Off The Shelf

Talent Imitates, Genius Steals.

A phrase whose roots are attributed to great pioneers such as Oscar Wilde, Picasso and Nerissa Nields. When the old adage is applied to advertising campaigns, a few creatives might agree whilst some will be in angry rapture. A bunch of others might also write it down and then attach it to a brand…

In the past few months, there has been a notable surge in agencies and brands appropriating older filmic ideas and promos to sell a brand to the public. Joey Garfield’s RJD2 video was mainline adapted for Visa, Kristofer Stroms whiteboard short was tailored for The Carphone Warehouse and interestingly the Fiat Grande Punto spot was “licensed” from Nexus Director Roel Woulters previous zZz promo.

There have been a few articles in various trade press magazines debating the subject of who did what first and citing older court cases like the famous Medhi Norowzian Guinness case as a point of reference.

That noted, fact remains that the practice of half-inching ideas is something that as an artist or creative individual, you cant protect yourself against. So in the cases that the directors get an opportunity to stamp their name to an idea that was theirs in the first place. You can be sure that they are going to do it. Aren’t they?

We were curious what the directors involved in this appropriation of their work for commercial purposes tought so we asked a couple of the Auteurs who have been involved in the trend exactly how they felt…

Kristofer Strom

There is an obvious trend emerging where Agencies / Brands are wholesale adopting or buying the core ideas and treatments of directors in an off the shelf fashion. Some example bands include Visa, Renault, Cravendale milk.

As a Director – is this something that you are aware of?

Oui

How did the Carphone Warehouse spot come about?

It all started in 2006
I made an animation, got huge amount of visits on YouTube and it all started rolling.
I've been asked to do the same thing before but it wasn't until CPW we felt that it was right here we could really get the most out of it print, press, tvc, idents and all.

Did you see it as a direct extension of the original piece of animation that you did?

Absolutely

Was the original music being included something that you fought for? Or was it
always going to be part of the makeup?

CHI had included the music in their first sketches and really wanted them to make the music and sfx. We tried a couple of new tracks especially written for the different animations but it all ended up being the same track as in the original video.

How much input did the creative team have? If any – were they content to let you go to work because they sort of knew what they were getting?

As always it all starts out with "do your thing..." but ends up with -"...but that needs some tweaks". They definitely had input on it all but I think we've all been working in the same direction, trying to get as much weird and great stuff out of it as possible.

Do you think that this trend will continue – as brands seek to align themselves with cool ideas and quality existing pieces of work?

Absolutely

Does it come with the turf when brands and creatives (inevitably) are influenced (or on occasion shamelessly plagiarise) directors work or is this something that is in decline?

When putting stuff on the internet you're aware of that it could get ripped off by anyone. But you could also get some great stuff out of it.

The worst ones for me is when they first ask me if I could do it, they show me their idea, budget and all that, and when I say no they go do it anyway...but it looks like crap.

With that is this trend of hiring the original talent – a better answer?

Original is good, best answer? Don't know. I can imagine there's a lot of original talent getting copied and that the copy is better than the original.

Do you think the consumer is happier as a result?

Are consumers ever happy?

Is this something that directors can thank the advent of YouTube and other online video.coms for? Are they acting as a whistleblower?

Indeed, I keep getting job offerings through my YouTube and Vimeo pages.

Are you working on anything special at the moment?!? Anything that we can shout about at The Reel?!?

Well, there is something me and Bart Yates at Blinkink have been cooking for a while. It'll be awesome. Can't tell you more then that.

PIC PIC ANDRE

There is an obvious trend emerging where Agencies / Brands are wholesale adopting or buying the core ideas and treatments of directors in an off the shelf fashion. Some example bands include Visa, Renault and Carphone Warehouse. As Directors – is this something that you are aware of?

