in Santa Fe, N.M.
Foul play was not suspected, but authorities did not release circumstances of their deaths and said an investigation was ongoing.
Hackman, 95, Arakawa, 63, and their dog were all dead when deputies entered their home to check on their welfare around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday (2/26), Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Denise Avila said.
Hackman was a frequent and versatile presence on screen from the 1960s until his retirement. His dozens of films included the Academy Award favorites "The French Connection" and "Unforgiven," a breakout performance in "Bonnie and Clyde," a classic bit of farce in "Young Frankenstein," a turn as the comic book villain Lex Luthor in "Superman" and the title character in Wes Anderson's 2001 "The Royal Tenenbaums."
He seemed capable of any kind of role — whether an uptight buffoon in "Birdcage," a college coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite "Hoosiers" or a secretive surveillance expert in Francis Ford Coppola's Watergate-era release "The Conversation."
"Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity," Coppola said on Instagram. "I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution."
Although self-effacing and unfashionable, Hackman held special status within Hollywood — heir to Spencer Tracy as an everyman, actor's actor, curmudgeon and reluctant celebrity. He embodied the ethos of doing his job, doing it very well, and letting... Read More