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How Retired Nike Historian Preserved the Brand’s History

Christine Champagne — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:08 +0000

If it wasn’t for Scott Reames, the history of Nike, especially the early days, might have been lost.

But as Nike’s first brand historian, Reames researched, fact-checked, confirmed and preserved the story of the world-famous shoe and apparel company for posterity.

Now retired, Reames recently chatted with Muse about how he spotted information gaps, pitched Nike higher-ups on the need for an in-house historian and eventually landed the post.

IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS

Reames started working for Nike in 1992 and retired in 2021. “I had four different roles at the company over those 30 years, and each sort of led to the next one, which ultimately led to the historian role,” reflects Reames, who did stints in retail marketing, sports marketing and communications.

At the outset, Reames served as a marketing coordinator tasked with putting on events at the Niketown stores in Portland, Ore., and Chicago featuring athletes who worked with the brand. In that position, Reames first made his mark as someone who saw the value of having easily-accessible information available for use inside Nike.

“In the ’90s, before the advent, or at least the ubiquity of the internet, it was really hard to get current information about an athlete,” he recalls. “If an athlete’s coming to your store, you want to know how many strikeouts he has, or how many marathon’s she’s run, if they’re allergic to strawberries, what size they wear. And it was really a pain in the butt to look this information up.”

Reames believed that Nike needed a database with all of this information in it. So, he brought the idea to the company’s director of sports marketing. “I said that Nike needed its own version of a sports information department, like universities or professional teams. He liked the idea. And the next thing you know, they wanted me to start managing the database.”

GETTING THE FACTS STRAIGHT

By 1997, Reames was working in public relations. While sitting in on press interviews Nike co-founder Phil Knight and other senior execs, he noticed that they sometimes got facts wrong about their own company.

“They’d say something like, ‘We opened our first retail store in Eugene.’ And I was thinking to myself, ‘I thought we opened our first store in Santa Monica.'”

The errors weren’t intentional. It’s just that no one had been documenting the company’s history. Yes, there were archives, but the archives were a collection of items.

In Reames’ mind, that wasn’t enough. So in 2003, he began putting together a proposal for an in-house historian position at Nike “to augment, or complement, the archives.”

Reames suggested that an in-house historian could oversee the Department of Nike Archives—DNA for short—”because I liked the acronym, and I liked the image it came with.”

He drove home the point that the stories behind the formation and history of the company—as well as how products evolved—shouldn’t be lost. “Otherwise, it’s just a shoe, or a piece of apparel. But if you know the context, who wore it, when they wore it, what they did in it, who designed it, why they designed it, what it inspired, what it was inspired by—all that continuity of the product makes it much more interesting,” Reames says.

In 2004, Reames had lunch with Knight and pitched the idea. “Three months later, I get a call from the director of the archives department saying he understands I had lunch with Phil. And I was like, ‘Uh-oh, I’m going to get in trouble.’ But he said, ‘We’re going to get a headcount approved for history. Are you interested?'”

LEARNING FROM OTHER BRAND HISTORIANS

Reames left Nike’s communications department and officially assumed the role of historian in 2005. One of the first things he did was organize an educational tour for himself and colleagues to meet historians at other companies.

First stop—Atlanta, where they met with Phil Mooney, the archivist/historian at Coca-Cola from 1977 to 2013. Next, Reames and his team dropped by CNN in to learn how they archived their video content. Then, they headed to Milwaukee to meet the Harley-Davidson folks, who were developing a brand museum at the time.

“Best practices are something we love to share as brand historians,” he says, “because why reinvent the wheel.”

MINING THE MEMORIES OF NIKE’S FOUNDERS

Reames made it a priority to interview everyone involved with Nike’s founding. “I focused on what I would call the first generation—the employees that either founded the company, or were hired very soon after the company started. “Jeff Johnson, Bob Woodell, Del Hayes. These people were all the first of their kind. So it was very helpful to get their stories,” he says.

Next, Reames interviewed current and former employees, athletes who worked with the brand and creatives, including Dan Wieden and David Kennedy from Wieden+Kennedy, Nike’s long-time ad agency, as well as Jim Riswold, the W+K copywriter behind so many iconic Nike ads, including the “Bo Knows” campaign, who recently passed away.

Reames believes he interviewed close to a thousand people to get the full Nike story. “I’ve always believed in Nike. I’m not an athlete by any sense of the imagination, but I very much love sports, and I love competition. So, just to be a part of that and to essentially have the privilege to be trusted to do this…”

“Right?” he marvels.

ESTABLISHING A TIMELINE

Another must-do was creating an official DNA timeline of company events and milestones—from scratch. Reames was particular about what he included. His approach was “nothing will go in that I can’t 100-percent corroborate with annual reports, or memos, or data.”

This timeline became “the Bible for our company,” and Knight relied on it when he was writing his memoir Shoe Dog.

“I gave him that timeline,” Reames recalls. And he said, ‘Oh my gosh, this lays everything out. It’s so clear here. This is how it happened—not what you heard.’”

