Over the past few years, BBDO has created consistently interesting, sometimes award-winning work for GE. Now the agency has launched a new campaign, entitled “Unimpossible Missions,” which takes a different direction than the whimsical surreality of “Time Upon a Once” or the humor of “What’s the Matter with Owen.”
The new campaign, which missed out on the opportunity of being called “Mission Unimpossible,” sees the agency and GE team up to attempt seemingly impossible tasks in “A Snowball’s Chance in Hell” (above), “Catching Lightning in a Bottle,” and “Like Talking to a Wall.” There’s still an aspect of the otherworldly to the campaign, but it is rooted in scientific experimentation designed to show that GE is capable of the seemingly impossible. In “A Snowball’s Chance in Hell,” for example, the team designs a structure to allow a snowball to safely survive being submerged in 2,000 degree temperatures in a (vaguely creepy) industrial foundry in Kazakstan. While entertaining viewers in the three-minute video, the spot is able to tout GE’s advances in fields related to aviation and healthcare, ending with the suggestion, “Imagine the other impossible things we can do.”
Other spots see GE engineers using super-capacitors to harness an electrical surge in a bottle, and then use the power to start a car, and using an accelerometer to get a portion of the Berlin Wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial to “listen” to the wall and relay the message to a group of children on the other side. The experiments are captivating enough to make viewers stick around to the spot’s conclusion, and well tied to the “Imagine the other impossible things we can do” tagline, a rare case of the long format of online ads being used to its potential. The campaign is being launched as part of GE Theater, a name revived from an old CBS anthology show hosted by Ronald Reagan, which GE chief creative officer Andy Goldberg told Adweek will provide “”meaningful content that people actually want to read, listen to, watch and consume,” while also acting as recruitment tools for young scientists and engineers.
“Every brand has to find out what their audience wants to see and how they like to engage,” he said. “When you can show a customer who you are with an enjoyable experience, your content becomes more than just marketing.”
“There’s a whole branch of idioms called ‘idioms of improbability’ that describe things that are impossible or unlikely to occur,” BBDO executive creative director Michael Aimette explained. “We decided to disprove these. We brainstormed many options, and landed on ‘Snowball’s Chance in Hell’ for our hero concept.”
Credits:
Client: GE
Andy Goldberg, Chief Creative Officer
Lindsay Stein, Associate Global Creative Director
Gina Vitale, Senior Specialist, Brand Experience & Creative
SPOT: “Snowball’s Chance in Hell”
Agency: BBDO
David Lubars, Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide
Greg Hahn, Chief Creative Officer, New York
Michael Aimette, Executive Creative Director
Gary Du Toit, Creative Director, Copywriter
Lance Vining, Creative Director, Art Director
Dave Rolfe, Head of Production, NY
George Sholley, Executive Producer
Jack Patrick, Assistant Producer
Rani Vaz, EVP, Head of Music Production
Brandon Fowler, EVP, Worldwide Senior Director
Lindsey Cash, Account Director
Tessa Cosenza, Account Director
Elizabeth Jacobs, Assistant Account Executive
Production Company: Bullitt
Todd Makurath, CEO
Luke Ricci, Executive Producer
Elicia Laport, Head of Production
Jon Dawes, Producer
Director: Diego Contreras
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Eve Kornblum, Executive Producer
Jenny Greenfield, Producer
Ted Guard, Editor
Christopher Mitchell, Editor
JK Carrington, Assistant Editor
Visual Effects: A52
Patrick Nugent, Executive Producer
Kim Christensen, Head of Production
Catherine Yi, Producer
Andy Rafael Barrios, VFX Supervisor
