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