SO YOU WANNA BE A BRAND HISTORIAN?

While some of his employees were assigned to his department, every person Reames personally hired was a journalism major. All were deft writers with demonstrable storytelling skills.

The ability to communicate a story effectively is a must for any brand historian, though Reames admits it isn’t easy to distill the story of a storied company like Nike into quick bites.

“I used to tell my wife, ‘I wish when somebody asks me a question about Nike, I could answer it in one sentence.’”

The post How Retired Nike Historian Preserved the Brand’s History first appeared on Muse by Clios.

‘The Client’ Returns in a New Ad From Teamwork.com. He’s Sure to Give Agency Folks Nightmares

Christine Champagne — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 04:00:06 +0000

The Client’s back, and he’s more difficult to please than ever.

We first met the villainous character in last spring’s The Client: Part One, a brand-building video for project management software company Teamwork.com. Created by B2B marketing agency Umault, the movie-trailer parody portrays a nightmarish client who strikes terror into the hearts of advertising folks everywhere. He’s the type of client who makes endless “changes,” even though he approved everything just last week. *Shudders*

When Guy Bauer, the founder and creative director of Umault, developed that first ad, he thought it was a one-off. But the faux trailer enjoyed so much buzz that Teamwork.com decided to capitalize on its popularity with a follow-up.

Here, Bauer talks about the making of The Client: Part Deux, which delves into how the eponymous Client—who once joined conference calls on time and was fully aware of “scope creep”—became the monster he is today.

Muse: There are so many great lines and moments in Part Deux. The writing process for this new ad—as well as the first one—must have been such fun.

Guy Bauer: I wrote both spots with the help of a couple of industry friends to lend some client horror stories.

The process for both started with a general beat sheet that we went back and forth on with Teamwork.com to establish the story structure. Then we fleshed out the dialogue from there.

The working relationship with Teamwork.com is really awesome in that we both listen to each other and are trying to make the most entertaining video possible.

Has it been cathartic to work on this project? I’m sure you must have dealt with a fair share of difficult clients over the years.

Oh, yeah! 95 percent of what’s in this spot is from real life. Obviously, we take it to the next level. But it’s all from real pain.

The lead actor is perfectly diabolical. Tell me how you worked with him to create this character.

The actor’s name is Christian Edwin Cook. And from the moment he first auditioned, we knew he was the perfect Client.

My direction was to play the part like an evil genius—like Rami Malek in No Time to Die or Paul Dano in The Batman. Christian took it from there and made it his own, including the raised eyebrow thing.

He also came up with the idea of the Client not having glasses in the flashback. If you watch closely, he takes the glasses off right before we start the flashback and puts them back on as we come back. That was all him.

And how about the actor who debuts in this new ad as Cheryl, his boss and mentor?

Her name is Heidi Drennan. I’ve worked with her on a few projects. I love evil characters who are nice on the surface—like Lalo Salamanca in Better Call Saul. Heidi never gets too overtly evil. She plays it perfectly pleasant, which is unsettling.

Fill me in on where and how you shot The Client: Part Deux. What did you need to capture to make this second ad really work?

Believe it or not, this was all shot in a day. We found a consumer research facility that had a two-way mirror for the opening and closing. And then we just made sets in their open areas.

Fun fact—for the room with the Client’s desk in the open office, we only had 4 desks—including his—to work with. So, we moved the desks and extras around to fill the frame in each shot.

We had a crew of nine.

The most important thing to get right was the performance of the Client and Cheryl. We’ve got a dodgy wig and dialogue that’s pretty out there—if the performances weren’t right, the whole thing would feel extremely corny.

Did the actors ad lib at all, or did they stick to the script?

For the most part, we have to stick to the script because time is of the essence. That being said, Christian will always add flourishes to his performances. So, I make sure not to yell “cut” too soon. For example, toward the end, when the focus group leader comes in and thanks the Client, he gives a nod like, “Of course what I said makes total sense for a focus group.” That was Christian’s idea.

Like the first one, this ad addresses something that we’re all aware of—the difficult client—in an honest and funny way. Can you talk about the advantages of Teamwork.com daring to broach this topic?

To me, the best brands are the ones that connect with their audience on a human and emotional level. There’s no one doing that in Teamwork.com’s market. All of their competitors look and sound the same and pretty much have the same functionality. It would just be adding to the white noise if we made a video with people smiling and pointing at Teamwork.com screens while V.O. drones on about, “Now you can manage projects!” Uh, I can do that with any software!

So, to me, we had to get daring in order to leave a mark. And with Teamwork.com’s brand promise being “profit from every client demand,” it seemed logical to focus on clients rather than smiley-happy project managers.

How’s the reaction to The Client: Part Deux?

Overwhelmingly positive. So far, my favorite comment was, “This one is better than the first!” Which alleviated my biggest fear about making a sequel.

Will there be a The Client: Part Trois?

That’s classified.

I have to ask: How is Teamwork.com as a client?

