Aleysa Young of Untitled Films, Toronto, directed this online spot in which an overly sleepy mohel is about to perform a circumcision, not exactly inspiring confidence on the part of the baby’s family. This slice of unnerving life ends with an appeal from 23 Degrees: “Please don’t forget your coffee.”
Ad agency is Red Urban, Toronto.
“Mohel” is part of an online campaign consisting of three spots, all of which center on coffee-deprived individuals. In one commercial, exhaustion prevents a doctor from delivering bad news in a sensitive manner. In the other ad, a bomb squad lets the clock run out as their yawns become contagious.
“Coffee is a really cluttered category, which makes it especially important to create standout work.” said Christina Yu, creative director at Red Urban. “The roastery world takes itself fairly seriously, so we saw an opportunity to flip that and create something a little more irreverent than we’re used to seeing in this category.”
DGA Spot Nominees: Lance Acord, Kim Gehrig, Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim, Andreas Nilsson, Ivan Zacharias
This year’s field of nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award recognizing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials consists of a filmmaker who’s won the honor each of the last two years, another past winner, a five-time nominee, a helmer who’s just picked up his second career nod, and a duo garnering their very first Guild nomination. The latter is the directorial team of Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim of production house PRETTYBIRD. The director now going for her third consecutive DGA Award win is Kim Gehrig of Somesuch. The other past winner is Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks. Nilsson won the honor in 2016 and now has three career nominations. Lance Acord of Park Pictures just earned his fifth career DGA Award nomination in the commercials category--his four prior nods coming in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2017. And scoring his second career DGA nod is Ivan Zacharias of SMUGGLER who was previously nominated in 2023. The work Gehrig earned her third straight nomination on the strength of three entries: SiriusXM’s “A Life in Sound” for agency Uncommon; Nike’s “Am I A Bad Person?” for Wieden+Kennedy, and the Apple client-direct spot titled “Find Your Friends.” Nilsson’s latest nomination came for Hennessy’s “Board Game” out of Wieden+Kennedy London; Andrex’s “First Office Poo” for FCB London; the client-direct Apple spot “One More”; and Virgin Media’s “Whizzer” for VCCP London. Acord’s fifth career nod is for Volkswagen’s “An American Love Story” out of agency Johannes Leonardo. Zacharias’ second career nomination is for Apple’s “Flock” out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab. And the duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim nabbed their first... Read More