By Robert Goldrich

Director Tim Piper has a track record of breaking new ground, dating back to his days as a creative at Ogilvy Toronto, which included his co-helming with Yael Staav in 2006 the landmark Dove viral video “Evolution” which took the “Real Beauty” campaign to a whole new level.

“Evolution” introduced us to a pretty young woman sitting in front of the camera in a studio. Makeup is applied to her face, drastically changing her appearance. But the real transformation occurs after a photo retoucher gets his hands on the woman’s face, changing everything from her jaw line to the size of her eyes. He even elongates her neck. By the time the final photo is seen on a billboard, the woman looks nothing like she did at the start.

A year later, Piper—still at Ogilvy—directed “Onslaught” which captures a barrage of hyper-sexualized images of women and takes us into the out-of-control world of plastic surgery. As the “Onslaught” imagery comes to a close, a group of girls is seen crossing the street, and a super suggests that parents talk to their daughters before the beauty industry does.

Fast forward to today and Piper continues his penchant for longer-form filmmaking carrying relevant brand messages that connect with audiences. Now, though, he’s no longer on the agency side but a founding partner in film/television studio Piro. And rather than a minute-plus viral fare for Dove, this time around his branded content takes the form of Chipotle’s Farmed And Dangerous, an original comedy series which debuted last month on Hulu and Hulu Plus. Season one consists of four half-hour episodes.

Sans any overt Chipotle branding, the show reflects the company mantra of serving food made with natural ingredients from eco-friendly sustainable sources. Farmed And Dangerous satirizes the lengths to which corporate agribusiness and its image-makers go to create a positive image of industrial agriculture. The first season focuses on the introduction of PetroPellet, a petroleum-based animal feed created by fictional industrial giant Animoil. PetroPellet promises to reduce industrial agriculture’s dependence on oil by eliminating the need to grow, irrigate, fertilize and transport the vast amount of feed needed to raise livestock on factory farms. Before its new feed formula can forever reshape industrial agriculture, Animoil’s plans go awry when a revealing security video goes viral sending Animoil and their spin master, Buck Marshall (Ray Wise of Twin Peaks, Mad Men, 24) of the Industrial Food Image Bureau, into damage control mode.

The series is cut from the same socially responsible and creatively engaging cloth as the lauded animated short films from Chipotle: 2013’s Scarecrow and 2011’s Back to the Start, both of which helped spark conversations about agriculture and industrial food production.

MIP momentum
Piper and his Piro partner, Daniel Rosenberg, hope that Farmed And Dangerous will inspire more brands to embrace well crafted, strategically sound long-form entertainment. Lending momentum to that aspiration is MIPTV’s naming Chipotle Brand of the Year in recognition of Farmed And Dangerous.

“We’re going there [to Cannes for MIPTV in April] to explore distribution for Farmed And Dangerous and to find a partner for season two. We’re also looking to encourage brands and agencies with long form ideas to come to us to explore opportunities.”

Piper is writer, EP and director of Farmed And Dangerous while Rosenberg is writer/EP. Brought in for the show were writers Mike Dieffenbach (Less Than Perfect, Retired at 35) and Jeremy Pisker (an Oscar nominee for Bullworth).

“Brands trying too hard to tell a message an audience doesn’t care about—projects where the brand has too much influence or is just chest beating—are destined for failure,” said Piper. “It’s all about craft and storytelling, and the brand naturally having a certain subject matter of appeal and relevance. We are in discussion with brands able to inspire stories that studios are interested in—worthy of a Disney or Paramount. Then and only then do you take the next step and go into development. And there are so many fantastic writers in Hollywood only too willing to work within marketing budgets to do a screenplay. In some respects, there’s more freedom for writers in this discipline than in a studio setting.”

In-between his Dove shorts and Chipotle’s Farmed And Dangerous, Piper came to Ogilvy NY to get a better look at the entertainment landscape. While there he met Rosenberg who was pitching shows to him and OgilvyEntertainment that needed brand support. “It became clear that brands interrupting entertainment seemed a little ass backwards. What we were seeking were more examples of brands inspiring entertainment.” He and Rosenberg complemented one another and Piro was born—with Piper educating Rosenberg about advertising and Piper gaining the entertainment expertise of Rosenberg which spans TV and the development of such features as Inside Man, an entry on AFI’s Top Films of the Year list.

Chipotle gravitated to Piper several years ago based on his direction of a tongue in cheek Post Shredded Wheat web series out of Ogilvy centering on a fictitious character who put the “no” in “innovation,” a reference to Shredded Wheat staying true and a bit mundane to itself with one ingredient since 1892—and with “no” artificial colors or preservatives. “Chipotle called just as Daniel and I were forming Piro,” recalled Piper. The connection led to the development of Farmed And Dangerous which became a coming-out party of sorts for Piro which below the radar had turned out a number of projects, including some Piper-directed music videos for Estee Lauder.

“It’s exciting as a director to break new entertainment ground for a brand,” said Piper whose track record on that front dates back to even before his Dove (Unilever) exploits, most notably with work for Unilever’s Becel Margarine via Ogilvy Toronto. This was before viral video became part of mainstream lexicon.

Piper conceived of and directed “Broken Escalator” which shows two people stranded when the escalator they’re on stops. They don’t walk up or down the escalator, instead opting to wait for help. The video underscores that some people are more challenged than others when it comes to exercising—they are particularly in need of the Becel Heart Makeover, a competition for access to a personal trainer, life coach and other health-promoting resources. The two-minute short became an online hit and Piper’s work has consistently continued to register and resonate on the social media barometer ever since.

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