Grand Prix 2001 – FOX Regional Sports (Turkey/China/Russia/India)
A Turkish sports reporter is at a cliff-diving tournament. A diver jumps off a steep cliff, goes into a ‘swan dive’ and lands on dirt. Turkish peasants clap politely. Super: Sports news from the only region you care about. Yours. Fox Sports Net.
A Chinese sports reporter is showing highlights of a ‘tree catching’ competition. We see two lumberjacks chop down a giant 200-ft tree for an athlete to catch. He is not successful. Super: Sports news from the only region you care about. Yours. Fox Sports Net.
A Russian sports reporter is covering a ‘slapping contest’ in a smokey, seedy bunker. Two large men take turns slapping each other in the face. Suddenly, an impressive slap causes the drunken crowd to erupt. Super: Sports news from the only region you care about. Yours. Fox Sports Net.
The host of a Mumbai sports show is interviewing the National Clubbing Champion. Two blindfolded men chase each other with clubs in front of a large crowd. They swing wildly at each other … but miss. Then one loses his bearings and starts pounding a gentleman in the crowd. Super: Sports news from the only region you care about. Yours. Fox Sports Net.
Advertising Agency: Cliff Freeman and Partners, USA Creative Director: Eric Silver Copywriter: Dan Morales Art Director: Rossana Bardales Production Company: Partizan NY Director: Traktor
Alternative Grand Prix – John West (Bear)
At a river, a man fights a bear for a salmon. Voiceover: John West endure the worst to bring you the best. Super: John West Red Salmon.
Advertising Agency: Leo Burnett UK Creative Director: Mark Tutssel Copywriter: Paul Silburn Art Director: Paul Silburn Production Company: Spectre UK Director: Daniel Kleinman
A young man is tagged in an elaborate game, involving the entire city. He races off to tag someone else, and they elude him to the very end.
Advertising Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, USA Creative Director: Dan Wieden, Hal Curtis, Jim Riswold Art Director: Monica Taylor, Andy Fackrell Director: Frank Budgen
Alternative Grand Prix – Levis (Odyssey)
A man and a woman hurtle through a string of solid walls. They crash out of the building, land on a tree, and run up it into the night sky.
Advertising Agency: BBH, UK Creative Director: Stephen Butler Art Director: Gavin Lester Production Company: Academy, UK Director: Jonathan Glazer
An old lamp is thrown out to make way for a new one from Ikea.
Advertising Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, USA Creative Director: Alex Bogusky, Paul Keister Art Director: Mark Taylor, Steve Mapp Copywriter: Ari Merkin Production Company: MJZ, Los Angeles Director: Spike Jonze
Alternative Grand Prix – Honda (Cog)
Cog is a two-minute chain reaction using only parts from a Honda Accord. Each car part cleverly triggers off the next, showing the beauty and precision of the pieces, and the ingenuity of the engineers who built it, prompting the V/O to comment “Isn’t it nice when things just work?”.
Advertising Agency: Weiden + Kennedy, London Creative Director: Tony Davidson, Kim Papworth Art Director: Matt Gooden Copywriter: Ben Walker Production Company: Partizan, London Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet
Hundreds of thousands of people are forming a human mountain higher than any of the other buildings in the city. At it’s zenith a variety of people enjoy a moment of exhilaration before others scramble over them and take their place.
Advertising Agency: TBWA/London Creative Director: Trevor Beattie Art Director: Tony McTear Copywriter: Paula Marcantonio, Tony McTear Production Company: Gorgeous Enterprises, UK Director: Frank Budgen
Alternative Grand Prix – Lynx 24-7 (Getting Dressed)
A man and woman wake up in bed. They start getting dressed. We soon discover that their clothes are scattered right across the city. The last shoe sits by two opposite-facing shopping trolleys in a supermarket. The couple met there only hours ago. The man was wearing Lynx 24/7 bodyspray.
Advertising Agency: BBH, UK Creative Director: Rosie Arnold Art Director: Nick Gill Copywriter: Nick Gill Production Company: Small Family Business, UK Director: Ringan Ledwidge
Can hate be a good thing? Honda ‘Grrr’ sets out to prove just that. A tranquil world is invaded by flying, dirty old Diesel engines. However, the population get angry and even, using their hate for the better, destroying every last one. Finally, they herald the brand new Honda Diesel.
