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Courtesy of J.J. Sedelmaier Productions

J.J. Sedelmaier Productions has used the design aesthetic of airline safety cards to launch the animated commercial campaign for Hotwire, an online travel site founded by six major airlines. In "George Johnson," a man discovers he spent way too much on his airline ticket and jumps out of the emergency door. The three other spots explore possible results of buying airline tickets from other travel services. For example, use a "guess-your-price travel Website" and one might find the family landing in "Paris, Texas," instead of Paris, France. "Since this campaign is structured around the booking of airline tickets, it seemed only natural to translate the naïve illustration quality of in-flight safety cards to animation as the graphic basis of the campaign," said director J.J. Sedelmaier. "The instructional quality of the design reinforces the dangers of using the wrong discount airline ticket source and the advantages of using Hotwire to book your airline travel tickets. Overall, the Hotwire spots represent a relatively traditional use of animation but are a fresh approach to design with very aggressive content. I don't know where animation is headed in terms of commercials right now. I see people using a lot of stuff that's graphically rooted in the computer, but isn't generally the right choice for the concept. The Hotwire campaign is a terrific example of a good concept perfectly paired with smart and effective design choices." VirtualMagic (Los Angeles) handled the digital ink and paint. The spot was produced for San Francisco agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners.