The Volkswagen Golf GTI ad “True Men” from bicoastal/international @radical.media and DDB Group Germany, Berlin, collected five of 15 awards handed out last week at the vdw (Association of German Advertising Spot Producers) Awards, which attracted more than 400 to a gala celebration in Frankfurt on the eve of the eDIT Filmmakers Festival (see related story, p. 1). That included trophies for direction, presented to director Steve Miller; copywriting, to Ulrich Lützenkirchen; cinematography, to director of photography Martin Ruhe; costume design, to Nicole Fischnaller; and music, to UK trio 22-20s.
The spot shows the life span of the car through kids in what appears to be home movies. “This was the 25th anniversary of this model–so kids at the time are now adults,” director Miller explained. “I wanted to have the aesthetic represent the idea of home movies, but not have that be a theme to the spot–just in keeping with the theme as more personal and more emotional. We just showed boys in a natural medium and since we were kind of talking about a particular time, ’73-’76, it made sense to go with a more dated medium. We used 16mm and Super 8, in keeping with that era. We also shot 35mm for 16.”
The evening’s other big winner was the effective animation “Sounds of Summer” for Mercedes-Benz Cabriolets via Spring & Jacoby, Hamburg, and Hamburg-based production company Sehsucht, which collected three trophies including best commercial; animation, awarded to directors/animators Timo Schaedel and Ole Peters; and sound design, presented to sound designer Wenke Kleine-Benne of NHB, Hamburg.
@radical.media, also, along with ALMAP BBDO Brazil and PepsiCo, collected the vdw Award for top international spot, which is conferred annually on the best commercial of foreign production that was seen on German television or cinemas. This year’s winning spot was Pepsi’s “Surf,” which was directed by Tarsem of @radical.media and featured surfers playing soccer while on their boards riding waves.
Vdw Awards were also bestowed on Jono Griffith and Teun Rietveld, in the category of editing, for Asics, “Attacks,” via Neue Sentimental Film Berlin via Berlin’s Aimaq Rapp Stolle; Ole Peter for visual effects on Mju-Mini Digital’s “New Eyes V Chain Reaction,” via Sehsucht and FCB Wilkens, Hamburg; and Stefan Bednarczyk, Morten Holst and Kasper Gattrup for their performances in Volkswagen’s VW Sharan “Machos,” for soup.film, Berlin, and DDB Group Germany, Hamburg.
West’s “Demo” via Berlin-based production company Jo!Schmid and Hamburg-based agency Jung von Matt for the Reemtsma Tobbacco Group collected two awards: the make-up honor was presented to Dagmar Riha and scenery to Birgit Kniep-Gentis.
Lastly, with a nod to the future, the award for best student commercial was presented to Alexander Kiesl, Steffen Hacker and Oliver Staubi of the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg for Xbox “Racing Beats.”
The Association of German Advertising Spot Producers was founded in 1966. The 38 members currently in the association represent roughly 75 percent of Germany’s national advertising spot volume, which equates to annual sales of approx. 250 million euros.