Advertising Agency: Weiden + Kennedy, London Creative Director: Tony Davidson, Kim Papworth, Chris O’reilly Art Director: Sean Thompson, Michael Russoff, Richard Russell Copywriter: Sean Thompson, Michael Russoff, Richard Russell Production Company: Nexus Production, London Director: Adam Foulkes, Alan Smith
Alternative Grand Prix – Adidas (Hello Tomorrow)
Adidas 1 is the first shoe with a computer. “Hello Tomorrow” demonstrates that with every step these magical shoes can create an entirely new world out of nothing. It is a story of rebirth and
taking your first steps – again.
Advertising Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco Creative Director: Lee Clow, Chuck McBride, Joe Kayser Art Director: Joe Kayser Copywriter: Chuck McBride Production Company: MJZ, Los Angeles Director: Spike Jonze
Three young men at a bar drink Guinness. Suddenly the action pauses and the film starts to play in reverse. The men walk backwards out of the bar. As they walk they seamlessly go back down the evolutionary chain through hundreds, thousands, millions of years. Super: GUINNESS. Good things come to those who wait.
Advertising Agency: Abbott, Mead, Vickers, BBDO, UK Creative Director: Paul Brazier Art Director: Matt Doman Copywriter: Ian Heartfield Production Company: Kleinman Productions, London Director: Danny Kleinman
Alternative Grand Prix – Sony (Balls)
Dropping 250,000 brightly coloured bouncy balls down the streets of San Francisco for real = colour like no other.
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative Director: Richard Flintman Art Director: Juan Cabral Copywriter: Juan Cabral Production Company: MJZ, London Director: Nicolai Fuglsig
“We created a film that exposed the manipulation of the female image in the media. The objective was to encourage discussion around the subject of real beauty and lead people to the campaignforrealbeauty website.”
Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mother Toronto Creative Director: Janet Kestin, Nancy Vonk Art Director: Tim Piper, Mike Kirkland Copywriter: Tim Piper Production Company: Reginald Pike, Toronto Director: Yael Staav, Tim Piper
Alternative Grand Prix – Epuron (Power of Wind)
Wind has a strong nature. Better keep him busy…
Advertising Agency: Nordpol + Hamburg, Germany Creative Director: Lars Ruehmann Art Director: Bjoern Ruehmann, Joakim Reveman Copywriter: Matthew Branning Production Company: Paranoid Projects, USA Director: The Vikings
Grand Prix 2008 – Cadbury (Gorilla)/Microsoft (Halo 3 Campaign)
We hear ‘In the air tonight’ by Phil Collins as we realize we’re in front of a calm looking gorilla. ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment for all of my life…’ The ape stretches its neck like a heavyweight boxer would do before a fight. He’s sitting in front of a massive drum kit as the best drum fill of the history of rock is coming. The Gorilla knows this. He smashes the drums phenomenally – feeling every beat. The camera leaves the ape and his drum. United, the way they are meant to be.
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative Director: Richard Flinthan, Juan Cabral Art Director: Juan Cabral Copywriter: Juan Cabral Production Company: Blink, London Director: Juan Cabral
On-line, the Halo 3 website served as a virtual museum, providing an interactive fly through of the entire John 117 monument and putting visitors right in the middle of the fight. They could also learn more about our enemies and hear first hand stories from the men who were there. For that we filmed interviews with surviving veterans of the battle who served with Master Chief. They talked about their experiences and spoke with reverence and awe about what it was like to serve with mankind’s greatest hero.
Advertising Agency: T.A.G. San Francisco/McCann Worldgroup Creative Director: Geoff Edwars, Scott Duchon Art Director: Ben Wolan Copywriter: Rich Herrera Production Company: Go Film, Hollywood/RSA Films Los Angeles Director: Simon McQuoid, Rupert Sanders, Neil Blomkamp
Alternative Grand Prix – Nike (Next Level)
“Next Level” is new take on Football from Nike. Made to inspire football obsessed teens, the film is a first-person journey up the football ranks–from being discovered by Arsenal in a youth match to a life-defining moment playing for our national side. Along the way we experience success (finishing a cross from Cesc Fabregas) as well as frustration (getting burned by Ronaldinho). The film celebrates playing the game with purpose and passion. It shows what it takes to become a modern, brilliant fofotballer – to take your game to the next level.
