As reported earlier (SHOOTonline, 9/12), Coca-Cola’s “Heist” directed by Todd Mueller and Kylie Matulick of Psyop for Wieden + Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore., won the 2009 primetime commercial Emmy Award.
While our initial coverage had “Heist” insights from several W+K artisans as well as John Leverence, senior VP, awards, for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS), SHOOT garnered further feedback from Mueller and W+K senior producer Matt Hunnicutt.
“The Emmy is a testament to the great creative relationship between W+K and Coca-Cola,” stated Hunnicutt. “Our goal has always been to produce work that isn’t just superb branded storytelling, but something people actively seek out and enjoy for entertainment’s sake too–“Heist” was the culmination of both, and it’s an honor for our team to receive such high recognition.”
Indeed given the changing nature of advertising where prospective consumers have more control over what they watch, the entertainment dynamic has become exponentially more important than it was years ago when a heavy media buy could ensure eyeballs. With the Emmy being based on a project’s entertainment value, the award carries arguably more heft than ever before in the ad community.
“Commercials need to be considered entertainment–they were framed in this exact context during the Emmy Awards show [the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony on Sept. 12],” related Mueller. “Typically five spots are nominated. This year there were eight which shows there is more interesting work being done, with the TV Academy placing a keen eye on entries.”
(Editor’s note: There were eight nominated commercials due to a five-way tie in the voters’ tally for fourth place. The ATAS awards committee thus had a choice of going with the top three nominations or expanding the field to eight. They opted for eight given the high quality of the work.)
To recap, W+K had three of the ’09 Emmy-nominated ads: Coke’s “Heist” as well as CareerBuilder.com’s “Tips” and Nike’s “Bottled Courage.” DDB Chicago had two nominated commercials: Budweiser’s “Circus”; and a web spot for Bud Light, “Magazine Buyer.” And scoring single nominations were: Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, for Sprint/Nextel’s “Wedding”; Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami and Boulder, Colo., for Hulu’s “Alec In Huluwood”; and Ogilvy & Mather, N.Y., for AmEx’s “Airport Lounge.”
Quipping that it was a blast topping high-profile spots “with porn [‘Magazine Buyer] and Alec Baldwin [‘Alec In Huluwood’], Mueller said in a more serious vein that the Emmy represented “a fantastic accolade,” underscoring the great working relationship Psyop has enjoyed with W+K and Coca-Cola. That track record includes the lauded Coke spot “Happiness Factory” for W+K, Amsterdam, which received an Emmy nomination in ’07.
“We collaborate to find things beautiful in everyday life and then somehow turn them on their ear with something madly inventive,” said Mueller. “Wieden and Coke help us to push boundaries, to put a level of quirkiness into the work.”
As for his and Matulick’s approach to the combination animation/live-action “Heist” spot, Mueller said, “We have done so much animation over the years, our eyes are so tuned to the detail of everything from the palette to the animation to how things reflect, the quality of the surfaces, that we have developed an acuity which we bring to the live-action world. I think that helps us as we transition into larger scale live-action. As far as animation is concerned, we approach it differently. We try to steer away from what people have gotten used to, what they think computer graphics are supposed to look like. We approach our animation and live action cinematically.”
Regarding the biggest challenge Psyop faced on “Heist,” Mueller observed, “The job was complex but the hardest part was getting awarded the job to begin with. We were going up against some big names. We fought really hard and put a lot of effort into our presentation and thinking–and specifically the choreography for the domino change of events that still needed to be as clear as possible in the commercial.”
Asked what the Emmy win might do for his and Matulick’s directorial careers–which are already quite accomplished in the ad arena–Mueller said, “I’m not really sure what we can expect. Kylie and I have been directing together for 10 years. We didn’t have a meteoric rise–instead we have taken a more methodical route by being consistent and doing good work over the years. Hopefully the Emmy will give us a nice bump. We have some feature work in development now. And the Emmy recognition might add some weight to our effort in that realm.”
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Delay TikTok Ban
President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a "political resolution" to the issue.
The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk.
"President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act's deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case," said Trump's amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump's choice for solicitor general.
The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table.
He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew.
Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger... Read More