By Robert Goldrich

Ah, the power of cyberspace. Based on his tongue-in-cheek viral ad “Happy Mornings” for Procter & Gamble’s Folgers out of Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, director Steve Ayson got a call from a 20th Century Fox executive who loved the work and expressed an interest in perhaps getting together down the road on a project.
    “It was nice to hear,” says Ayson who directs spots via The Sweet Shop, Auckland, N.Z., and its recently formed U.S. house that is under the aegis of New York-based managing director Steven Shore. “It just goes to show you the reach of viral content.”
    Indeed the daffy send-up of conventional coffee commercials in which a contingent of impossibly cheerful, peppy people rampage through a town has resonated with many while serving as a “wake-up” call to those previously unaware of Ayson’s sense of ad humor. It’s also given a hip word-of-mouth marketing buzz to an advertiser in a category that’s normally a bit staid and sleepy itself.
    Dressed in almost glowing sunshiny yellow, the seemingly ubiquitous happy horde of morning people descends on all those who are dragging in the a.m., ranging from a drowsy couple slow to get out of bed to a man who’s been partying all night at his girlfriend’s to a corpse-like male figure standing underneath a running shower head. In the latter slice-of-life scenario our naked protagonist is unaware that he’s being watched from above through a skylight window by several from the upbeat yet eerie yellow mob.
    Furthermore, all the bright yellow folks are belting out a “Happy Morning!” jingle that is both charmingly kitschy and obnoxious at the same time. As they rouse a village of people, the yellow army sings wake-up lyrics that include, “You can sleep when you’re dead.”
    Indeed, when one poor victim of this over-the-top yellow gang finally sips Folgers from his mug, he too starts to tap to the beat. The message “Tolerate mornings” appears on screen, leading us to a Web site (toleratemornings.com) where the viral ad resides as well as wake-up calls, a “boss tracker” and funny fake e-mails. The volume of traffic to the site has exceeded expectations.
    Ayson says he got the Folgers gig, which was shot in New Zealand, from Saatchi creative director/copywriter Jan Jacobs who earlier in his career had been at Clemenger BBDO, Auckland, and was familiar with the director’s work.
    “It was a wonderful opportunity and became my first foray into American advertising,” relates Ayson, who himself started on the agency side of the business as an art director and then hybrid art director/writer at several New Zealand boutiques, including the former Mojo and Bates shops.
    After some nine years as an ad agency staffer, Ayson decided to go freelance as an art director so that he would have more time to pursue a directorial career. As a freelancer, he pitched himself to an agency to direct a bizarre spot promoting Kachingo, a big payoff lottery-type contest involving major New Zealand retailers. He wound up getting the assignment and that successful job put him on the map as a director, leading to his joining such Auckland roosts as Curious Film and then The Sweet Shop.
    He then spread his wings geographically, lining up representation in Amsterdam and Brussels via Czar Films.
    Ayson first came to SHOOT’s attention in early ’05 with a Czar-produced Central Beheer insurance commercial, “Lion,” for DDB Amsterdam. Making SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery, the commercial opens on a car driving through a wild animal safari park.
    In the front seats are mom and dad, who’s behind the wheel. In the backseat are their two kids and grandma. A lion approaches the vehicle and then jumps on its hood, eliciting ooohs and aaahs from the family, except for the granny who’s pretty much oblivious to what’s going on. Its brush with nature now over, the family leaves the park and drives through city streets, singing happily along the way. But we sense something isn’t quite right based on a fleeting reflection and the reactions of pedestrians.
    The car then enters a residential neighborhood, at which point we see what’s amiss–the lion is perched atop the vehicle, which pulls into the family garage that’s attached to the house. As the garage door closes behind them, a supered message reads, “Just call us,” followed by a Central Beheer insurance logo, phone number and Web site address.
    “Lion” went on to win a Silver Clio and Ayson has pretty much continued on a humorous directorial path ever since as evidenced by his latest spot, “Enter The Cougar” for Cougar dark rum and bourbon.
    Out of George Patterson/Y&R, Melbourne, the offbeat spot shows a guy, Barry Dawson, who’s at the pub with some buddies partying until he gets a call from his girlfriend to come home. He then sprints from the pub back to his house. He rolls along the front lawn and stealthily enters the bedroom a la a stalking cougar. The woman is unimpressed by his “invisible” move under the covers into bed but at least Barry thinks he’s cool.
    While his spot reputation is clearly in the comedy realm, Ayson has exhibited talent in darker tales and themes as well. In fact The French Doors was a spooky short film, which helped him break into helming and won him a best director honor at the Locarno Festival in Switzerland.
    “Even though I did this type of film at the outset of my [directing] career, the local New Zealand agencies knew I enjoyed comedy so they wound up giving me those kinds of boards from the very beginning and it just sort of stuck,” says Ayson, who also recently served as writer/producer on the short film Nature’s Way, a psychological suspense drama directed by his fiancee Jane Shearer.
    “I love comedy, which is what I do mostly,” says Ayson. “But strong ideas don’t necessarily have to be comedy and I’m open, if others are, to exploring some new avenues for myself as a director.”

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