A pair of ads in our "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery garnered Gold Lions at the Cannes International Advertising Festival last month.
One, the San Francisco Jazz Festival’s "Low Rider," is no stranger to industry recognition. As mentioned in an earlier installment of this column (6/15, p. 4), "Low Rider"—directed by Brandon Dickerson of kaboom productions, San Francisco, for ad agency Butler, Shine & Stern, Sausalito Calif.—was a PSA category honoree at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show in June.
The humorous jazz fest spot has since scored globally, copping a Gold Lion in the Cannes competition’s Entertainment & Leisure category. The commercial was initially singled out at the beginning of the year in "The Best Work You May Never See" (SHOOT, 1/12, p. 17).
The other Gold Lion honoree—this one in the Funding & Appeals category—first appeared in SHOOT’s gallery last year (9/15/00, p. 12): "Borders," a :30 directed by Marcel Langenegger of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films for agency Advico Young & Rubicam, Zurich.
The spot opens with the sight of stitches being made to close a wound in human flesh. But rather than repulse viewers, this bit of suturing piques their curiosity. The lightning-quick scenes command attention. Bomb-like, muffled blasts of sound contrast with stately and encouraging instrumental music. Through a confusion of blurred, then focused, images and jagged flashes of light, the pattern of the wound emerges. Calmly, methodically, the sewing continues, the stitches following the odd curves of the gash. Then faintly tattooed words become visible on the skin.
An attentive observer will first make out the name of a country: Kosovo. As the mending concludes, the camera pulls back. We see that the stitching maps the borders separating Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia.
The cartography speaks volumes. The surgery is helping to heal the torn borders between countries. The map sewn on the flesh-like canvas figuratively represents what the sponsoring organization—Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)—is all about. The group, headquartered in France, provides medical care to troubled areas throughout the world during times of warfare and natural catastrophe.
The creative team for Advico Young & Rubicam consisted of creative director/writer/ art director Martin Spillmann, writer Juerg Brechbuehl, art director Denis Schwarz and producer Mishela Truemepi.
"Borders" was shot by DP Scott Galinsky. Shelly Townsend and Salli Shrewsbury served as executive producer and producer, respectively, for Propaganda. The spot was edited by Fernando Villena of Brass Knuckles, Venice, Calif. Colorist was Arnold Ramm of Pacific Data Post, Santa Monica. Audio mixer was Eric Ryan of RavensWork, Venice. Chris Neilman and Chris Smith of Venice-based Machine Head were composer and sound designer, respectively.
Doctors Without Borders was launched in 1971 by a group of French doctors who had worked in the Biafran war. The doctors felt that aid organizations were at times too slow to bring medical relief and were hampered by restrictions that kept them from denouncing abuses and injustices. The group’s first humanitarian effort was to treat earthquake victims in Nicaragua in ’72. Doctors Without Borders now annually sends approximately 2,000 professionals from around the world to provide immediate medical care to war refugees and victims of natural disasters, famine, and diseases such as meningitis in Nigeria, tuberculosis in Eastern Europe and AIDS in Thailand.
The Nobel Peace Prize was bestowed upon the organization in October ’99. The award recognized not only the medical services provided by the group, but also its ability to deal with the politics of giving aid and helping to make sure that, despite those politics, much needed medical and nutritional relief reached victims in a timely manner.
