In his first onscreen appearance in a TV spot, Val Kilmer shows off his serious and playful sides as he acquaints himself with a Nikon Coolpix 2000 digital camera.
Against a white background, the actor says he's intimidated by "this whole digital-camera thing. Didn't think I could be intimidated, did you?" he asks.
Kilmer takes shots of himself and his surroundings. "Sunsets, portraits, all at the turn of a dial," he says. "Push a button, and we're uploading photos."
The 30-second effort, directed by Jeremiah Chechik, was cre ated by Nikon's retail- and integrated-marketing-communications com pany, Source Communications in Hackensack, N.J. (Nikon is currently conducting a review for its brand advertising, previously handled by Fallon in Minneapolis.)
The ad, which ends with Kilmer asking, "So, what were we afraid of?" is meant to "break down the intimidation factor consumers have with digital photography," said Barry Blue stein, Source evp, managing partner.
Bearing the tag line, "Simply cool," the work breaks tonight on NBC and ABC and is aimed at consumers in their late 30s and early 40s who are new to digital photog raphy.