Bowl of Soup(er)

Apparently there was a little sports match in ol’ Yankeeland over the weekend, with the year’s most expensive advertising space being filled up with potential award-winners and product-shifters. As we’re dedicated folk, The Reel have cast an eye over every last one of the blighters in order to present their pick of the bunch.

Chris’ Picks

With the recession growing big bloody sharp teeth, and generally biting all and sundry across the globe at the moment, it’s no surprise that the Superbowl ad breaks were peppered with job site and career focussed ads. Admirably the creative teams behind the ads were also not prepared to let the executions stand in the background, or simply just ‘be there’, the ads for career-centric brands such as job giant Monster.com were this years most interesting and entertaining of the bunch.

Monster

“Double Take” for Monster.com was a cracker and represents the purest form of TV execution genius, as the teams at BBDO and Epoch Films respectively crafted a simple, great idea and squeezed it into 30 seconds. Creative types everywhere, take note; we think this is almost perfect.

The Ladders

Fat-cat jobsite The Ladders.com also tapped the bulging vein of comedy for their 100k-jobs-only Superbowl outing as Fallon Minneapolis and MJZ Los Angeles switched lithe antelope for skidding office chairs and got a bunch of burly Crocodile Dundee types to snare them at high speed. How we guffawed.

Coke

This year also saw some clever re-treading of the boards from drinks giant Coke as the brand chose to riff the 1980's classic Superbowl ad 'Nasty Joe Greene' with Coke Zero’s new spot 'Mean Troy'. A couple of disgruntled marketers hijack this unfolding pastiche just as the cutesy kid is just about to selflessly dish out his tasty sugarless beverage to a knackered football star Troy Pomalu. A greatly crafted tongue in cheek homage from CPB Miami and Company films Los Angeles that unfurls the 80's cheese and adds a bit of needed modern humour.

As the original is just shy of 30 years old some of you fresh-faced young-o’s might not have seen it… so here it is in all its cheddar wrapped glory.

Jamie’s Picks

Hulu

Right, hands up anyone who watches 30 Rock. OK, put your hands down and click on this ad ‘cause you’re gonna love it. Next, hands up who loves the Baldwins. Hmmm, we’d have thought Shark In Venice would have turned you on to this particular acting dynasty, but nevertheless put your hands down and click away to see the avuncular Alec Baldwin proving yet again why he’s the best of the bunch. Anyone left? Shame on you. Your cultural know-how obviously isn’t up to speed – but clicking on the ad should help you on your way to Hulu enlightenment. Combining many a Superbowl staple (celebs, comedy, off-kilter sensibilities), this cracker of a spot from Crispin Porter & Bogusky and Pony Show Entertainment had us from ‘TV Star’ and actually provoked an unprecedented laugh-out-loud moment – impressive considering how mushy our brains are!

Coke

As is their want, Coca-Cola made quite an appearance in Superbowl ’09, having high profile ads scattered throughout the game for their various concoctions. Two of the stand-outs were Nexus’ gamer-tastic ‘Avatar’ and Psyop’s nature filled wonder ‘Heist’.

The plausibility that a relatively hot chick's online avatar is a hulking murderous green Orc straight fresh from butchering people from World of Warcraft is a compu-dork sweaty late night dream. Even more geek-arousing is that the said brutish Orc / hot chick is tamed by an ice cold coke rather than the flaming sword of Zinthar' and looks rather up for a date! A neat mix of quality post work and esoteric games-playing gags which gently nuzzles your happy part of the brain, the spot gently reminds us that things are better shared.

If The Italian Job, Gone In Sixty Seconds and Ocean’s 58 have taught us anything it’s that with a little teamwork you can nick just about anything. Taking their cue from such movies (and a tot of inspiration from the plucky buggers in A Bug’s Life), this conniving group of creepy-crawleys cash in all their freakish favours in order to grab a taste of fizzy pop. Brilliantly animated and with a rousing ‘Peter and the Wolf’ score, this spot was bound to get the snack-filled Superbowl viewers off their sofa in search of a ice-cold beverage.

