Swedbank Follows Wes Anderson into the Stop-Motion Animal Kingdom

By Bob Marshall 

Becoming a squirrel might not sound like the best career move, but it kind of makes sense. At least, that’s what Aardman Animation’s Steven Harding-Hill would like you to think after watching the spot he directed for Swedbank, called “Under the Oak Tree.”

You may recognize Aardman Animation’s claymation style from the studio’s work on films like Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Aardman’s inclinations toward whimsical storytelling is probably why agencies Lowe Brindfors/Colony thought it could best tell Swedbank’s 190-year history in the cutest way possible, that being dressing up animals in dapper clothing and making them do “human things” (like ignoring the benefits of long-term investing). Really, who wouldn’t trust a bank with such fluffy spokespeople?

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Watch Harding-Hill make his tiny clay world come to life in a behind-the-scenes clip after the jump.

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