Cliff Freeman Shoots Critters Out Of A Cannon To Create Lasting Impression.
CLIENT
Cyberian Outpost/Outpost.com.
PRODUCTION CO.
Hungry Man, New York.John O’Hagan, director; Christophe Lanzenberg, DP; Lisa Timmons, producer. Shot at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood.
AGENCY
Cliff Freeman And Partners, New York. Eric Silver, creative director/copywriter; Roger Camp, art director; Nick Feldman, producer.
EDITORIAL
MacKenzie Cutler, New York. Gavin Cutler, editor.
POST
Post Perfect, New York. Victor Mulholland, colorist; Nice Shoes, New York.
Russ Bigsby, online editor
AUDIO POST
Photomagnetic Sound Studios, New York. Chris Drozdowski, mixer.
SOUND DESIGN
MacKenzie Cutler. Chuck Smith, sound designer.
BY SANDRA GARCIA
Advertising creative has always felt the crushing weight of political correctness, from legitimate watchdogs such as the anti-tobacco lobby to singular activists complaining about sexual innuendo in a pickle spot. But last week, New York-based Cliff Freeman And Partners said screw it, with a spot created for Cyberian Outpost’s Web site, Outpost.com.
The :30 "Cannon" opens on what looks like Masterpiece Theater with a keen Alistair Cooke-type sitting comfortably perched in a brown leather chair. The viewer is set up to think this is either a PSA or an introduction to the condensed theatrical version of Moby Dick. The distinguished host says very plainly, "Hello, we wanted you to remember our name, Outpost.com. That’s why we’ve decided to fire gerbils out of this cannon through the ‘o’ in Outpost." Before you can digest his words, the camera cuts to a room containing a freestanding cement wall bearing the yellow and black Outpost.com logo with a hole where the "o" in "post" should be. In the foreground, a man standing with his back to the camera fires a medium-sized cannon aimed at the wall. The first gerbil misses the hole, bouncing off the wall and thudding flatly on the ground. The camera cuts to a close-up of the live rodent’s landing. It squeaks a bit and scurries away as the host deadpans, "Cute little guy," and orders the man to fire again. Cut to a close-up of a hand loading a gerbil into the back of the cannon, followed by a wider shot revealing a successive round of cannon shots launching the furry things at the wall. One by one they smack into it; in one instance, the airborne gerbil clears the wall, landing somewhere in the darkness beyond. All the while, the host makes straight-faced comments like, "Ooh, so close." Finally, one lucky gerbil makes it through the hole-a single red siren light goes off, signaling victory. Cut to a black screen that reads, "Send complaints to Outpost. com. The place to buy computer stuff online."
Let’s clear something up right away: The gerbils were not real. They were stuffed animals shot out of an air-pressurized tube rigged inside the cannon (although it took several tries to get one of the "stunt" gerbils through the "o"). The Humane Society was present throughout the shoot and kept careful watch as the gerbils were gingerly put in place for a few close-up shots. According to Cliff Freeman And Partners creative director/copywriter Eric Silver, for every letter received from an outraged animal activist, there was a letter that said, "Thank you, I never laughed so hard in my life."
"Good or bad, everyone agreed the spots would be memorable," said Silver, who told us the only criteria Cyberian president/CEO Darryl Peck gave the agency was to make the Outpost.com name unforgettable. Although the spot is undoubtedly twisted, the motivation behind it was not to offend and had nothing to do with marketing the Web site as edgy. "All we wanted to do was to get the name Outpost.com in front of as many people as possible, so we deliberately went far out of our way to be absurd. We’re not trying to outrage people, we’re really just trying to entertain and get people to know us and make them laugh," said Peck, who coincidentally worked in the advertising world as a lighting specialist on commercial shoots long before he sold computer equipment. Peck said he handpicked Cliff Freeman And Partners because, he said, its creative work was unrivaled-especially for humor.
Two additional spots in the campaign, "Band" and "Tattooed" are not without their own perversions. In "Band," the advertisers release a pack of ravenous wolves on a high school band forming the name Outpost.com on the 50-yard line of a football field. And "Tattooed" involves tattooing the Outpost.com logo on the foreheads of petrified pre-schoolers. The spots don’t reveal anything about the Web site, barring a single tagline that reads, "The place to buy computer stuff online," but it does invite viewers to forward their complaints to Outpost.com, cleverly drawing them to the site. A pissed-off customer might go to the site to file a complaint but might also discover a cool color scanner for only $99.99.
Well, not exactly. But there is a method to the madness. "There are two phases to the advertising; the first is the initial in-your-face ‘Don’t forget us,’ and the second is going to be more about the company," explained Silver. "Hopefully, the majority of people, even if they don’t like it, will remember and appreciate it as different because it cuts through the bland world of commercials."