Audi

Honourable mention - God, we love Jason Statham here at The Reel. He's just great. From being a baldy, Anglo-American head-kicker in The Transporter to being a baldy, cockney head-shooter in Crank to being a baldy, we-don't-know-where-he's-supposed-to-be-from-and-neither-does-he head-runner-over in Death Race he's just the best. So that means we love this Superbowl Audi spot. Cause Jason Statham's all over it. It does a thing like that some other car ads have where decades flash past - but it does it loads better because those ads don't have Jason Statham and this one does. Nice idea, nice direction, nice post work ... blah blah blah .. who cares about all that, it's got Jason Statham in it so it's brilliant. Did we mention we're big fans...

NewsReel 06/02/09

Director Samuel Bayer Joins Boutique Shop aWHITELABELproduct.

Since his storied directorial debut in the ‘90s, Samuel Bayer has done the monumental: he’s accrued dozens of prestigious awards and directed memorable spots for a wish-list of clients such as Nike, Visa, Converse, VW, Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew, and music videos for artists Green Day, Justin Timberlake, The Strokes, The Rolling Stones and Metallica, to note only a few.

And after spending the majority of his career at HSI, Bayer shifts gears and joins former colleagues Annique DeCaestecker and Ellen Jacobson-Clarke, and their partner Oliver Hicks, at bicoastal shop aWHITELABELproduct.

“I’ve rarely been as pumped up about the business,” Bayer says. “I have a great relationship with Annique and Ellen, having worked with them for years. I like what WHITELABEL represents. It’s a boutique with an eye on where the business is going, focusing on cross platforming directors in to other mediums.”

Bayer was honored recently as part of a David Bowie retrospective at MoMA, with his “Heart’s Filthy Lesson” video for the artist (now part of the museum’s permanent collection), and Kodak honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. He is pursuing projects on the Big Screen as well, and is slated to direct the feature Brilliant, a diamond heist film in development with Matthew McConaughey and Scarlett Johansson.



Clemens Signs to Draw.

Helen Clemens wins at Country Music Awards Australia - and signs to Draw Pictures UK.Helen Clemens (pictured centre, below) wins 'Best Music Video' for Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson (left and right) "Rattlen' Bones" at the Australia Country Music Awards.

Helen hails from Sydney and has a diverse creative background in music promos. Having directed Australia’s number one artists such as Sneaky Sounds System, Josh Pyke and Kasey Chambers, she also brings with her a wealth of creative knowledge, flair and insight from a broad variety of film and post-production design.After graduating from the University of Sydney, Helen established herself as a video artist installing huge projection works for Roskilde Music Festival 1999 & 2000 and has designed digital installations for numerous live music concerts and fashion catwalk parades.

Helen moved into working as lead vfx designer on dozens of commercials for director Michael Gracey in the UK for clients such as Expedia and McCains, and on UK music promos such as Natasha Bedingfield 'Unwritten' and Charlotte Church 'Say My Name'.

Check out Helen’s reel here!

Disqo Gets Designer Touch from Joe Lovelock.
Disqo, London’s first post-centric digital production company, is strengthening its client offering with the addition of a designer, Joe Lovelock (headshot attached), who has extensive experience in brand identity, marketing and web design.

Lovelock’s appointment further diversifies Disqo’s existing post-production and web expertise by introducing non-video-based design experience. Lovelock previously worked as a designer and art director for Global (formerly known as GCap Media) where he created brand identities and marketing material for radio stations like XFM and Capital, plus sponsorship campaigns for brands such as Nivea. Lovelock is a multi-talented designer with a spectrum of creative experience spanning photography spells at The Independent and The Times, animation, print and web.

Lovelock’s addition is strategically timed to coincide with an extremely busy period for Disqo. The company is currently in the finishing stages of a complex and wide-ranging project for Lexus and CHI; and is also liaising with heads of TV at various London agencies to establish pioneering discussion forums regarding issues inherent in digital production.

Ben Leyland, Disqo’s creative director, said: “Joe’s branding and design experience will add a fresh perspective to our team which, until now, mostly consisted of people with video and web based talent. His addition means we’re now even better placed to meet the demands of clients who need to go beyond the one-off digital production commission. He’s an enthusiastic guy and we’re sure he’ll bring loads of new ideas to the team.”

And Finally!

Thanks to our pals at the Media Foundry and Stream Worldwide, The Reel team was treated to a quiz of epic proportions last night. We came third. It was a set up. That still makes us in the top 3 at music quizzes in London. Which also means the world.