Honestly, they’re fantastic. I’ve been through two projects with Jenny Hayes, their brand lead, and she is a big reason why these spots have been successful. She gets creativity and has a great sense of humor. In fact, I think I acted more client-y on this project than anyone. I wanted to do a call while she was on vacation, and she obliged! I still feel bad for that one.

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Inside Getty’s Photo Coverage of the Paris Games

Christine Champagne — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 05:00:21 +0000

Photographing the Olympics is “an Olympic event for photographers. It’s the ultimate assignment.” So says Jamie Squire, chief sports photographer at Getty Images, the official photographic agency of the International Olympic Committee.

He and 59 other Getty editorial photogs have been putting in 18-hour days shooting the 2024 Paris Games. “It’s non-stop, but that’s what we want to be doing. We will rest later,” he says.

Kansas City-based Squire, who has shot several Olympics for Getty since 1996, was focusing his lens on the women’s and men’s gymnastics competitions when we spoke last week. He is also covering basketball, beach volleyball, fencing, sports climbing and rhythmic gymnastics at the Paris games.

“When they said, ‘Hey, do you want to do the gymnastics?’ I was like, ‘‘’Yeah! I mean, twist my arm—marquee sports, Simone Biles, absolutely,'” he says.

The night before our interview, Squire snapped one of the most iconic photos of the Olympics to emerge thus far—an image of Biles, the G.O.A.T. of women’s gymnastics, showing off her diamond-encrusted goat necklace after winning gold in the all-around competition. Squire, who has been alternating between shooting from the photographer’s pen and the floor during the women’s gymnastics competition, happened to be on the floor that evening, perfectly placed in front of the athlete as she celebrated.

“After she won, her teammate [Jade Carey] came down to give her a big hug. She put on her necklace, and she’s holding up her necklace, and I’m right in front of her. So, that was something a little bit different,” he says. “You don’t get that access every day.”

Squire, who has also photographed Super Bowls, Stanley Cup Finals and World Cup soccer matches, says gymnastics is particularly challenging because so much happens all at once. Multiple athletes simultaneously compete on different apparatuses—the vault, the uneven bars, the balance beam and the floor.

Which is why Squire and his fellow Getty Images photogs arrived at the Olympics a week before the Games began and scouted the venues to figure out the best site lines. “We have a plan before we even step out on the floor of how we’re going to cover the event,” he says.

PARIS, FRANCE – JULY 30: Jordan Chiles of Team United States competes on the balance beam during the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Team Final on day four of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 30, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

That said, there are also a lot of split-second, gut decisions that a photographer has to make in the heat of the moment. “You’re not just physically running around, you’re also thinking, ‘Okay, if this happens, then I need to be over here. And what if she falls, or what if she stumbles? Then this person could win, and then I’m going to have to be over here,'” he says.

Squire values the autonomy he is given by Getty whether he is covering gymnastics at the Olympics or another sporting event. “They’ll send me out to an assignment, and they’ll just say, ‘Go cover the assignment.’ They don’t tell me, “You have to get the winner crossing the finish line. You have to get this or that. It’s not lost on me that I’m responsible for Getty’s gymnastics coverage at the Olympics. None of this is life or death situations or world changing or whatever. But that’s a big responsibility to know that their coverage relies on me. It’s scary and motivating at the same time.”

All of the Olympic venues are wired for digital photo delivery, which allows Squire to send photos to his editors (more than 40 Getty editors are live-editing remotely from the Getty Images London office) within seconds of taking them. Speed is of the essence. “It’s very competitive to get the pictures out as quickly and as early as possible,” he stresses, noting there are photographers from various photo agencies covering the events. “So, technology is a huge factor in how we work.”

When he photographed the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, Squire shot on film, and the process of getting the images from camera to clients involved runners, couriers and photo editors peering at pictures through light boxes.

Back then, Squire shot fewer photos. “You had a finite number of images on a roll of film. With digital, we take hundreds, thousands more images than we would have back in the old days when we would have had to be a lot more selective,” he reflects. “Now, we can just shoot freely and then delete later or put them on a hard drive somewhere and save them. You have a lot more to choose from shooting digitally.”

PARIS, FRANCE – JULY 29: Kazuma Kaya and teammates of Team Japan celebrate during the Artistic Gymnastics Men’s Team Final on day three of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 29, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Once he is done with his assignments for the day, Squire catches up with his fellow photographers. Like the athletes who compete on teams, the shutterbugs enjoy a sense of camaraderie. (In addition to Getty’s editorial photographers, there are 24 Getty commercial photogs operating throughout the games to capture content for sponsors and paid assignments). “We all come back [to the hotel] at the end of the night, and everybody sits down and has dinner—or you run into people and you have a drink—and asks, ‘Hey, what’d you do today?'” Squire says.

“We’re an international company. So, there are friends of mine that I’ve known for 20 or 25 years, and we only see each other at these big events,” he continues. “We’ll always get the pictures. But, for me, it’s about the experiences, and it’s about the people. And the people at Getty are like my family. I’ve been there for 30 years. These people—I’ve grown up with them.”

