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ADVERTISING Angel BUT SHE’S ONLY PART
OF THE
STORY BEHIND
THE
LATEST DRAMATIC TELEVISION COMMERCIAL |
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TAKE a beautiful young girl and one of the most exotic cars ever made. Add Europe's second oldest city plus the world's most advanced tyres. And you have the basic ingredients of the ingenious new television commercial that has been taking the world by storm as it promotes the Pirelli brand. Only the best is good enough for such a production. So Lisa Butcher, one of five top international models currently most in demand, was chosen to act out the central role. It
was the first TV appearance in the meteoric career of the convent-educated
brunette, just
A
willowy six foot-tall beauty, she emerged into the limelight two years ago
when she won Elle magazine's
prestigious "Elle's Angels" competition. She
was quickly signed up by top London model agency, Laraine Ashton. And few
who watch Pirelli's commercial will disagree with the agency's Mignon
Matthews who says: "Lisa is absolutely fantastic, professional, graceful,
a great mover with superb poise."
Already, she commands £1,000 a day for fashion photo shoots. Though her
mother Deirdre, who accompanies her on assignments abroad, says: "She is
still very young and we are very careful about the jobs she does. "She
didn't take this one for the money. The whole experience was magical. We
had a wonderful time and were treated very well."
Lisa's stunning good looks have featured in the work of some of the
world's most famous photographers, including David Bailey, Bruce Webber
and Eamon McCabe. She appeared on the front cover of the December edition
of Elle, and her busy 1989 diary includes lots more work abroad.
Pirelli's previous commercial,
Double Indemnity, won gold from the Creative Circle and in the British
Television Awards, as well as helping to boost the company's UK tyre sales
by 30 per cent. That's a tough act to follow, as marketing manager Peter Tyson recalls: "We were torn between producing a sequel and taking a risk on something totally new." Brief
Eventually, managing director Sandro Veronesi, marketing director Peter
Roberts and Tyson came up with a dual brief: "Double
Indemnity Mark II" plus "Something completely different." Their
aim: to make a commercial that would further increase sales, build the
Pirelli brand name in association with performance cars, underscore
corporate identity and focus strongly on the company's commitment to
progress, innovation and breakthrough. The
plan: to time its release so it would be seen four or five times by 80 per
cent of the British population. Once
again, this communications challenge was entrusted to Gerry Moira,
formerly creative director at Pirelli's previous advertising agency,
McCormick Publicis and now joint creative director of a new agency,
Woollams Moira Gaskin O'Malley. The
one-time rhythm 'n' blues vocalist inspired Pirelli's
Gripping Stuff campaign, as well as its commercial
Riders on a Storm, and the more
recent Double Indemnity. "The
adman in you says that, once you've got hold of a good idea, you should
hang on to it at all costs," explains Moira. "But we were pleased to get
Pirelli's second brief, not least because
Double Indemnity had been copied
so much it had stopped looking so fresh. "Our
major problem is that tyres are a distress purchase. And the real
challenge in tyre advertising is to really make people pay attention, to
create a fuss, a drama if you like. "The
new commercial appeals to a different set of emotions this time - the
heart, where the previous one appealed more to the head. This is more of a
melodramatic, even operatic, presentation. "It
should appeal on many different levels. Even if you don't understand
what's going on, it's extremely beautiful to look at. "A
lot of TV advertising treats the consumer as an idiot, and this is a
mistake. Consumers will actually reward the advertiser with their
attention and involvement if you pose them a slight problem to resolve. "This
commercial is quite complicated,
but I think Pirelli's target market enjoy that sort of poser." Moira's reputation is for producing commercials that are often better than the programmes they interrupt. Compelling He
reasons: "The fact is that people don't pay their TV licences to watch
commercials. So it's incumbent upon us to make them as compelling and as
interesting as possible."
This
time Moira worked with art director Malcolm - "Gass" - Gaskin, an alumnus
of Manchester College of Art and winner of awards in every major national
and international competition. It
was Gaskin who put the "eau" in Perrier, as well as working on
high-profile accounts such as Land Rover, McEwan's Lager,
The Times, Lego and Ciga Hotels. And
it was he who eventually came up with the latest Pirelli theme:
The Day the Earth Stood Still. The
result, described by the advertising industry's parish weekly
Campaign: "A gripping sci-fi
mini-drama, complete with apocalypse in the offing and a redeeming angel.
It represents a radical change in strategy ... to get people talking."
Distinguished director Marek Kanievska was engaged to translate the
concept into film. In
addition to directing Pirelli's
Double Indemnity, his curriculum vitae embraces episodes of
Coronation Street (Granada
Television), Our Show,
Within these Walls and
Thomas& Sarah (London Weekend),
Rooms,
The Reaper and Hazell
(Thames), the hit series Shoestring
and Play of the Week The Light that
Shines (BBC), Muck & Brass
(Central), How We Learned to Ski
(Goldcrest/Channel 4).