Michael Vaglienty, VFX Artist
Urs Furrer, VFX Artist
Michael Plescia, VFX Artist
Brendan Crockett, VFX Artist
Ahmet Ahmet, Art Director
Mara Smalley, Art Director
Leanne Dare, Art Director
Peter Murphy, Animator
Erika Bird, Designer
Telecine: Company 3
Clare Movshon, Producer
Sofie Friis Borup, Colorist
Music/Sound Design: Barking Owl Sound
Kelly Bayett, Creative Director
KC Dossett, Producer
Barking Owl Sound, Original Music
Michael Anastasi, Sound Designer
Morgan Johnson, Sound Designer
Mix: Sonic Union
Patrick Sullivan, Producer
Michael Marinelli, Engineer
—Spot: “Lightning in a Bottle”
Agency: BBDO
David Lubars, Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide
Greg Hahn, Chief Creative Officer, New York
Michael Aimette, Executive Creative Director
Gary Du Toit, Creative Director, Copywriter
Lance Vining, Creative Director, Art Director
Lucas Owens, Senior Copywriter
Sei Rey Ho, Senior Art Director
Dave Rolfe, Head of Production, NY
George Sholley, Executive Producer
Jack Patrick, Assistant Producer
Rani Vaz, EVP, Head of Music Production
Brandon Fowler, EVP, Worldwide Senior Director
Lindsey Cash, Account Director
Tessa Cosenza, Account Director
Elizabeth Jacobs, Assistant Account Executive
Production Company: Bullitt
Todd Makurath, CEO
Luke Ricci, Executive Producer
Elicia Laport, Head of Production
Jon Dawes, Producer
Director: Diego Contreras
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Eve Kornblum, Executive Producer
Jenny Greenfield, Producer
Ted Guard, Editor
Christopher Mitchell, Editor
JK Carrington, Assistant Editor
Visual Effects: A52
Patrick Nugent, Executive Producer
Kim Christensen, Head of Production
Catherine Yi, Producer
Andy Rafael Barrios, VFX Supervisor
Michael Vaglienty, VFX Artist
Urs Furrer, VFX Artist
Michael Plescia, VFX Artist
Brendan Crockett, VFX Artist
Ahmet Ahmet, Art Director
Mara Smalley, Art Director
Leanne Dare, Art Director
Peter Murphy, Animator
Erika Bird, Designer
Telecine: Company 3
Clare Movshon, Producer
Sofie Friis Borup, Colorist
Music/Sound Design: Barking Owl Sound
Kelly Bayett, Creative Director
KC Dossett, Producer
Barking Owl Sound, Original Music
Michael Anastasi, Sound Designer
Morgan Johnson, Sound Designer
Mix: Sonic Union
Patrick Sullivan, Producer
Michael Marinelli, Engineer
—Spot: “Talking to a Wall”
Agency: BBDO
David Lubars, Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide
Greg Hahn, Chief Creative Officer, New York
Michael Aimette, Executive Creative Director
Gary Du Toit, Creative Director, Copywriter
Lance Vining, Creative Director, Art Director
Dave Rolfe, Head of Production, NY
George Sholley, Executive Producer
Jack Patrick, Assistant Producer
Rani Vaz, EVP, Head of Music Production
Brandon Fowler, EVP, Worldwide Senior Director
Lindsey Cash, Account Director
Tessa Cosenza, Account Director
Elizabeth Jacobs, Assistant Account Executive
Production Company: Bullitt
Todd Makurath, CEO
Luke Ricci, Executive Producer
Elicia Laport, Head of Production
Jon Dawes, Producer
Director: Diego Contreras
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Eve Kornblum, Executive Producer
Jenny Greenfield, Producer
Ted Guard, Editor
Christopher Mitchell, Editor
JK Carrington, Assistant Editor
Visual Effects: A52
Patrick Nugent, Executive Producer
Kim Christensen, Head of Production
Catherine Yi, Producer
Andy Rafael Barrios, VFX Supervisor
Michael Vaglienty, VFX Artist
Urs Furrer, VFX Artist
Michael Plescia, VFX Artist
Brendan Crockett, VFX Artist
Ahmet Ahmet, Art Director
Mara Smalley, Art Director
Leanne Dare, Art Director
Peter Murphy, Animator
Erika Bird, Designer
Telecine: Company 3
Clare Movshon, Producer
Sofie Friis Borup, Colorist
Music/Sound Design: Barking Owl Sound
Kelly Bayett, Creative Director
KC Dossett, Producer
Barking Owl Sound, Original Music
Michael Anastasi, Sound Designer
Morgan Johnson, Sound Designer
Mix: Sonic Union
Patrick Sullivan, Producer
Michael Marinelli, Engineer