the future’s bright the future’s a mercedes driving orange monkey’s passport
I missed the last Friday session before the Easter break, but I did manage to get a little feedback as to what the general themes were. On the subject of ads, I hope that our effort succeeded in above all creating intrigue. I put plenty of effort in to make sure that our advert would align with our image and therefore be as polished as possible.
Fifteen years ago posters circulated London proclaiming that 12 monkeys were coming. No one had a clue what the hell these monkeys wanted and why they had decided to announce their immenent arrival so publicly. In the end, we didn’t have to worry, the monkeys weren’t here on a revenge mission for libelous slurs and propaganda against them from the 1980s – it was all in aid of Terry Gilliam’s movie (based on La Jetee). About the same time posters and billboards filled up with the proclamation that: “The Future is Bright, The Future is Orange”. Strange days indeed as a certain Mr Lennon once sang! Now everyone would know this to be a slogan of Orange Mobile, back then for a while at least no one knew if it was semi confused communist and liberal monkeys or a bizarre weather forecast! The point is that these campaigns were both very successful in generating initial interest ( the same technique has been repeated several times from: Spike Jonze’s recent film I’m Here to Donnie Darko).
So where does our ad fit in? Well hopefully it creates intrigue and perhaps confusion and it directs focus/traffic to the website. And, as is the case with both 12 Monkeys and Orange campaigns (and Corrine suggested) a more enlightening sequel will reveal more.
Initially I wanted to add a voice over to our original ad to guide the viewer through, time didn’t allow for this however (I was seeking a specific tone/voice/softness – my idea was not to bombard the viewer this obvious noise/chaos in the soundtrack e.g. I had started with The Beatles Helter Skelter but decided against this – too obvious. Sometimes the greater the juxtapostion the greater the effect – for example: the ear scene in Reservoir Dogs) It’s unfortunate as this would have helped clarify more about the product. Chris Cunningham’s Muck About Orange ad is a good example of the voice over tying up what would otherwise be a confusing and nonsensical ad.