Squire started taking photos professionally when he was a student at Atlanta’s Emory University, shooting for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Sports Illustrated. After graduating from college in 1995, he was hired by Allsport Photography, a sports photo agency that was acquired by Getty a few years later. (Getty covers all kinds of events, including the Met Gala.)

To this day, the Getty photog marvels at being able to make a living doing what he loves. “It’s a dream job. A lot of people I talk to—they’re fascinated by what we do and how we do it. They’re like, ‘You have the coolest job. You’re right on the sidelines.’ And it’s true,” he says. “I don’t do anything to dispel that because I’m witnessing history. I’m right there.”

The post Inside Getty’s Photo Coverage of the Paris Games first appeared on Muse by Clios.

Brazilian Film Calls for an End to Gay Conversion 'Therapy'

Muse — Mon, 20 May 2024 13:30:00 +0000

You can’t change someone’s sexual orientation through conversion therapy. And there is no need to even try doing so, because—as legit medical practitioners insist, sane human beings know and gay people like myself prove every day—there is absolutely nothing wrong with being LGBTQ+.

Still, the “treatment” is employed in many places throughout the world, including the United States, according to this disturbing report from The Trevor Project. Conversion therapy is also prevalent in Brazil, as we see in an eye-opening short film called “The Cure.”

Created by São Paulo’s Africa Creative and directed by Santeria’s Rafa Damy and Nicole Cruvinel, the film exposes the horrors of conversion therapy. It begins with dramatic depictions of the physical and psychological torture endured by LGBTQ+ people in Brazil decades ago.

“All the accounts within the film are real, stemming from situations experienced within the Pinel Institute in São Paulo during the 1930s and 1940s,” says project manager Thays Miranda.

Cutting to the present, “The Cure” reveals an astounding statistic—in 2024’s Brazil, one in every three therapists tries to convert LGBTQ+ patients.

The investigative work of journalist Marcos Sergio Silva inspired the team, along with Jean Ícaro’s book Gay Cure: There Is No Cure for What Is Not a Disease.

Editora Taverna, the publisher of Icaro’s book, produce the project.

“In the book, we come across an absurd number of psychologists who still apply the ‘gay cure,’ as well as reports from people who survived this torture,” says copywriter Chiarina Costa. “It was the book that started the entire research process for the film and the project that aims to denounce, raise awareness and criminalize the practice.”

Right now, there are bills in the Brazilian National Congress that would criminalize conversion therapy, but they are “held back by political bureaucracy and lack of supporters,” according to Miranda.

That reality impressed upon the entire team “how important it would be to bring this issue to the general public,” Miranda says, and to let them know “how this torture disguised as therapy still happens today.”

If you want to help, you can sign the film’s Change.org petition calling for the criminalization of conversion therapy in Brazil.

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CeraVe Spoofs Rom-Coms in 'The One Under the Sun'

Muse — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000

It’s been said that love is strange. This faux rom-com, “The One Under the Sun,” directed by Erin Murray of production studio Florence, serves as a prime example.

A young woman falls head over heels for CeraVe Facial Moisturizing SPF 30 after being introduced to the lotion by a dermatologist.

Developed by 72andSunny, the work follows CeraVe’s mega-popular Super Bowl commercial starring Michael Cera. (That spot, from Ogilvy North America, won the Super Clio as this year’s best Big Game commercial.)

“The One Under the Sun” will run in movie theaters and online, supported by posts from CeraVe’s board-certified dermatologist influencers—aka “Dermfluencers”—on TikTok and Instagram.

Here, Adam Kornblum—SVP, global head of digital marketing for CeraVe—delves into the thinking behind the parody.

Why did you go with the rom-com approach?

More and more consumers, especially Gen Z, are skipping ads when they have the choice. So, we set out to hack traditional advertising by disguising a CeraVe ad as entertaining content. We created “The One Under the Sun” to blur the lines and connect with our target audience in a new way.

How did you balance making a parody while also selling your product?

When tackling the script, authenticity was key. We delved into the classic tropes of the genre while also infusing it with a modern twist. One of the primary strategies we employed was tapping into the cultural fascination with matchmaking and reality dating shows, which provided a rich backdrop for our narrative.

One of the central themes revolves around the “perfect match.” We integrated double entendres throughout the script, drawing parallels between the search for an ideal romantic partner and the quest for the perfect SPF.

By juxtaposing these two seemingly unrelated concepts, we were able to create a narrative that was both amusing and thought-provoking.

What did the trailer’s director bring to the project?

By blending her two passions—dance [Murray is also a choreographer] and narrative filmmaking—Erin was able to create humorous, engaging and movement-driven work that added an extra layer of depth and emotion. Her intuitive understanding of rhythm and composition enriched the overall experience.

I could picture any of the actors in this trailer in a real Netflix rom-com. Everyone was so committed. How did you find your cast?

