What do skateboards, Velcro fasteners, computers and electric guitars have in common? They are all inventions that came from the same place, the minds of people just like you, states the homepage of www.inventnow.org, a new website designed to get kids to explore and discover their own innate inventiveness and curiosity. Designed by Visual Perspectives Internet, Irvine, Calif., the site features interactive games and allows children to explore their inventive interests in space, sports, design and entertainment.
Two ads created pro bono by Publicis & Hal Riney, San Francisco, direct audiences to the site. The entire PSA campaign, launched by The Advertising Council, the Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation (NIHFF), seeks to make inventing and developing new ideas part of American children’s lives.
In one spot, a group of boys are enjoying an afternoon outdoors when their friend Mark shows up and they begin questioning him about why he hasn’t been around. He reveals that he lost his cat, so he’s been busy making a “cat magnet.” The boys think that sounds cool and ask him if it works. Mark replies “sort of” and demonstrates his invention. He points it in the air and a sandy colored cat comes out of nowhere and sticks to the magnet. The boys are impressed, but Mark tells them it needs a little work because that’s not his cat. The spot ends with a voiceover telling viewers, “Anything is possible. Keep thinking. Get started on your own inventions or just play some games,” as the website address appears across the screen.
In the other PSA, a brother asks his sister about the noisy contraption she’s made that rolls by them. He asks her what it is, to which she replies, “Something I kinda made.” “What’s it do,” he questions. “What do I do?,” a teddy bear attached to the machine responds. “Well thanks for asking. I ring my bell and I like to dance.” The boy, mesmerized and obviously a little perplexed, is distracted long enough to allow the device’s robotic arm to pull a Band-Aid® from his bruised leg. “Ouch,” he cries. “Yeah, it needs a little work,” says his sister about her “Band-Aid® puller.”
Baker Smith of harvest films, Santa Monica, directed the PSAs. “Baker Smith gets absolute real performances out of people and then he always adds these little touches that make him great,” said Jon Soto, executive creative director at Publicis & Hal Riney. “One of my favorite parts of ‘Cat Magnet’ is the kid hitting the stick on the ground in the beginning. It’s such a kid thing to do.”
Research conducted for the campaign found that children are innately curious and inventive but they do not realize the impact of their creativity. Soto said the creative challenge for the team was telling kids without being preachy that inventing things is not something they have to learn, it’s something they are already doing naturally. The team wanted the PSAs to show in an entertaining way how fun and rewarding it can be when you do have a thought and you take it a little bit further like the kids in the spots. They also wanted them to recognize how their imaginations can lead to the technological advances of the future without sounding too intimidating or scientific.
Soto is pleased with the warmth the spots exude. “When you get into inventions it can get into the technical aspects of what you are doing and it loses a lot of warmth. I think there was a warmth and fuzziness to the spots that everyone seemed to gravitate to,” he observed.
Young audiences are already gravitating to the campaign. “What was nice was going to Washington D.C. to launch this campaign at a press conference,” said Soto. “The front of the room was filled with kids. And it was just really fun to watch these kids light up and ask questions about it. They are being shouted at all the time.
“It’s nice to do something that respected their intelligence and looked at their intelligence from their level instead of talking down to them.”
Director Ben Steiger Levine Joins Lord Danger For U.S. Spot Representation
Lord Danger, the creative production company that’s part of the Monstera Group, has added director Ben Steiger Levine to its talent roster for U.S. commercial representation. He joins a Lord Danger directorial lineup which includes Mike Diva, Cache Bunny, MP Curtet, and Parker Seaman.
Steiger Levine shared that he was drawn in part to Lord Danger in that it’s a small, close-knit group of creative pros producing standout work. “They’re not a huge fish but rather a stealthy, nimble piranha made of beautiful rainbow colors that can adapt on a dime and devour,” Steiger Levine said. “All the directors on the roster have a voice. Lord Danger makes original images. Images with impact. Maintaining voice all while effectively selling products is the killer combination that makes work iconic, and this is Lord Danger’s priority.”
Known for his flair for design and visual effects, complemented by his strengths as a storyteller, Steiger Levine burst onto the scene after earning a slot in the 2009 Saatchi and Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase unveiled at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. He was also named a Young Gun by the Art Directors Club. Prior to joining Lord Danger, Steiger Levine was most recently with production house Greencard.
His reel includes a visually arresting campaign for Jack Links, a campaign for Core Water featuring actress Hailee Steinfeld, work for Nintendo, and the oddly-moving “Intolerance” project for Natrel, the Canadian lactose-free dairy product line, which uses a faux documentary to tell the story of a giant of a man who owes his status to drinking Natrel milk. The effect of a towering man in his too-small house was achieved without any CGI, just using in-camera tricks and compositing. Steiger... Read More