From a hair metal rock anthem accompanying a kitschy Power Rangers-like scenario to a chilling sound design tour de force capturing a deli meat slicer being deployed on a human brain–that’s the curious range represented in entries number one and two which head this Winter’s SHOOT Top 10 Spot Tracks Chart.
Finishing first was Garmin’s “Maposaurus,” a Super Bowl spot depicting man’s struggle with finding his way via maps. In fact, the maps take on a life of their own, growing before our eyes to form an intimidating Maposaurus monster, dwarfing the poor schmo grappling with directions. However, help is on the way as another man in his car has a Garmin global positioning system, which transforms him into a towering superhero who takes on and defeats the dreaded Maposaurus in a tongue-in-cheek sequence reminiscent of the old cheesy Godzilla movies.
Assuming the number two slot in SHOOT’s quarterly Music Chart was the Wyoming Department of Health’s “Slicer,” which opens on a deli meat slicer. But instead of a corned beef or pastrami brisket being loaded onto the machine, we see a human brain locked into position.
As choice cuts of gray matter are sliced off before our eyes, a voiceover provides context, noting that using meth causes brain damage.
“Up to eight percent of the lobe used for memory, gone,” relates the narrator. “Up to 10 percent of the part that controls your moods, emotions, your sex drive gone–maybe for good. Before you do meth, you better know how much of your brain you’re willing to give up–because afterwards, there’s a chance you won’t know much of anything.”
The starkly poignant ad for the Wyoming Department of Health is tagged with the website address www.MethKillsWyoming.org.
“Maposaurus”
Directed by Ulf Johansson of Smith and Sons Films, London, for Fallon Minneapolis, “Maposaurus” unfolds to music composed by Walter Werzowa, Jono Brown and Jeff Kollman and produced by Pat Weaver–all artisans with Musikvergnuegen, Hollywood. Lyrics–sung by Steve Grimmett, lead singer of metal band Grim Reaper–behoove us to “Grab your Garmin, take on the world” as our hero defeats the Maposaurus who had been wreaking havoc on the city. Grimmett’s performance is more front and center on camera in a complementary music video which users can access on a Garmin microsite with content designed to expand the experience of the Super Bowl commercial beyond the broadcast :30. There were tens of thousands of site hits for the video the very first day.
“The requirement from Fallon was a hair metal band sound from the 1980s, making the spot rock right out of the gate,” relates Weaver who notes that Grim Reaper was a point of reference from the outset. Ultimately, while there were different demos in the running with other metal talent, Grimmett got the gig in tandem with the Musikvergnuegen ensemble. “Fallon wanted a high voice that would soar over everything,” recollects Weaver, adding that Grimmett certainly fit that bill.
With lyrics penned by Fallon copywriter Alisa Sengel Wixom and group creative director Brian Tierney, Musikvergnuegen had to maintain a delicate balance. The lyrics entertainingly conveyed a product message and the music had to jibe properly with certain actions., Yet at the same time there had to be room for the anarchy of heavy metal music. “All those elements had to be married and accounted for in the composition,” says Werzowa. “It had to feel like authentic metal while still supporting the commercial. One of our prime responsibilities was to bring those worlds together in the music.”
Weaver heard that Fallon got some 35 demos, with four done by Musikvergnuegen. “We were told the top three were ours,” says Weaver. That Musikvergnuegen batch included a demo featuring Justin Hawkins, former lead guitarist and singer with metal band The Darkness.
While Musikvergnuegen held true to the heavy metal prerequisite, so too did Fallon and director Johansson to the visual mandate of 1960s retro science-fiction cinema. The ’80s metal and tongue-in-cheek sci-fi–with pretty much nothing done visually that couldn’t have been accomplished in the ’60s genre–made for a quirky, intriguing combination.
And the mesh of hair metal and fun lyrics similarly had a playful effect. Lyrics for the :30 included, “Evil Maposaurus, prepare to meet your doom. Our hero has the power. The glove box is your tomb.”
Slice of life
Directed by Ray Dillman of bicoastal/international MJZ for Sukle Advertising & Design, Denver, the Wyoming Department of Health’s “Slicer” is driven by stark, almost haunting sound design from Beacon Street Studios, Venice, Calif. The sounds accompanying the slicer going through gray matter heightens the chilling effect of the spot–and more importantly the devastating impact of meth use.
Sound designer Brian Chapman teamed with his Beacon Street colleagues, composers/sound designers John Nau and Andrew Feltenstein, on the score. “The main sound was a sample we made from an acoustic piano, which we layered onto itself, giving a dreamy, stark pulse to the film,” says Nau. “The sound was real austere, which is what we wanted.”
Chapman explains, “We took a real sound, manipulated it and made it other worldly, creating in a sense a new instrument.”
In the real audio vein, Chapman also deployed the actual sound of the slicing machine, which contributed a cold metallic, bone-chilling feel to the spot.
“That’s something Brian does,” relates Feltenstein. “When we did BMW, he went out to take field recordings of the sounds of the actual BMW models to capture realism and then we built upon that musically.”
This was the first time that Beacon Street worked with Sukle Advertising & Design. “We hadn’t heard of the agency before,” says Feltenstein who credited “Slicer” editor Tessa Davis of bicoastal Cosmo Street with turning the ad shop unto the Beacon Street ensemble. Beacon Street had collaborated in the past with Davis, perhaps most notably on the Slim Jim fare for Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami.
“She recommended that getting us involved early on would be helpful but still it all happened really fast,” recalls Feltenstein.
“That’s when we do some our best work, though,” chimes in Nau. “When things come together fast, you don’t over-think the job and you tend to go more with your instinct.”
Feltenstein also credited the contributions of Dillman, the agency team and audio post mixer Jeff Fuller of Eleven, Santa Monica.