Advertising Agency: 72 And Sunny, USA Creative Director: Glen Cole, John Boiler, Bryan Rowles, Jason Norcross Production Company: Anonymous Content, USA Director: Guy Ritchie
Philips set out to own the idea of a cinematic viewing experience at home. From the start the strategy was to create a film that movie lovers would want to see.
The film is hosted within a site that, through interaction, educates the audience about the three main features of Philips televisions – Ambilight, Cinema 21:9 and Picture Quality – and ties these features to the act of film making. So, what would movie lovers want to see? We decided on a seamless tracking shot, one long take that a film loving audience could marvel at and be fascinated by. Within the ‘housing’ of a tracking shot we inserted behind the scenes glimpses where the experts could talk about their craft and the decisions they made whilst filming the shot. The DOP on lighting, the Director on the 21:9 format and VFX supervisor shows why picture quality is so important. To allow for more interaction, we decided that a frozen time film, shot using a state of the art motion control rig, would give the audience control upon interaction allowing them to literally move the camera back and forth frame by frame. This is done intuitively through a ‘grabbing hand’ cursor when the screen is moused over.
What makes this interaction really special is the interactive cinematic score. The score, composed by Michael Fakesch, was composed as a linear piece, but was then handed over to a flash music developer to carve up and distort as the user moved back and forth through time, frame by frame – all designed to pull the audience in and hold them there longer whilst they try to unravel the mystery of how the film was made.
The second main element of interaction is the way the audience is able to trigger the three behind-the-scenes educational scenes from the film’s timeline. When the user clicks on the timeline, they reveal films within the film. The timeline unfolds and expands, the post production disappears, each expert walks in and the rigging reappears revealing that all along the actors were simply holding their position whilst a state of the art motion rig captured them in frozen time. All this was designed to be as seamless as possible with maximum visual reward ensuring the audience clicked all three of the hotspots.
In addition to the interaction within the film, the ratio of the film itself could be changed at anytime through first person interaction. This simple, but effective comparison tool really did get across the spectacle of the new Philips 21:9 TV. The other elegantly simple piece of interaction is Ambilight on and off, in the words of the DOP – “you really miss it when it’s not there.” A final point worth noting is the dynamic title sequence. Instead of a traditional loader, we crafted a title sequence correspond to the speed of the users internet connection. The slower the connection, the longer the sequence.
Advertising Agency: Tribal DDB Amsterdam Creative Director: Michael Fakesch, Chris Baylis, Andrew Ferguson Art Director: Mariota Essery, Maximilliano Chanan Copywriter: Carla Madden Production Company: Stink Digital, London Director: Adam Berg
Alternative Grand Prix – T-Mobile (Dance)
On 15th January at 11am, a single commuter started dancing in the middle of a train station. The dance grew as more dancers joined in, until there were over 300 people perfectly choreographed. The excitement caused hundred’s of genuine unsuspecting members of the public to join in and share the moment.
Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, London Creative Director: Paul Silburn, Kate Stanners Art Director: Rick Dodds Copywriter: Stephen Howell Production Company: Partizan, London Director: Michael Gracey
Grand Prix 2010 – Old Spice (The Men Your Man Could Smell Like)
This TV commercial was created to appeal to men as well as women, showing them both how great a man can smell when they use Old Spice Body Wash.
Advertising Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland Creative Director: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman Art Director: Craig Allen, Eric Kallman Copywriter: Craig Allen, Eric Kallmacanal Production Company: MJZ, Los Angeles Director: Tom Kuntz
Alternative Grand Prix – Canal + (Closet)
Canal+ launched its new ‘Original Creativity’ campaign in September 2009. The objective highlight to Canal+’s showcase of original programming, consisting of series, documentaries and fictions, created exclusively by and for Canal+, scripted by prestigious writers such as Olivier Marchal and Jean- Hugues Anglade. To launch this new campaign, we produced THE CLOSET. The film unites quality, humour, originality and a touch of impertinence inherent to the brand’s communications: ‘Never underestimate the power of a great story”
Advertising Agency: BETC EURO RSCG, Paris Creative Director: Stephane Xiberras Art Director: Eric Astorgue Copywriter: Jean Christophe Royer Production Soixan7e Quin5e, Paris Director: Matthijs van Heijningen
Every four years, the keys to football heaven are dangled in front of the international elite. One goal, one pass, one game saving tackle can be the difference between fame and forgotten. What happens on the pitch in that split second has a ripple effect that goes beyond the match and the tournament.
