New Pictionary Campaign Convinces Us That Sometimes It's More Fun to be Wrong

Blur’s latest work for Mattel by LolaMullenLowe, for the classic game of Pictionary is directed by Lorena Medina.

This story is mainly about a day-in-the life of a young man that goes about with a fish around his neck.

As we go through the story, our hero begins his day getting ready for work and choosing one large fish within a few that are carefully organised in a drawer. He ties it around his neck with a every-other-day attitude, and proceeds to wear it throughout his working day. 

Within a timeless aesthetic, in a somewhat minimalist world, the art of the spot focuses on very clean and disciplined surroundings in its architecture and interiors. The careful selection of casting, the costumes, as well as its art direction gives us a sense of a present time taken from some kind of dystopia, where technology is absent, and business presentations are made with bar graphs on paper. The final result is a collection of images organised around the central theme of the spot that is surprisingly hanging on the chest of our hero. 

The humour of the spot is given by the static and obvious fact that we do not understand why we substitute a tie by a fish. Just as in the game of Pictionary, this uncertainty is present throughout the spot through humorous surrealism. 

Our hero is introduced into the spot as a loner who is having a joyless day.  He gives a presentation in a meeting room where no one seems particularly amused. He walks and eats alone. Later on, at a colleague’s farewell party, we see him becoming more animated. He dances and jumps around with the fish tied around his head!

The creation of the fish was of great challenge. The idea was to put a lot of effort in creating an effect that looked like the fish had just come out of the water, that almost agonising moment when fish flops from time to time. For this we worked next to Artefacto in Spain and made an animatronic fish that had the capability of raising its head and open its mouth and gills. We went through an extensive investigation to find the right fish that would suit out needs.  We needed an elongated body, so that it would emulate the shape of a tie.  The mold was finally made from a real fish: a whiting. 

In terms of camera execution, the intention was to shoot it from a distance, avoiding any close ups of the actor’s expressions. The only close ups were intended to focus only on the details of the fish-tie.  Like this, we ended up depersonalizing the roll of the actors and focusing on this curious object and its surroundings. Only a few camera movements with slow and precise tracking take us through the scenes until we get to the party. At this point, the behaviour of the camera changes, and becomes too, part of the party. 

This is when we finally discover the meaning of the spot: unveiling the game and really understanding the meaning of our fish. 

“It’s fun when you get it. But more fun when you don’t”