Our lead matchmaker was a no-brainer. Dr. Wallace Nozile, one of our trusted CeraVe board-certified dermatologists, was the perfect matchmaker for our rom-com spoof.

Olivia Bagg, portraying Sarah, our leading lady, was chosen for her funny and relatable qualities. She embodies the perfect imperfect girl, avoiding clichés. Brandon Delsid and Jack De Sanz star as Olivia’s quick-witted, real-talking best friends.

We originally set out to cast only one actor [to play Olivia’s best friend], but we couldn’t pass up both talents. They were simply too funny to work with only one.

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The Story Behind Dead Celebs Lennon and Gandolfini Appearing in That Fake Ad for Keeple.ai

Muse — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 05:30:00 +0000

The late James Gandolfini promotes a meal delivery app, while the equally dead John Lennon plugs an eczema treatment in a promotional video for Keeple.ai.

Alpen Pictures comedy directing duo Nick & Charles are behind the faux tech company, billed as “a powerful new generative model tailored for inserting beloved life-challenged celebrities into advertisements and activations.”

Their AI parody is brilliant and funny, but it’s also scary!

Well, it is for those of us who are unnerved by the idea of dead celebrities hawking products. Those of you who have no qualms about this might find the whole thing inspiring.

Featuring famous folks who are no longer living in advertising is nothing new, of course. John Wayne, Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn and Bruce Lee are among the deceased who have featured in ads over the years. But the ease of creating doppelgängers using AI opens up a brave new world of possibilities and risks.

Here, we talk to Nick & Charles about the thinking behind and the making of their thought-provoking project.

MUSE: What was the inspiration behind Keeple.ai?

Nick: Young Luke Skywalker’s voice in Mandalorian.

Charles: We’d had enough of seeing and hearing lifeless, artificial portrayals of some of our favorite actors and musicians. The empty feeling brought on by the uncanny valley effect winds up making us connect less to what we’re watching. On the flip side, it can be so stilted that we found the attempts hilarious.

Have you received inquiries from people who think Keeple.ai is a real company? If so, what are they asking for and saying to you?

Charles: We’ve definitely had some reactions come back asking, “Wait, is this for real?” We haven’t had anyone reach out to hire a “Recognizable” just yet. Most people who stick around through the end catch on to the absurdity.

Nick: A good friend of ours was jealous we got the rights to Tony Soprano.

Why did you decide to base your fictional company in Austin, Texas? It’s a little detail that I loved.

Nick: The right mix of tech bro and ethics.

Charles: Austin is such a booming tech center that it just felt right for a “disruptive” company that thinks of itself as really cool.

How do you feel about AI and the impact it will have on your careers as writers and directors?

Nick: Hopefully the threat of AI forces humans to step up their game and make better TV and movies.

Charles: This is an inflection point for us to decide what we value as audiences. If we determine that human-made works of art and media have inherently more value than something a computer can do, then the future is looking bright. As a creator, I don’t see the fun in outsourcing my own imagination. And as a consumer, I’d rather hang a painting on my wall made by a real artist before I put up something from Midjourney or whatever. But I am scared of AI as a cost-cutting measure for big corporations and hirers.

Did you write the block of copy on the website about leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies, etc., or did AI write that?

Charles: Since this was all about fighting fire with fire, that generic block of text was absolutely written by AI. It did a great job of sounding vague!

This is more a comment than a question: I love how the one guy sits down to watch “the big game”—a phrase I have to admit I have used, though it sends shudders down my spine—with a plate of spaghetti bolognese. Forget chips! That’s my kind of snack.

Charles: The “big game” has been a long-running joke between us. So bizarre! It’s like when people used to sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” in birthday scenes in movies before “Happy Birthday” was royalty-free. Spaghetti bolognese is hard to top!

Why and how did you resurrect Jim Gandolfini and John Lennon in the promotional video. Did you use AI tools to create them?

Charles: We used a variety of methods. We had a terrific body double named Chris Fine, who stood in and performed Tony Soprano for us. Then we used an AI face swap with images of Gandolfini, finally polished up and composited by me in After Effects. We purposely left it feeling a bit subpar and stiff to drive home the message. Seeing Gandolfini—one of our most gifted actors who brought so much flawed humanity to his role—as an automaton shilling a delivery app isn’t exactly fun!

The voice was done using AI tools trained on his voice. It delivers “takes” that you sift through. Some come out really insane. John Lennon was done the same way and for the same reasons.

Nick, is that you in the role of Keeple.ai spokesman?

Nick: Yes. I tried to channel the Capitol One guy via Skynet.

Charles, are you anywhere to be seen in the video?

Charles: Yep, I body doubled John Lennon, wig and all.

You have created social media accounts for your fake company. Are you thinking of doing more with Keeple.ai? Maybe make more parody videos, or expand it into a TV series or movie?

Nick: Maybe it’ll become a legitimate company that makes so much money we can abandon our beliefs!

Charles: I could see it becoming a recurring means to parody various issues relating to AI as they arise. Keeple could be a catch all.

