While the 2000 Summer Olympic Games are set to kick off Sept. 15 and run until Oct. 1, the commercial push from Olympic advertisers began long before the famed torch embarked on its circuitous route to Sydney.
Although some had conjectured that the ongoing actors’ strike might put a dent in the number of Olympic spots produced, major advertisers generally proceeded with their planned ad campaigns. Some managed to avoid problems by producing commercials in advance of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ (AFTRA) strike, which began May 1. Others forged ahead with production during the strike. A significant share of that work entailed filming outside the U.S., in some cases to access foreign acting talent and to avoid union picketing. However, a fair amount of foreign filming would have taken place regardless of the strike. This was particularly true Down Under as agencies and clients desired backdrops and/or slices of life from the Olympics’ host country.
Supposedly several spots were also produced under interim agreements with the actors’ unions, though that could not be officially confirmed as SHOOT went to press. Signatories to the interim pacts were believed to be boutique agencies and small production shops that in some instances allegedly served as conduits through which significant advertisers could access SAG performers.
Typically, spot story lines and concepts are kept under wraps when it comes to premium mega TV events such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics. But this time around, that secrecy was heightened further for the Summer Games—and in some instances extended to basic production info such as filming locations—due to the strike.
Nonetheless, through informed sources and the industry grapevine, SHOOT was able to confirm some of the key players in Olympic advertising. Indeed the spotmaking community will have a broad electronic canvas on which to make its mark, much to the delight of NBC. At press time, the network had reportedly sold out nearly all of its advertising time for the Summer Games. NBC will air more than 160 hours of Olympic programming, and its cable affiliates—MSNBC and CNBC—will carry another 279 hours, for a total of 441.5 hours.
Official worldwide sponsors of the Games include Visa, Coca-Cola, IBM, McDonald’s, Xerox, Kodak, UPS, Samsung, Panasonic, John Hancock and Sports Illustrated. Official sponsors of the U.S. team include AT&T, Bank of America, General Motors, Texaco, United Airlines, Anheuser-Busch, Delta Airlines, Home Depot, U.S. West, Seiko, Lucent Technologies and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
HEAD START
One of the Games’ dominant advertisers appears to be Visa. Its agency, BBDO New York, created four spots, three of which were directed by David Cornell of bicoastal Headquarters, and broke during this year’s Super Bowl telecast. They are: "Synchronized Commercialism," in which synchronized swimmers in a pool spell out "VISA" with their bodies; "I Enjoy Being A Girl," featuring images of a female Olympic pole-vaulter in action; and "Olympic Dreams," in which a female athlete ruminates on her dream of executing the perfect high dive, only to reveal that she is a pole-vaulter.
Another Olympic-themed Visa spot is "Kangaroo Dreams," directed by Robert Gordon of bicoastal Flying Tiger Films (SHOOT Top Spot, 4/28, p.14). In the commercial, which broke in early April, a kangaroo imagines himself a Gold Medal winner in a triathalon.
In mid-July, another BBDO client, Texaco, broke two spots—also helmed by Headquarters’ Cornell—that are designed to champion the spirit of Texaco employees and to connect them to the spirit of the Games. "Playing Field" and "Coaches" both show scenes of children around the world as they learn to swim, fence, play baseball and master gymnastics, while a voiceover relates that many Texaco employees are also team coaches.
It was General Motors, however, that got the biggest jump on the Sydney Games. Last August, GM debuted the spot "Deconstruction," created by its New York-based agency Berlin, Cameron & Partners. Directed by Jeff Darling of bicoastal/international @radical.media and set to a re-mixed version of Aerosmith’s "Sweet Emotion," the spot features Carl Lewis doing a long jump in front of a packed stadium. As a voiceover questions when we should begin to support the Olympic athlete, visual elements from the spot—the stadium, the fans, the photographers—start to disappear. As he lands in the sandpit, Lewis becomes a young boy practicing the long jump in the middle of nowhere. The voiceover says, "GMC is committed to supporting tomorrow’s Olympians and their families today and into the future."
Andrew Christou, associate creative director at Berlin, Cameron & Partners, observed, "I think we were the only people to start a year ahead of schedule. It was part of our concept: five-time Olympic Gold Medal-winning champions don’t really need your help. The young guns working two jobs and practicing all morning are the ones who really need your Olympic support. Now’s the time that they need your money, your sponsorship."
GM broke two additional spots, "Eyes" and "Faces," a few months ago. Directed by Peter Goldschmidt of bicoastal Omaha Pictures, they compare the efforts of Olympic hopefuls and GM’s United Auto Workers employees. Also set to "Sweet Emotion," the spot intercuts images of athletes with UAW members on the assembly line; a voiceover explains that GM is donating vehicles in support of Olympic hopefuls as part of its "Team Behind the Team" Olympic campaign.
JUST DO IT
Director David Fincher of bicoastal Anonymous helmed eight effects-heavy Nike spots out of Wieden+Kennedy (W+K), Portland, which feature Olympic athletes such as Marion Jones, Michael Johnson and Maurice Green. Venice, Calif.-based Digital Domain supplied the effects, which create the look of filmstrips. Digital Domain visual effects supervisor Fred Raimondi said the idea was to use the filmstrip effect as a way to tell more than one story at a time.
"There are things going on in the back filmstrip that are different from things going on in the front filmstrip," said Raimondi. "The idea was to rack focus between both filmstrips … and have multiple images on the screen at the same time. We really wanted to go for macrophotography of film, and emulate what would happen if you were to look at two pieces of film backed by a gigantic light source. We had to come up with some tricky compositing things to do it, but it came out great."
