A spec reel showcasing his filmmaking prowess broke Warren Kushner into the spot directorial ranks, landing him on the roster of HSI Productions in March 2000, just a couple of months before the SAG/AFTRA strike against the advertising business began and went on ’til late into that calendar year. While the timing was hardly fortuitous, Kushner nonetheless began working and his stock built steadily as a director, first at HSI and then at Bedford Falls (which later morphed into Reactor Films for commercials), and now for the past nearly two years at bicoastal/international Partizan.
There were several pivotal projects in Kushner’s career along the way, including the Priceline campaign work featuring William Shatner for agency Gotham, N.Y., and a Bedford Falls-produced Mini Cooper ad, “Carbonation,” out of Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami, which won an ANDY Award in the television/automotive category in 2004. “Carbonation” showed a young man motoring about San Francisco, taking on the scenic city’s curves and inclines at a healthy speed in his Mini Cooper. He finally comes to a stop and decides to pop open a can of soda, which spews liquid all over. We view this carbonated explosion from outside the car, the visual highlight being the soda effervescence now covering the interior of his windshield. Not to worry, he wipes away just enough to get a view outside so he can keep on driving his Mini.
Kushner cited “Carbonation” as a turning point for him on a couple of fronts. For one, it represented the mix of visual and comedic performance work for which he has become known–avoiding being pigeonholed in one or the other. Secondly, it earmarks his penchant for repeat business in that he’s maintained an ongoing relationship with Crispin, a prime example being his “Kick’n Chicken” Burger King spot which started on television and then wound up extending its life virally, generating heavy YouTube traffic. The Partizan-produced job stars James Hong (whom Kushner brought into the project) as a martial arts mentor to a chicken whose kick is much too powerful. We see the chicken kick a pillar of a temple, causing the building to collapse. But after wreaking destruction in different scenarios with its kick, the chicken finally heeds Hong’s advice and gently taps his guru’s walking stick, cracking it ever so slightly. Hong proclaims that his pupil is finally ready and next we see an inviting shot of BK’s Spicy Chick’n Crisp sandwich which has “just a little kick.”
International business has also helped Kushner on the visual/comedic hybrid front, a relatively recent case in point being the Pepsi H2oh! bottled water commercial “H2oh!” out of BBDO Paris.
A man buys a Pepsi H2oh! from a vending machine and a nearby water fountain spurts angrily at him. He runs off only to have a huge truck transporting hundreds of multi-gallon water cooler bottles explode individually at him. Likewise a hydrant goes off on him–his only saving grace preventing him from being doused is that he’s standing in the shelter of a bus kiosk.
Finally he boards the bus and slips the Pepsi H2oh! into the backpack of an unsuspecting passenger getting off the bus. Sure enough, the backpack-toting victim walks only a few steps down the sidewalk before a torrent of water pours down on him from above. The tagline is that if you drink H2oh!, “Water’s going to be jealous.”
While Kushner has been active in international spotmaking for much of his career, he noted that Partizan’s global cache has helped him garner higher profile projects such as the Pepsi product launch for BBDO Paris.
He also feels that Partizan offers a comfort level to agency creatives and clients, making it easier to take a leap of faith with him into other genres. For example, Kushner recently wrapped an Allstate commercial, “Taillights,” for Leo Burnett, Chicago, in which we see a procession of cars, each one with teen drivers and their friends as passengers embarking on a fun activity–a weekend snowboarding trip, the high school prom, a party, a soccer game.
The :60 seems like a playful slice of life spot until a voiceover by actor Dennis Haysbert relates that every year, nearly 6,000 teenagers “go out for a drive–and never come back.”
The spot notes that parents talking to their kids about safe driving can make a positive difference. A website address provides information to help start that dialogue.
At press time, Kushner had wrapped jobs for California Tourism (featuring Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger) out of ad agency Mering Carson in Sacramento, and a humorous multi-television spot Swiffer campaign for The Kaplan Thaler Group, New York.
Justin Baldoni Sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds For $400M As “It Ends With Us” Fight Continues
"It Ends With Us" actor and director Justin Baldoni has sued his co-star Blake Lively and her husband, "Deadpool" actor Ryan Reynolds, for defamation on Thursday in the latest step in a bitter legal battle surrounding the dark romantic drama.
Baldoni's suit seeks at least $400 million for damages that include lost future income. The lawsuit from Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios, which also names publicist Leslie Sloane as a defendant, comes about two weeks after Lively sued Baldoni and several others tied to the film, alleging harassment and a coordinated campaign to attack her reputation for coming forward about her treatment on the set.
That lawsuit came the same day that Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel, alleging the paper worked with Lively to smear him.
The new lawsuit filed in federal court in New York says the plaintiffs did not want to file the suit, but that Lively "has unequivocally left them with no choice, not only to set the record straight in response to Lively's accusations, but also to put the spotlight on the parts of Hollywood that they have dedicated their careers to being the antithesis of."
An email seeking comment from Sloane, whose PR company represents both Lively and Reynolds, was not immediately answered.
The two actors are also both represented by agency WME, which dropped Baldoni as a client after Lively filed a legal complaint that was a precursor to her lawsuit and the Times published its story on the fight surrounding the film.
The surprise hit film based on the novel by Colleen Hoover has made major waves in Hollywood and led to discussions of the treatment of female actors both on sets and in media.
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