‘Write the Future’ was a messaging platform that allowed Nike to show how football creates this ripple effect. It allowed us to give a glimpse into the future to see what the players were really playing for, in their own lives and the lives of those that follow them. Our goal was to weave the brand into the conversations around this major tournament in a way that celebrated the participating teams and athletes and engaged football fans around the world.
Advertising Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Amsterdam Creative Director: Jeff Kling, Mark Bernath, Eric Quennoy Art Director: Stuart Harkness, Freddie Powell Copywriter: Stuart Harkness, Freddie Powell Production Company: Independent Films, London Director: Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
Alternative Grand Prix – Volkswagen (The Force)/Crysler (Born of Fire)
For the all-new 2012 Passat , Volkswagen brings Star Wars™ to one of TV’s most talked about events. Accompanied by John Williams’ iconic “The Imperial March,” the spot features the most infamous villain in the galaxy, a pint-sized Darth Vader who uses the Force when he discovers the all-new 2012 Passat in the driveway. The two iconic brands leverage humor and the unforgettable Star Wars score to create an emotional spot and make Super Bowl ad history.
Advertising Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles Creative Director: Eric Springer, Michael Kadin Art Director: Ryan Mclaughlin, Craig Melchiano Copywriter: David Povill Production Park Pictures, Santa Monica Director: Lance Acord
Of the big three American car companies, Chrysler was in the most danger of failing. Had there not been a last-minute vote of confidence from the U.S. Government, they would not exist. This was public knowledge, debated throughout the country—should we have loaned Chrysler the money? When it came time to introduce a new product, we had a car to sell and also had to win back America’s confidence. To do this, we took the unlikely position of embracing Chrysler’s Detroit heritage when every other American car company was distancing themselves from the city. We created a 2-minute homage to Detroit, a city primed for a comeback, and ran the spot only once, on Super Bowl Sunday.
Advertising Agency: Weiden + Kennedy Portland Creative Director: Mark Fitzloff, Susan Hoffman, Aaron Allen Art Director: Jim Lasser Copywriter: Mark Fitzloff, Joe Staples, Kevin Jones, Greg Rutter, Dan Kroeger Production: Serial Pictures, Culver City Director: Samuel Bayer
By 2007 Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) was running out of steam; facing flatlining sales, losing relevance to younger generations and with an advertising model that felt tired. The solution was to create Glass and a Half Full Productions, a content-led campaign including ‘Gorilla’, ‘Eyebrows’ and ‘Trucks’. The new direction moved CDM from being a manufacturer of chocolate to a producer of joy. It also created a debate around whether creating ‘joyful’ content rather than ‘persuasive’ advertising featuring chocolate actually works or not. The whole campaign delivered a master brand payback 171% greater than previous campaigns, with ‘Gorilla’ alone delivering an incremental revenue return of £4.88 for every £1 spent.
This case is a great example of an incredibly powerful and effective campaign in the face of a tricky market that is seasonal and unhealthy. Cadbury successfully cut through media criticism with brave but fantastic creative work that captured the public’s imagination.
In 2007, Cadbury launched a new advertising campaign entitled Gorilla, from a new in-house production company called “Glass And A Half Full Productions”. The advert was premièred during the season finale of Big Brother 2007, and consists of a gorilla at a drum kit, drumming along to the Phil Collins song “In the Air Tonight”. The creative idea for the campaign is founded upon the notion that all communications should be as effortlessly enjoyable as eating the bar itself. For ‘Glass and a Half Full Productions’ is a production house that exists solely to create content that makes you feel as if you’ve just eaten a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk. A production house that makes things that make you smile. The advert has now become extremely popular with over five million views on YouTube, and put the Phil Collins hit back into the UK charts.
