As the old adage goes, Its not what but who you know. This proved key in Leagas Delaney, Rome, developing a Telecom Italia campaign consisting of three spots which, respectively, star Marlon Brando, Nelson Mandela and Woody Allen.
The ads broke in Italy on April 16, and were produced by RSA, London, and the New York office of bicoastal RSA USA. The Brando spot Stay With Us was helmed by RSA director Tony Scott, who filmed the reclusive actor on location in the Borrego Springs desert, located two hours out of San Diego. In the spot, Brando delivers a stream-of-consciousness monologue pondering the technological revolution and his fears of not being around to truly experience it.
Shooting on location in New York, Woody Allen directed himself in 150 Years. True to his neurotic persona, Allen walks around Manhattan streets while talking on a cell phone to his shrink, with whom he worriedly discusses his existential dilemmas like romance and home ownership.
The Mandela ad, The Future Belongs to Everyone, was directed by Spike Lee, in a joint production between Lees Brooklyn-based shop Forty Acres and a Mule, and RSA. The spot uses clips of the former South African president from a speech Mandela made at a 95 telecommunications conference in Geneva; it also features footage of children that Lee helmed on location in South Africa. In the spot, Mandela discusses how the future and its technological advances may leave behind third-world children.
None of the personalities mentions the client by name in the Italian-dubbed commercials, each of which ends with the tagline, How would you like the future? The spots are basically all about the future, which is one reason why I believe people agreed to be in them, said Leagas Delaney principal/creative director Tim Delaney. Theyre not endorsing a product.
Delaney served as creative director/copywriter on the spots, and the art director was
Charlotte Moore, creative director at the agencys Rome office (Moore was formerly at
Wieden + Kennedys Portland, Ore. and Amsterdam offices). The agency producer was Nerine Soper, who works out of the agencys U.K. branch.
Leagas Delaney, Rome, won the business in Dec. 99. According to Delaney, the brief was to create a new identity and personality for Telecom Italia, which is the biggest company in Italy and one of the top 10 telecom companies in the world. Said Delaney, We wanted different people to talk about the future, and then we thought about who can we use, who would be interesting.
Delaney related that the agencys London office had tapped Tony Scott to helm a three-spot campaign for Barclays Bank last fall which featured Anthony Hopkins, Tim Roth and Nick Moran (an actor in Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels). That helped us because wed used famous people in [the Barclay spots], said Delaney.
The popular Barclay ads went over enormously well in the U.K., said Adrian Harrison, managing director at RSA, London. The pitch Leagas Delaney made to Telecom Italia was based around personalities, said Harrison. Because Tony had been very influential in securing Hopkins, Roth and Moran for Barclays, Tim [Delaney] gave me a wish list of people they wanted to try to secure for the Telecom Italia spots, and asked if RSA could get involved in trying to get to the various people.
Through assorted contacts, and after hundreds of phone calls according to Harrison, RSA signed deals with Brando, Mandela and Allen. RSA USAs New York-based executive producer Jim Czarnecki was acquainted with Paris-based independent film producer Fernando Sulichin. Sulichin started initial negotiations with Brando and with Lee, who had directed Mandela in the 92 feature film Malcolm X.
Fernando facilitated a lot of it, said Delaney. Hes a classic producer/fixer in the sense that he knows how to package things. He pulled things together in a way that was practical for everyone.
Yet, Delaney said, it was still a difficult and complex matter to procure such famed personalities. It wasnt just a matter of saying AWill you do it? and AHeres some money-that wasnt the issue, said Delaney. For Marlon Brando, the issue was about making sure what we were saying was important. That required that he be allowed to look at the script and tweak it, which was great because hes a very bright guy. Tony Scott obviously helped … hes [one of the] biggest grossing directors in Hollywood, so that mattered.
Scott told SHOOT that hed tried to get Brando to do a film with him 10 years ago, but couldnt persuade him. Its funny; they obviously come to me because I do movies and think I can get to these stars and talk them into it, said Scott. [I dont know if they] think I have control Im not aware of, but all these guys have minds of their own.
Happily, Brando-who overcame a case of cold feet halfway through pre-production-proved to be easy to work with, said Scott, who noted that the actor enhanced the spot by adding a more conversational tone to his dialogue.
I didnt want to reveal Marlon immediately, said Scott. I just wanted to hear his voice before you eventually see him, [like] Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. The perception of Marlon is that hes unusual and strange, but very smart and articulate. His words [in the spot] are pretty daunting about what he believes the future is going to bring, but he gave such a warmth to them that its a great surprise.
Mandela agreed to take part in the campaign after Telecom Italia paid his fee to the Nelson Mandela Childrens Fund, which finances and organizes educational projects for South African children. The client made a separate donation to the fund, and financed a Lee-directed documentary piece about it. Leagas Delaney also designed a new Web site for the fund, and created a :10 to promote the site.
Spike Lee played a very important part in reassuring Nelson Mandela that he wasnt getting involved in something [purely commercial], said Delaney. There was a whole package of things that made it an acceptable project for Nelson Mandela.
The liaison to Allen was Chris Karabas, a sales rep at the Chicago office of Creative Management Partners (CMP), which reps RSA. Karabas aunt is Jean Doumanian, who has executive produced nine of Allens movies.
RSA knew I had contact with Woody, said Karabas. They sent me the boards, so I sent them to Jean and she told me to call Woody directly about the job. This seemed like something that could happen because it wouldnt run in the states-which hes very concerned about-so I thought it would be worth pursuing for him.
Allen requested that he direct the spot and that he be allowed to rework some of its gags, which Leagas Delaney was happy to let him do. According to Karabas, Allen had last directed a spot (for an Italian grocery chain) about 10 years ago.
The ads are slated to run for six weeks. In the fall, the agency plans to produce another package of ads for the campaign with different personalities, Delaney said.
