Against a clean white background, a blue pushpin flies into frame and hits a wall. It sticks. Three additional pins fly in with thudding force. More pins enter until they are flying as a group, jamming into the wall. Finally, the camera pulls back to reveal that the pins have become the blue lines of the AT&T white globe logo. "When your business takes you around the world," says a voiceover, "you can get fast, secure remote access from over 2,000 points with AT&T’s high-speed network."
The sequence takes place in "Pushpin," one of 11 spots featuring the AT&T globe logo contorting itself into a variety of shapes and activities. Just as remarkable as the spots themselves is the fact that this complex, primarily CGI-generated branding campaignacalled "Boundless"awas turned around in just about a month by five separate houses via Young & Rubicam (Y&R), New York. AT&T broke the ads during the Summer Olympic Games.
The five shops that worked on the ads included: Ring Of Fire Advanced Media, West Hollywood, which handled "Vroom," "Music" and "Atom"; Miss Jones Design, Santa Monica, which created "Popcorn," "Balloon" and "Newton," with Barnaby Jackson acting as director; Will Vinton Studios, Portland Ore., which crafted "Splat" and "Whirlwind," both directed by Jim Hardison. Simon Blake of bicoastal/international Chelsea Pictures directed stop-motion animation work on "Pushpin," "Striped" and "Dryer," with visual effects by Spontaneous Combustion, New York. At Spontaneous, executive creative director Tony Robins, senior visual effects compositor/supervisor David Elkins and creative director/head of CGI Sam DeWitt oversaw the spots.
