110 NOVEMBER 2008
shots sampler oz/nz special down under steps up apa 08 collection the uk’s best dutch courage spirit of amsterdam
contents 0 6
9 united airlines
10 levi’s
12 simon’s cat
14 bbc
16 sony walkman
19 gnarls barkley
20 romain gavras
OZ/NZ
29 gpy&r
32 chis riggert
34 ted696
36 leo burnett
39 greg wood
42 mike o’sullivan
47 gruen transfer
50 honda
81 studios SH110_p06-7.contents.indd 6
86 stephane manel 8/9/08 14:37:54
0 7 contents
26 jef loeb
22 armando bo
61 overview
amsterdam
64 selmore
45 julius avery
70 hans aarsman
54 tim mellors
72 apa 08 collection
80 rich orrick
87 ufo
88 siddharth khaitan
88 +jacksonkarinja
SH110_p06-7.contents.indd 7
69 180
89 steve baker
90 sydney 8/9/08 14:38:38
director profile 2 2 armando bo
Bo’s father was also involved in the movie business. Victor Bo was an actor who, among other things, starred in the film series Los Superagentes. He later swapped his licence to kill for a licence to thrill, working as a producer. He would take the young Armando to film sets, letting him peer through the
With filmmaking in Armando Bo’s genetic code, he was destined to make a big impression. Laura Swinton meets a director armed with a licence to thrill
camera and putting him to work as an extra. It was then Armando discovered that he was cut out for a career behind rather than in front of the lens. “Once when my father was shooting a film in a small town, we were sleeping in a hotel, the sort of hotel where people go to fuck. But it was the best hotel in town so that’s where we stayed. So, I was just a kid and in the night I would hear noises...” Here, Bo proves his acting days are not behind him, and he does a fair impression of ‘sex noise’. “I was like ‘Dad, Dad, what’s happening?’ And he told me that some actors were rehearsing – for a fight scene. From then on I knew I wanted to shoot rehearsals.” It was almost inevitable that Bo would enter production when
armando bo
leaving school at the age of 17. He started out as a personal assistant – a job which consisted primarily of nipping out to buy stuff – before moving on to locations, becoming a production manager and then an
“My grandfather was a soft porn filmmaker from the 50s and 60s and my
assistant director. By the time Bo started directing at the age of 21, he had
father was a super agent, kind of like an Argentinian James Bond.”
already become something of an industry veteran.
My interview with director Armando Bo has got off to a promising start.
It was his depth of experience and familiarity with ad production that meant
We’re only one minute and 10 seconds in and I seem to have landed the kind
Bo managed to skip the stage of ‘struggling music video director’ and move
of quote that journalists’ wet dreams are made of. And it wasn’t, I must add,
more or less straight into advertising. His first job, he tells me after much
thanks to any killer questioning on my part. I think I opened with something
cajoling, was a short film in which he cast Argentinian producers. It was
dull and predictable like, ‘so how did you get into directing then?’.
funny at the time, he assures me, but, while he might be on the other end
But let’s get back to his soft-porn granddad – it’s not the sort of statement
of a 7,000-mile long distance phone call, I can tell he’s cringing. He’s been
you leave unquestioned. Grandpa Bo was indeed a well-known director,
directing for about eight years now, but his reel is far from cringe worthy.
shooting films throughout Latin America. He was responsible for the first
There’s his work for Axe, including Quake in which one especially sexually-
nude scene in Argentine cinema and was labelled as a pornographer by
charged couple cause an earthquake that destroys a swimming pool. Bo says
Buenos Aires’ then military government – and persecuted because of it. “In
this ad is one of his favourites, with its challenging effects and sultry sex
those days, if you showed a tit it was called porn,” says Bo. “But now in
appeal. Throughout his work there’s a wry sense of humour that nearly
South America he is celebrated as an artist.”
always makes itself known – sometimes cheeky, in the case of his VW spot
Considering that Bo’s own directing reel comprises a noticeably large
Tennis Coach, sometimes surreal, as with the Rexona Dolls ad. When Bo does
number of Axe commercials, sexy ladies and spurts of saucy humour, it’s
‘funny’, he prefers to keep it ironic and understated.
