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LOS ANGELES (Oct. 31, 2002) -- Endless Noise today announced details of their music composition, arranging and production work for the new Axe Deodorant "Mannequin" series of television spots directed by @Radical Media's Rick Lemoine and Steve Miller and produced for New York's Bartle Bogle Hegarty, LLC (BBH).
One of Unilever's global brands, Axe is available in 62 countries. The creative advertising for the product around the globe has won numerous awards and has made it the number one male deodorant brand in the world. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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| Click image to view :15 QuickTime spot |
The first two of the campaign's nine :15 spots ("Boyfriend" and "Springer") debuted during the MTV Music Awards on Aug. 29. Four more ("Attack," "Hand (French)" "Like That," and "Come-On Line (French)") have since debuted in U.S. and Canadian markets, and a holiday version of "Hand" is planned for release in December. The final two spots ("Attack/Holiday" and "Sailor") will be used for promotional purposes only and will not be broadcast. Six original pieces of music were delivered from Endless Noise along with holiday track mixes for the remaining three campaign spots.
Each of the spots uses the same set and art direction, featuring a female spokesmodel demonstrating on a male mannequin the means of applying the product. In each spot, after the spray, something dramatic and/or provocative happens.
"We wanted these spots to be cohesive as a campaign, but we also wanted each one to have its own unique identity," commented BBH's executive creative director Kevin McKeon. "The creativity from the guys at Endless Noise and the quality of their work totally exceeded our expectations."
The musical pieces were composed and produced by Endless Noise's creative director and composer Jeff Elmassian, with additional composition by Andy Rehfeldt and Chris Guardino.
"This campaign was really a lot of fun," said Elmassian. "The assignment was to deliver a tag of music for the end of each spot that enhanced its comedic nature but that had to read in about three seconds. We did 20 different takes, and they loved all of them, they just picked the six best ones."
To create their 20 takes, the Endless Noise team explored a variety of ideas that were discussed. "On one of them, we'd talked about doing some vocal things, but there wasn't really enough time in our 3 seconds at the end of the spots for that to come across," Elmassian explained. "So I whistled on one. They loved that - and they wound up picking that one for the 'Boyfriend' spot."
Also, regarding the way the music comes in at the very end of each short spot, Elmassian detailed the agency's desire to have it feel like a cut-in to a whole piece of music. "Knowing how they wanted to use the music, we wrote a minute's worth of music for each of the six takes they selected... so that when they went in and did their final mix, they were able to cut-in anywhere."
BBH's freelance broadcast producer Letitia Jacobs previously worked with Endless Noise for last year's Hennessy VSOP holiday radio campaign for Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners. "Each time I've worked with Endless Noise, there have been no complications whatsoever," she explained. "When you work with them, you're working with Jeff Elmassian -- and he takes pride in every piece of music his team delivers. Jeff understands music better than anyone I've worked with; although I'm not a musician, he can always translate my input and my creatives' input - and then he always brings so much back to the table. Everyone he hires is the best of the best, and as an agency producer, I know that by working with them, I'll get exactly what I want."
In addition to Kevin McKeon and Letitia Jacobs, BBH's project team also included art director Gerald Lewis, copywriter Matt Ian and account executives Rob Thorsen and Tina Wang.
The production team from @Radical Media was overseen by executive producer Gregg Carlesimo and production supervisor Chris Zimmer, and also included director of photography Stefan Czapsky, art director Mike Bigwood and producer Samantha Storr.
Dick Gordeon of New York's Mad River Post edited the spots with the assistance of producer Laura Relovsky and assistant editor Jason MacDonald. The online edit was supplied by New York's Nice Shoes. Pat Portela produced and Russ Bigsby edited.
Photomag, also of New York City, provided the final mix. Rex Recker served as sound mixer.
About Endless Noise
Award-winning music and sound design company Endless Noise composes and produces innovative and cutting-edge music and sound designs for feature films, television programming and commercials. Building on its Grammy, Emmy, London International Advertising Award, International ANDY Award, Clio and AICP-winning accomplishments and solid track-record working with leading entertainment companies and ad agencies, Endless Noise offers the proven ability to create the perfect music and sound design for the world's most ambitious projects. For more information, please call 310.581.4133 or visit www.EndlessNoise.com.
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