New York-based Hungry Man director John O’Hagan felt it was crucial to the spot’s humor to have the narrator deadpan his part. "We told the actor to be really dry and oblivious to the fact that it’s not nice to shoot gerbils out of cannons," said the straight-faced O’Hagan, whose sense of humor attracted Silver to him in the first place.
"We didn’t want it to be gaggy, and John understood that better than anyone," said Silver "His [the actor’s] seriousness is a great juxtaposition to the action going on behind him." The spot was shot on location at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood. The Humane Society took copious notes as Silver and O’Hagan carefully dropped the gerbils from a very modest height to create the illusion that they were falling to the ground. Also present at the shoot was a gerbil wrangler who, according to O’Hagan, loved the fact that his little friends were getting some airtime.
"Cannon" is currently airing nationally on most major networks and cable channels. At press time, Peck informed us that news channels CNBC and CNN had both dropped the spot from their programming because of an overwhelming amount of phone calls from complaining viewers. "Well," Peck shrugged, "you can’t please everyone."
Radium Dives In For
Hamburger Helper
CLIENT
General Mills/Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper.
PRODUCTION CO.
Visitor, Venice, Calif. James Wahlberg, director; Tony McNamara, DP; Olivier Katz, executive producer; Kelly Amato, producer. Shot at Sunset-Gower Studios, Hollywood.
AGENCY
DDB Needham Chicago. Judith Werme, group creative director; Carolyn Bergen, creative director; Sarah Feit, art director; Merry Carole Powers, copywriter; Kent Kwiatt, producer.
EDITORIAL
Avenue Edit, Santa Monica. Brian Johnson, editor.
POST
Western Images, San Francisco. Gary Coates, colorist. Avenue Edit, Chicago, Brian Johnson, online editor.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Radium, San Francisco. Simon Mowbray, digital artist/compositor; Danielle Ciccarelli and Davi Stein, digital artists; William Opdyke and Debora Santosa, 3-D animators.
AUDIO POST
What The Hale Music, Chicago. Ken Hale and Eric Sproull, engineers/mixers.
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
What The Hale Music. Ken Hale and Eric Sproull, composers/arrangers/sound designers.
THE SPOT
"Ravioli and Cheese" promotes Hamburger Helper’s Supreme Line with a series of brightly colored and highly choreographed vignettes that center on the product’s ingredients and border on the surreal. Scenes in the :30 include a toy tractor hauling tomatoes across a stylized farm field; a pair of toy teeth zipping across the frame, snapping at bits of pasta suspended by string; a line of women in ravioli headgear winking at the camera, and then, à la Busby Berkeley, dive into a bubbling pool of cheese.
Spot broke in October.
SunSpots Rides The
Carousel For Dodge
CLIENT
Chrysler Corporation Dodge Division/Dodge Dakota.
PRODUCTION CO.
SunSpots, Hollywood. David Dryer, director; Bill Bennett, DP; Jeff Jackson, motion-control DP; Linda Dryer and David Coulter, executive producers; Jeff Tuttle, producer; Jim Shippee, production supervisor. Shot at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood.
AGENCY
BBDO Detroit, Southfield, Mich. Dick Johnson, president/ executive creative director; Jim Nicoll, producer; Gary Wise, art director; Lance Aldrich, creative director/copywriter.
EDITORIAL
Kutz Inc., Farmington Hills, Mich. Cam Khoury, editor.
POST
The Post Group, Hollywood. Jeff Hauser, Inferno artist. CIS Hollywood, Los Angeles. Steve Bowen, colorist.
AUDIO POST
Yessian Music, Farmington Hills. Tony Campana, engineer.
MUSIC
Yessian Music. Brian Brill and Tony Campana, composers.
THE SPOT
The :30 "Carousel" pokes fun at "toylike" compact trucks, suggesting people buy something a bit more "adult," such as the 1999 Dodge Dakota, which has more room, more payload and more power. "It’s time to put away the toys," states the tagline.
Spot broke in October.
Stuart Waks & Co.
Floats In Lexus RX
CLIENT
Toyota Motor Sales USA/Lexus RX 300.
PRODUCTION CO.
HSI Productions, bicoastal. Zack Snyder, director; Russell Carpenter, DP; Jim Evans, executive producer; Kendall Henry, producer; Kathy Siegel, visual effects supervisor. Shot at Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, Calif., and on location.
AGENCY
Team One Advertising, El Segundo, Calif. Leonard Pearlstein, co-chairman/CEO; Tom Cordner, executive creative director; Steve Levit, creative director; Jack Epsteen, senior producer; Jennifer Willett, assistant producer; Greg Wells, art director; Eric Walker, copywriter.
EDITORIAL
Stuart Waks & Co., Santa Monica. Stuart Waks, editor; Chris Immel, assistant editor; Amy Russo, executive producer; Patricia Gushikuma, producer.
