Spot:Levi's "Straight Walk"
The credits: Producers and arrangers: Peter Raeburn and Nick Foster, Soundtree, London; Agency: BBH, New York; Director: Tom Carty, Gorgeous.
The brief:There aren't a whole lot of ways to interpret the word "straight". For "Straight Walk," a spot touting Levi's Straight Jeans, a straight couple determinedly makes a beeline towards each other, casually overcoming the mundane obstacles of urban living along the way. "Lyrical ties and resonance were always key with the notion of straight walking," says Peter Raeburn, creative director at London's Soundtree studios. "It was important that the song had a sense of purpose and determination and that the characters had a voice." After presenting the client with Johnny Cash's first number one hit "I Walk the Line" as an example of lyrical clarity, Raeburn eventually decided to cover the country classic.
The execution:The song is positioned in the spot as an interior conversation between the couple. The two vocalists recruited for the ad are past Soundtree collaborators: Megan Wyler and Brit Adem Ilhan. "Adem and Megan had the right tone and timbre and the probability of the right vocal chemistry, both in terms of a duet performance, and in terms of the characters and the picture," says Raeburn. KR
Soundtree http://www.soundtree.co.uk

Spot:Burger King "Eat Like Snake"
The Credits: Music: Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau, Beacon Street Studios, Venice, CA; Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami; Director: Kinka Usher, House of Usher.
The Brief: Having been the go-to musical team for such recent classic BK spots as "Fantasy Ranch", Beacon Street was the natural choice for Crispin's latest dose of weirdness for the King. With a mock martial arts movie-style board featuring a slithering burger thief capable of unhinging his jaw and eating a Triple Whopper in one bite, Feltenstein and Nau initially came up with what Nau describes as "odd, Asian-influenced orchestral tracks. Then we heard they wanted to flip it on its head and make it more American."
The Execution: As luck would have it, Feltenstein and Nau had tickets to see R&B legend Al Green perform at the Hollywood Bowl and were suitably inspired afterward. "We thought taking an R&B or gospel approach would be truly American," says Feltenstein. "And then Alex Bogusky called and said 'We need something that's gonna be sexy'." To fully nail a sexy '70s soul sound, a live band was assembled, featuring vocalist CeCe White (niece of the late, great Barry White). Despite the lyrics being fairly open to interpretation - "Swallow...unhinge your jaw" - Feltenstein says the vocalist didn't flinch. "She didn't care. She just went for it." BW
Beacon Street Studios http://www.beaconstreetstudios.com

Spot:Smirnoff Raw Tea "Tea Partay"The Credits: Music: JDiggz, Maxamus Entertainment, Toronto; Agency: BBH New York; Director: Julien Christian Lutz (X), HSI Productions, New York; Copywriters: Matt Ian and Clay Weiner.
The Brief:With Saturday Night Live's "Lazy Sunday" paving the way for YouTube-approved rap spoofs, BBH NY crafted a mock video featuring Hamptons hip-hop crew "Prep Unit" giving props to Smirnoff Raw Tea. Director Julien Christian Lutz (aka X) brought the right visual touch; Lutz, in turn, called on friend, collaborator and artist/producer JDiggz (born Jonathan Poirier) to compose and produce.
The Execution:"They sent me the lyrics, but they kind of didn't know how to flow it," says Diggz. "So I had to take some words out, put some words in." X told the composer the vibe he wanted to emulate - "the Tony Yayo album, So Seductive, had just come out, and he wanted to have it sound a little gritty like that but also give it some of my flavor." Constructing the beat and the music, the next task was to get the actors into the studio - all of whom had, surprisingly, never rapped before. "I thought they did really well, but when I saw some of the comments on YouTube, some people weren't really feeling it. I'm like 'it's just a joke!'" Indeed, "Tea Partay" is a YT phenomenon, having been viewed as of this writing some 1,588,002 times. BW
Maxamus Entertainment http://www.maxamusent.com

Spot:McDonald's "Wristband"
The credits:Composer: Brian Rheude, Comma Music, Chicago; Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago; Director: Michael Haussman, HSI Productions.
The brief: A wordless spot meant for global audiences requires accompanying music that is emotive and worldly. In the fast-paced "Wristband," an Asian teen texts a photo of himself chomping into a McDonald's burger with a stylin' sweatband wrapped around his wrist. Within seconds, the image transmits around the world, inspiring trend-spotting teens to do the same. The extent of our global interconnectedness hits home when a TV personality on the LCD screen in the original McDonald's restaurant is spied sporting the wristband style.
The execution: Bryan Rheude, a composer and CD at Comma Music, went back and forth with the creatives a whopping 25 times before settling on the final version. With no dialogue, his music needed to have a world music flavor to guide viewers through the montage of hi-tech urban living. "The trick is to find that musical energy that makes it all come together," he says. Rheude blended a drum n' bass loop with a sitar sample and the warble of a single-string Indian folk guitar. Initially he experimented with sparser and fuller versions replete with lyrics, but wound up somewhere in between. "The visuals are super vibrant and the music needed to help lay out the structure of the story. I needed to see the spot more than twice to get it all." KR
Comma Music http://www.commamusic.com

