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AGENCY: Omon, New York
CLIENT: Le Coq Sportif, Cranbury, N.J.
MEDIUM: print
CREATIVE/ART DIRECTOR: Rodd Martin
COPYWRITER: Paul Bernasconi
PHOTOGRAPHER: Chris Callis
Tennis ace Yannick Noah is spokes-stomper for this sportswear line. The photo alludes to the brand’s French connection in an offbeat way, and that’s smart, since young-and-sporty Americans don’t necessarily regard France as the land of hipness. (When’s the last time anyone you know bought an album by a French rock band?) Whether rightly or not, Americans still think of France as a nation of formal grown-ups, so ads must work especially hard to invest a French (or even a pseudo-French) brand with an aura of youthful attitude.
Invoking French icons like wine in a half-mocking way, this campaign gives the task a good shot.
VERBATIM OPTICAL DISK
AGENCY: Loeffler Ketchum Mountjoy, Charlotte, N.C.
CLIENT: Verbatim, Charlotte, N.C.
MEDIUM: computer-user magazines
CREATIVE/ART DIRECTOR: Jim Mountjoy
COPYWRITER: Ed Jones
PHOTOGRAPHER: Jim Arndt
Copy at left: ‘We probably won’t live to tell about it. But hey, our data will.’ Death is one of those extra-large topics that tend to dwarf whatever else is nearby, so there’s a risk in introducing a morbid note into an ad. But the visual, with its shadow of a 747-sized carrion bird, is too comical to be unnerving. Meanwhile, the whole scene brings a touch of Indiana Jones sangfroid to the unglamorous business of data storage. Readers in the target market will appreciate that while noting the ad’s positioning of Verbatim tapes and disks as ‘Your best defense against data loss.’
JARLSBERG CHEESE
AGENCY: CDHM Advertising, Stamford, Conn.
CLIENT: Norseland Foods, Stamford
MEDIUM: 15-second TV
CREATIVE/ART DIRECTOR: Albert Carlson
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/COPYWRITER: Harry Matthei
AGENCY PRODUCER: Ken Paine
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Fernbach/Robins Productions, New York
DIRECTOR: Alex Fernbach
A Viking draws his sword and cleaves a wheel of Norwegian Jarlsberg cheese, then keeps hacking away as the visual shifts between his swordplay and shots of cheese – in slices and chunks of various sizes – raining down on sandwiches, soups, salads, etc. ‘Any way you slice it, Jarlsberg makes it delicious,’ says the voiceover. The tagline, spoken and flashed onscreen: ‘Ja. Jarlsberg.’ Sure, it’s hokey, but there’s something appealing in the Viking as slicer-dicer. The spot pokes fun at itself without getting so campy that the sales pitch is subverted. And it makes efficient use of its 15 seconds to impress the product name on viewers.
VELUX-AMERICA
AGENCY: Henderson Advertising, Atlanta
CLIENT: Velux-America, Greenwood, S.C.
MEDIUM: 25-, 30-second TV
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: Scott Frederick Kerry Graham
ART DIRECTOR: Michael Rogers
COPYWRITER: David Kwasnick
AGENCY PRODUCER: Nick Ciarlante
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Dark Horse Films, Birmingham, Ala.
DIRECTOR: Chase Strickland
The sun rises, its rays reaching a sinister room that contains a coffin. ‘Sometimes the scariest part of the day isn’t when the sun goes down,’ says a voiceover. A hand reaches out of the coffin with a remote-control device and activates shades that return the chamber to darkness. ‘That’s why Velux roof windows and skylights give you the power to control the day.’ The vampire schtick is fun, and the spot is rich in visual detail: an old book whose pages turn in the breeze, a gargoyle, a hellish-looking hound and so on. But you’ve got to be paying fairly close attention to notice what the spot is selling. Indeed, even if you happen to be in the market for a skylight, the vignette is virtually over before you realize the spot is relevant to you. That’s got to limit its impact.
MOPAR DIVISION OF CHRYSLER
AGENCY: Ross Roy, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
CLIENT: Mopar, Center Line, Mich.
MEDIUM: 30-second TV
ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR/COPYWRITER: Andy Bobrow
ART DIRECTOR: Chris Kelly-Wesley
AGENCY PRODUCER: Jack E. Nelson
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Ackerman/Benson Productions, Los Angeles
DIRECTOR: Elyse Lewin
Are babies the rock stars of the ’90s? So you’d guess from the number of them in ads for unbabylike items. The visual here: A kid plays with one of those toys that entail fitting pieces into holes of the same shape, but he has no luck. The voiceover: ‘If they’re not Mopar parts, even if they say they’ll fit and look like they’ll fit, the question is: Will they really fit?’ Viewers already weary of seeing infants in ads for everything under the sun will wish the spot had showed piston rings instead, but new parents with not-so-new cars will take the message to heart.
TEVA SPORT SANDALS
AGENCY: Stein Robaire Helm, Los Angeles
CLIENT: Teva, Flagstaff, Ariz.
MEDIUM: consumer magazines
CREATIVE/ART DIRECTOR: Kirk Souder
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/COPYWRITER: Court Crandall
PHOTOGRAPHER: Mark Hanauer
The message: ‘When you die, they’ll put you in a nice suit and shiny shoes. As if death didn’t suck enough already.’ Ah, yes: Death, where is thy sportswear? This sets up the quasi-Cartesian question posed in type circling Teva’s logo: ‘Do you exist in shoes or live in Tevas?’ Another ad in the series states the Teva case this way: ‘There was an old lady who lived in a shoe. Do you want to live like an old lady?’ The brashness sounds forced, as though ad folks with real jobs are trying to sound like beach bums (which, of course, is just what’s happening). But the ads are quite good at generating a sense of energy and athletic daring. For readers predisposed to locate sandals at the wimpy end of the footwear spectrum, the ads effectively give the product a fresh image.
Copyright Adweek L.P. (1993)
