the new allan gray television commercial has been my baby. from concept to completion it’s taken over 14 months of hard slog, lots of rands and a great big crazy team of more than 160 passionate, commited people (not including extras) to make it happen.
my art director ‘the critic’ and i have obsessed about little else over the last year and a half, and finally it’s finished. my family, friends, boyfriends and colleagues have all waited patiently while i blew them off, cancelled arrangements, was late for important events, cried, swore in the synagogue at my nephew’s barmitzvah, had sleepless nights, and cancelled training.
so here’s the ad:
if you’d like to see it slightly bigger you can catch it on local tv and cinema, or awesome and friendly media blogger chris rawlinson has put it up on his kick ass site over here: http://www.chrisrawlinson.com/2009/09/allan-grey-legend-james-dean/
Just over the weekend my wife and I commented on what a brilliant ad the new Allan Gray ad is! The previous Allan Gray Ads (were you involved as well?) were exceptional and yours more than live up to the standard set by it’s predecessors!
Hi Spear, thanks so much for your comment. I’m so chuffed you’re both enjoying the ad. I must say i’ve loved every second of every minute of every hour of working on it, even when it’s made me cry 🙂
King James, the agency i’m at has always done the AG ads, but this is the first one i’ve had the pleasure of working on. the previous commercial ‘Beautiful’ was made by the talented creative team; Devin Kennedy and Damian Bonse (also directed by Keith Rose)and of course all have historically been guided by genius creative director, Alistair King.
(A handful of those magnificent earlier ones were directed by Greg Gray, also of Velocity.)
the only question is, what the hell are we going to do next? eish. lol.
Who did the voice over?
hi anonymous, the voice over was an american guy from LA, named keith rhodes.
lol, no relation to the director we used, keith rose.
Was any research actually done on James Dean and his life? See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/may/14/film
The ad certainly did not depict his lifestyle. I am not talking about his homosexuality — there is nothing wrong with that. But the rest of his lifestyle was nothing to emulate; in fact, it was far from perfect. Best to research stuff properly and read biographies on people before doing ads on them. With respect.
Hi Anonymous, thank you for taking the time to comment, although, with respect, I wish you hadn’t posted your comment under ‘anonymous’, would be nice to know who i’m talking to here. And it’s always so easy to comment from the shade, right?
We spent the better part of a year doing research for this commercial. Myself and the rest of the (hundred strong team) read/viewed every available piece of literature/film on James Dean’s life.
I’m sorry that the film we made didn’t live up to your expectations, but i guess the old adage is true – you can’t please all the people all the time.
I for one am proud of the ad we made, warts and all.
take care, anonymous.