Tourism Australia today launched “Transformation”, a new advertising campaign being rolled out in 22 countries around the world. Baz Luhrmann, known for his movies Moulin Rouge and William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, was responsible for the television and cinema commercials set in New York, Shanghai and Western Australia.
Original music for the New York commercial, Billabong, was composed by Sydney composer and song writer Elliott Wheeler, from sound and music boutique Nylon Studios.
The music for the New York spot was composed and recorded within a 48 hour timeframe in early September. Film directors Baz Luhrmann and Bruce Hunt called Nylon Studios on a Friday night a month before the launch, asking for a demo to be completed by the following Monday. Elliott composed two pieces on the Saturday before recording them with a string ensemble from Sydney Symphony Orchestra on the Sunday morning.
Once the creative team had chosen one of the tracks further work included the addition of multiple layers of piano tracks to create a a signature sound for the main piano melody, and careful sound engineering and mix by Wayne Connolly. Encouraged by warm response to the soundtrack, Wheeler has written an extended version with lyrics recorded by Abby Dobson from Sydney band Leonardo’s Bride.
“We wanted to use strings, but not on such a scale that we’d be dictating to the audience what they were meant to feel, so in the end we went with a much smaller chamber ensemble. We put a lot of energy into finding a balance between the intimacy expressed in the dialogue, and the grandness seen in the cinematography.”
Technorati Tags: 
It is a shame that the Curch of Love ads done by O&M Singapore has been named as a finalist at the One Show 2002
This idea is filched from a hoarding campaign done for a church by the
Smith Agency in Fort Lauderdale, USA and it
appeared in the New York Festivals book 1999 methinks.
Thou Shalt Advertise
\"God Speaks\" campaign uses one-liners to fill the pews
by George Dila
]
Maybe you*ve seen the messages from on high - high above metropolitan-area
freeways on billboards, that is.
\"What part of *Thou Shalt Not* didn*t you understand? - God\"
\"Let*s meet at my house Sunday before the game. - God\"
\"You think it*s hot here? - God\"
As far as anyone can tell, the Almighty hasn*t taken up self-promotion.
Rather, the \" God Speaks\" campaign, as it has come to be known, is an
advertising product of the Fort Lauderdale-based Smith Agency, which created
18 religion-based messages for highway billboards and buses.
\"We wanted to make people think,\" says the agency*s Andy Smith. \"We*re
targeting people who no longer attend church on a regular basis.\"
The campaign began last fall in Florida, with $150,000 from an anonymous
donor. The ads caught the attention of the Outdoor Advertising Association
of America, which convinced its membership, the big billboard companies, to
take the campaign national as a public service.
According to OAAA spokesperson Sheila Hayes, the companies* response was
\"phenomenal.\" The goal was to have $15 million in donated space and 10,000
billboards nationwide during the first year - and in less time than that,
they*ve already surpassed the target number of billboards.
\"It*s the perfect use of outdoor advertising,\" says Hayes. \"Get attention
with just a few words. Make an impact.\"
Most of the messages are warm-hearted or encouraging - \"Tell the kids I
love them - God\" and \"Need a marriage counselor? I*m available - God.\"
But others can be pretty testy \"Keep using my name in vain and I*ll make
rush hour even longer. - God.\"
\"It*s our job to create messages that encourage the use of a product, that
motivate people to try a service,\" says Smith. \"We think this campaign is
the way God would speak to people in a *90s way. We hope people who have
drifted away from the church will say *This is cool.*\"
But will they come back into the fold? Getting butts back in pews was the
goal of the 1981 campaign that*s credited with being the first church
advertising to use hip, modern vernacular. The client was George Martin, at
the time rector of St. Luke*s, now vicar of St. Martha*s and St. Mary*s,
both Episcopal churches in Minneapolis.
Martin hired one of the hottest young creative shops in America,
Fallon-McElligott-Rice, to develop a campaign for his church. The resulting
series of ads, which employed the prevailing creative style of the time -
the juxtaposing of a single, strong image with an ironic headline - won
numerous creative awards.
Martin parlayed those ads into a business, the Church Ad Project, which
creates ads and marketing material, available through a catalog to churches
of all denominations.
\"Evangelism is believing in your product and putting it out there,\" says
Martin. \"It*s all about communicating. It has to be compelling, creative,
persuasive.\"
Ad agencies see church advertising, usually done for free, as an
opportunity to show off their creativity - or irreverence. \"Free Admission.
Plenty of seating. Two hours shorter than Titanic,\" says the headline of an
ad created for the Wheatland Presbyterian Church, by Stoner Bunting
Advertising, both of Lancaster, Pa.
Cardinal Maida, the Archbishop of Detroit, gives the God Speaks campaign
his blessing. The messages \"echo church teaching in a creative and catchy
manner that gets attention,\" he says.
But some non-Christian spiritual leaders aren*t as enthusiastic. The
Venerable Samu Sunim, a Zen priest and head of the Buddhist Society for
Compassionate Wisdom, thinks it*s good to encourage people to \"love thy
neighbor.\" But he*s concerned that they might invoke a lack of tolerance for
religions that might not share a belief in a Christian-style God.
Other religious groups view it differently. \"In one way I*m pleased to see
the campaign,\" says Imam Hassan Qazwini, religious leader of the Islamic
Center of America Mosque in Dearborn.
\"Our society is swamped in materialism, and it*s good to see it getting
back to God.\" But Qazwini thinks these messages are too commercial. \"God is
not commercial. God is not a product. We need a more holy message, a purer
call for people to find God in their hearts.\"
David Neff is one Christian who is concerned about making God into a
product. Neff, executive editor of Christianity Today magazine, likes the
God Speaks campaign, but warns against the \"commodification\" of religion -
making religion into a commodity, like a Lexus or a Quarter Pounder with
cheese. He points out the double bind Christians are in - condemning the
consumer culture, but then using the culture*s most powerful tool,
advertising, on their own behalf.
\"Advertising*s aim is to bypass our rational faculties,\" says Neff.
\"Short, powerful messages like billboards totally bypass the thinking
process and simply create an image for a product.\"
The danger is that people will go to a church not because of their belief,
but because they have an image of what the church can do for them -
\"consumer religion\" in Neff*s words.
But Martin doesn*t see the problem. \"The mark of great advertising is that
people talk about it. Advertising with an edge of brilliance and honesty
moves through all the clutter and finds a place in the memory.\"
Something like Jesus* ministry itself, he adds.
http//www.spectatoronline.com/1999/073199/notebook2.html
we spoke about these on adlist. They seemed terribly familiar. When thinking of God i guess these solutions come to mind. Still what came first, the chicken or the egg?