The art of storytelling is on full display in this section, as auteurs and other artists command the screen with their direction and eye for perfection.
Animation
WINNER: A Future Begins
Chipotle Mexican Grill and Observatory
In 2011, director Johnny Kelly and Chipotle introduced the world to Pa, a farmer who comes to embrace responsible agriculture, in its animated Back to the Start spot. Ten years later, we revisit the farm as Pa’s son decides to return home and continue his father’s legacy. All of this is portrayed by 82 resin puppets (of human characters and animals) in one continuous movement across 10 different sets portraying the four seasons of the year.
Kelly’s work rewards repeat viewings as details emerge such as solar panels that provided shade for farm animals while generating clean energy, extra plots of land dedicated to rewilding and polytunnels to cover a crop of peppers. The film aired only once on TV — during the Raiders vs. Cowboys Thanksgiving NFL game — but has since had more than 50.1 million views across social media with more than 11 million views on YouTube and nearly 28 million on TikTok.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Taco Bell and Deutsch LA
Art Direction
WINNER: A Future Begins
Chipotle Mexican Grill and Observatory
Chipotle’s 2011 Back to the Start film focused on Pa, a farmer who rejects factory-farming practices for humane and sustainable ones. The serious message of the ad was charmingly conveyed by toy-like resin characters in a small animated spot by director Johnny Kelly; Willie Nelson’s version of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” provided the soundtrack.
Kelly returns to that farm a decade later with another spot that is similarly epic. Again using animated resin characters and another Coldplay classic (Kacey Musgraves’ cover of “Fix You”), A Future Begins follows Son on his journey to the big city and then his return home to keep the family farm going — with help from the Cultivate Foundation. The spot was shot in one continuous movement across 10 different sets. Kelly and his team also provided a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the spot and its animation and art direction challenges.
Cinematography
WINNER: Forward Rhythm
Google and Google Brand Studio
In 2012, it appeared that an electrical accident was going to end the musical ambitions of Jason Barnes, a composer and drummer from Atlanta, after he lost his lower right arm. Forward Rhythm, a six-and-a-half minute brand film directed by April Hayes and Kristen Lewis, tells the story of Barnes’ road to recovery, working with engineers at Google and Georgia State to create a prosthetic arm that would allow him to drum as naturally and expressively as he had before the accident. Google’s TensorFlow technology and the learning processes made possible with AI created a prosthetic with a new level of sensitivity and control — lessons that will benefit millions of other Americans, even those without ambitions of becoming drummers. After its premiere at Google’s annual I/O event, the full film and editorial launch of Forward Rhythm coincided with Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 20.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Yeti
Direction
WINNER: Year In Search 2021
Google and Google Brand Studio
For the past 21 years, Google’s annual release of its trend data has shed a light on the moments, people and ideas that have shaped the previous year, based on the frequency of queries. One search term that rose in its frequency was “how to heal,” an understandable concern as the world warily began to resume “normal” life.
Capturing a year in two minutes is a difficult task, and Google Brand Studio did it with words and images related to several principal themes — loss and grief around the pandemic, rebuilding communities and healing — both individually and as a world. The video is poignant and uplifting, filled with familiar faces and names that viewers will want to, well, google. In 2021, Google’s annual trend data landed more than 2,000 stories on the first day of release in outlets from more than 70 countries.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Pepsi Beverages North America and PepsiCo with The Content Studio at PepsiCo Beverages North America
Music & Audio
WINNER: Start Up — 45 Years of Apple Sounds
Apple and TBWA\Media Arts Lab
The clicks and tones made by Apple products when we start them or open and close applications form a ubiquitous soundtrack that most of us rarely think about, at least consciously. However, in preparation for Apple’s Unleashed event in October, the company created a film inspired by the two biggest announcements in the year’s keynote speech: Mac and Music.
In the just less than two-minute film directed by Rohan Blair-Mangat, producer and musician A.G. Cook combines different Apple sounds from the 45-year-old catalog to create an original composition. The entire work was input and built on a Mac with no fillers or mixing studio. The visuals — of Cook in his garage creating the song — let the score steal the show. The end result is a lively and contemporary piece, built on the nostalgia that Apple sounds evoke. The video was a powerful start to the annual event.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Google and Google Brand Studio
Visual Effects
Meta, Creative X and Droga5
Consumers are having a hard time wrapping their head around what the metaverse will look like. One metaphor — that it will be like walking into a painting — is brought to life vividly in Meta’s one-minute film The Tiger & The Buffalo, directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, who worked with screenwriter Benjamin Hinamanu. The video starts with a group of art students admiring Henri Rousseau’s 1908 painting Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo. As they take in the colorful scene, the tiger comes to life and they step into a fantastic CGI jungle, with toucans and flamingos moving to the rhythm of a rave soundtrack. The video offers a fantastic vision of what happens when a two-dimensional world becomes a three-dimensional one, which is exactly the transformation the metaverse promises and where Meta hopes to lead us.
