A man in tight close-up identifies himself as retired U.S. vice admiral Jack Shanahan.
"One of our nuclear bombs blows up Hiroshima fifteen times over," he brusquely declares, as a single black bomb icon appears beside him.
"Five devastates Russia," he continues, as, one by one in staccato rhythm, a quintet of bomb icons pulses onto the orange backdrop.
"After that, this is how many the U.S. has left."
Suddenly, in rapid-fire succession, scores of bomb icons appear in horizontal line-ups behind Shanahan. The sound design—an accelerating military tattoo—reinforces the urgency of the graphics. In a series of abrupt cuts, Shanahan’s image shrinks to a tiny figure at the bottom of the screen. There are now seemingly thousands of icons.
"I feel safer reducing nuclear weapons and investing the savings in education," he states. "Do you?"
The final long shot shows Shanahan dwarfed by thousands of bomb icons. The sight is reminiscent of the scene in the Academy Award-winning Patton, in which George C. Scott as General Patton delivers an impassioned speech, backed by an overpowering, unforgettable, screen-filling American flag.
The spot ends with the tagged slogan: "Move our money," and an e-mail address: businessleaders.org.
Titled "Move Our Money," the :30 was sponsored by Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, a nonprofit organization of more than 650 business executives. The concept came from Boston agency Hill Holliday Connors Cosmopulos (HHCC).
Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s and president of the Business Leaders group, noted: "The idea is to impress upon the American people, the media and the [presidential] candidates … the insanity of spending $35 billion every year on nuclear weapons we don’t need and cannot use, when our schools are falling apart and millions of our kids don’t have any healthcare."
HHCC president and chief creative officer Michael Sheehan explained that the agency donated its services to the Business Leaders organization because of the need to realign federal budget priorities in favor of education. "Everyone recognizes the value of increased spending on education," he said. "By making sensible reductions in the military budget, we can improve our schools without raising taxes."
The core HHCC creative team consisted of creative director/art director Dave Gardiner, creative director/ copywriter Joe Berkeley and producer Wendy Hudson.
Harry McCoy of Picture Park, Boston, directed the spot. Mark Hankey was executive producer/producer for Picture Park. David Phillips was DP.
Visual effects and graphic design were done by Click 3X, New York. The Click ensemble included visual effects director/lead Inferno artist Mike Saz, Inferno artist Alicia Aguilera, executive producer Julie Shevach and producer Sara Mills.
Of the concept, HHCC’s Gardiner related: "I was 15 when I saw Patton from a front row seat, and the image of General Patton against that flag was burned into my mind. We took the idea of this simple visual to Click 3X, and they were able to take it from concept to screen most effectively."
Avid editor on the spot was Toar Winter of National/ Boston. Rob Sayers of Sound Lounge, New York, was audio mixer.
Sound designer was Marshall Grupp of New York-based Marshall Grupp Sound Design. April Jaffe was Grupp’s executive producer.
The spot began airing during Sunday morning news/ talk shows in the Boston and Washington, D.C., markets, just prior to the Bush/Gore presidential debates.
