BBDO & AT&T Team with Pete Barrett to Create More Bars in More Places

BBDO and AT&T teamed with photographer Pete Barrett to create seven ads
for the new, “More Bars in More Places” campaign which is currently running nation wide. Sadly they're not creating the kind of bars that I like. Yeah that's right, deep fried chocolate mars bars. ;P Still the photography is very nice.

The project immediately posed challenges. To accommodate the multitude of possible placement formats, from billboard to vertical magazine ads, three variations of each concept were planned. Further, at the time of production a final decision had not been made on the exact number of five bar references to include. The team determined that many of the components would need to be photographed separately so that each could easily be moved, added, or removed.

“With so many elements, we knew the campaign was going to be complicated to pull together visually as well as from a production standpoint. We used Pete Barrett because of the great look and style of his work, as well as for his ability to handle large productions.” – Mark Sorensen, Senior Art Director - BBDO

“I was excited about the shoot from the start as it was a great concept and really open to creative interpretations. I enjoyed working with Mark and Chris, who were very receptive to my suggestions and opinions of what I thought might work, or not work, to illustrate the concept and make great images. We discussed all the scenarios and immediately went heavily into the details of the logistics to pull it off.” – Pete Barrett

The production involved a large crew. There were multiple producers, location scouts, teams of assistants, digital techs, stylist teams, caterers, prop builders, models, RV drivers, mobile digital darkroom & grip vans, etc. With such a large group, it was not uncommon to have a parade of 15 or more vehicles at each given location.

“We found it most economical to research and find locations within one area which looked like each of the different regions we needed to represent. Ultimately, we found exactly what we needed on the West Coast and surrounding areas of Central Florida. In going this route, we saved in many areas of the production. With such a large crew, having one main home base to work from was nice as it simplified things, preventing us from having to travel like gypsies all over the country like I’ve had to do on other shoots.” – Pete Barrett