This animated short from South Korean studio Superfiction mocks the stereotypical PSA-style campaign with an industry twist. Conceived by a creative team at Deutsch NY to promote the ANDY Awards’ call for entries, this “PSA” kicks off the campaign by introducing us to a distracted creative director unnecessarily killing a great idea. But intervening is Fernando Machado, ANDY jury member and Burger King’s SVP of global brand management. He saves the idea with humor and some gratuitous violence by doing away with the creative director, all to prevent the senseless killing of great ideas.
“It takes a lot to get a great idea through the advertising gauntlet,” said Gina Grillo, president and CEO of The Advertising Club of New York and International ANDY Awards. “At its core, this campaign is about everyone in our industry – clients, creatives, lawyers, etc. – collaborating to be brave and stand up for creativity. Our hope is creative types everywhere will live vicariously through these scenarios and vow to fight harder for the ideas they believe in.”
“Experiencing the death of a brave idea is gut wrenching, but we’ve all been through it. Sadly, some people get used to it,” says Pete Favat, 2017 chairman of the ANDY Awards and CCO of Deutsch North America. “Unfortunately, provocative ideas die in quiet, private places with no one watching. We want to expose the sometimes ridiculous reasons why these ideas die every day and hopefully put a stop to it. Maybe people will use these short films to help stop the insanity and produce braver work.”
For more than 50 years, the International ANDY Awards have recognized the best and bravest ideas. This time around, great ideas can entered into the 2017 ANDY Awards competition before January 13.
Titled The Distraction, the animated short is the first of three which will be up on the ANDY Awards’ website, and the call-for-entries campaign will be running from now through February, as videos, on social, and in banners.
CreditsClient The Advertising Club of New York/ANDY Awards Agency Deutsch NY Pete Favat, chief creative officer, North America; Winston Binch, chief technology officer, North America; Dan Kelleher, chief creative officer; Trevor O’Brien, chief technology officer; Menno Kluin, Pete Johnson, executive creative directors; Sam Shepherd, Frank Cartagena, creative directors; Fanny Josefsson, copywriter; Ilana Wolstein, art director; Dean Coots, social copywriter; Rachel McEuen, social art director; Joe Calabrese, director of integrated production; Cheryl Masaitis, Heather Black, producers; Michael Mitzman, digital design lead; Meg Ryan, sr. digital producer; Matthew Severin, digital animation; Ryan Moylan, website developer; Kory Rozich, UX designer; Alden Davis, project manager. Illustration/Animation Design Superfiction Animation House Anima Boutique Editorial Steelhead, NY Aaron Schillinger, editor. Music/Licensed Music Tracks JSM Music Sound Design/Mixing AudioEngine
FOUR PAWS Teams With Catsnake, Animation Studio Bewilder To “Be Their Voice”
Global animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS has launched the “Be Their Voice” campaign. Partnering with specialist creative agency Catsnake and South African production and animation company Bewilder, the campaign sheds light on a cruel practice called live lamb cutting. The film aims to raise awareness and inspire international action, urging fashion brands and policymakers to ban this inhumane practice by 2030.
The stop-motion “Be Their Voice” film follows a PhD student, Jesse, as he tries to perfect his sheep translation software with the help of a young sheep called Sunny. The initially heartwarming story takes an unsettling turn as Sunny discovers what is soon to happen to her on the farm.
Catsnake felt that the best way to capture the true horror of live lamb cutting was to focus on storytelling that would engage the audience emotionally. Catsnake creative director Rowena Wyles said, “A lot of animal rights campaigns rely on sharing shocking visuals of cruelty, but we know that tends to stop a wider audience from engaging with the issue. Instead, we wanted to draw people in with humor and heart before delivering the shocking truth of the practice.”
Working collaboratively with Bewilder, the film was brought to life with a mixed-media approach; recreating the look and feel of stop-motion with the flexibility of 3D animation. The sets, props and lighting were all made in Bewilder’s in-house studio, and the 3D characters were placed in afterwards.
Ruan Vermeulen, creative director at Bewilder, explained the process: “We built a ‘realistic’ miniature farm setting with stylized and lovable CGI characters. Combining a vast range of skill sets, with a multitalented creative team, our goal was to create an animation... Read More