Krivy and Weinberg have thus far had a fruitful year-and-a-half-long collaboration. They generate comedy ideas well outside established product category cliché's for brands like Panasonic, Pine Sol, Budweiser and Glad. "Recital" for Panasonic has a girl on stage before a packed auditorium, expertly tickling the ivories before interrupting the piece with jarring, single-note repetitions that make her instructor wince. The scene cuts to the girl riding the school bus, listening to the same song on a CD player with sub-par anti-skip protection; as the song skips we see how shoddy technology can mar music appreciation. The spot was directed by Pat Sherman through Bedlam Films, Toronto.

"Music technology spots always have a lot about anti-skip features. They are overblown as to what extreme levels you can go to demonstrate anti-skip technology, with hardcore, high-energy stuff," says Weinberg. "We thought it would be interesting to take a far more subtle approach that's more realistic in terms of relating to people's everyday lives as opposed to using snowboarders or joggers."

This subtle touch reappears in two spots for Pine-Sol directed by Wayne Craig through Untitled, Toronto. Both spots consist of a single locked-off shot. "Bad Aim" shows a small boy run into the bathroom for a pee; he is interrupted when his mother calls from off camera. While listening, he turns his head and attention away from the task at hand and onto the floor. "Dog Tired" has a dog splayed out on a kitchen table; when the pooch hears his owners returning home he hops off the table to his basket beneath it. Both spots suggest Pine-Sol can handle even unknown dirt.

"The Pine-Sol spot didn't start as locked-off shots but became that way because the communication was so clear and simple that way," says Krivy.

Weinberg continues: "It may have had something to do with budget constraint, but our instincts are always toward simplicity, so if the story can be told in one shot, we are strong believer in doing that. Anytime we explore an edit or are storyboarding an idea, we constantly try and break it down into its simplest form. Nowadays we are more and more adverse to gratuitous style."

Of a more gratuitous bent is "Break In" for Glad. The spot stars the white-clad man from Glad, who breaks down several key selling points of the plastic wrap. At the end of his schpiel, he hands a bagged lunch to a boy who enters the kitchen. Rather than accept his lunch, little Danny freaks, forcing the interloping pitchman to make a break. Neil Tardio Jr. directed the spot through Radke, Toronto.

"The Man From Glad is something of a Canadian icon," says Krivy. "With this spot, we made him less sterile and literally brought him into the home, with the obvious consequences."

"Hands Up" for Bud, directed by Jeffrey Fleissig through Players, has a man going about his day to day life with his hands and arms locked straight up, the result of his excitement from winning a trip to the Super Bowl.

"We are heading towards more gratuitously funny stuff with less of the smug attitude or 'cool' funny stuff that always made me vomit. There has been a change in Canadian comedic sensibilities, towards more self-deprecating humor," says Weinberg when asked of ad trends. Krivy adds:

"There is a lot less over-art directing. Anything drawing away from the story and what communicates is left out. Things are getting back down to the bare basics in terms of art direction in commercials. Maybe budgets have something to do with it but I think it's an aesthetic trend towards minimalism and simplicity."

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