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Meet the Dude Who Plays the Terminix Termite

Muse — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Buffalo Groupe’s Callan Barr is a real pest around the office these days.

The agency strategy and account director appears dons an elaborate custom-made costume as Terry the Termite in the agency’s new campaign for Terminix.

Tagged “We Work With Pests,” the initiative leverages silliness to break through in a crowded marketplace. It riffs on The Office, with giant bugs taking part in the day-to-day workplace activities.

How’d Callan get the gig?

“Drew the short straw—literally,” he tells Muse. “To get into character, I hit our local spot and had a quick bite of the bar.”

Ha, such a joker! In this :30, however, Callan steals every scene he infests without saying a word:

Video Reference

Mar 27 2024 – 9:06am

David Gianatasio

Video file

Poster Reference

Terminix | Terry the Termite

Callan, how’s you describe wearing that getup for hours during the shoot? Comfy?

“Hot! Have you ever visited South Carolina? Now, do that in a full-body furry layer. What they don’t tell you about costume acting is that you can’t see yourself in action—or anybody else in action—or anything, really.”

That’s why his movements were kept to a minimum—except when he shows up with a treat for the office party.

“You’d think a giant termite walking around with a birthday cake would attract attention,” Callan says. “And it did. Everyone kept asking, ‘Hey, is that birthday cake up for grabs?'”

And, in case you were wondering, “This is my first foray into the world of insect dress-up.”

We’d imagine so—but it won’t be the last.

Look for Callan to spread his acting wings—and whiskers—in upcoming spots that focus on mosquitoes, roaches and rodents.

“My family can finally see my talent in action,” he says. “Now, all my wife’s friends ask if I can dress up at birthday parties.”

Launched this week, “We Work With Insects” will initially run across North and South Carolina on cable and CTV, digital video and social media platforms.

Behold, Callan Barr (partially) debugged:

The post Meet the Dude Who Plays the Terminix Termite first appeared on Muse by Clios.

This PowerPoint Could Help Prevent Teen Suicide

Muse — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:00:00 +0000

This isn’t your typical suicide prevention campaign made up of somber vignettes. Rather, the sixty-second spot “Scary, Not Scary” uses a PowerPoint presentation and the voice of a teenage girl to let parents know it is okay to talk to their kids about suicide.

That’s because simply asking, “Are you thinking about suicide?” can lead to a discussion that could save a life.

Here, we talk to Matt McCain and Michael Boychuk, co-founders of Little Hands of Stone, the agency behind the work.

Muse by Clio: What kind of research did you do to prepare to make this spot?

Matt McCain: With a topic this sensitive, we had to do tons of homework throughout the process. It started with involving the mental health experts at Seattle Children’s. We interviewed specialists on the front lines of mental health and suicide prevention to inform our strategy, craft the exact wording of the question—”Are you thinking about suicide?”—and evaluate the creative. Their input and approval gave us the confidence to take such a non-traditional approach. Next, we involved a creative team of young women, who are not too far removed from being teenagers themselves. As members of GenZ, they brought valuable insights. We made sure to gut-check this idea with teens. We hosted a youth advisory board and showed them storyboards. They pushed back on some of the choices we’d made, pushing for more empathy, less snark and visual simplicity. We listened, and it helped.

Why did you make the ad look like an informal PowerPoint presentation?

Michael Boychuk: We wanted this to feel as unlike an ad as possible. That raw, clumsy style of a PowerPoint helped us. If you have tween or teen kids like Matt and I do, or if you pay attention online, you realize the main tool of persuasion for young people these days is a PowerPoint/Google Slides presentation to get a gerbil, a first car, permission to date, an expensive Christmas present.

How did you write the dialogue and choose the images?

Matt McCain: Most importantly, it couldn’t feel written. It had to feel sincere and candid.

Michael Boychuk: For imagery, one thing we noticed from our research on teen PowerPoints, and from the input from the youth advisory group, is that young people don’t overthink the images. They grab the first thing they find in their Google search and slap it into the presentation.

Why was it important to empower someone from GenZ to be the one to guide adults as to how to initiate a discussion about suicide?

Michael Boychuk: Parents are afraid to ask this question, and giving scary statistics to push parents to act will backfire. One mental health expert told us, “More fear leads to more inaction.” We felt the only voice that could help adults get over their fear is that of young people. As adults, we need their permission to “go there.”

Matt McCain: Anecdotally, I was afraid to ask my 17-year-old daughter this question. As I worked on this project, I knew we had to overcome that fear. So one day while driving in the car together, I asked her, “Are you thinking about suicide?” She responded, “No, I’m not, but thanks for asking. We should all be emotionally available enough to have these kinds of conversations.” This is the kind of stuff adults need to hear.

What did you learn from making “Scary, Not Scary?”

Michael Boychuk: Teens are way sweeter and more empathetic that we give them credit for. They really do feel for how afraid their parents are to talk about mental health. Teens can get pinned as eye-rolling cynics, but they really do want healthy relationships and conversations with their parents. And the reaction we’ve been getting from parents is that it is so relieving and comforting to hear that.

