Category: Commercials

For Saatchi & Saatchis "Unleash the Power of the Sun" campaign for Sunny Delight, Charlex produced two 15-second spots integrating 3D animation with filmed action by director Michael Schrom. The fast-moving 15-second spots, called "Choker" and "Escape Artist," get right to the point, showing a chained beverage breaking loose from its bonds, and a straight-jacketed bottle escaping from its constraints. The spots, aimed at a "tween" audience, began airing nationally on December 3.

NY-based design studio Pitch has created four :30 animated spots for the New York Metro. The spots use a 50s retro art direction with minimalist animation to illustrate the whimsical situations devised by agency DeVito/Verdi. For example, in one spot two men walk into a bar and marvel at all the women - then realize the nightspot caters to lesbians. The spots all have a comedic element and wind up with the same message: Use New York Metro to guide you to the best bets in entertainment, shopping, food and recreation.

Uli Meyer Animation created a 30-second computer animated title sequence for the German television station WDR show entitled MADE IN EUROPE. To illustrate the wacky nature of the show, which features guests from six European countries who talk about and perform country-specific oddities and customs, Uli Meyer Animation chose to use stereotypical images of European countries presented in a comical way. Some of the title sequence elements include dancing Can-Can girls on top of a London bus driven by Picasso that crosses in front of the Eiffel Tower while a Scotsman does a sword dance.

Sweden's Studio FilmTecknarna has just completed two 20-second spots for Triss Instant Ticket Lottery in Sweden. Over the holiday period, Triss will be running their Gold Rush/Guldrushen competition with a top prize of 10 million kronor (approximately US$944,000), an unusually high amount for a Swedish scratch card. FilmTecknarna director Nick Hewitt developed the commercials using Bengt Lindberg's illustrations that are currently featured on the lottery tickets.

Collaborating closely with long-time creative partner, ad agency Leo Burnett / Chicago, SimEx Digital Studios recently completed a new commercial featuring Kelloggs Froot Loops cereal and Toucan Sam. SimEx provided 2D and 3D animation, compositing and editing for the spot. The :30 commercial "Storm" commences with Toucan Sam caught in the midst of a brewing thunderstorm. Fierce gusts of wind tow the lovable character into the rainforest as he helplessly clutches onto a vine.

Quiet Man completed the visual effects on a new spot for Walt Disney World via Yellow Shoes Creative Group featuring Mickey Mouse using some visual magic to create theme park adventures. As "Hat Trick" (:30), directed by Richard Sabean of Access Films opens, Mickey appears in his famous sorcerer's apprentice costume standing in front of four wooden buckets containing different colored substances.

Creative Bubble has completed a four spot campaign for Wow Wee, a divison of Hasbro, Inc. by way of ad agency Posnick & Kolcker (NY). The spots all feature B.I.O.-(Bio-mechanical Integrated Organism) Bugs, Wow Wees new "artificial-intelligence" toy. "When Posnick & Kolcker called, they knew what they wanted," says Doug Dimon, senior effects artist at Creative Bubble. "First, they wanted a truly threatening sky. Second, they wanted two product shots to emphasize the dual mechanical-organic nature of these bugs.

Renegade Animation has produced a new 30-second spot for Target and agency The Design Guys, Minneapolis to promote the store's Halloween items. Directed by Darrell Van Citters, He's Not a Freak, features an assortment of ghosts, ghouls, monsters and demons preparing for Halloween. A skeleton swallows a piece of candy (which drops straight through his rib cage) and a witch decorates her spooky mansion using the wrappings from a friendly mummy in place of crepe paper. The Design Guys based the commercial on characters created by Sarah Nelson of Werner Design Werks.

To present the 2002 Kinder Surprise collection Canadas TOPIX, a commercial computer animation studio, has created 3D character animation for the 30-second spot Action Convention, for Ferrero Canada Ltd. and agency Garneau Würstlin Philip Brand. For those not in the know about this candy treat, Kinder Surprise, launched in Italy in 1972, is a hollow chocolate egg which contains a collectable prize. In Action Convention an animated Kinder Surprise is seen underwater, decked out in a diving bell, as he introduces his collection of toys for 2002.

As part of a growing package for Showtime Network's recently launched ShoNext Channel, design boutique EyeballNYC created three new interstitial series of "Disc Jockey," a mixed-media exploration of emerging American DJs. Each two-minute segment combines a documentary style with a tongue-in-cheek animated superhero sequence to create a light-hearted, satirical look at the world of the disc jockey. The animated, comic book styled section, merging video and stills, is framed around an interview segment, while the animation transforms each DJ into a superhero alter ego.

Sydney, Australia-based visual effects and animation company GMD (Garner MacLennan Design) has completed its latest character animation project with the launch of a series of commercials for telecommunications company Telstra. Produced for the Singleton Ogilvy & Mather (SOM Sydney) agency and the Flying Fish production company, the 30-second spots show people in various situations interacting with animated numbers, the message being that Telstra can make numbers work for people, not against them.

Director Harry Karidis of Tropix and Karidis Productions called on creative digital effects company Ring of Fire to create a new anti-smoking PSA entitled "Living Mural." The PSA was created for the Arizona Department of Health Services and TEPP (Tobacco Education and Prevention Program) and showcases the work of muralist Judith Baca of SPARC (Social and Public Arts Resource Center). "Living Mural" begins with a young man walking past a mural on a busy neighborhood street. He carelessly throws down his cigarette and the mural is set ablaze.