High Five: September 2017
Advertising production experts know exactly how to make something look expensive, even if the budgets are never up to their expectations. The UK’s best ads look particularly classy this month, thanks to the filmmaking talents that put them together and the smart ideas behind them. Of course, we don’t know how much they actually cost, but they all look a million dollars. LBB’s Alex Reeves takes a look at the best of the month’s British advertising...
No7 - 'Ready for Anything'
Agency: Mother London
Can we just take a moment to appreciate that this is an ad for cosmetics? A cinematic epic featuring a sword fight in a quarry is about as far from a clichéd makeup ad as you can get. The film’s star is Olympic fencer Monica Aksamit, who’s duelling a mysterious masked opponent in one of the most stunning locations possible to imagine. Juan Cabral is no stranger to scale. He was the creative behind Sony ‘Balls’ - one of the biggest visual ideas in advertising - and he’s certainly living up to that reputation here.
Money SuperMarket - 'Dirty Dancing'
Agency: Mother London
Mother really know how to push the nostalgia buttons, don’t they? Fun fact: both the 'Masters of the Universe' feature film and 'Dirty Dancing' came out in 1987. This film is pure, unadulterated 1987-ness and directors The Bobbsey Twins from Homicide have brought the script to life with just the right amount of respect to both of those beloved cultural relics (is 30 years’ old enough to be considered a relic?). There’s not a lot of complexity to it. But why overcomplicate things? It’s just going to make people smile.
Arthritis Research UK - 'Ray'
Agency: M&C Saatchi
Telling a story with a genuine emotional arc in 90 seconds is no small task, and director Ben Liam Jones has done an impressive job fitting M&C Saatchi’s script into the timeframe. Believable casting, unstated performances and a tight edit all come together to make a charity film that demonstrates the massive impact arthritis can have on people’s lives.
Dolmios - 'No Drama'
Agency: AMV BBDO
Eyebrows in the LBB office were decidedly raised when we saw BAFTA-winning and Golden Globes nominated actor, Dominic West, starring in a commercial for Dolmio. That’s quite some star talent for an everyday sauce brand. He may be speaking in an American accent and the sauce may be Italian-style, but the sense of humour at the heart of this script is utterly British. ‘No drama’ is a brilliantly succinct tagline and this film is the perfectly overblown idea to highlight that.
McDonald’s - 'Love Affair'
Agency: Leo Burnett London
Perfume ads are not only ridiculed by snooty advertising types. Millions will recognise the nonsense that this commercial is spoofing. The look is spot on - exactly the sort of vacuous, over-polished guff that does this industry no favours, but injected with a sense of wit that can unite audiences in ridicule. Watch it on mute and (burgers excluded) it’s quite convincing. It’s a neat idea to promote McDonald’s' decadent new range of burgers.