hard not to imagine that the spirit of his grandfather lives on in some small
Four years ago, Bo founded his own production company, Rebolucion, with
way through Bo Junior’s work.
fellow countryman Luciano Podcaminsky, forming what would prove to be
Armando Bo also shares his grandfather’s name. “So I guess my future is in
a successful but noticeably un-Argentinian partnership. “Maybe in England
porn,” jokes Bo. “My parents weren’t so creative with that.”
or the States it’s normal to have many hot directors together in one company, but here it wasn’t so usual,” he explains. “Maybe because egocentric Argentinians don’t like it – they don’t want to share and they always want to be the top guy in the company.” Podcaminsky and Bo, however, took a different approach. As well as co-
SH110_p22-24 Director_Bo.indd 22
8/9/08 15:06:03
armando bo 2 3 director profile
SH110_p22-24 Director_Bo.indd 23
8/9/08 15:06:07
director profile 2 4 armando bo
directing occasionally, they could double their chances of getting work by pitching separately and help each other out with heavy workloads. Bo explains that he has no time for prima donna directors, and likens his own style to that of a football team manager. It’s all about motivating the team, getting stuck in and
(Top) Impulse: Train and Airport (Above) Impulse Seaweeds and Ford Escola (Below) Axe Quake and Coca-Cola Beard
work, but being from here, the arse of the
keeping energy levels
world, you have to
high, he insists.
travel a lot more to meet interesting or important people.” Not that travelling is too much of a chore for him. He says it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job and he has developed soft spots
“Maybe in England or the US, it’s normal to have many hot directors in one company, but here it’s not. Maybe because egocentric Argentinians always want to be the top guy...”
for New York and London (“they are the most creative cities – I have received a lot of
And now, aged 29, Bo is ready to take on the world. Rebolucion has, four
inspiration when I’ve stayed there. And drinks. I have a lot of inspiration and
years on, firmly established itself in the Argentine ad scene. Its roster has
drinks”), and over the years he has become something of a Cannes mainstay.
grown to include five directors, including Baby, Doble Nelson and Luciano
All this travel coupled with a natural gregariousness has meant that Bo has
Urbani. In Bo’s own words, his enterprise “has wings”. Which leaves him free
managed to put himself about a bit, and in the process built quite a
to concentrate on his own directing career and focus on the big markets
reputation for himself. I tell him that I’ve heard (putting it mildly) that he’s a
beyond South America. A year and a half ago he signed with Anonymous
bit of a party animal. “No, that’s not me,” he replies sheepishly. “They must
Content in the US and he’s also with Independent in the UK.
have been talking about another director...”
Bo’s picked a good time to go global. With Fallon’s Juan Cabral scooping the
Advertising isn’t the only area Bo hopes to charm into submission. This year
Grand Prix at Cannes and enjoying demi-god status, Argentina’s creative
he made his first steps into the world of feature films. Together with his
credentials are on the ascendant. The country’s reputation within the
cousin, he has spent the first part of this year working on a movie script for
international industry has never been higher, and Bo reckons that this is
21 Grams and Amores Perros director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu. It’s
definitely making things easier for him.
currently being filmed, but when pushed for details, his reply is that of a true
But although Argentina enjoys a high standing in the international industry,
super agent’s son. He would tell me, but then he’d have to kill me.
Bo points out that it is still relatively difficult for an outsider-director to get
However, it’s obvious that Bo’s bursting to talk about the project, and at least
a foothold in Europe and North America. “In advertising you need to meet a
concedes that he’s enjoyed the chance to try his hand at script writing, and
lot of people and you have to be open. I mean you have your reel and your
that it’s been a useful learning experience which has whetted his appetite for long format productions. “I really like being a cliché,” he teases. “You know, like all commercial directors who really want to make a movie. But,” he adds, with a cocky twinkle, “I am a good cliché.”
