A dark, yet effective public interest commercial. The scene is portrayed by animated dolls, which has a creepy effect enhanced by the music box tune in the background. A doll boy and a doll girl are sitting on the couch watching television, the boy is sliding his arm around the girl when a cat comes in and vomits next to them. The boy gets up and leaves the field of vision of the camera, still on the girl who is fixing herself in her compact. When he returns to the couch and places his arm around her, moving in to kiss her the camera reveals he has the cat vomit in his mouth. The camera moves to the television displaying the message “Kissing a Smoker is just as gross. Tobacco smokes you.”
Credits
Agency: Sedgwick Rd. Jim Walker, executive creative director; Zach Hitner and Forrest Healy, associate creative directors; Scott Stripling, copywriter; Mishy Cass, art director. Production Company: Bent Image Lab Chel White, director; Ray Di Carlo, executive producer; Mark Axton, producer; Gayle Griffin, coordinator. Shot at Bent Image Lab. Editorial: Bent Image Lab Steve Miller, editor. Postproduction: Downstream, Portland Jim Barrett, colorist. Visual Effects: Bent Image Lab Randy Wakerlin, post production supervisor/composite artist; Steve Balzer and Jon Weigand, composite artists; Curt Enderle, art director; Jeff Riley and Rob Shaw, animators. Music: Clatter & Din Eric Johnson, composer/arranger/sound designer. Sound Design: Downstream, Portland Lance Limbocker, sound designer. Audio: Downstream, Portland Lance Limbocker, mixer.
Video Tags:PSA
Toyota, Burrell, Director Paul Hunter and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Prove EV Skeptics Wrong In “Haters Anthem”
Toyota and Chicago-based agency Burrell have launched the Toyota BEV Family Campaign: a series of spots that follow electric vehicle skeptics as they’re won over by the bZ, bZ Woodland, and C-HR, one by one.
The campaign’s hero spot, “Haters Anthem,” opens on three skeptics portrayed as puppets, each one doubtful and vocal about it, who are converted into Toyota BEV believers after getting behind the wheel. When they convert, the puppets transform into their human selves.
To build them, Burrell partnered with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which designed and built five custom puppets over six weeks, each with intricate mechanisms for unique arm and foot movements. A dedicated hairdresser ensured curly locs, fades, and twists were executed precisely and matched across both the puppet and human versions of each character. An all-Black puppeteer team, led by puppet captain Raymond Carr, handled performance and choreography throughout.
The work was directed by Paul Hunter via production house PRETTYBIRD, with “Haters Anthem” by Infinity Song, a four-sibling soft rock band signed to Roc Nation.
Burrell’s creative is grounded in a real audience insight: Black consumers have been underserved by the EV category, and nobody has built a campaign that reflects their vision of what electric driving looks and feels like. This one does. The humor, the music, the puppetry, and the transformation are all in service of a single idea: get someone skeptical behind the wheel, and let the car close the deal.
“There’s a thin line between a skeptic and a hater, and we leaned into that energy instead of away from it,” said Tara DeVeaux, CEO of Burrell. “The puppets give us permission to be honest about the doubt, and the... Read More
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