Few can deny the power of a man in a mosquito suit getting flattened by a giant foam hand, or the backwoods, inbred charm of four Finnish brothers; certainly directing collective Traktor would discourage such denials.
| by: | Dec 1, 2000 |
Ulf, Patrik, Sam, Pontus, Mats, Richard and Ole are well-known Swedes in Santa Monica, CA. With their production company Partizan close at hand, the troupe collected several statuettes for their handiwork in 2000. The "Jukka Brothers" campaign out of Fallon scooped Cannes Lions, Clios and D&AD Pencils, while spots for Fox Sports, Nike, Malibu, Volvo and CNET.com brought the team more Cannes, AICP, One Show and Kinsale prizes.
Attributing the success of his posse's comedy work to a combination of nudity and science, Traktor's Ole Sanders delineates the importance of ad awards for he and his friends: "It is important for us to entertain. You can get feedback from random sources (email, relatives, other directors who hate your guts, etc.), but awards provide a systematic feedback as to the entertainment value of our output. We are also partial to some sherry and scones at these festive occasions."
Entertainment value is key to Traktor's work. "Badger" for Levi's out of TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco has a young man wearing Levi's cords out for a woodland stroll. His corduroy pants produce a sound so reminiscent of a badger's mating call that one of the intense little creatures sniffs him out and begins to pursue. No dialog is spoken, but the scratchy sound and ensuing chase is tense and enjoyable.
"Strike," for Lynx razors out of BBH, London depicts the nightborn journey of a Turkish Casanova who preps himself for an Istanbul rendezvous with a close shave: so close, in fact, he is unable to strike a match on his stubble and impress his ladyfriend. Luckily she is able to strike the match on her armpit stubble. More grotesque but strangely alluring is "Blob" for Reebok out of Lowe Lintas, London. A jogger is pursued by a giant disembodied beer belly, a visual metaphor for the athlete's constant contest with his own proclivities for self-indulgence.
For Nordstrom.com out of Fallon, a young woman pushes the contents of a moving van into oncoming traffic to make room for shoes; a motorcycle getting run over by a semi truck definitely equals entertainment. Levi's and Nordstrom, while not exactly subtle, are a far cry from the Discovery.com ads featuring mosquito-, lion-, chum- and asteroid-costumed geeks or the famous Miller Lite "Evil Beaver" ad which helped Traktor gain a foothold in North American commercials (although Reebok's "Blob" certainly keeps it surreal).
"I guess we have always had a range. People tend to remember the more in-your-face stuff, because it is liberated and funny (much like our nether regions) and it is the stuff that people email each other with. This is our 'Evil Beaver' category," explains Sanders. "However the Nordstrom stuff is more in line with more subtle films, such as the many Volvo spots we have been doing for the last four years. Simple, real-feeling stories with small twists and misdirects. If you look at an overview of our output over the past two years the split is pretty much 50/50 between the outrageous and the subtle. But the former tends to stick in people's memories, because that is how brain waves function."
