In a new :60 for Volkswagen titled "Bubble," Arnold Worldwide, Boston, evokes an emotion which very few agencies have dared to dabble in: loneliness. But its success as an intriguing and compelling ad could get more than one creative director to consider the portrayal of isolation and lost dreams as a possible selling tool for clients.
Directed by Mike Mills of bicoastal The Directors Bureau and shot by DP Joaquin Baca-Asay, "Bubble" makes use of a sad and unresolved scenario to pitch the new convertible Beetle. The spot, intended for both cinema and television broadcast, pits the monotonous life of a young office worker, Bill Briggs, against a saccharine soundtrack written and performed by former Electric Light Orchestra songwriter/ principal, Jeff Lynne. The perky song, Mr. Blue Sky, bops along in stark contrast to Briggs’ humdrum ritual—tying ties, riding escalators, making coffee, eating lunch from a wide variety of Tupperware containers and so on.
Judging by the look of Briggs, he is three or four years into his post-college disillusionment. Although never visibly depressed or frustrated, Briggs is the picture of a young man just beginning to accept his life as one that won’t be as exciting as he once thought it could be. He maintains some of the trappings of youth—a mop top and loose, ill-fitting clothes—but he has clearly settled into the daily regimen of lowly office worker. Although his shirt changes every morning, he treads through the same cubicle alleys day in and day out. His shoes change color and style but he wears the same bland expression each time the escalator carries him upwards. The small amount of variety Briggs can exert on his environment (clothes, food, etc.) is only a pathetic reminder of his inescapable cycle.
The spot shows four days of his life spliced together. One day after another, we see him rising, selecting outfits and plodding through the office. Later, the screen is split into quarters and each day’s activities occur simultaneously. We see tight shots of four coffee filters filling up with grain, four sets of bare feet landing on the bedroom floor and four bunches of photocopies landing in the copier tray. This portrayal of monotony and tedium serves as a painful reminder for anyone whose life remotely resembles Briggs’.
In a rare break in the cycle, Briggs glances out a window and catches the eye of an attractive woman in a neighboring office building. For a moment, we think a love story is about to unfold but it is fleeting. In the next scene, Briggs reflects as he removes a staple from a document. It is clear that the only thing he can share with the woman on the opposite side of the industrial park is the fact that they are both trapped and that attempting to meet is fruitless. All the while, Mr. Blue Sky is struggling to elevate the mood. The friction between the visuals and the soundtrack provokes audience participation and interpretation.
In the end, Briggs is walking along when something outside catches his eye. He stops to look and his expression is unlike any from the previous gallery of bland ones. We see a little passion and hope, as if he is watching the incarnation of his college aspirations coming to the front door for a visit. Down in the parking lot is the object of his desire, the new convertible Volkswagen Beetle. It is pulling away from him and heading out of the lot. For Briggs, it is his ideal escape pod and from the backseat of the car, we see him at the center window of a skywalk. As he grows smaller and smaller, his hand lifts to gently touch the windowpane. Supered on the scene are the words "The New Beetle Convertible" followed by the VW tagline, "Drivers wanted" and logo.
In the execution, Briggs’ existence is not portrayed with the sheen of a 1950’s Doris Day movie, nor is the spot a dark commentary on life’s monotony like in the film Brazil. "Bubble" is, in some ways, far more depressing because it isn’t any more or less glamorous than the life of the average person watching the spot.
"There is nothing particularly depressing about it because it is what we do everyday," said art director Don Shelford, "but when you look at the spot and you see yourself, it is really pretty awful. We didn’t want to make him look upset though. There are a couple of occasions when he sighs, but we were pretty careful about keeping him straight-faced. If we exaggerated it, it would feel less real."
In casting the Briggs character, which happens to be the actor’s actual name, Shelford had his eye out for a specific kind of actor. "We were looking for someone who was kind of like Benjamin in The Graduate," Shelford remarked. "Someone who is just starting out and was hopeful but whose dreams were crushed a little bit. Someone who has been snuffed enough times that he is now a little submissive. It was hard to find somebody who can act really small. His range was big but it was so subtle. He was pretty straight-faced the whole time but there are times when he is a little bit bummed out and times when he is a little bit happy."
symbolic seeds
References to The Graduate came up more than once during preproduction and like that film, symbolism plays an important part in the theme of "Bubble." "The scene that communicated the concept to me was the one with the potted plant," said Mills about a split screen showing a rather anemic potted plant inside the office at different times of the day. "The notion of a living thing barely surviving under the fluorescent lights of this lifeless environment intrigued me."
At one point in the spot, an exterior shot captures Briggs at an office window casually sipping coffee and gazing out at the world he never visits. From there the camera makes a huge and lightning fast pull-away until Briggs’ window is only one of thousands—driving home multiple messages pertaining to his hopeless existence. "When he sees the girl in the other building," remarked Shelford about another highly symbolic scene, "he sees another person who is basically mirroring his life and you think that maybe it is going to be a love story. Then they look at each other and quickly look away because it is hopeless, and they are stuck in this little Habit trail. It is this little four-second story and adds a lot to the spot."
Mr. Blue Sky, which at times sounds like a lost song from the Sgt. Pepper’s recordings, is juxtaposed nicely. But while it may get toes tapping, it ultimately serves to isolate Briggs even more. "The song is a good counter," said Shelford. "It was upbeat and had a march to it which was nice. But in the end, it made the spot a bit sadder because it was such a happy song."
Throughout the commercial, the editing often takes cues from the music. In one example, four scenes of Briggs riding an escalator are cut to the beat and it is through the editing that the audio and visual are fused. "I think it made sense to edit the spot to the music," Shelford commented. "It served as a march for Briggs."
According to Shelford, "Once we found that song, the spot came together. When we heard the big chorus at the end, we were able to come up with the ending of the car pulling away from him. Then we thought about the split screen and making it more like a music video and less like a spot. We thought it would be a compelling and different way to tell a story."
Shelford distinguishes "Bubble" from other Volkswagen spots coming out of Arnold for its dramatic narrative and larger cinematic approach. "Conceptually," he said, "the challenge was trying to find something big enough for a movie screen that wouldn’t feel inadequate." And drama, for Shelford, is a riskier venture in spots than comedic ones. "There is always the fear that something isn’t going to come off and it will just be mediocre," he said. "The comedy spots that we do are always easier to pull off. In ‘Bubble’ we were trying to build an emotion inside a little story. If you fail there, it is a much bigger failure."
