JENS MIKKELSEN

By all accounts a bright light among up-and-coming Danish directors, Mikkelsen specializes in visual- and dialog-driven, "in-your-face" humor. He has worked with voyeuristic puppets and airplanes crashing into the ocean ("Beach" for Sonofon), skydiving and modern dance ("Parachute" and "Dance Class" for the Danish Yellow Pages) and fabricated a chilling vision of life without electronics ("Airplane" for www.Nor.no).

In a more recent campaign for Toyota Commercial Vans, Mikkelsen worked with Copenhagen's La Familia Advertising for three spots, "Construction Site," "Police" and "Traffic Light."

Operating under the premise that those who choose Toyota are naturally clever, the spots show proletarian wise guys outsmarting various authorities with seemingly meaningless fast talking.

A three-spot campaign for Ikea through Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded advertising offers viewers who missed out on Ikea's Democratic Design line varied ways of releasing what must be very painful frustration. Some of the suggested methods include attending Carl Mar's Naked Day for Men (a sort of flabby Iron John session) and harnessing the meditative vibrations of crystals. SH

JONAS ZACHRISSON

Five years at now-defunct Mod Films of Stockholm schooled Jonas Zachrisson in the finer points of directing both visuals and actors, with comedy as a link between the two.

His elaborate, straight set-ups are well demonstrated in the spot "Mouse Panties" for Topdanmark Insurance, via Robert/Boisen & Like-Minded, Copenhagen. The tagline "Topdanmark is prepared for anything" ensures the Danish public that the insurance company is prepared to deal with accidents of all proportions.

In "Mouse Panties," a man is performing an erotic disrobing for his wife, who seems unsure of his motivations. The film continues as the man peels away layer after layer, at last revealing his underpants to be of the rodent-novelty variety. Cut to a cat licking its lips and then back to the man's suddenly fearful expression.

His spot for Hartwell Upcider through Finnish agency Sek & Grey of Helsinki depicts a young woman traversing a number of individuals in exaggerated situations. The gist is that the cider brings you up and as such, those chugging it back need to employ other means of keeping themselves grounded. SH