Yes, it offers a new perspective, a more original (and sometimes conceptual) way of transmitting messages. The whole trend seems to have taken its roots within the music industry as popular artists starting calling upon very special and distinctive talents to direct their music videos. The advertising industry seems to have jumped onto this band wagon. However, this trend is much more apparent in countries such as the UK or even France as Belgium is still far behind in this respect. It fit us as long agencies are calling the “originals” rather than asking people to copy the original .

How did the Cravendale spot come about?

W&K creative (Sam & Frank) saw the episodes of the "A Town Called Panic" trough the Resfest film Festival in London (Thanks Jeremy, Jonathan and Sandy !) . They decided to propose to their client this specific animation look and style to launch the new Cravendale image. And Cravendale jump on it!

Did you see it as a direct extension of “A Town Called Panic”?

The Cravendale campaign was conceived with "A Town Called Panic" in mind. Their inspirations and the universe their ideas evolved in were the same as the ones behind "A Town Called Panic". The 3 main characters in the Cravendale commercials are direct extensions of the tv serial. In a way, Cowboy, Indian and Horse became Pirat, Cyclist and Cow. The goal was to preserve the sense of humour of the original tv serial, keeping in mind that we have to deliver a commercial message. We hope we stay funny.

Have you gained more fans since the ad was aired?

Yes, definitely! 30 fan groups of the ad on Facebook which is pretty rare. In a few months, the feature film will be released and we imagine this will work nicely in synchronicity with the ads. It is an uncommon situation in the ad world, and pretty exciting. Good client, Good Ad Agency, (we hope Good ads)...

Why The Cow, the Cyclist, the Pirate and a chicken?

The Cow came in as a direct link to milk. The Cyclist represents a sportive and healthy lifestyle (an idea the client wanted to put forward in association with his brand of milk), he is also an interesting character as he has a very distinctive look and an array of accessories to go with his function. The Pirate was initially supposed be a caveman Man but Wieden & Kennedy thought a pirate would be a more "sexy" and "attractive" character. The idea was to find characters with distinctive styles and accessories so as to be able to create their respective environments in the bedroom scene. When you screen the films, there is a lot of small details attached to the lifestyle of each of the three main characters.

How much input did the creative team have? (If any) Were they content to let you go to work because they sort of knew what they were getting?

The creative team draw the line in touch with the client. W+K knew what they need to express. After the client agreed on each straight “story” the job of pic pic was to make the films funny, and add personality to the characters.

Do you think that this trend will continue – as brands seek to align themselves with cool ideas and quality existing pieces of work?

We hope so, if it helps to have better tv commercials on tv.

Does it come with the turf when brands and creatives (inevitably) are influenced (or on occasion shamelessly plagiarise) Directors work or is this something that is in decline?

We understand that everything influence everything. In our case, we are more than happy that our “style” have been spread in the UK through the Cravendale ads.

With that is this trend of hiring the original talent – a better answer?

Always ask the original, agencies asking not to the original talents are bad agencies, and clients accepting that are bad clients as well.

Do you think the consumer is happier as a result? Ask the consumer ! Is this something that directors can thank the advent of YouTube and other online video.coms for? Are they acting as a whistleblower?

YouTube is great as it is a platform that allows a direct link between artists and their potential audiences. The only trouble is that there is no editorial on such a type of website and that you already need to know what you are looking for in order to come across interesting things. It is therefore sometimes a matter of pure luck that the work of an original artist can come to the attention of the right people.

Are you working on anything special at the moment?!? Anything that we can shout about at The Reel?!?

Yes!! We are currently busy finishing off the post-production of the feature length version of "Panique au village"!! The film is to be released in Belgium as of June 17th and European wide release are to be scheduled in the course of 2009.Please find below a synopsis of the film as well as some stills attached."Cowboy and Indian are the kings of mischief. As soon as they have a plan, you are sure to find trouble around the corner. This time, they have decided to throw a birthday bash for Horse and build him a brick barbecue as a present. But they get their brick order wrong and next thing they know, a billion bricks are delivered to their doorstep. As a result, what was supposed to be a pleasant birthday party turns into a fully-fledged tsunami!"