Bluegrass is a greatly under-appreciated musical genre.
No, really. It may seem a little dated and stylistically limited, but lots of people are into it…even the Kia hamsters.
David&Goliath’s latest for its first and biggest client doesn’t involve Blake Griffin or Christopher Walken. Instead it calls upon those animated pets/pests to remind us that music–not love, and definitely not data–is the universal language. As chief creative officer Colin Jeffery puts it, “It transcends borders and boundaries, connecting people on an emotional level because it’s something we can all understand, feel and appreciate.”
The hamsters use that magic to bring people from Birmingham to Bangalore together in celebrating the majestic beauty of our public park system.
Even the traffic cops are like, screw it.
The release calls this Kia’s most ambitious hamster-related project to date, and the spot required nearly 3,000 hours of CGI work to get the rodents dancing. We also like this part:
“…to ensure authenticity, ethnomusicologists, including Dr. Steven Loza, chair of the UCLA Herb Albert School of Music’s Department of Ethnomusicology, helped curate the globally inspired jam session…”
Finally, consultants doing something valuable! All that work kind of demands a making-of video.
The spot will air primarily in theaters–34,000 of them around the country, starting tomorrow. It’s part of National CineMedia’s FirstLook pre-show program.
In case you were curious, the main banjo man is Nathaniel Rateliff of Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, with “DJ/Producers Bunt” dropping the beats.
It all makes us remember this song and the fact that the early ’90s were really weird.
CREDITS
Agency: David&Goliath
Founder & Chairman: David Angelo
Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery
Chief Digital Officer: Mike Geiger
President: Brian Dunbar
Chief Strategy Officer: Seema Miller
Director of Creative Services: Frannie Rhodes Creative Director: Basil Cowieson Creative Director: Greg Buri Creative Director: Yo Umeda ACD/Art Director: Robert Casillas
ACD/Copywriter: Courtney Pulver
Copywriter: Gary du Toit
ACD/Copywriter: Devin Heatley
Senior Interactive Art Director: Bernice Chao Senior Project Manager: Kemit Ray
Director of Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese Executive Broadcast Producer: Curt O’Brien Junior Producer: Natalia Celis Director of Art Production: Andrea Mariash Senior Print Production Manager: Elisa Atwood Director of Digital Production: Peter Bassett Digital Producer: Justine Kleeman
Managing Director: Jeff Moohr
Group Account Director: Mike O’Malley
Management Supervisor: Aleks Rzeznik
Account Supervisor: Tara Poosti
Account Executive: Jenavieve Cazares
Digital Account Director: Jeanann Grubbs Digital Account Supervisor: Sarah Kirsch
Planning Director: Andrew Lynch
Senior Planner: Ed Gibson
Senior Digital Strategist: Rachel Fletcher Senior Social Strategist: Natalie Gomez
Director, Business Affairs: Rodney Pizarro Business Affairs Associate Manager: Daniella Vargas
Product Information Manager: Russell Wortman Product Information Manager: Mark McNaul
Production Company: Radical Media
Director: Colin Jeffery
Director of Photography: Toby Irwin
President: Frank Scherma
Head of Production: Cathy Dunn
Producer: Kathy Rhodes
Editorial Company: Union Editorial
Editor: Jim Haygood
Assistant Editor: Jed Stuber
Managing Partner/President: Michael Raimondi Executive Producer: Joe Ross
VFX: JAMM VFX
VFX Supervisor/CG Lead: Andy Boyd
VFX Supervisor/Lead Compositor: Jake Montgomery Flame Artist: Patrick Munoz Flame Artist: David Hernandez Nuke Artist: Brinton Jaecks Previs Lead: Javier Lopez-Duprey CG Artist: Zachary DiMaria CG Artist: Nha Ca Chau CG Modeling: Joel Durham CG Animator: Ellie Mason CG Animator: Joshua Merck CG Animator: Evan Mayfield CG Tracking: Peregrine McCafferty CG Tracking: Amélie Guyot CG Tracking: Philippe Medina CG Tracking: Damien Bouvier Matte Painting: Roger Kupelian Final Mastering: Rob Ufer
Producer: Ashley Greyson
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards
Photographer: Vincent Dixon
Assistant Photographer: Michael Henika
Agency: Brite Productions
Production: David Safian; SaF Productions
Retouching: FEELgood
Composite: TheLab
Licensed Music: Dueling Banjos
By: Arthur Smith
Publishing: EMI Blackwood Music Inc. obo Combine Music Corp. (BMI)
Music & Sound Design: Squeak E. Clean Productions Arranged by: Charles Rojas Creative Director: Rob Barbato Executive Producer: Carol Dunn
Producer: Chris Shaw
Record Label: Bunt. Records
Producers: Bunt.
Mix: Lime
Sound Engineer: Mark Meyuhas
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan
Ethnomusicology: UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Department of Ethnomusicology
Consultant: Steven Loza, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA
Consultant: Ganavya Doraiswamy, M. Mus., Ph.D., Researcher, Department of Ethnomusicology, UCLA
Consultant: Rajna Swaminathan, Ph.D., Researcher, Department of Music, Harvard University