Thinkbox
Story of the film
In this film, current Creative Director and leader of the Barn, Nick Gill was the former Executive Creative Director of BBH and Joint President of the Thinkbox Academy when he joined us to talk about talking bears, Paralympians and raising the creative bar. Throughout his career, Nick has been responsible for award-winning work for VW, Schweppes, The Guardian and many, many more. He’s an industry legend and this short film is well worth a look.
A few words about Nick
Nick has been in advertising since 1984. He worked at BMP DDB for 13 years, became a founding member of Wieden and Kennedy’s London start-up and joined BBH in 1998.
He was made executive creative director of BBH in July 2008, and sits on the BBH Group Board.
During his career, Nick produced award-winning work for, amongst others, Volkswagen, Schweppes, John Courage, The Guardian, Batchelor’s, Budweiser, London Transport and the trade union Unison and has creative-directed accounts including Vodafone, Levi’s, KFC, Boddingtons, Perfetti, Surf, Microsoft X-Box, Britvic and Barnardo’s.
Nick’s choices:
Cresta: Elvis Bear
Cresta was a frothy fruit-flavoured drink produced from the early 1970s through to the beginning of the 1990s.
Cresta is widely remembered for its 1970s advertising campaign led by a cartoon polar bear (also called Cresta) sporting sunglasses whose attempts at looking suavely cool would be overwhelmed by bouts of uncontrolled enthusiasm when drinking Cresta. The bear's widely quoted catch phrase "It's frothy man!" summed up the difference between Cresta and more traditionally fizzy soft drinks.
Dialogues would include bouts of chicken noises and occasionally cries of Rimsky Korsakov when inspired by swigging the drink. This campaign was created by John Webster of Boase Massimi Pollitt, who also invented the Smash (instant mashed potato) Martians and Honey Monster for Sugar Puffs.
- Agency BMP
- Creative John Webster
- Animator Richard Williams
Levi's: Creek
Levi's marketing style has often made use of old recordings of popular music in television commercials, ranging from traditional pop to punk rock. Notable examples include Ben E King ("Stand By Me"), Percy Sledge ("When a Man Loves a Woman"), Eddie Cochran ("C'mon Everybody!"), Marc Bolan ("20th Century Boy"), Screamin' Jay Hawkins ("Heart Attack & Vine"), The Clash ("Should I Stay or Should I Go?"), as well as lesser known material, such as "Falling Elevators" and "The City Sleeps" by MC 900 Ft. Jesus and "Flat Beat" and "Monday Massacre" by Mr. Oizo. In India in August 2007 the "Fit to die for" advertisement campaign ran with Deepika Padukone.
- Agency BBH
- Creative John Gorse / Nick Worthington
- Production Co Lewin & Watson
- Director Vaughan & Anthea
Channel 4: Meet the Superhumans
Channel 4 launched its biggest ever marketing campaign on Tuesday July 17 to promote coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
The 90 second long film, Meet the Superhumans, was broadcast at 9.00pm concurrently across 78 different UK television channels, including all of Channel 4's networks, ITV1, Five, Sky One, Eurosport and all of UKTV's channels. Set to the track, Harder Than You Think by hip hop legends, Public Enemy, the film showcases the abilities of some of the leading UK Paralympians, represents some of the unique stories behind the elite athletes, and shows the herculean efforts that have gone into their preparation for the Games. The campaign was commissioned by Channel 4 marketing, and conceived and directed by Tom Tagholm, for Channel 4's in-house agency, 4creative.
- Agency 4Creative
- Production Co 4Creative
- Director Tom Tagholm