SH110_p22-24 Director_Bo.indd 24
8/9/08 15:06:27
the way i see it 5 4 tim mellors
Tim Mellors, 61, was lured out of retirement in 2004 to become president and chief creative officer of Grey Worldwide, North America. His 38-year career in advertising, which included a stint as a director, has been punctuated by drink, drugs and brilliant commercials. He talks to Diana Goodman
the way I see it tim mellors I own a place in Derbyshire that was
When we went to live in the city, my
I used to go up to The Factory and do
DH Lawrence’s old house and cottage. I bought it
father, in particular, seemed better educated than
screen prints for Andy Warhol: cows’ heads at
because my grandfather, Sydney Mellors, was the
most of the people around us on the estate, and
five dollars a time. You could just walk in there
inspiration for the gamekeeper in Lady
in effect we’d gone down a class. So I wasn’t
and I was fascinated by Nico, that girl in the
Chatterley’s Lover. He was at school with
allowed to wear jeans or drink pop, and I lived the
Velvet Underground. I thought they were
Lawrence in Eastwood and then became boss of
life of Little Lord Fauntleroy on a bloody council
marvellously interesting people, but really they
the local colliery simply because he was the
estate! But in my teens I went down to London as
were just junkies in a place with silver paper all
biggest man around – about 6’ 6” tall. Sometimes
the northern working class revival gathered
over the walls.
I wonder what I’m doing in such an effete job
paced, and the first person I worked with was
when I come from a mining background, although
David Bailey, on a Mary Quant cosmetics launch.
I think the TV series Mad Men is a very
my father was a shoe designer, and you can’t get
I thought, he’s as common as muck! So I decided
real representation of the sexist, moneyist, drinkist
more effete than that.
that I would also play on being working class.
way that advertising was at that time: besuited but debauched. When I was in New York in 1969
I lived in the country until I was seven
My mother wanted me to be a doctor or
that was still a prevalent way of being, whereas in
and then in the middle of Derby, in a Georgian
a lawyer and she thought advertising was a joke;
England advertising was much more arty.
house where my mother had a wine shop. My
you got “paid for doing nowt”, as she used to say.
parents were, I suppose, very typical. My father
My father thought it was pretty good because, to
What are the “ists” now? It’s all about
had come back from the war and it was hard to
him, it seemed like quite a louche life.
money. I don’t know what else you could say
photographs: bob gruen
make ends meet until he started working out of
about that.
town in Leicester and Northampton. We were
My parents’ views didn’t matter because
quite poor – certainly by today’s standards.
I was of an age, and in an age, where I could do
Before I started in advertising I read
what I liked, and I did. I couldn’t have gone to
The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard. It’s
I went to a grammar school and always
London at a better time, and then when I came to
supposed to be anti-advertising – about
did all right, though not as well as I thought I
New York on an exchange for Doyle Dane
manipulating people’s minds – but that was
should. For example, I was a good runner – a
Bernbach, I hardly ever went to the agency; I was
actually the thing that attracted me most. Never
national half-mile champion as a schoolboy – but
stoned all the time.
mind that goody-goody David Ogilvy’s
I always felt that I was second best.
SH110_p54-58_The Way.indd 54
Confessions of an Advertising Man; I liked Packard’s nefarious, black-hearted adland.
8/9/08 15:58:19
tim mellors 5 5 the way i see it
SH110_p54-58_The Way.indd 55
8/9/08 15:58:27
the way i see it 5 6 tim mellors
I can see why some people hate
The ad I most enjoyed making was
I’ve had therapy myself for about 30
advertising in America, because you simply can’t
Abbey Ending, when the Abbey National was
years. The best has been analysis, where you take
watch TV. There are about twice as many
turning from a building society into a bank. I got
your dreams along. In London, I did it over six or
commercials as there would be in England, and
Lionel Bart, who was a friend of mine, to write a
seven years and it was probably the most creative
you can’t follow the plot of anything. The ads
little jingle and we then met up with Tony Kaye in
thing I’ve ever done in my life. I trained myself to
completely break your concentration. It just
my flat in Baker Street. Tony was so beguiled by
wake up every night and write down my dreams
amounts to sheer greed by the broadcasters.
