Creative Briefs

Then and NowMr. Bib Gets a New Lease on LifeThe 100-plus-year-old Michelin man, officially named Bibendum, evolved from the fanciful imagination of the Michelin brothers to a globally recognized icon, recently resurrected for TV by Campbell-Ewald, Detroit. It all started when André and Edouard Michelin looked at a stack of tires and saw a portly human figure. An 1898 ad portrayed the character along with the catch phrase, "It drinks obstacles." The name came from a verse by Horace, "Nunc est bibendum" (It's time to drink). Digital Domain drew largely from print renditions of Mr. Bib for the new TV version. Previous cel-animated and digital Mr. Bibs were of little use in creating the more lifelike character, whose body is an actor's in a prosthetic suit and whose face is digitally animated. "What makes [the new work] funny is that Mr. Bib is real," says Ed Ulbrich, senior vp of production at Digital Domain, drawing a parallel with Jack in the Box spots where "nobody minds or notices that it's a guy with a big white ball for a head." A Touch of Levity WASHINGTON—Last week, Ed McMahon had a chance to say "Heeere's Johnny" once more. But this time it was for Attorney General John Ashcroft, who stepped up to unveil a new public- service campaign to combat terrorism that features the former To night Show sidekick.In four 30-second spots and one 60-second spot, McMahon goes door to door handing out fliers that encourage people to participate in neighborhood-watch programs. But the people he meets mistakenly think he's there to award prize money or search for new stars. In one spot, McMahon repeatedly tells a Hispanic woman, "No tengo dinero!" In another, a young boy breaks into a tap-dance routine. The pro bono campaign broke last week as part of President Bush's Citizen Corps program. Viewers may be hard-pressed to connect these humorous spots, sponsored by the Ad Council and the National Crime Prevention Council, with the events of Sept. 11. And that's the way Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, wanted it.When Saatchi got the assignment, its creative team debated how to treat Sept. 11. A call to clinical psychologist Sam Cohen provided the answer. "He said, 'Don't reference it at all, because it is way too emotional and it will trigger traumatic images that are hard to get over in a 30-second spot,' " says Denis Budniewski, a Saatchi account planner. So copywriter Larissa Kirschner-Chaney and art director Carlos Figueriedo kept it light. "I don't think levity in such a rough time is a bad thing," Kirschner-Chaney says. A Touch of Levity A Baritone to RememberRand Retrospective People Pella, the window, screen and blinds manufacturer, was not a client of Peter Murphy, the veteran writer and creative group head at Young & Rubicam who died of cancer in Novem ber. Still, Murphy's collaboration on the Pella campaign turned out to be one of his last contributions to advertising. When executive creative director Bob Wyatt asked for help on the business last summer, Murphy wrote some copy and recorded voiceovers for a series of proposed ads. When it came time to cast the actual ads, Murphy's earthy, "storytelling" baritone became the standard by which other voices were judged, Wyatt says. Ultimately, the voiceovers for four new TV spots were handled by actor W. Clapham Murray, who played a minor character in In the Bedroom. The spots, the first of which broke last month, combine soft music with homespun images such as a group of girls bonding by a pool.The work of graphic designer Paul Rand—considered by some to be as influential in the advertising revolution of the '60s as Bill Bernbach—will be featured in a retrospective at the William F. Eisner Museum of Advertising & Design in Milwaukee. The exhibition explores Rand's creative process and shows more than 125 pieces of his work, including logos for IBM, UPS, ABC Television and Westinghouse. It opens this week and will run through Aug. 31. Karen Ellis joined Deutsch as senior vice president, group creative director, overseeing its estimated $100 million Revlon business, which includes Almay. Ellis was most recently the owner of Company K, whose clients included The Limited, Coty for Isabella Rossellini's Mani festo and MuchMusic USA for Heavy.com. … Clay Williams, formerly one half of the directing duo Chuck & Clay, has signed with Morton Jankel Zander. Chuck Bennett stayed with Cross roads Films, which had represented the team for the past two years. … Bartle Bogle Heg arty in New York has added two creative teams. The former freelance duo of art director John Hobbs and copywriter Peter Rosch started Feb. 27. Copy writer Matt Ian and art director Gerald Lewis, formerly at Ogilvy & Mather, New York, will arrive this week.

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