Sapphire pours out pure art
For the second year in a row Bombay Sapphire, Miami, and its New York agency Margeotes | Fertitta + Partners, invited 10 directors to pitch a "Bombay Inspired" idea for a 60-second spot/art film.
The 2003 winners are "Drift", an animated piece from New York design collective Psyop, and "Big Idea", a live-action execution from Randy Roberts out of Rhythm and Hues, Los Angeles.
This brief gave the directors creative freedom by asking them to create a film that speaks to elements of the brand - considered to be "alluring spirit", style, complexity and depth.
Monsell Darville, group marketing director at Bombay Sapphire, says: "The Sapphire-inspired films are our way of branching out, while maintaining artistic integrity and elegance."
"Drift" begins with a young woman blowing on a dandelion, which scatters and embarks on a lyrical, stylized journey through the countryside before reaching a young man. Inspired by traditional Japanese screen painting, Psyop gives Drift a water-like, daydream quality, like peering through a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin.
"Big Idea" features a surreal Vaudevillian pantomime by a 30-foot man and his CGI typographic props who discovers 'inspiration' in a magical hole in the stage floor.
Fritz Westenberger, co-creative director of Margeotes | Fertitta + Partners, sees the spots as essentially sponsored content, necessitated in part by the tight restrictions on liquor advertising.
"They force the films away from even marginally depicting drinking or the drinking lifestyle. Our approach was to create unique work that does not feel like typical advertising."
Indeed the only true branding occurs for a few seconds at the top of the spots with the into "Bombay Sapphire Presents" and at the tail when the Bombay Sapphire bottle fades onto the blue background bracketed by the "Sapphire Inspired" copy.
"Drift" and "Big Idea", which will launch Memorial Day weekend on local and national cable stations in 15 US markets, follow previous Bombay Sapphire films "The Intellectual," by Robert Logevall, "The Green Shore," by Victor Robert, and "South" by Carlton Chase, that launched in the summer of 2002.
Comments
Community
- Blog: Input random and required opinions
- Blog: Extracurricular creative endeavors of a creative industry
- Blog: Behind The Scenes the making of....
Magazine
May 2010
Our May 2010 issue features a roundtable of directors, agency execs and production company EPs discussing the dire lack of women behind the camera on commercial shoots, our annual list of the year's top spot helmers, the story behind Philips' "Parallel Lines" shorts and more.