AQUALTIS "UNDERWATER WORLD" > At long last we have our answer as to what it actually looks like inside a laundry machine on the wash cycle - strangely akin to a Jacques Cousteau documentary. With assistance from Parisian post/animation experts BUF Compagnie, director Dario Piana has crafted an elegant underwater ballet that substitutes socks, stockings and shirts for bobbing and weaving jellyfish, coral and minnows - an incredible feat considering that the piece was shot primarily in-camera. A playful and mesmerizing addition to the washing machine commercial canon.
Agency: Leo Burnett, Italy
ECDs: Enrico Dorizza, Sergio Rodriguez
Copywriter: Francesco Simonetti
Art Director: Antonio Cortesi
TV Producer: Renato Lamberti Sagliano
Production Company: Filmmaster, Italy
Director: Dario Piana
Executive Producer: Karim Bartoletti
Producer: Barbara Klein
DP: Stefano Morcaldo
Editor: Michele Mortara
Post/Animation: BUF Compagnie, Paris
Original Music: "Ask the Mountains", Vangelis

SOUTHWARK COUNCIL "SUNDAY LUNCH" > This disturbing PSA was deemed too unsettling for minors; thus, it's been given an 18+ certificate for its airing in the cinemas of South London, an area of the UK capital especially affected by violent crime. In a peaceful family setting, children of various ages sit at the kitchen table while the mother prepares and serves lunch, only to be shocked when she nonchalantly pulls out a handgun, aims at her youngest child, and shoots him dead. The tag - "If you keep quiet about gun crime, it's like pulling the trigger yourself." Graphic, but not glamorizing.
Agency: Lunar, London
Creatives: Ben Kay, Daryl Corps
Agency Producer: Francine Linsey
Production Company: Another Film Company, London
Director: Steve Reeves
Producer: Tim Marshall
DP: Ray Coates
Post-Production: Glassworks, London

BECK'S "FOUR STEPS" > Choreography-based spots, when done well, can two-step a tag home. Blink's Dougal Wilson is no stranger to movement (see Orange "Dance") and "Four Steps" is pure Wilson - four blokes perform a clunky dance sequence illustrating the four steps of brewing Beck's. Simple enough, but three dancers are animated in some way - one's a marionette, one's a 2D cartoon, and the other a stop-motion model. The spot's soundtrack - The Flaming Lips' "It Overtakes Me" - makes us wonder what gleeful mayhem would ensue in a Wilson-helmed Lips promo.
Agency: Leo Burnett, London
Creatives: Paul Jordan, Angus Macadam
Production Company: Blink, London
Director: Dougal Wilson
Producer: Matthew Fone
DP: Tristan Oliver
Post-Production: Passion Pictures; MPC
Audio Post-Production: Wave Recording Studios

BBC "WORLD CUP"> When it comes to World Cup spots, the object of the game seems to be to go big or go home (see Spotopsy, pg. 16), and Albert Kodagolian's latest for the BBC doesn't disappoint. We see audiences worldwide watching on the telly as the commentators' figures of speech transform reality (a "predator on the field" becomes an animated tiger, a stadium that has "come to life" grows legs and does a dance). The spot culminates with England's Frank Lampard about to take a shot in a stadium that looks like it could hold all six billion of us, as after all, "the world is watching".
Agency: DFGW, London
Creative Director/Copywriter: Simon Riley
Creative Director/Art Director: Dave Waters
Director/DP: Albert Kodagolian
Production Company: Joy@RSA, London
Editor: Jono Griffith
Sound: Parv Thind, Wave Recording Studios, London
Post-Production: The Mill, London

BANCO HIPOTECARIO "DUEÑOS"> This hilarious three-minute epic for Argentine bank Banco Hipotecario proudly trumpets the merits of being a "dueño" (owner) via an outrageous pep rally/Eurovision-style variety show. Homeowners are portrayed as capable of extraordinary feats (a grey-haired granny performs a drum solo) and fits of freedom, with some destroying their own light fixtures and stairwells simply because they can! We also see the return of the spandex-clad '80s rocker from VH1's "Parent's Day". An auspicious beginning for Mother's new South American outpost, Madre.
Agency: Madre, Buenos Aires
Copywriter/Art Director/Creative
Director: Madre
Production Company: Landia, Buenos Aires
Director: Andy Fogwill
Producer: Claudio Amoedo
Post-Production: Metrovision, Buenos Aires
Sound: Inaudito
Music: Diego Grinblat