“I don’t know what this has to do with Cadbury Dairy Milk, but it’s funny. Among gorilla drummers, it seems the work of Phil Collins inspires a genuine cosmic connection” Tim Nudd, ADWEEK, August 31 2007
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative: Richard Flintham/Juan Cabral Director: Juan Cabral Production Company: Blink Producer: Matthew Fone DoP: Dan Bronks Editor: Joe Guest at Final Cut
On 28 March 2008, the second Dairy Milk advert produced by Glass and a Half Full Productions aired. The ad, entitled ‘Trucks’ features several trucks at night on an empty runway at a airport racing to the tune of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.
Like “Gorilla”, Trucks is based on an offbeat concept set to a 1970s/80s rock soundtrack. It features a midnight drag race down an airport runway, using a range of vehicles including baggage transporters and motorised stairs. Trucks again highlights the skill of director Juan Cabral. It is beautifully choreographed and lit, with glossy production values and an energy that perfectly matches the music. It has a Top-Gear-meets-Wacky-Races appeal that will stand up to repeated viewings. It makes you wonder whether this is what’s going on behind the scenes at Terminal 5 – the baggage handling certainly leaves something to be desired.
According to Fallon, it took three weeks to “pimp” the trucks, the heaviest of which, the blue truck, weighed in at 25 tons. Shots of a tiny “underdog” battling against the giant provide human interest. The six-night shoot at an airport in Mexico involved 140 crew, two 35mm film cameras, two high-definition cameras and one crash-cam.
“We could have created Gorilla 2 and had him playing a trumpet,” the Cadbury marketing director, Philip Rumbol, told last Monday’s MediaGuardian section. “But that would have been too linear. It has to have a slightly enigmatic quality.”
“Trucks” therefore has a lot to live up to. It has a quirky charm, but is unlikely to change perceptions of the brand in the same way that its predecessor did. Gorilla became the ad phenomenon of last year – it was voted the public’s favourite TV ad of last year and won TV commercial of the year at the British Television Advertising Awards. It has also been credited with turning Cadbury’s fortunes around, helping the chocolate maker reverse the damage done by a 2006 salmonella scare and boost its UK market share last year. The Cadbury chief executive, Todd Stitzer, hailed 2007 as “the year of the gorilla”.
Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now was reportedly chosen for “Trucks” from a final shortlist consisting of Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer and Europe’s The Final Countdown. Picking the follow-up to a major hit is a notoriously tricky business. Whether Cadbury has got it right this time is open to debate, but at least it avoided the obvious “Gorilla 2” route.
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative: Juan Cabral Director: Juan Cabral Production Company: Blink Producer: Matthew Fone DoP: Dan Bronks Editor: Joe Guest at Final Cut
On 5 September 2008, the Gorilla advert was relaunched with a new soundtrack – Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart – a reference to online mash-up of the commercial. Similarly, a version of the Truck advert appeared, using Bon Jovi’s song Livin’ on a Prayer. Both remakes premiered once again during the finale of Big Brother 2008.
In January 2009, ‘Eyebrows’, the third advert in the series, was released, of two children moving their eyebrows up and down rapidly to a set electro-funk beat: “Don’t Stop the Rock” by Freestyle.
The idea: Taking that moment of joy when you seize the opportunity to get away with your own little stunt, like making a funny face as your family portrait is being taken.The ad, by agency Fallon, opens with a brother and sister – wearing a dress in the trademark Cadbury purple – sitting for what appears to be a standard school photograph session. However, when the photographer leaves the shot the boy starts an electro tune, Don’t Stop the Rock by Freestyle, on his watch.
“Over at Glass and a Half Full Productions we noticed the wriggly potential of eyebrows and thought we would have a bit of fun with them,” said the Cadbury marketing director, Phil Rumbol. “Like the other productions ‘Eyebrows’ is all about losing yourself and embracing that moment of joy … after all, everybody remembers pulling a silly face or getting up to no good as a child when backs were turned.”
The one-minute film for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate is thought to have been viewed more than four million times on YouTube and similar sites in its first three weeks. It is twice the number of viewings racked up at the same stage by the firm’s previous cult clip, in which a gorilla plays drums to Phil Collins’s In the Air Tonight. The eyebrows advert was first shown during the final of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 4 and is still shown on television but its online success has been boosted by various links including one from the blog of American rapper and producer Kanye West and another from celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton. Cadbury’s has since struck a deal with Orange to give away the soundtrack as a mobile phone ringtone, which was downloaded 125,000 times in the first 11 days.