Nike competitor adidas and Amsterdam-based agency 180 also turned out a couple of :60 Olympic spots, helmed by Ringan Ledwidge of London-based Harry Nash. With adidas sponsoring athletes in 26 out of 28 sports in the Games, 180 thought it would be interesting to invite great Olympians to try their hands at the two sports in which the firm’s products are not yet involved: equestrian and sailing. The result is two comedic and chaotic spots—"Boats" and "Horses"—in which athletes use skills specific to their own sports to improvise hauling and rigging sailboats, as well as saddling up horses and jumping obstacles. ("Horses" is this week’s Top Spot, see p. 14.)
"Horses" was shot near Cadiz in the south of Spain in late February; "Boats" was lensed the next month in North Miami Beach. Athletes featured include the ’96 Olympics’ Gold Medal long-distance runner Haile Gebrselassie, heptathlon Bronze medalist Denise Lewis and Bronze Medal sprinter Ato Boldon.
Two :60 Coca-Cola spots directed by James Gartner of bicoastal Gartner for Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, are slated to break during the opening ceremonies. The commercials are part of Coke’s new campaign, which presents various scenarios in which people become angry when Coke is not available. One spot has a soldier returning home; the other has an American family greeting a Chinese exchange student. In each case, the words "Next Time … Enjoy" appear at the end, over the backdrop of a Coke bottle.
Another Coca-Cola spot, this one for Wieden+Kennedy, was directed in April by Fincher’s fellow Anonymous director Andrew Douglas; it’s slated to debut during the Olympics telecast.
Director Lenny Dorfman of bicoastal/international @radical.media is helming an IBM campaign for Ogilvy & Mather, New York, that was shot in New York and Australia, and promotes the Web-enabled information system that IBM provides for the Games. The new campaign is said to be similar to the Olympic-themed IBM spots Dorfman directed for the ’98 Nagano Winter Olympics. Believed to feature little-known Olympic competitors, the spots will supposedly direct viewers to the official Olympic Web site—which is powered by IBM—to check out the athletes’ bios.
Director Alex Proyas of bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures directed a five-spot package for Bank of America out of Bozell, New York: "Anthem," "Teach," "Cynics," "Relay" and "Treadmill." Containing a variety of stunning locations, the commercials feature a young boy talking about several topics, including why he wants to be a teacher when he grows up, and his take on people who doubt what can be accomplished.
Director Gregor Nicholas, also of @radical.media, directed a :60 ad for Home Depot for The Richards Group, Dallas. Shot on location in Sydney, it is said to be an emotional spot highlighted by beautiful visuals and a sizable cast.
Warren, Mich.-based agency Campbell-Ewald created a Chevy Trucks spot called "Hockey Kids," co-directed by Steve and Linda Horn of New York-based Steve & Linda Horn, and edited by Jim Haygood, Superior Assembly Editing Company, Santa Monica. With Bob Seger’s "Like a Rock" as accompaniment, it offers slo-mo visuals of small children who are rather clumsily playing a game of ice hockey in an arena. At the spot’s end, a voiceover says, "Imagine how dependable you’d have to be to carry someone’s dream," and notes that Chevy is a proud sponsor of the U.S. team.
W+K, Portland, has also turned out a Power Bar spot: "Olympic Anthem," directed by Chris Milk of @radical.media. It offers a mock-serious anthem to the Olympic competitors, spoofing such musical fund-raising efforts as Live-Aid. Inspiring visuals of athletes in action are accompanied by a heartfelt rendition of a seemingly stirring song. Singers are shown crooning such lyrics as, "For four long years, you’ve put your life on hold/Now this is your chance, friend: Go for the Gold." But the kicker comes when they sing the chorus: "Don’t Bonk." Another Power Bar spot, shot in and around Los Angeles, was directed by Tenney Fairchild of Santa Monica-headquartered M-80.
A Cadillac commercial via DMB&B, Detroit, was directed by Peter Nydrle, Nydrle Productions, West Hollywood. The visual effects-driven spot has cars driving along in a desert as if they were competing in a swim meet, complete with flip-turns.
Don Rase of Backyard Productions, Santa Monica, directed McDonald’s "Win for You," via DDB Chicago. Edited by Steve Stein of Cutters, Chicago, the spot shows a guy watching an Olympic track race on TV, while eating a McDonald’s meal. Discovering that when he holds up a french fry, the American Olympian runs faster, the TV viewer uses the fry to enhance the performance of the unwitting runner.
McDonald’s is also scheduled to air a re-edited version of a popular 16-year-old spot: "Olympic Hopefuls," created by Leo Burnett Co., Chicago. The ad shows how children’s everyday activities mimic Olympic athletes. For instance, a child who slings his plate off the table is envisioned as a future discus-thrower. The original spot was directed by Rob Lieberman, who at the time was with now defunct Harmony Pictures. (Lieberman now directs via bicoastal The Lieberman Company, which is in association with bicoastal Straw Dogs.)
AT&T, while not believed to be producing spots specifically geared to the Olympics, is using the Games to debut $50 million worth of advertising for its new image campaign. Director Simon Blake of Chelsea Pictures directed four AT&T spots out of Young & Rubicam, New York. The spots—"Buttons," "Push Pin," "Dryer" and "Stripped"—are said to incorporate a play on words involving the AT&T globe logo.