Lionel that he said we should put him in it. Lionel
and then I’d go through them with my analyst. If
said, “I can’t sing,” but Tony insisted it didn’t
you don’t believe you’re creative, you should do
matter and in the end Lionel kind of spoke it.
it: it’s amazing what’s in the subconscious.
for my own need for money, which I loathe. I have
We got a group of kids and arranged for
I used to go into prisons as part of my
been put in a position where I can more or less
Comme des Garçons to kit them all out in black
psychotherapy training, and I worked in the life-
have what I want, but like many working class
and white. We then had Lionel sit at the piano and
sentence wing at Wormwood Scrubs. Some of the
people I’ve found that difficult to live with.
we just shot it. Typically, Tony chopped the head
prisoners are on ‘liquid cosh’ [Largactil] which
off the girl who’d been brought over from America
basically zombifies them. Among the ones who
The reason I wanted to be a director
to do the main singing and filmed her from the
are sentient, there are many who can’t even
was that when I was 16 I read a book about the
neck down. He then focused on this other little
remember the act that got them into prison.
new British film directors and it sounded
girl, who turned out to be his niece. It was
Having been pretty drunk and stoned in my life,
glamorous. Then, the first commercial I ever did
completely extemporary and so much fun to do.
sometimes to the point where I’ve blacked out,
I sometimes have a contempt for both money and advertising. I also have a contempt
was with Ridley Scott, and I also worked with Alan
I thought, it could have been me.
Parker and Adrian Lyne. I thought, if they can do
I used to like working with Tony because
it, I can. I wanted it on my passport: film director,
he was barmy and always threw himself into
When I was at university, I ruined my
which is not the way to go into anything.
things. Paul Arden was the same – as barmy as
chances of being a good athlete or musician by
they come – and so is Graham Fink [creative
getting constantly stoned. Then when I got into
I was better at directing than I thought
director at M&C Saatchi], who’s my best friend
advertising [via freelance writing] there was a lot
I would be, and I won a few awards and made a lot
now in the business. They all have, or had, the
of drink and drugs around, and I met other people
of money. But I always felt like a charlatan. When
same childlike enthusiasm.
with similar dispositions.
out that feeling. Then Charlie [Saatchi] rang up
The worst thing I’ve ever done is work
What saved me was marrying Lucy.
and asked me: “Will you ever be the best director
on a campaign for Pedigree dog food. It was the
When I first met her I was clean and dry, so she
in England?” I said, “No, I don’t think so.” He said,
absolute end. They used to say things to us like,
didn’t know what a bastard I had been. Then
“Nor do I, so you should come here and be a
“Now, wow me!” I worked for a year on that
when I started behaving like an ass all over again
creative director instead.”
campaign and when it came out, Lucy [his second
it was clear that she wouldn’t put up with this
I got heavily into drugs it was a way of blotting
wife] said, “It’s just dogs eating food!” That was
kind of behaviour. At parties I would smash things
One of the oddest things I was
the last job I did before I retired, and I found it
up and bad-mouth people, but the next day she
responsible for was putting the Flower Duet from
utterly soul destroying.
would make me ring up and apologise.
Lord King said, “We’ll have it on everything.” Even
I retired [before returning to Grey]
I had a year when I was an absolute
now, when you board a British Airways plane, it’s
because I was studying for my Masters degree in
nutcase. I had a film production company that
still playing. He saw that it had class, resilience
psychotherapy, and to complete it you needed a
was doing very well – except for my cocaine
and longevity, and now basically it is BA.
thousand ‘patient hours’. So I stopped work to get
habit, that is, which was soaking up all the
Lakmé [by Delibes] on to a British Airways ad.
the hours to qualify fully, which I did. But I hated
proceeds. In the end I got sectioned and they
I do think that music is massively
sitting one-on-one in a room all day, listening to
locked me up in a nut house.
underrated in advertising. More than 70 per cent
patients who bored the hell out of me. You do five
of commercials worldwide feature music in some
sessions, one after another, and hear all about
way, but it’s often overlooked – except by the
their childhoods until you want to kill them. If I go
record companies, of course, for whom it’s
back to it, I’ll do it in groups.
become a huge source of revenue.