CREDITS

Client: Seattle Children’s Hospital
Director of Brand and Creative Services: Candi Nicholson
Manager, Brand and Creative Services: Stacey Kryman

Agency: Little Hands of Stone
Matt McCain: Co-Founder and Head of Creative
Michael Boychuk: Co-Founder and Head of Creative
Tiffany Stone: Head of Creative Operations
Brooke Braafladt: Account Supervisor
Erin Miller: Creative
Kelley OHare: Creative

Post: Catch & Release
Editor: Andrew Franks

Audio & Sound Design: HEARby

The post This PowerPoint Could Help Prevent Teen Suicide first appeared on Muse by Clios.

How an Ad World Directing Duo Made Mean Girls a Global Smash

Muse — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 09:00:00 +0000

It’s not every day that you get an email from Tina Fey’s producer offering a chat with the famed comedian and creative force about a possible feature project.

So, Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr., the married directing duo known for working with brands like Apple, Starbucks and Mini Cooper and shooting music videos, were pretty excited about the invitation.

“It was definitely the best email that we had gotten in a while,” Jayne enthuses.

Fey had them in mind to direct the latest Mean Girls film because she seen Quarter Life Poetry, a dark comedy series from the pair that had premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. That work chronicled a young woman’s quarter-life crisis with musical panache (Jayne played the lead character, while Perez directed).

The meeting obviously went well, because Jayne and Perez, who are repped for spot work by WTP Pictures, got the gig, marking a major milestone in their careers—their first feature credit. (As of this writing, Mean Girls, released by Paramount last month, is nearing a global box office of $100 million.)

Jayne, who was a teenager when she saw the original 2004 film, recalls, “My first reaction [to Fey’s query] was, ‘Oh my God, Mean Girls!’ And then my second reaction was, ‘Hold on, why are you touching Mean Girls? It is perfect!'”

Jayne and Perez learned that this new version wasn’t intended as a remake, but rather a reinterpretation reflecting the world teens live in today. Fey, who penned the ’04 version, actually based her new screenplay on the 2017 Broadway version of Mean Girls.

As in the Broadway show, Jayne explains, the film places lovable outcasts Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey) in the roles of “all-knowing narrators.” They guide the audience through the story as they plot with Cady (Angourie Rice), a naïve new student at their high school, to take down Regina George (Renee Rapp), the leader of a shallow clique known as the Plastics.

Jayne and Perez were keen on that approach and also excited about the reboot being a musical that borrows songs from the Broadway show. That said, making a movie musical upped the ante for the directors.

“A musical makes everything bigger. The stakes are bigger,” Perez muses. “If it doesn’t work, it really doesn’t work. So, we didn’t want to shoot this the way that a lot of traditional musicals are shot. That would have been expected. With Tina, we always talked about the need for this to be surprising.”

One of the film’s most delightful surprises is when spacey Karen (Avantika) confidently busts into a song called “Sexy” at a Halloween party. The tune pokes fun at the sexy Halloween costume craze.

The idea was to place viewers into the shoes of each character as they sing and move about, Perez says, noting, “The camera is almost like another dancer.”

Perez and Jayne enlisted famed Steadicam operator Ari Robbins (whose credits include La La Land, which won an Oscar for Best Cinematography in 2016, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, last year’s Best Picture winner) to work on the film.

“We essentially had 12 music videos to shoot,” Jayne reflects, noting that Mean Girls was made in real locations on a limited budget and schedule.

To make sure everyone was on the same page, Jayne and Perez created Camp Fetch, a 200-page production guide. Not so much an edict, Camp Fetch was a living, collaborative document. “We had different iterations of the document as we would have conversations with our department heads, and they would bring their expertise,” Jayne explains.

The duo routinely make detailed production guides for all of their projects, including commercials. It’s part of their process. “We feel like the prep that helps us in our commercial work helped us succeed with Mean Girls,” Perez says.

As buttoned up as the production of Mean Girls was, the directors also took creative risks. “The easy thing to do is just get coverage for everything and be super safe,” Jayne says. “I think something that we pride ourselves on is really paying attention to what the scene is telling us and what the story is telling us and forming all creative choices from there.”

To wit: the way they shot the musical numbers with Robbins trailing the talent was a more experimental mode of moviemaking.

“The one take doesn’t work until it works. Then it’s magic, but it’s just a different kind of shooting,” Jayne says. “Seeing it cut together and work really well—just how we imagined in Camp Fetch—it was very validating.”

Arturo Perez Jr. and Samantha Jayne

The post How an Ad World Directing Duo Made Mean Girls a Global Smash first appeared on Muse by Clios.

Why Netflix Spain Staged an Identity Crisis

Muse — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 15:00:00 +0000

A push from Netflix Spain devised by David Madrid taps into the identity crisis many of us face when the app poses its opening question: “Who’s watching?”

This simple yet vexing query propels the protagonist in “Who’s Watching?”—a woman named Norma—on a journey of self-exploration. She tries to decide if she is the Norma who likes to watch Hungarian cinema, or the Norma who enjoys shows about hot cheating couples.

