The Big Issue - 'House'
A beautifully simple commercial that effectively advertises both the contents of The Big Issue and the benefits of buying it. Grubby hands fold the magazine, origami-style, and harsh street sounds echo in the background, illustrating the severity of homelessness. The narrative is captured in a series of abstract, tightly framed shots which are superimposed with projected Super-8 visual effects were created in camera. The ending "A home, a hope" is extremely poignant.
PlayStation 2 - 'Gran Turismo 3'
Since PlayStation promises to take you to a Third Place, it needs advertising which goes beyond the conventional. It gets it here from talented animator Antoine Bardou-Jacquet and reinforces the other-worldliness of game playing. The uses a combination of live action and CG graphics and so challenges our notion of what is real and what is not. It's an odd script but the buildings and weird robotic characters prove strangely captivating.
Bell Sympatico - 'Online Jam'
A live online jam session is an ideal way to illustrate the potential of broadband internet access in this skilled execution of an ambitious script. Cinematographer and director Zack Snyder shows international musicians, including a Chinese ehru player and a punk violinist, joining together to make music. It just stops short of a global cacophony thanks to the work of music house Grayson Matthews, which produced the bulk of the toe-tapping music before anything was shot.
Patagon.com - 'Dog'
This ad for Spanish internet bank is a bittersweet tale of one man and his dog living in the hope of winning a million. For once the "never work with animals" theory didn't hold true and director Oriol Segarra was astounded at how quickly the dog picked up new tricks. He couldn't quite master the egg-flipping however. For this, the dog was shot against a matt background while a human stand-in did the real work.
Keiju - 'Air Hostess'
Keiju is a low-fat margarine and PHS TBWA Helsinki shows the sort of individual it feels would benefit from a healthier lifestyle. A rather tangential strategy admittedly, but the execution, courtesy of Ivan Zacharias, is brilliant. We can all sympathise as our middle-aged heroine has a bawdy, boozy evening and turns up late and dishevelled for her job as an air stewardess. The casting of the protagonist and her beau and the typically low-fi Scandinavian look make this stand out in a moribund category.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
For subscription details please contact Roz Parr on 020 8267 4659 or email Roz.