And the Oscar goes to...

UNLIKE A LOT OF CREATIVES IN THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY, I don’t have a movie script that I’m secretly working on at night, although perhaps one day I might. So, while I’ve won my share of awards, I can say with almost absolute certainty, I will probably never win an Oscar.

I can say, however, I won the Oscar account.

The story goes like this. I was working at TBWA/Chiat/Day in Los Angeles at the time as a creative director on Infiniti. I had worked at other agencies on automotive account such as Honda, BMW and Lexus, so working on cars was a good fit. And then one day, the agency’s executive creative director sent me an e-mail asking if I could work on a new business pitch for the Academy of Motion Pictures. The assignment was to create a campaign to promote the upcoming 79th Oscars. It was a pretty juicy project and, much to my surprise, nobody else in the agency was asked to work on it. Clearly, he was throwing me a bone.

Of course, I said yes.

Teamed up with my art director partner, Lance Ferguson, who was also an exceptional designer, we proceeded to come up with ideas. Most creatives start off coming up with concepts for television spots, but the thing that was most important to the Academy was the key art poster commemorating the show. So that’s what we focused on at first.

It didn’t take long before we hit pay dirt. Our idea was to celebrate the Oscars by using some of the most important movie lines in film making history. After all, famous quotes from movies are like a second language we all speak. Right away, we knew we were onto more than just a graphic devise for a poster. Executions for billboards, commercials, online and even the show itself quickly wrote themselves.

Unusual for us if not them, the Academy had requested that all contenders submit their ideas my mail rather than present them in person. Normally agencies put on big dog-and-pony presentations, which include consumer findings, a competitive analysis, strategy and so forth. But we didn’t have to do it this time. So we put a pitch book together with all the work and had a messenger deliver it across town.

Then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

At last, we received word. And the Oscar goes to…

Well, perhaps we didn't get a statue, but we did win the assignment and get to work with Academy president Sid Ganis, executive producer Laura Ziskin, famed photographer Albert Watson and dream director Spike Lee. Our visual theme was even worked into the show itself.

Not to say it was easy. We spent countless hours compiling famous movie lines and researching the typography, choosing fonts found on the original movie posters from which each quote came. Our design department and a young designer Bory Chung helped bring the look over the finish line.

Billboards, almost 50 of them, were created to run in locations that tied into specific quotes. For example, a line from Sunset Boulevard actually ran on Sunset Boulevard.

And another really long quote from Mary Poppins wrapped around two sides of building scaffolding.

The campaign worked, too. That year, the Academy Awards were the only major award show on television with better ratings, viewership having increased up to almost 40 million. (The following year without our help the ratings dropped 20 percent.)

Adweek also picked it as one of their Best of the Month. And there was plenty of buzz, too. It was featured on Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra, New York Times, People Magazine, Oprah, Reelz Channel and the BBC, as well as being mimicked by countless movie lovers online. (Hey, how many times do you get Tom Hanks commenting about your campaign.)

And for that, I'd sincerely like to thank the Academy.

(You can see the commercials and some of the rest of the campaign on my site jackfundcreative.com. For availability email [email protected].)