Prius Goes Plural and Creates A People Person To Introduce The New Models.

The original Toyota Prius, now in its third generation, is being joined by three new models; the Prius v coming in fall 2011, the Prius Plug-in and the Prius c Concept- both coming in spring 2012.



To introduce viewers to the growing Prius Family from Toyota, Saatchi LA devised an unusual effect for a television commerical, creating one metaphorical person by assembling 18 different human bodies - a unique way to communicate meeting the needs of multiple people.



The metaphor then unravels when the "people person" sees the new Toyota Prius models parked outside. The spot was directed by Mr. Hide (who directed the Prius Harmony spots in which the landscapes were created with people) and was mostly shot with live-action, large-scale props, and some green-screen help to create backgrounds. The spot is airing in both 60 second and 30 second versions.






The set, a suburban neighborhood, was shot using a miniature set. See how they did it in the video below.





It took a lot of people to bring this effect to life. Below is a list of the full credits.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles
Client: Toyota
ECD: Margaret Keene
ECD: Chris Adams
ECD: Mike McKay
Creative Director: Ryan Jacobs
Creative Director: Jeff Church
ACD/Copywriter: Andy Kadin
ACD/Designer: Zach Richter
Copywriter: Kimberley Ragan
Art Director: Rebecca Johnson-Pond
Production Artist: Clint Hudspet
Director of Integrated Production/Multimedia: Tanya LeSieur
Broadcast Senior Producer: Jennifer Pearse
3D Producer: Carl Deo
Prod. Co.: The Sweet Shop
Exec. Producer: Philip Detchmendy
President of Prod. Co.: Paul Prince
President of Prod. Co.: Steve Dickstein
Director: Mr. Hide
Editing Company: Bikini Editorial
Exec. Producer: Gina Pagano
Editor: Avi Oron
Assistant Editor: Sterling Robertson
Finish/Special Effects: Eight VFX
VFX Supervisor: Jean Marc Demmer
Exec. Producer: Baptiste Andrieux
Exec. Producer: Shira Boardman
VFX Producer: Donna Langston
VFX Coordinator: Douglas Scruton
Roto & Paint: Marianne Magne
Roto & Paint: Chris Fregoso
Roto & Paint: Natalia Schkliar
3D Artist: Mathias Jourdes
3D Artist: Shuichi Nakahara
3D Artist: Jerome Platteaux
3D Artist: Kevin Culhane
3D Artist: Oliver Arnold
3D Supervisor: Giancarlo Lari
3D Supervisor: Vania Alba-Zapata
Compositor: Raphael Mosley
Compositor: Andy Davis
Compositor: Mathieu Caulet
Compositor: Yann Mallard
Compositor: Stephane Allender
Compositor: Marcelo Pasqualino
Compositor: Dave Stern
Compositor: Joe Chiao
Compositor: Tony Petitti
Compositor: Colleen Smith
Music/Supervisor: Agoraphone Music/ Beth Urdang
Music/Editor: Go Home Productions/ Mark Vodler
Sound Design/Mix: Lime/ Rohan Young

Kia uses Nail Art in a Stop-Motion Animation Film to Market the Picanto.

To market the new KIA Picanto, Kia Motors of Korea came up with a novel way to say "small." Using painted fingernails as stop motion animation to serve as a metaphor for packing things into a small vehicle.













The project took 25 days (and nights), 900 fingernails, 1200 bottles of nail polish and 2 hours to complete each piece of nail art.







The result is a video (cut as a :21 second teaser, a 1:13 second spot and a 2 minute director's cut)



Full version:





The director's cut, shown below, includes nails painted to call out features -like those shown below- as well as for the stop motion animation:





Images from the director's cut only:









Kia Picanto microsite

Satirizing Satan. A Wickedly Good Ad for Dirt Devil Parodies The Exorcist.

above: the commercial mimics some memorable scenes from the original movie, such as the opening shot (above) and the Exorcist movie poster and scene (below)


Directed by Andreas Roth, this :90 second commercial for the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner is a beautifully executed take on William Peter Blatty's, The Exorcist. Starting with the opening frame, a nod to the very famous scene used for the movie's poster (shown above), the spot does a brilliant job of echoing the horror film, only to reveal a comical and unexpected ending.



Credits:
Dirt Devil - Exorcist (90")
Brand: Dirt Devil
Product: Centrino Cleancontrol
Production Company: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Creative: Andre Price
Producer: Christian Hergenröther
Director: Andreas Roth
Dop: Roland Stuprich
Music: The German Wahnsinn Team
Editor: Alexander Menkö
Postproduction: lafourmi postproduction, nhb video

Drill Inc. Creates Xylophone, A Commercial For The Touch Wood Mobile Phone

A lovely and inventive three minute commercial, Xylophone, for a new wooden encased phone, the Touch Wood SH 08C from Docomo of Japan.