Video Reference

Jan 17 2024 – 10:16am

David Gianatasio

Video file

Poster Reference

Netflix | Norma

Soon, Norma’s partner doesn’t know who she is anymore, and she seeks help from a doctor, who prescribes a marathon of The Crown and a small dose of Elite before bed.

It’s not enough to soothe our tortured heroine.

During a wild bus ride, Norma encounters various versions of herself offering recommendations: Money Heist, Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Alpha Males and Squid Games. Ultimately, she winds up at a group therapy session … but can’t even fill out her name-tag.

The group leader encourages Norma to embrace all of her selves, including—and here’s the kicker—the one who likes Emily in Paris. (Bravo to Netflix for having a sense of humor!)

“From the beginning, we set ourselves the challenge of finding something different and memorable for the category, just as we did with Confusing Times and plant-based or with parents in our latest IKEA campaign,” says Pancho Cassis, partner and global CCO at David.

“That’s why we put the most effort into finding a human truth and centering it around the product,” he continues. “And that’s how we end up finding Norma, a normal woman who suffers internal struggles every time she turns on Netflix and reads the famous question ‘Who are you?’ “

The agency hired Juan Cabral, the legendary MJZ-repped director known for Cadbury’s “Gorilla” and Sony’s “Balls,” for “Who’s Watching?”

“Juan Cabral is not only a great director, but he’s also possibly one of the best creatives that this industry has ever had. And we knew, from previous experiences with him, that he was the right person to bring our idea to life,” Cassis says. “A lot of what you see on screen is only possible because of how deep he went into the character struggles and how relatable he made everything feel.”

Cabral enlisted DP Javier Juliá, whose credits include Argentina 1985 and Wild Tales, to create a cinematic spot. Elevated production values were a must.

“When you have to create a brand campaign to the world’s best content platform, you cannot fall short on storytelling and craft,” says Saulo Rocha, agency CCO. “That was always the goal, to come up with something that could be as stunning and captivating as what you can find in Netflix. And the story of Norma, a regular person whose contradictions are perfectly represented by Netflix’s wide range of genres, was a great inspiration for us to play with photography and art direction, to have her alternating over different looks and feels: noir, VHS, anamorphic, HD, etc.”

“Who’s Watching?” was shot in Buenos Aires, and twin actors portray Norma.

“They were perfect for the job because besides delivering great performance, they also allowed to rely less on post production and much more on real interactions,” Rocha says. “That was part of Juan Cabral’s vision, and it represented an even bigger challenge when casting for the main role.”

Editor Emiliano Fardaus cut the spot, which clocks in at 1:20. “Editing was a long process because we were looking for ways to tell a story that looked like anything but traditional advertising—something that could represent Norma’s state of mind, that could take us through the complex puzzle that she’s become,” Rocha says. “And that’s how we got to this weirdly unique pace.”

CREDITS

Agency: David Madrid
Global CCO & Partner: Pancho Cassis
Global COO: Sylvia Panico
Chief Creative Officer: Saulo Rocha
Managing Director: María García Herranz
Creative Director: Jose Sancho
Copywriter: Mario Carrillo, Jaime Ludeña, Agustín Aiassa
Art Director: Andrea García, Julián Tedesco
Head of Production: Alejandro Falduti
Production Assistant: Amor Vidiella
Head of Account: Lucila Mengide
Account Director: Adriana González Cid
Account Executive: Jesús Merino
Head of Strategy: Daniela Bombonato
Strategy Director: Gabriella Teixeira
Strategist: Maru Gougy
Global PR Director: Sandra Azedo

Client: Netflix Spain
Susana Pastor: Manager, Marketing Series
Alexandra Martin: Marketing Production Manager
Ander Echezarreta: Title Marketing Director
Manuel Román: Senior Marketing Director

Film Production: MJZ
Director: Juan Cabral
Executive producer MJZ: Lindsay Turnham
Executive producer Labhouse: Flora Fernández Marengo
Producer: Nicolás Abelovich
DOP: Javier Juliá
Production Manager: Pat Rzeznik
Art Director: Charly Carnota
Wardrobe Stylist: Sol Montalvo
Makeup & Hair: Laura Delbosco

Post
Editor: Emiliano Fardaus
VFX: Rojo Studio
Color Grading: Alejandra Lescano
Music: Fede Cabral
Sound Design: Bamba Music
Dubbing Spanish & English: Pickle Studio
VFX Sup: Jonathan Monroig
VFX Coordinator: Ariadna Ortiz
Conform & Deliveries: Isla Post House
Post Sup: Julieta Fernández Castagnino
Music Company and Publisher: Pickle Music
Final Mix: Pickle Music
Sound Engineer: Agustín Sebastián, Pickle Music
Talent Recording: Jacinto González, Pickle Music
Producer: Ana Ortiz Wienken, Pickle Music
Executive Producer: Olivia López, Pickle Music

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