McCann London filmed this initially explosive yet ultimately rather peaceful Sony commercial in Costa Rica, showing a volcano disgorging countless multicolored flower petals across rivers and fields and the streets, rooftops and denizens of a nearby town. About 8 million flowers were used, Sony says, to symbolize the 8-million-pixel display offered by its 4K Ultra HD TVs. (Did somebody actually count the flowers? Worst advertising internship ever!)
All the action was captured in camera, without CGI, and while it's certainly a satisfying visual spectacle, it seems subdued compared with Sony's earlier, more famous nods in this direction. In 2005, Fallon unleashed 250,000 colorful rubber balls on the streets of San Francisco for its Cannes gold Lion-winning Sony Bravia spot. A year later, the same client-agency team blasted a vacant housing estate in Scotland with 18,000 gallons of paint, drenching terraces, stairwells, walkways, courtyards and one random clown for a Bravia spot named best commercial at the British Television Advertising Awards.
Perhaps the new spot seems more laid back owing to its countryside/village setting, contrasted with the urban slopes of Filbert and Leavenworth in "Balls" and the imposing modernism of the Glasgow high-rise tower block in "Paint." Mainly, though, we're dealing with flowers—that's the key difference. Yes, there are a great many of them, and they're shot from a volcano, but are they really so impressive? The fast-bouncing army of balls and the rivers of paint from the earlier commercials had more presence and "personality." They were glorious, yet vaguely menacing. An errant ball could take out an eye. You could drown in all that paint or, at the very least, ruin your sneakers. Here, we have … flowers.
They're bright and memorable as they float on the breeze. But I just wasn't blown away.
Via Creative Review.