SH110_p54-58_The Way.indd 56
8/9/08 15:58:29
tim mellors 5 7 the way i see it
My children [Holly, 31, George, 29, Daisy,
There is some argument about whether
Above all, I think that what children
21 and Coco, 19] know that I had a problem with
addiction is hereditary or not. I think you’ve
need most is to be heard. Essentially it’s what all
every kind of drug you can think of. My elder
certainly got a better chance [of getting involved]
human beings need, but it’s most acute when
children experienced that – with me disappearing
if your father or mother are, or have been
you’re a child. What I mean by that is being
for weeks on end – and while the younger children
addicted, and certainly my children have had
listened to for who you really are – not what your
have never seen me drunk or stoned, they ask me
their own problems. But it’s their life, they have to
parents or your peers want... just who you are.
about why I’m helping people in that area.
do what they do, and I have to believe that if I can
With my own children I have found it difficult not
get through it, they can.
to coerce or judge.
New York that Heath Ledger had been visiting
Kahlil Gibran once said that “your
When I give talks at universities I don’t
incognito before he died – just sitting on his own.
children are not your children… you are the bows
go in for any pretence about the realities of the
He was in a lot of trouble at the end and I thought
from which your children as living arrows are
advertising industry, and I sometimes see the
at the time how ineffably sad it was. I’ve known a
sent forth.” That is a great notion – that you
tutors’ backs bristling. I say it’s a dangerous job
lot of people who’ve gone that way and when I
launch them into life and let them go. You hope
and you could end up committing suicide, but it’s
heard an interview with him on the BBC in which
to have aimed them true, but you have to leave
also an opportunity to do something different
he said that he wasn’t sleeping, I thought, this
the result up to the flight of the arrow.
with your life. I can take that viewpoint because
My daughter Coco goes to a hip club in
lad’s in trouble.
I’ve done it for 38 years.
SH110_p54-58_The Way.indd 57
8/9/08 15:58:32
the way i see it 5 8 tim mellors
The biggest challenge in advertising at
What makes me laugh? Larry David
I don’t believe in God, so I don’t think
the moment is how to engage with consumers.
[Curb Your Enthusiasm]. He makes me convulse
there’s anything waiting on the other side. My
There are those in the industry who have an
with laughter sometimes. It’s like he’s been
plan is the same as my wife’s: that is, to have my
obsession about getting ads on to mobile phones,
looking through my window and living my life.
ashes put inside a firework which will be shot into
but I think that’s going to bite us on the arse.
He’s an amazing observer and very cruel to
the air over the lake where we live. That’s the
Consumers don’t want ads popping up on their
himself – which is what makes it so amusing.
only bit I’m looking forward to: the dust from my
phones – or for that matter on the internet.
ashes going up into the stars.
I’m easily moved to tears. My children I feel the same way about intrusion.
always remind me that when I went to see ET
What gives me the greatest pleasure?
Every time I use Wikipedia I think how incredible
with them, I made the whole row of seats rock
Music and art. That’s one of the best things about
the whole thing is, but then you get directed to
because I was weeping so much. And I’m pretty
being in New York: there’s so much to see and do.
another site and some bloody pop-up appears. It
sure that I am the only male over 40 years old
I love looking at art and, because I have more
makes me want to smash the screen. That’s the
who’s ever gone around the It’s A Small World
time now, to sketch what I see. It sounds
biggest problem in our business: how to approach
ride at Disneyland sobbing the whole way.
pretentious, but as you get older you develop the facility to look at things in a different light – and
people in an inoffensive, engaging and entertaining manner. There’s lots of horseshit
I don’t much care what people think of
being talked, but nobody knows the answer yet.
me. I used to, but what does it matter? I’ve now got to the age and stage where it’s not important.
What’s been interesting in advertising
to appreciate what’s gone before.