Lee Rolston, director of marketing for Cadbury Dairy Milk, told The Observer: “Television and online are morphing almost daily. We tend to put our first ads in big things such as the Big Brother final or the X Factor, then it’s immediately online, which becomes a very fluid, organic process. People tend to interact with the films and make their own versions and their own music. We just let it go and see what people think of it.”
Chris Hassell, director of Ralph, digital design agency specialising in viral advertising, said: “I saw it online first, which is the way it works now. When someone says ‘Did you see that ad?’, the first thing you do is look it up on YouTube.”
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative: Richard Flintham, Chris Bovill, John Allison Director: Tom Kuntz Production Company: MZJ
Cadbury has launched the fourth A Glass and a Half Full Productions commercial, “Dogs”, featuring the music of the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss II. Dogs take turns riding in a purple Lamborghini Diablo on the Oran Park Raceway in Sydney, letting the air blow past them as they hang out the window. A Glass and A Half Full of Joy!
The fourth commercial in the Cadbury series, airing internationally, conceived by Fallon London and produced in Australia by sister Publicis shop Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney. This spot is designed to make people smile by showing the joy when different breeds of dog enjoy the air rushing by when their heads are sticking out of an iconic Lamborghini Diablo as it races around Sydney’s Oran Park Raceway. (This spot was originally shot and aired in the UK, but because the sky was grey, the decision was made to re-shoot in OZ on a bright sunny day).
Advertising Agency: Fallon London/Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney Creative Director: Steve Back Production Company: Caravan @ The Feds Director: Ben Lawrence
In 2010 Cadbury has launched A Glass and a Half Full of Smoothness in New Zealand with tap dancing cows, doing the moves to Fred Astaire’s song, “Putting on the Ritz”. The ad screened for the first time this week during the first ad break of Desperate Housewives. The spot opens with a close up of a black and white cow’s face before heading into the slick little number. The ad finishes with the cow pushing aside mirrors and opening a purple curtain to finish with an ensemble act.. This is the first Cadbury spot in the series not conceived by Fallon, London.
The team took universally recognised ‘smooth character’, Fred Astaire, and gave his iconic dance routine the unique Cadbury touch to create another joy-filled Cadbury moment. One of the creatives told Campaign Brief: “Psyop (who did Coke Happiness Factory) are amazing to work with. We filmed two two dancers tied together to be the front and the back of the cow, then a real cow and matched all the movements in CG. It took 4 months!”
In April 2010, a new advert aired, entitled Chocolate Charmer, containing a scientist mixing milk and chocolate to make a dairy milk bar to the tune of “The Only One I Know” by The Charlatans. This was subtly different to the others as it did not feature the ‘A Glass and a Half Full Production’ title card at the start. The 60-second TV spot takes viewers into the “magical” world of Cadbury Dairy Milk production where the chocolate charmer creates bars of milk chocolate. As the ad unfolds, the Charmer “conducts” towers of chocolate milk out of spinning glass bowls, orchestrated by levers and pulleys and his “magical powers” with chocolate.
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative: Richard Flintham, Nils-Petter Lovgren, Filip Tyden, Dan Watt Director: Henrik Hallgren Production Company: The Moving Picture Company
The spot continues Cadbury’s ‘Glass and a Half Full Productions’ concept, which began with Fallon’s Dairy Milk TV ad ‘Gorilla’ in the UK in 2007.
The TVC was created by Saatchi & Saatchi Johannesburg. Their Executive Creative Director, Adam Wittert, says, “The brief was to make people feel the same joy they experience when they eat Cadbury Dairy Milk, so we came up with the idea of an ostrich and an ostrich, being a bird, would find the ultimate joy in flying. So our ostrich goes sky diving.”
The ad begins with an ostrich walking purposefully through a stack of wooden crates. It then becomes apparent that he is in the cargo hold of an airplane; the cargo door gradually opens and the ostrich takes a leap into the air like a sky diver, with the song “I gotta be me” by Sammy Davis Jr coming to a crescendo. The ostrich gleefully flies through the sky into the sunset, before pulling the ripchord to his Cadbury-branded parachute at the last minute, with the strapline ‘A glass and a half full of joy’ appearing beneath.