Spot: Nike "Swing Portrait"
The Credits: Composer: Kimo (Christopher Kemp), Elias Arts, Santa Monica; Agency: Wieden + Kennedy, Portland; Director: Malcolm Venville, Anonymous Content.
The brief:With "Swing Portrait", Venville captures each nuance of Tiger Woods' golf swing via the Phantom v5 digital camera. According to Elias GM/producer Ann Haugen, the main thrust for the accompanying music was to "match the notion of singularity... We needed to find a literal interpretation of Tiger's swing - something serious yet introspective, something bold and risky."
The execution:Composer Kimo originally worked towards an orchestral direction for the music, but deemed it too overpowering. "We worked on the piece for a while before we thought of a solo cello," he says. "It seemed to be the perfect instrument to communicate what we were seeing. [It had] a lot of expression, a lot of human feeling, and a broad range of movement." Using Woods' motion as a metronome, matching the speed of the swing musically presented challenges. "We weren't necessarily sure how to do the ramping up in the beginning," says Kimo. "[Elias composer] Jimmy Haun came up with the long, sliding sound." Adds Haun: "We actually had to go in and edit it to make it feel like it was one continuous bowing. Very tricky to do, but in the end it worked out perfectly." BW
Elias Arts http://www.eliasarts.com

Spot: General Electric "Go Big"
The credits:Composer: Adam Steiglitz, Statique Sound; Animation/Direction: Tronic Studios.
The brief:For Wired Magazine's annual NextFest event in New York, GE commissioned site-specific spots for broadcast on the 'macro wall'. "Go Big" highlights the company's ecological commitments through an urban world constructing itself out of wooden blocks. For music, Tronic asked Adam Steiglitz of Statique Sound to provide an aural experience suitable for the 30 foot by 10 foot screen. "We thought, it had to anthemic," says Steiglitz.
The execution:Steiglitz eventually canned an anthemic approach in favor of an African percussion track, which builds in intensity as GE's wooden city hurtles towards completion. For inspiration, Steiglitz turned to his Lower East Side surroundings and went for a walk to collect scraps of wood from construction sites. He returned to the studio and began banging them together, but the sound didn't feel right. "I called (Tronic) and asked them to send me the actual blocks." The blocks were coated with an iridescent, photo-sensitive material and sounded much better banging together. He mixed in noises from Statique's vast library of African percussion samples. The resulting tribal drum sound, he says, was influenced by the Talking Heads song, "The Great Curve" and Nigerian afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. KR
Statique Sound http://www.statiquesound.com

Spot: Dove "Evolution"
The credits: Music: Vapor Music, Toronto; Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto; Director: Yael Staav, Reginald Pike.
The brief: Soap-maker Dove continues to dissect the beauty myth in advertising with a disturbing spot showing a model's fast-forwarded transformation from regular gal to air-brushed Barbie doll. Vapor head of music licensing David Hayman and Ogilvy art director Tim Piper wanted the soundtrack to simultaneously underscore the beauty and horror on display.
The execution: Vapor works closely with musical talent from Toronto's prolific indie scene. Initially, Hayman thought "organic," country-sounding music would be appropriate for the spot, and tried out tracks by Canadian indie stars Amy Millan, Jill Barber and Andre Ethier. "I knew I wanted something that hovered between gentle and harsh and had an element of beauty and doom," he says. "The spot presents you with something and then tears back the layers." Piper pushed for something edgier, so sound engineer Andrew Harris recommended an ominous-sounding track by Benn Jordan. The song, "Passage D," features a swirling piano melody melding with a frenetic, yet subtle, drill n' bass beat. Hayman felt the song best reflected the visual deconstruction taking place. "We were going for a song that questions how you hear things," says Hayman. KR
Vapor Music http://www.vapormusic.com

Spot: Visa "Life Takes"
The credits: Music: Stephan Altman and Nicholas Scapa, Mophonics, Los Angeles, Joey Ryan; Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, Los Angeles; Director: Jeff Preiss, Epoch Films.
The brief:To launch the new multi-spot "Life Takes" campaign for Visa, the musical emphasis was, according to Mophonics composer Altman, on finding "something celebratory, anthemic and iconic... [a theme] that would support the film rather than dominate it. It also needed to have universal appeal."
The execution:The answer was found in a piece composed prior to the Visa project, "Better of You", which Altman describes as a "beat-driven pop song." Using the song's memorable orchestra riff (performed with cello, viola, violin, guitar and flutes) as the main hook, collaboration with the agency creatives (copywriter Doug James and art director Chuck Monn) helped move it in a new direction. "We developed a separate piano-driven theme that would form the backbone of the piece, using the orchestral riff in a variety of ways over the 60 seconds." With Mophonics' work for the iPod Nano launch late last year landing them an iTunes distribution deal, the original "Better of You" single will be released via iTunes, as well as a full-length album from the single's co-composer/vocalist Joey Ryan, available through the music house. BW
Mophonics http://www.mophonics.com