The making of Ad creators as Rockstars

Pardon me, but I feel an adrant coming on. After throwing away the mind-numbing device in my house - otherwise referred to as a Television - I quickly grew addicted to other visual stimuli, movies on DVD. There seems to be no DVD out there without a "making of" section, showing "behind the scenes" of each film. Most of them have countless games interviews and a quick link to the movies web site as well.

Attention span like a maggot, (or perhaps I'm just traditional) I grew bored with these and went to see movies in the theatre instead. The smell of popcorn, gum on the red velvet seats. Ads and previews before the feature. Aaah, now this is more like it. The ads shown, a bunch I can't remember, several ignored and a new Levis Engineered Jeans ad with slightly alien teenagers twisting their limbs about while stretching after a long ride flickered by on the large screen with great sound as I munched away happily on my popcorn. Then suddenly - the commercial break was interrupted, by a documercial?? What? Wait, what is this? A "making of"? A "behind the scenes"? Oh yes - it was "the making of.." the Levis engineered Jeans ad, complete with behind the scenes footage, interviews with the creatives explaining the thought-process behind their choice of director: "He was the single most awarded Director last year" and people from the mill showing us the "mindblowing" high-tech advanced techniques used to create the twisted limbs by "taking the bits apart and putting them back together again...".

Excuse me, but who gives a flying toss? Adgrunts like me perhaps, and this is why we buy Shots and Boards , read Promo religiously and devour trade press for breakfast. Does BBH bartleboglehegarty.com really think that the general movie going public cares? Do they really think that old trick used already by Buster Keaton (and back then, He did it in Camera - on one piece of film, exposed seven times - cool!) is going to make us OOOOh and Aaah? Really, we have seen it before. Isn't it just a tad pretentious to believe that we enjoyed that 60 second ad so much we need to another minute or so with interviews of people working at the set, at BBH and at the Mill Really, the ad ain't that bad - though I much prefer the previous twisted jeans campaign, with commercials telling a little Romeo and Juliet Love story using blow up dolls, dying on barbwire and comitting suicide with their lovers rose. Or the one where the jeans are fatally attracted to each other and their owners - in said jeans - can't do anything but follow and watch as the jeans tear across the street to meet and cuddle, leaving their owners sitting on a pavement pant less. Even the music then was better - but I do have a soft spot for Dirge by Death in Vegas. This is not the first time I've seen this sort of thing - Nike also showed some "behind the scenes" ads, featuring our hero from the Mission standing on front of a bluescreen kicking a ball just right.

These however, looked more like out-takes they wanted to share, complete with giggles and goofs and the ambient background music and sound from the set. Is it just me - or is the ad world getting just a little full of itself? Enough already! MTV devotes entire hours to the making of one pop promo after the other (and usually, the least interesting ones both visually and ideawise, but Hey, Mariah's in it so lets discuss her cut off jeans as if it is a world changing moment.) If you want to be in front of the camera rather than behind it, then by all means, pick up a guitar, take singing lessons or try for an acting career. Or host your own advertising TV show. But please, no more "the making of the commercial", commercials. It's enough that we invade peoples life's everywhere they go with our creation - the ad itself - already. Next up: "The making of the latest Pampers Commercial"? I shudder at the thought.

Levis Engineered Jeans - Twisted - (2001) :90 (UK)