Suzuki - Wicked Weather - (2010) :30

Man is being chased by ZOMBIE SNOWMEN AAAAAAAAH! Oh, it's wicked weather. Either way, run'em down, dude.

Bully Pictures and Bully Bros Post showed off their snow making abilities for a spot promoting Suzuki’s new 4-wheel drive sedan, the Kizashi.
Conceived by Los Angeles agency Siltanen & Partners Advertising, “Wicked Weather” shows a man driving the car through a wintry environment where he comes under attack by a band of evil snowmen. A half dozen or so of the creatures, sporting stovepipe hats and menacing grins, hurl snowballs at the man in an apparent attempt to force him from the road. The man is saved by the agile performance of his car, which dodges out of the way just as the snowmen collide, exploding in a cloud of white flakes.
“Because Suzuki is a smaller car company without a large media budget, we need to do advertising that really stands out,” says Rob Siltanen, CEO and Chief Creative Officer at Siltanen & Partners Advertising. “That’s what led us to thinking about evil snowmen.”
The spot consists of a combination of live action car footage and CG snowmen. Bully Pictures’ Craig Tanimoto directed the live action, while Bully Bros Post’s Kiki Chansamone served as visual effects supervisor, overseeing the creation of the snowmen and the compositing of the live and animated elements.
Chansamone said he was delighted by Siltanen & Partners’ concept as he had earlier created a similar snow creature for a cartoon book. “I think the agency was surprised, and impressed, to find someone whose sense of humor was as twisted as theirs,” Chansamone said.
Chansamone added that the storyline of the spot evolved through the post process, with the snowmen becoming more aggressive and the final explosion bigger. “It was a great collaboration,” Chansamone recalls. “We were given some leeway over the ending of the spot and it resulted in a stronger piece.”
The project had a tight deadline as Siltanen & Partners was anxious to get the spot on the air following a spate of recent snowstorms on the East Coast. That resulted in some long nights at Bully Brothers Post. “Kiki is a true artist,” Siltanen recalls. “He’s also the hardest working artist I’ve ever met.”

Client: Suzuki
Ad Agency: Siltanen and Partners.
Creative Directors: Rob Siltanen and Joe Hemp,
Writer: Rob Siltanen
Art Director: Joe Hemp
Producer: Maricela Rogers

Production Company: Bully Pictures
Director: Craig Tanimoto
Executive Producer: Jason Forest
Post Production: Bully Bros. Post
Visual FX Supervisor/Artist: Kiki Chansamone

Editor: Jeff Grippe
Music: Beta Petrol