Unfortunately there is no survival guide to help teens deal with the trials and tribulations of high school. But thanks to a new campaign for Clearsil® from Euro RSCG, teens now have a guide to being a confident human being. Entitled “A User’s Guide To The World,” the series of webisodes, which are part of Clearsil®’s overall “May Cause Confidence” campaign, provides do’s and don’ts for maneuvering through the world so teens can walk, talk and flirt like the alpha dog/cat that they are.
For the dry humor they were looking for, the creatives turned to New York-based INTERspectacular. In “That Voice,” viewers are told how to get rid of that internal voice that causes a lack of confidence. “Accessorize” teaches young people how to throw fashion to the wind to stand out. And “Posture Counts” points out the important statement you give to the world through your everyday stance. Some of the webisodes were released on YouTube and all 10 can be viewed at www.maycauseconfidence.com.
“The scripts were very funny, but they had no visual direction,” notes Michael Uman, INTERspectacular creative director. “We worked on developing the scripts, and the visual humor that would illustrate each line.” INTERspectacular Creative Director Luis Blanco pointed out that it’s becoming more frequent for agencies like Euro RSCG to turn to the company for ideas and to consider it a creative agency. “On projects such as this, the client sees us as more than just a production company or just an animation studio. The projects are more collaborative, and we are involved in the writing and creative concepting process, which is what we really enjoy,” he said.
Uman and Blanco, co-founders of INTERspectacular, handpicked illustrator Mark Todd for the project. “Mark’s work has an inherent sense of humor to it, so we knew he would be able to take our visual suggestions and notes and make them even funnier,” Uman explained. Added Blanco, “Mark had a very deliberate naive style. It fits perfectly for these ideas relating to high school. You could almost imagine that these are drawings that a high school kid would make. If you could look into his or her brain, that’s what you would see, drawings like this.”
Perhaps just as important as choosing the right style for the webisodes was choosing the right voiceover. The Euro RSCG team suggested Phillip Chorba, who they had worked with on a TV spot. He had the perfect tone to his voice that the spots called for. Uman and Blanco admitted they did a lot of takes to get the webisodes to have that very matter-of-fact dry quality. They explained that some of the takes were too upbeat while others were the opposite extreme, too deadpan.
This new Clearsil® platform of celebrating confidence that comes with clear skin began earlier this year to allow the client to reposition itself as an acne-eliminating, balanced skincare line intended for regular use rather than just a fast-acting, effective spot treatment for pimples. The webisodes extend the TV campaign to the Internet where the teen and young adult demographic are looking for fun engaging content.
According to Kersten Rivas, account director at Euro RSCG, “It’s not the stereotypical, cliché situations and dialogue we’ve seen in the past. Its a concerted effort to be real, and focus on the freedom that young adults feel when breakouts aren’t even a consideration anymore.”
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