Japanese agency Drill Inc. (the same agency responsible for the website design of the Epos 100 artist Visa credit cards) and creative director Morihiro Harano hand crafted a giant wooden xylophone in the woods of Kyushu, Japan. As one little wooden ball rolls down the giant microphone, it plays Bach’s Cantata 147. The agency claims that no artificial music was used.



A joint project with Sharp, Olympus and Docomo, the phone is beautifully designed, as is the packaging

as well as the wooden charging unit by More Trees:


Be sure to see "the making of' the commercial here.

Here's a dedicated microsite for owners, the phone and accessories.

You can shop for the Touch wood Phone and the More trees charger here

New Call Of Duty: Black Ops Commercial Makes Even Peace Lovers Want To Shoot Someone.

The latest 60 second spot (shown after the stills in this post) for Activision's soon to be released Call of Duty: Black Ops video game, conceived of by TBWA Chiat Day and directed by Rupert Sanders, makes even me want to pick up a gun - or at least a game controller - and I'm about as far as one gets from a war monger.



Despite your stance on war or video games, one cannot deny the visceral appeal of this commercial. Set to the Rolling Stone's Vietnam-era classic Gimme Shelter, the gamers (a variety which includes, amongst many, a medical technician, a scientist, an electronics store clerk, a hotel concierge, a businessman, Kobe Bryant, Jimmy Kimmel and not one, but three women - even a Birkenstock wearing Granola) find themselves so immersed in the experience, they appear engaged in real life combat. To present a video game as so life-like that the players appear in the virtual world may not be a new concept or idea, but in this case, it is beautifully executed.








The everyday folk - and avid gamer celebs Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel who make appearances in the spot - are adeptly brandishing weapons while donning their civilian garb (love the Chanel shoulder bag), amongst the thunder of helicopters and flying shrapnel.



above: Video game fans Jimmy Kimmel and Kobe Bryant make appearances in the spot.

There's only one word of dialogue uttered in the whole script... when the hotel concierge, Vic, stops to answer his phone and identify himself while in the midst of combat.



And the final shot of a fast food cook with guns a-blazin' is the Creme de la Combat.



God damn, they were right when they said "There's A Soldier In All Of Us" and I didn't even know it. Now where's my Bazooka?

There’s a Soldier in All of Us (:60)


Call of Duty: Black Ops is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision, scheduled for release on November 9, 2010. The game is the seventh installment of the Call of Duty series since the original game published in 2003, and the third game in the series to be developed by Treyarch.

Pre-order/Buy Call of Duty: Black Ops

Activision is an American video game developer and publisher, with well known titles such as the Tony Hawk series, and the Guitar Hero franchise.

CREDITS
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles
Chief Creative Officer: Rob Schwartz
Group Creative Director: Brett Craig
Associate Creative Director: Blake Kidder
Associate Creative Director: Patrick Almaguer
Creative Director:
Head of Production: Richard O’Neill
Executive Producer: Anh-Thu Le
Producer: Stanton Hill
Art Director: Chase Madrid
Copywriter: Chris DeNinno
Group Account Director: Stan Fiorito
Account Director:
Account Supervisor: Paul Sears
Assistant Account Executive: Rohit Bal
Group Planning Director: Oke Mueller
Sr. Planner: Natalie Puccio
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Business Affairs Manager: Jill Durand
Senior Broadcast Traffic: Jerry Neill

Production Company: MJZ
Director: Rupert Sanders
Executive Producer: David Zander
Executive Producer: Eric Stern
Producer: Laurie Boccaccio
Director of Photography: Greig Fraser
Production Designer: Dominic Watkins
Costume Designer: Nancy Steiner
Editor: Neil Smith
Post Production Producer: Carolina Wallace
Visual Effects: Asylum
Visual Effects Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Visual Effects Post Producer: Ryan Meredith

Visual Effects: Asylum
Visual Effects Supervisor/ Lead Compositor: Jason Hicks
Executive Producer: Michael Pardee
Producer: Ryan Meredith

The Superbowl's Best Spot. No Actors, No Locations, Only Brilliance.

Yesterday's Superbowl was disappointing when it came to memorable commercials. There were certainly not many worth noting, with this one exception.

Google's Parisian Love 60 second spot was not only unique, breakthrough, but... bonus! ..inexpensive to produce. No sets, no casting and yet the spot was incredibly memorable.

It tells the story of a couple meeting, falling in love, getting married and eventually having a child.... all through using Google.



It wasn't reaching for the stars. No celebs, no expensive hit songs, just an actual product demonstration. But what a product demonstration. By structuring the demo to tell a linear narrative in shorthand, with the help of a few sound effects, they captured the brand as well as the hearts of most viewers.

Ask yourself this, when was the last time watching sixty seconds of someone surf the net gave you chills?



Google, based in Mountain View, California, rarely uses television to advertise. As the most-watched U.S. TV event, the Super Bowl is a magnet for both traditional sports advertisers such as Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the biggest marketer, and lesser-known companies looking to increase awareness.

Also worth noting, the best use of a power slide (you gear heads know what I mean): The Bridgestone Killer Whale spot. See it here.