Kanievska is perhaps best known for
Another Country that took the Best Artistic Contribution award at the
1984 Cannes Film Festival. His first major success was in 1978 when
Matlock Police, a series of 12 hour-long episodes set in Australia,
won the Penguin Best Adult Drama Award. His
direction of First Day, written
by Jack Rosenthal, won a gold medal in the 1981 British Industrial Awards
and a Gold Camera Award at the US Industrial Film Festival. He also
directed Less than Zero for 20th
Century Fox. Pirelli's new commercial presents a jigsaw of images that can be worked out by the attentive viewer to form a finite plot. Bizarre
Bizarre and complex, it weaves a mysterious tale about a major malfunction
in the planet earth's ability to rotate. This
60-second fantasy begins to unfold with newsreaders - Japanese, English,
and then Italian - announcing the catastrophe. Then
it cuts to a rustic bar, crowded with ageing drunks, tears running down
their cheeks as they drown their sorrows and watch the doom-laden TV news
bulletin.
Outside, the atmosphere of despair is highlighted by a washing line draped
with black long-johns. Through these we see a grandmother lead an infant
away to shelter. As two widows in black struggle down steep steps with a
laden supermarket trolley, a cat scampers for cover. And a dog scavenges
discarded food. Under
a smoke-filled archway, other villagers walk aimlessly in a trance. The
angelic heroine appears. Barefoot and dressed in pure white, she walks
dreamlike in the opposite direction. Briefly she pauses to glance at a
monumental sculpture of skeletons - AD 1747. Next,
at the far side of the piazza, we glimpse a blood-red Lamborghini
Countach, abandoned carelessly, its doors thrown open.
Abruptly, the mood changes. The pre-Raphaelite figure's pace becomes more
purposeful. For
here is the means to accomplish her mission: to save the world. In a
trice, she's in the Lamborghini's cockpit. As the car moves off, we focus
on one of its Pirelli tyres, before it sweeps under bed sheets drying on a
line, then out across the main square, strewn with apples.
Accelerating away towards the road up into the hills, it narrowly misses
the runaway shopping trolley. Again
we see the Pirelli tyre, this time gripping the road, then on the ragged
edge, showering the camera with stones. As the Lamborghini dashes to the mountain top, target of its mission, planet earth finally grinds to a halt. Mysterious Here
is a lonely, mysterious cave, home of the huge golden sphere that is the
energy source of the planet's rotation. The
wraith-like driver's urgent task is to set it spinning again. Her only
chance is to reverse into the cave and kick the sphere back into motion
with fierce acceleration. Only
the Lamborghini's power plus Pirelli's technology are up to the job.
Gripping stuff! The
latest Countach is dubbed "Anniversary" in celebration of Lamborghini's
25th year. This
particular classic supercar, now in production for 17 years, was chosen as
epitomising the pinnacle of performance motoring, with breathtaking
styling plus shattering speed and acceleration. It
was made available, thanks to Sandro Munari, 1973 World Rally Champion and
now Lamborghini's public relations manager, who also provided a top driver
for location filming. Now
priced £93,000, the Pirelli-shod Countach's 455 bhp 5,176cc V 12 propels
it to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds and then on to more than 180 mph.
Puglia was the setting chosen for filming the drama. It lies at the heel
of Italy, the "Forgotten Region", rugged, remote, yet blessed with an
endearing craggy charm.
Matera, an ancient town, set in a gorge and with caves where the
inhabitants once dwelt, was focus of much of the action. With its sense of
stepping back in time, towering hillsides, houses clinging to steep slopes
and superb roads, it was a natural location. It even has a magnificent
cave, into which the Lamborghini was reversed in the climactic closing
sequence of the film. Yet
only by accident did creative director Malcolm Gaskin stumble upon this
unspoiled medieval jewel after scouring nearby countryside for locations. Based in a hotel in the modern part of Matera, he had a casual conversation in a bar. This prompted him to explore the old quarter and, at first sight, he knew this was the ideal setting. Evocative The
right music was the final dimension necessary to complete the evocative
atmosphere of the film that resulted from the week-long efforts by the
45-strong crew who worked with Marek Kanievska. The
choice was Nessun Dorma, the
magnificent aria from the opera
Turandot, left unfinished by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini when he
died in 1924 and completed by his friend Franco Alfano.
The
Italian star was flown from Milan to London to sing the piece with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Nicholas Dodd, at Angel Studios in
Islington, north London.
In fact, this
music completes a circle because it was a major inspiration in the first
place. Reveals Gerry Moira: "I'd been in love with this piece for some
time, and I'd always wanted to use it in a commercial. We decided on it
almost immediately and, after that, images and ideas just flowed." Copyright © by Anthony Howard 1,799 words for Pirelli Express |
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