POST
Company 3, Santa Monica. Stefan Sonnenfeld and Michael Pethel, colorists.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Digital Domain, Venice, Calif. Fred Raimondi, visual effects supervisor; Leslie Oliver, visual effects producer; Kieran Woo, visual effects coordinator; Jean Luc Assiz, compositor.
AUDIO POST
Mike Recording Services, West Los Angeles. Bob Gremore, mixer.
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
Admusic, Santa Monica. John Adair, composer; Steve Sauber, sound designer; Korbin Kraus, producer. Logo/end tag music by Primal Scream, Santa Monica. Jason Johnson, composer.
THE SPOT
The :30 "Fluidity" illustrates the smooth and comfortable ride of a Lexus RX 300. As the vehicle manuevers over rocky terrain, the couple inside the Lexus appear as though they are underwater.
Spot broke Nov. 2.
Saatchi & Saatchi
Works For Provident
CLIENT
Provident Companies.
PRODUCTION CO.
Satellite, Hollywood. Peter Care, director; Salvatore Totino, DP; Jeff Armstrong, executive producer; Jack Hardwicke, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
Saatchi & Saatchi, New York. Dabni Harvey, creative director/ art director; Meg Rogers, creative director/copywriter; Sheldon Levy, executive producer; Eric Korte, music producer.
EDITORIAL
Red Car, Hollywood. Hal Honigsberg, editor; Jim Rodney, assistant editor.
POST
Company 3, Santa Monica. Stefan Sonnenfeld, colorist. Red Car. Adam Lobel, online editor.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Fuel, Santa Monica. Casey Steele, producer.
AUDIO POST
POP Sound, Santa Monica. Peter Rincon, mixer.
MUSIC
Michael Boyd Music, San Francisco. Michael Boyd, composer.
THE SPOT
"Funny Thing About Work" focuses on the emotional connection that people have with their jobs by featuring common folk in work situations. The voiceover states, "In this country, we have a funny thing about work-we actually like it." The announcer then notes how "we get much more out of work than a paycheck … that’s why it’s a good idea to insure it with Provident Income Protection." The spot uses the tagline, "Protecting everything you work for."
Spot broke Sept. 7.
Manhattan Transfer
For Univ. Hospital
CLIENT
The University Hospital.
PRODUCTION CO.
Manhattan Transfer, New York. Kieran Walsh, director; Karl Hahn, DP; Arthur Ellis, assistant camera operator; John Anderson, executive producer; Susan Kipp, production manager. Shot on stage at Black Watch Productions, New York, and on location.
AGENCY
DKB and Partners, Morristown, N.J. Leticia Martin, creative director; Hank Sagman, producer; Jo Stapleton, copywriter; Brian Hagen, art director.
STOCK FOOTAGE
Film Bank, Burbank, Calif. The Image Bank, New York.
EDITORIAL
Manhattan Transfer. Bill Denahy, editor; Charles Parks, assistant editor.
POST
Manhattan Transfer. Kieran Walsh, online editor; Ron Brower, colorist; Connie Griffin, executive producer.
VISUAL EFFECTS
Manhattan Transfer. Bill Denahy, director of visual effects; Patrick Asuncion, Macintosh artist; Bridget Fullan, digital artist; Mary Maffei, producer.
AUDIO POST
Howard Schwartz Recording, New York. Leslie Mona-Mathus, mixer.
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
Sacred Noise, New York. David Gennaro, composer/arranger/ sound designer.
THE SPOT
Two :30s-"What It Means, Part 1" and "What It Means, Part 2"-focus on the human aspect of medical care and University Hospital’s state-of-the-art technology and advanced capabilities.
Spots broke Oct. 1.
Lovinger/Cohn Is
Cool For Winterfresh
CLIENT
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co./Wrigley’s Winterfresh Gum.
PRODUCTION CO.
Lovinger/Cohn & Associates, New York. Kim Dempster, director; Ed Stephenson, DP; Andrew Adelson, executive producer; Louise Feldman, producer. Shot on location.
AGENCY
BBDO Chicago. Gwen Dawkins, creative director/copywriter; Elaine Perri, creative director/art director; Chuck Sheldon, executive producer.
EDITORIAL
Optimus, Chicago. Scott Taradash, editor; Julia Findlayson, assistant editor.
POST/VISUAL EFFECTS
Optimus. Craig Leffel, colorist; Glen Noren, Henry artist; Marko Markewycz, Flame artist; Mike Ciacciarelli, Adobe AfterEffects; Chad Ashley, 3-D effects.
AUDIO POST
Optimus. Bruce Lash, mixer.
MUSIC
Sunday Productions, New York. Tom McFaul, arranger.
THE SPOT
The :30 "Volcano/Snowball" highlights the "icy cool" flavor of Winterfresh Gum.
Spot broke Sept.
