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.”
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Has anyone seen this awful campagin? What do you think about it?
I*m not sure if it was intended to be funny or not but every time I see it I have to suppress the urge I get to bash my television in with the nearest heavy object.
Yes, I*ve seen it but with a slightly less violent reaction than yours... with each viewing I*ve only gotten progressively more puzzled and sad at what could*ve been a great concept gone somehow horribly awry. Like so many things, has all the potential but falls apart in the execution. Good gawd, a villian, like the Noid! Think of the merchandising possibilities! Somebody help me out here, did the Noid actually do anything for pizza sales?
Yep, I*m a big fan of inanimate objects going animated (a po*d gumball? brilliant!) and other freakish nonsense but this... either somebody screwed over the creative team on that one or else they only went half-way.
Now those Adelphia spots warning against stealing cable -- those send me into a rage. All Adelphia spots suck, actually but those "don*t- steal -cable" ones... how dare they warn against ripping off some pay-per-view when the Rigas family ripped off the company to build some golf courses, etc. (the real reason your cable bills went up folks)... sorry, off the topic. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
My objection to it would be - why position against gumballs? Everyone knows we don*t get them for the flavours, we get them because we like stuffing coins in vending machines or better yet "kinetic vendors", and if we*re lucky we*ll get a jawbreaker® gumball so we can spend five minutes crushing our teeth, and get a brightly colored toungue.
anything that departed away from the horrible jingle "lasts and extra extra EXTRA long time" is good.
I think it*s a cse of only going halfway thats ruining this one, the magic lies in the execution, and somethings just not right with the angry gumball (not hateble enough? or not loveable?) or the jingle, while they*re trying with the sing-along-ball smacks into the set light or gets batted...
Someone tamed this, and that*s why it*s not working out. my bet.
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everything is so random there must be a pattern
I beg to differ... the orange ones are so good!!! But yeah, half the fun for most is plugging in a coin and waiting to see what comes out (a pack of Extra? No surprise there... ooooh, damnit, there*s a concept in there somewhere, I just know it)...
We have a little machine in the "office" and I freely admit to unscrewing the to so I might get an orange one, spontaneous I am not.
What I find odd about the campaign...it*s bad and flat in tv...and it*s even worse in print.
I*m all for animating the inanimate but, the voice, the cheese factor...it just doesn*t make me want to buy their product. I also agree with the idea that we all know gumballs loose their flavor with 2-3 chews...and I think this was a missed opportunity.
There*s something about it that makes me think of a Mentos ad too.
I*m just hoping there is no radio in the media buy...
If there was some radio in the mix, well, I could amuse myself for hours trying to figure out how they*d pull (or not) that one off. Forget the gumball... I say a 60 of nothing but chewing (lasts and lasts, eh?). It would be a cinch to sell the client on... me like cheapie production.
Ruining a good concept, punishable by death!
lol
thats actually a rather good idea tlevitz, mind if I nick it ? wink