With Valentine’s Day impending, BBDO Toronto crafted a love story for Toronto pen and stationery retailer Take Note told entirely in handwritten notes.
“Notes” is clearly built around the premise that handwritten messages are fundamentally more meaningful than digital communications. It tells the life story of a couple, from meeting through their marriage and grandchildren. There are bumps along the way but we’re given the impression that they truly love each other, which helps makes the emotional ending of the spot compelling.
That sad ending may be unusual for a Valentine’s Day ad, but, in its way, it helps reinforce the brand’s message that handwritten notes carry more emotional weight and it certainly stands apart from a pack of ads carried by lightweight sentimentality. Obviously there are limitations involved in telling a story entirely through notes, and those are certainly felt at times. BBDO Toronto finds ways around those limitation by using the notes to point to other objects of emotional weight in the relationship, such as an ultrasound image. Ultimately it’s a fairly solid way to communicate the brand’s primary selling point. It helps that there’s at least a shred of truth to that message.
“Leaving a note for someone is so much more personal and thoughtful than a text,” BBDO associate creative director Chris Booth said in a statement. “We wanted to remind people how meaningful such a simple thing can be.”
Credits:
Client: Take Note
Title: Notes
Length: 3:49sec
Agency: BBDO Toronto
V.P. / Associate Creative Director: Chris Booth
V.P. / Associate Creative Director: Joel Pylypiw
SVP, Executive Creative Director: Denise Rossetto
SVP, Executive Creative Director: Todd Mackie
V.P Group Account Director: Rebecca Flaman
Agency Producer: Beatrice Bodogh
Production Company: Skin & Bones
Directors: Chris Booth / Joel Pylypiw
Producer: Chelsea Strachan
Director of Photography: Kris Belchevski
Editorial: Saints
Transfer & Online: Alter Ego
Online Editor: David Whiteson
Off Line Editor: Brian Williams
Colorist: Tricia Hagoriles
Music & Sound Design: Fraser MacDougall & Tim White, Imprint Music