With tongue firmly in cheek—and other parts of the anatomy accounted for as well—London-based director James Rouse, who’s handled in the United States by the recently-formed, Santa Monica-headquartered Thomas Winter Cooke (TWC), teamed with agency Media Therapy, London, to create a laugh-out-loud three-spot Internet campaign for Trojan condoms.
The commercials, which have generated quite a buzz for Rouse—who maintains his own Rouse Productions, London—thrust us squarely into Summer Olympics competition, except the events skew toward those who are carnally athletic. The spot titled "Precision Vaulting," for example, introduces a gymnastic duo—comprised of an attractive young man and woman—described by a sportscaster as the "firm favorites" for another American gold medal in Bucharest. As the man leaves his partner to get into position, the camera reveals that the woman is naked below the waist, her upper torso in gymnast’s garb.
The announcer informs us that the gymnasts are about to perform the "flip and tuck," and a pommel horse comes into view. The male gymnast is laid out in front of the horse, also presumably stripped from the waist down. As his partner gauges her leap, the sportscaster says, "They make it look so easy—but it can go horribly wrong."
The woman runs at full speed toward the pommel horse, plants her hands on it, leaps high into the air, and makes a perfect coital landing atop her male compatriot. The crowd goes wild, and the gymnasts extend their arms in triumph. The sportscaster lauds the couple, saying that their performance "surely means another gold for the United States. The Americans once again [prove themselves] masters of the precision vault," he concludes.
Throughout the action, the Web site address www.trojangames.com appears at the bottom of the screen. Similarly, the other two spots in the campaign show athletes going for Trojan gold in their respective events—judo and pelvic power lifting. The latter shows a guy who can clearly stake claim to being a strong man—with an even stronger manhood, which holds his female companion in mid-air long enough to win the competition.
The campaign was produced by The Viral Factory, London. Director Rouse also served as the creative jack-of-all-trades—multi-tasking as creative director, art director and copywriter. Ed Robinson was executive producer and producer for The Viral Factory. DP was Oleg Mutu. David Cox of Baraka, London, was the editor. Audio and sound design was done at Marmalade/ID Audio, London.
Rouse made the jump to commercial directing in 2002, after having been a creative at several London ad agencies, including DDB, TBWA, Euro RSCG Wnek Gosper and The Gathering. Prior to joining The Gathering in ’97, he served as creative director at Corsellis Montford Interactive, a London interactive design firm.
Concurrent with his stay at The Gathering from ’97 to ’02, Rouse maintained now defunct Soup Design, which provided design, strategy and branding services for consumer products and fashion. He then formed Rouse Productions and recently came aboard TWC (SHOOT, 1/16, p. 1), the commercial production house launched by spot executive producer Mark Thomas, noted feature producer Ralph Winter and director Philip Cooke.
Bernie Weinberger and Ruthie Lu Johnson were the primary actors in this spot.
The SAG/AFTRA Commercials Contract Standing Committee has granted a waiver to allow commercials to be available for viewing on SHOOTonline.com. The spots cannot be copied, downloaded or e-mailed.
