Moving

I like commercials. Cool ones in fact. Not those dumpy, "what were they advertising?" commercials. The real ones, the ones that suck you in, make you wonder.

I had the pleasure of working at a company two years ago, Anonymous Content, which did a wonderful thing for me. It caused me to open my eyes. Working there, I learned to care for commercials, that they were, as close to short films as possible, but instead of hooking the viewer through a story, they hooked the viewer through a pitch.

Commercials can be creative, smart, funny, emotional, anything really, but regardless of what they are selling you, they carry a message or invoke a certain feeling.

Such as this one. It's simple, to the point, yet every time I show it to people, they gasp and admit that they are moved by it. I got to meet this director and he was a lovely man, who cared as much for the cause as for the commercial. He had passion.




Then there are those commercials that are sad, like the one above, but provide another sort of feeling. Take the one below. It's by one of my favorite directors (Spike Jonze) who is know for Adaptation, Where the Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich, and a few others. His commercial is one of my favorites, partially because he is hinting at the power of a commercial and he is completely aware of it.


Ikea lamp commercial from Rob Sbaglia on Vimeo.


Powerful stuff. Yet, most people don't even tend to realize how heavy commercials can be.

Why do you care about the lamp? The guy calls you out on it! Spike made you feel that way with a couple perfect camera angles, some rain, and the right moody music. I want to be able to do that to people!


On a side note - Spike Jonze is just pretty much, well, awesome...