Ever feel you’re stuck somewhere that you don’t want to be, but can’t seem to pry yourself free? Something always seems to be holding you in place, and you never seem to have a strong enough reason to leap into the unknown? Well, that reason is the 2002 Toyota Camry—as Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif., illustrates with the plight of two magnets stuck on a refrigerator. Seemingly doomed to unflinching immobility, the pair suddenly finds a reason to make a perilous journey.
The "Magnets" ad for Camry, directed by Bryan Singer of Propaganda Independent, Hollywood, sets two flexible refrigerator magnets—a football player and a girl resembling Betty Boop, with a grass skirt, and lei around her neck—in motion when they spot the newly styled Camry outside.
This fantastical journey begins in the relatively banal routine of a family getting ready for work and school. The refrigerator, cluttered with magnets, is opened. As the door swings wide, our two protagonists see the Camry through the window. The sight elicits an "ah" and "oh" of admiration. Suddenly, they’ve discovered the opportunity for a better life. They set off on a daring expedition to get hitched to the sleek new car that will undoubtedly lead them to many wondrous adventures.
Peeling themselves off the fridge’s metal door, they leap down to the counter and bound across the room, as the up-tempo music—composed by Chip Jenkins and Jonathan Elias of bicoastal Elias Associates—accentuates their extraordinary journey. The athletic football player deftly clings against the side of the oven, while the girl jumps a bit too far and slaps firmly against a steaming kettle atop the stove. Sweat gathers on her brow and she squeals painfully. Her life is saved just before she begins to melt: The family’s young son walks by with a metal lunchbox, and she and the football player dive against it. The boy trots outside en route to school, passing right by the Camry; the football player times his leap perfectly and clings safely to the side of the car.
Hesitating, the magnet girl is carried off with the lunchbox as the boy continues down the sidewalk. The lovers gasp as they are separated, apparently never to be reunited. But hope arises when a child on a scooter cruises towards the lunchbox-toting boy. The magnet girl makes a bold attempt to return to her love, jumping onto the thin upright of the scooter. She flutters perilously with barely enough metal to hold on to, and as the scooter passes the car she springs away. Lofted high above the sidewalk, she seems sure to plunge to her demise. Miraculously she lands abruptly on the side of the Camry, next to the relieved football player. As the car pulls away, the overjoyed magnets smile, excited by the better life ahead. The announcer in voiceover states, "The reinvented Camry. One look and you’re gonna want one."
"Magnets" is one of five new spots for the 2002 Toyota Camry, together with "Psychic," Rhythmic Drive," "Go for the Car," and :30 and :60 versions of "Launch." The ads began airing Sept. 3, and :05 teasers that simply flashed the new car with the headline "You Want It" ran in weeks prior.
FROM PERSONALITY TO POST
When planning to launch the campaign for the 2002 Camry, Saatchi & Saatchi began by researching consumer opinion about the car. "People really respected the brand, but they didn’t have any feeling about the company," explained executive creative director Steve Rabosky. "We wanted to make the Camry not only something people respect, but something they really liked, and to give Camry some personality. The idea for the entire campaign really came about when we were thinking about different ways to illustrate the reactions somebody or [in this case] something has to the car when they see it for the first time."
The agency team—headed by Rabosky, creative directors Miles Turpin and Steve Landrum, copywriter Rob Pearlstein, art director Barney Goldberg, producer Patty Lum and director of advertising production Damon Webster—set out to take these first impressions of the car to fantastical heights with the "Magnets" spot, as well as with others in the campaign. "It turned out to be a fun story. When we explained the idea to the people at Camry, it put a smile on their faces, and we went out and really had some fun with it."
Wanting a cinematic look, the agency turned to noted feature director Singer (Usual Suspects, X-Men) for the "Magnets" spot. "We just wanted to bring a different kind of filmmaking perspective to it than a typical commercial director would bring. Particularly, we didn’t want directors that were car guys. We wanted someone who could bring a good imagination and visual style to the piece."
Singer, who rarely directs commercials, said the prospect of telling a story with magnets attracted him. "It was a cute little story that was very funny," he noted. The biggest challenge was making the magnets appear real while utilizing very few post effects. "We decided not to rely on visual effects, but to employ real magnets with rig removal and only use visual effects when absolutely necessary. The goal was not to have the magnets bouncing around like living creatures, but to move like refrigerator magnets would move if they could move."
Although the production tried to execute most movements and expressions of the magnets on set, Ring of Fire Advanced Media, West Hollywood, was enlisted to perform the visual effects. "Anytime you have a character as close to the lens as these were, you do want to capture as much as you can in-camera," explained Ring of Fire executive producer John Myers. "The great thing about capturing it in-camera is that we had a true reference to match to exactly; it provided us with a good template. But shooting it live has limitations. Most of the facial expressions we manipulated a little bit, and the movements of the magnets we smoothed out."
The only shot done completely in post was the overhead shot in which the girl magnet flies off the scooter and up in the air into close-up, then falls back down to land on the Camry. "That obviously could not be done in-camera, and doing it all in post gave Bryan Singer the freedom to do the shot how he wanted. That shot was actually not storyboarded; we added that on the fly while we were out there shooting," Myers recalled. "It was a fun job; it combined a lot of different things: problem-solving on set, collaborating with the puppeteers and getting into post."