If I could relive my life I would do it all over again, just the same. Although
over the last few years is that designers have
My brother-in-law George recently died
professionally I would become an editor. It
done far better than writers. At the moment
from cancer and I felt deeply sad for him – and
employs all of your senses and it’s a job of
people are more visually literate than at any
afraid. He was a tough man from the north east
enormous power and cleverness. I always admire
other time on earth, but they’re verbally less
of England and an extremely clever physicist. He
great editing. Pam Powers, Ridley Scott’s editor,
literate. If you look at the print exhibit at Cannes,
tried to tackle the illness in a very scientific way.
was absolutely amazing, and Nick Lewin, who was
there are hardly any words on the ads. It’s partly
Unfortunately it didn’t work. I’ve known a lot of
an editor before he became a director, was also
the payoff of globalisation. People are
people who have died in bizarre circumstances –
extremely good.
communicating with very few words – and that’s
I guess anyone who’s been around addicts has
not necessarily a bad thing, except that the
seen that – but this was different. There is
In the end, the most important thing
richness of our vocabulary is being lost.
nothing romantic or interesting about ageing.
is that “the love you take is equal to the love you make”, to quote The Beatles. When I heard that
In terms of my role at Grey, I feel that
song, it echoed and has stayed with me since. I
I’m something of a father figure. At my age I
like to think that the most important thing is to
wouldn’t be working in England; nobody over 60
make some place better for people, and that when
has got a job there. So what’s interesting is that
you do, you definitely get something back.
in America, wisdom and experience are still regarded as having some value.
SH110_p54-58_The Way.indd 58
8/9/08 15:58:33
The best ideas usually come from the most obvious places: shots
order NOW
complete this form and:
shots subscription prices
DETAILS
Yes, I would like to subscribe to shots. Your subscription includes 6
First Name:
Fax back: +44 (0) 207 728 4100
issues of the magazine and DVD reel plus full online access. Last Name:
magazine, DVD and online access: UK£1,075.00 (£1252.63 inc VAT)
Rest of world
£1,075.00
US$2,150.00 $1,494.25
OR subscribe to shots magazine and DVD only. Your subscription
Job Title: Company Name:
includes 6 issues of the magazine and DVD reel. Company Type:
magazine AND DVD: UK£699 (£810.83 inc VAT)
Rest of world
£699
US$1,398.50
$971.61
KEY SHOTS TITLES save up to 33%
City:
shots Directory 2009 SAVE 20% UK £88
Rest of world
£104
US$208 $144.56
shots Directory 2008 + 2009 buy together and SAVE 30% UK £154
Rest of world
£182
US$364
Fax:
Rest of world
Rest of world
£150
US$300
$208.50
£150
US$300
$208.50
Grand Prix 2007 + New Directors 2007 buy together and SAVE 33% UK £262 (£307.85 inc VAT)
Rest of world
£262
US$524
$364.18
deconstruct2 new directors 2005 Fashion Wheels 2 I love music videos
all DVD’s UK £155 (£182.13 inc VAT) R est of world £155
Mobile: Email:
payment DETAILS Please charge my credit card
shots REELS 3 for 2 offer, or buy 1 and save 10% adventures in animation DVD good sports DVD deconstruct DVD Humour DVD Food and booze DVD
Country: Telephone:
New Directors 2007 SAVE 10% UK £150 (£176.25 inc VAT)
Zip/Postcode:
$252.98
Grand Prix 2007 SAVE 33% UK £150 (£176.25 inc VAT)
Address:
DVD
Mastercard
Visa
Amex
(credit card payments will be taken in Sterling)
DVD DVD
Security code: (last 3 digit code on back of card, 4 for Amex):
DVD DVD
US$310
$215.45
1x DVD UK £139 (£163.33 inc VAT) R est of world £139 US$278
$193.20
Buy one single reel and get a 10% DISCOUNT
Expiry date: Signature:
Date:
Euro VAT Nº: CODE: SHOFOL
I enclose a cheque for: £/US$/$
(made payable to shots)
total
£/US$/$
shots
Greater London House Hampstead Road London NW1 7EJ United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)207 728 4340 Fax: +44 (0) 207 728 4100 Email: info@shots.net Website: www.shots.net
Your details may be shared with other parts of Emap Communications: Please tick here if you do not wish to be contacted by post
by fax
by phone
by email
Please tick here if you do not wish to be contacted by other organisations carefully selected by us. VAT will be charged on all UK orders and all European orders (where appropriate) unless a Euro VAT number is supplied
SUBSFORM
shots, part of Emap Communications, would like to keep you informed of products that may be of interest to you.