As 2014 draws to a close, it’s time for reflection on assorted industry fronts, including assessing what work was among the year’s most worthwhile creatively.
Determining any year’s “best” is a highly subjective proposition so SHOOT staffers looked to at least narrow the field by first culling through two bodies of work, our weekly Top Spots as well as our “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery entries throughout 2014. We also added to the field other ScreenWork section fare from throughout the year as well as notable work we had covered in various stories during the course of 2014.
We did the same for our reviews of our quarterly Top Ten Tracks and VFX/Animation Charts. We ultimately chose a Top Five from each.
So here are SHOOT’s selections for the Best Work of 2014 divided into Top Spots, The Best Work You May Never See, and our Top Music/Sound Tracks and Top VFX/Animation entries.
Top Spots of the Year
Our #1 Top Spot was from our Agency of the Year, BBDO New York: GE’s “Childlike Imagination” directed by Dante Ariola of MJZ. The ad depicts a girl dreaming about the amazing things her mom makes as a GE employee. The piece underscores how GE is stretching the limits of human imagination to create brilliant machines which positively impact society. “Childlike Imagination” earned a primetime Emmy nomination in 2014.
Number two in our ranking is Old Spice’s “Momsong” directed by Steve Ayson of MJZ for Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. This gloriously twisted spot shows how hard it can be on some mothers to watch their sons go from boys to men. In the commercial, young men—irresistible to women thanks to Old Spice Re-Fresh Body Spray—enjoy time with the opposite sex, unaware they are being stalked by devoted moms who just can’t bear the thought of losing them.
The third slot in SHOOT’s countdown is filled by the #LikeAGirl initiative directed by Lauren Greenfield of Chelsea Pictures for P&G feminine hygiene brand Always and Leo Burnett, Chicago. Documentary filmmaker Greenfield felt both the importance and inherent challenge of a project looking to tackle the negative “Like a girl” stereotype (“you throw like a girl,” “run like a girl”), which permeates our culture. Greenfield and Leo Burnett creatives collaborated and developed a social experiment to see how people of all ages interpret the phrase “Like a girl.” The centerpiece viral video captures negative and positive feedback, thus far generating 70 million-plus views and resonating with its target audience and beyond.
Coming in fourth is another BBDO NY entry in which the agency brought together three of its clients to help bring to fruition a :60 designed to help raise awareness of autism and encourage parents to look for early signs. Titled “Lifetime of Difference,” the “ad”—directed by Christian Loubek of Anonymous Content—affirms that “early diagnosis can make a lifetime of difference.” But what makes this effort wholly unique is that the :60 message is actually made up of four, stand-alone short :15 commercials woven together in one seamless story that features the same family as they take a journey through their child’s upbringing, having coped successfully with the challenges of autism. It begins with a family visit to a pediatrician in which a Band-Aid is applied, and then is followed by short commercials for clients like Campbell Soup and AT&T Wireless. As viewers watch the commercials, they will notice changes in the four-to-six-year span between each advertiser’s spot. The same parents appear in each commercial as the young boy grows up, interacting with his family in everyday situations involving these clients’ products. The last story shows the young man in graduation gear as copy reads, “You just saw how early diagnosis can make a lifetime of difference.
And taking fifth place in our assessment of the year’s best work is Chipotle’s Farmed And Dangerous, an original comedy series which debuted on Hulu and Hulu Plus. Season one consists of four half-hour episodes produced by film/TV studio Piro. Tim Piper of Piro directed Farmed and Dangerous. Sans any overt Chipotle branding, the show reflects the company mantra of serving food made with natural ingredients from eco-friendly sustainable sources. Farmed And Dangerous satirizes the lengths to which corporate agribusiness and its image-makers go to create a positive image of industrial agriculture. The first season focuses on the introduction of PetroPellet, a petroleum-based animal feed created by fictional industrial giant Animoil. PetroPellet promises to reduce industrial agriculture’s dependence on oil by eliminating the need to grow, irrigate, fertilize and transport the vast amount of feed needed to raise livestock on factory farms. Before its new feed formula can forever reshape industrial agriculture, Animoil’s plans go awry when a revealing security video goes viral sending Animoil and their spin master, Buck Marshall (Ray Wise of Twin Peaks, Mad Men, 24) of the Industrial Food Image Bureau, into damage control mode. The series was cut from the same socially responsible and creatively engaging cloth as the lauded animated short films from Chipotle: 2013’s Scarecrow and 2011’s Back to the Start, both of which helped spark conversations about agriculture and industrial food production.
“Best Work” gallery
There’s a definite public service bent to our best of “The Best Work You May Never See” in 2014. Four of the top five are of the PSA variety, starting with our number one pick, New Zealand Transport Agency’s “Small Mistakes” out of Clemenger BBDO, Wellington, NZ. Derin Seale of Finch directed this spot which stops a devastating car accident just prior to impact, allowing both drivers to get out of the car and discuss what happened only to come to the sad realization that it’s too late to avert disaster. They get back into their respective vehicles for the inevitable conclusion.
Taking the second slot is States United to Prevent Gun Violence’s “The Monster Is Real” directed by Yves Geleyn via Hornet for Grey NY. This animated :90 PSA features a little boy who fears a “monster in the closet” and is reassured by his parents that there is nothing to be afraid of. One day, though, the lad looks to confront his fear and ventures into the closet where a box with a hat on top of it appears in the dark to be a forboding face. He climbs up, reaches into the box and pulls out a loaded, unlocked handgun. He begins playing with it and ultimately the weapon discharges, gravely wounding him.