Saatchi & Saatchi Johannesburg managing director, Grant Meldrum, said that the Johannesburg office worked closely with Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon in the UK: “This ensured that we produced a TV commercial that would have global appeal and, at the same time, underpinned the possibilities of achieving pure joy and remained true to the brand’s proposition.”
Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Johannesburg Creative: Adam Wittert, Keisha Meyerson, Bruce Murphy Director: Peter Truckel Production Company: Catapult Commercials
In April 2011, a new advert aired, known as ‘Charity Shop’ or ‘Dancing Clothes’, featuring dancing clothes at a charity shop to the tune of We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off by Jermaine Stewart. This exposed the song to a new generation who downloaded the track and returned the song to the UK Top 40 so far reaching no. 29. This ad also marks the return of the Glass and a Half Full title card.
The ad, created by Fallon, features dancing clothes in an initially lifeless charity shop. Individual clothes fall from the rails, rise from the floor and burst from cupboards, and the charity shop is transformed into a dancing extravaganza. Julie Reynolds, marketing manager for Cadbury Dairy Milk, said: “For us Cadbury Dairy Milk is about creating moments of joy that make people smile. We believe this production is another great way of doing just that.”
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative: Augusto Sola, Sam Hibbard Director: Megaforce Production Company: Riff Raff Films
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate has a long heritage of giving joy. In this experience we highlight how people in a strict and disciplined environment break out and let loose when Cadbury’s drops in. It’s the equivalent of the drill sergeant cutting the troop a break, or a strict boarding school nun letting the bunking girls off. When our stern teacher is given the opportunity to teach his pupils a lesson, he shows them how to let loose. Pretty soon the whole class is laughing, dancing and thoroughly enjoying themselves as much as the people witnessing this moment of joy.
Filmed entirely on location in rural China, the commercial captures a surreal moment of pure joy in a Buddhist monastery. A temple gathering takes a new turn with the addition of purple helium-filled balloons, with the monks released to groove to the sounds of Flo Rida track “Low”, starting with the chorus line, “apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur”.
Advertising Agency: Fallon London Creative: Augusto Sola, Sam Hibbard Director: Megaforce Production Company: Riff Raff Films
Sony’s digital imaging branch sure has a history of wondrously eccentric and eye-catching ad campaigns. Over the last several years they’ve dropped 250,000 super balls down a San Francisco street, exploded 17,000 liters of paint in Glasgow, and most recently used two and half tons of Play Doh to have bunnies invade a New York City square. It should come as no surprise then, that their next campaign is just as if not more monolithic than their previous efforts.
When the folks at Fallon London and Sony approached the film friendly city of Miami to see if they could fill a few downtown blocks with foam for their latest ad campaign, city officials thought they were joking. Rest assured, this was no joke. We saw it with our own eyes. Over the last several days a team consisting of 150 crew people (eighteen on foam detail) led by director HLA’s Simon Ratigan, took several city blocks by storm, or foam rather. With the help of the world’s biggest foam machine, capable of churning out two million liters of foam per minute and filling an Olympic sized pool in twenty-four seconds, Miami was turned into Foam City.
The idea behind the Foam City ad campaign is that bubbles are beautiful, but it’s extremely hard to capture that beauty in an image. However, since the latest in Sony’s digital imaging arsenal, including the new Alpha 350 with tilt screen, CybershotW175 with smile shutter, and HD Handycam, specialize in ‘capturing images like no other’ we can finally see bubbles the way they’re meant to be seen or in a larger sense any truly unique moment. How’s 200 locals wading around a city block covered in foam taking pictures with the latest Sony gear for a unique moment?
In addition to the 80,000 plus feet of film shot for the campaign, the commercials will also feature images shot by those wandering through the sea of suds, as well as the documentary filmmaker on hand. We know you can’t wait to see the finished product, neither can we. However, we’re all going to have to wait until the staggered release of the various incarnations of the ad, set to debut in the Spring and Early Summer. Until then, you’ll just have to be satisfied with the images we snapped while on the shoot.
Advertising Agency: Fallon, London
Creative Director: Juan Cabral
Creatives: Samuel Akesson, Tomas Mankovsky
Production Company: HLA, London
Director: Simon Ratigan
Editor: Bruce Townend
Editorial Company: The Quarry
VFX: MPC
Audio Post: Wave
Composer: Warren Ellis
This is not ADVERTISING 