Third place goes to New York Organ Donors Network’s short animation film “Long Live New York” from Y&R NY. Laurent Witz, the Oscar-winning director and writer of the 2013 animated short film Mr. Hublot, helmed “Long Live New York” which opens at an empty Grand Central Station in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. The world-famous station’s iconic clock is on the verge of losing power, and NYC at large is crumbling to pieces. New Yorkers are seen carrying various parts of the city—street signs, manhole covers, park benches, even the Grand Central clock—to an unknown location. A sculptor then unveils the new, beating heart he has built for NYC using the donated parts that have been brought to him.
Coming in fourth in our “Best Work” gallery countdown is Ad Council/FEMA’s “Waiting.” Nicolai Fuglsig of MJZ directed this moving PSA for Deutsch NY which takes us to a shelter where people gather in the aftermath of a disaster. As we move through the shelter, we eavesdrop on conversations, including one in which parents have been separated from their child. Another fully intact family listens, grateful to be together even if it’s in an emergency shelter. A voiceover reminds us to devise a plan so we can find family members after an emergency.
Finishing fifth is Canadian agency john st.’s self-promotional video, “Reactvertising,” directed by Matthew Bissonnette and produced by Holiday Films/Nimble Content. With a sense of self-deprecating humor, john st. created this piece which touts its advertising/marketing acumen in the fast paced social media world. In one sequence, we’re told that social media is so instantaneous that there’s no time to think, making john st. the ideal agency because it acts without thinking.
VFX/Animation
The aforementioned “Long Live New York” tops our 2014 lineup of VFX/Animation Chart entries.
That’s followed by Ad Council/American Heart Association’s “Ceiling Crasher” directed by Christian Bevilacqua of Anonymous Content for Deutsch NY. VFX house is MPC NY. This PSA shows how women have progressed over the years, breaking through one figurative glass ceiling after another—from a nurse who literally breaks through a ceiling to arrive in another era as a factory worker akin to Rosie the Riveter who in turn breaks through the ceiling to emerge as political/social activist at a press conference, and then a woman of today in a corporate executive suite. The corporate exec then explains that today women can do anything men can do. She then collapses to the floor as we are informed that this equality also refers to a so-called man’s affliction—heart disease.
Next up in our ranking is Invista/Lycra’s “Lycra Moves” directed by Philippe Andre of Independent Films, London, for agency SapientNitro, London. UK effects house Glassworks contributed to this stirring piece of choreography, giving grace, style, and free-flowing movement to Lycra as conveyed through the movement of performers whose motion is dance-like.
Fourth place goes to grocery chain Sainsbury’s “Christmas is for Sharing” directed by Ringan Ledwidge of Rattling Stick for AMV BBDO, London. This ad is a creative interpretation of Xmas Day 1914 when British and German World War I soldiers laid down their arms and came together on neutral territory to share greetings, treats, and a game of football. The Mill’s 2D and matte painting team transported the cast back to snowy 1914 Germany by creating a series of matte paintings for the football match setting, before seamlessly comping the live action plates on top, to realistically re-create a chilling mid-winter view of No-Mans land.
Rounding out the VFX/Animation Top Five is GE’s “Ideas” directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks for BBDO NY. This short depicts the birth of an idea—which is in the form of an odd looking, initially ostracized creature. Rejected everywhere, this idea finally stumbles into GE’s offices where it is nurtured, realizes its full beauty and potential, and gains the proper credit it deserves.
Music/Sound
Number one on our hit parade—musically speaking—is Old Spice’s “Momsong.” The mothers sing a song of lament, with lyrics penned by W+K art director Ruth Bellotti and copywriters David Povill and Justine Armour as well as composer/arranger Brad Neely of Walker, Portland.
Scoring second place was music/sound house Q Department, NY, for Against Malaria Foundation’s “Nightmare: Malaria” directed by Marie Hyon and Marco Spier of Psyop for the NY agency Establishment for the Greater Good. In the PSA, a girl’s idyllic dream depicting a wonderland filled with friendly creatures takes a turn when one of those creatures, a mosquito, brings malaria into the picture. This animated adventure then takes us to the child’s bloodstream ravaged by disease. Yet all this is preventable with a $3 solution—netting around her bed.
Taking third was Gillette’s “Piano Demo,” a short featuring the composing chops of Ryan Lott, a.k.a. Son Lux. In the video Lott performs an original piece of music (which he composed) on a keyboard linked to a piano rigged with Gillette new FlexBall razors. The piano keys are played via a pulley system attached to FlexBall razors. The 3D pivoting head of the razors allows for a unique range of movement as the razors’ handles strike the piano keys. At the conclusion of the performance—which took place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC—a pair of supers appear which read: “Movement Like No Other”; “Shaving Rebuilt.”
Finishing fourth is Beacon Street Studios and its Fasho Records for Tiffany & Co.’s “Holiday” out of Ogilvy NY. The song “Out of the Blue” by Della Swiss (lead singer: Chauncy Jacks) is the perfect accompaniment to an animated wonderland showing Tiffany’s holiday spirit.
And fifth place went to Schick Hydro Groomer’s “Welcome Back,” a playfully risque look at manscaping driven by a score from music/sound house Ring The Alarm, featuring a humorous song with double entendre lyrics from JWT NY.
