Tool's Stephens and BBDO Keep California Beautiful
The Brief:
Tool of North America director Geordie Stephens helms a memorable :60 romp for Keep California Beautiful in collaboration with BBDO that encourages citizens not to trash their beaches.
Told through a song-and-dance number wrought with sarcasm, a group of beautiful teenagers swears it's more fun to build a "garbage castle" than throw it in the trash. Broken glass, dirty diapers, and a hypodermic needle stuck in a girl's foot further solidifies the notion that Mother Nature is truly in danger if we don't do our part.
"Being on the West Coast I know firsthand the terrible state of the ocean and beaches here," noted Stephens. "Rather than showing the stark reality like a nature channel documentary, we felt it would be more powerful to expose the conditions by painting an ironic tale. By taking a tongue-in-cheek approach emulating 1960s beach movies, the spot's lyrics leave the viewer feeling inane if they've ever "trashed the beach." Much of the credit has to be given to Neil (Levy), Roz (Romney), and the rest of the BBDO crew who are all smart, funny people - that was where it all started."
"California has historically been a very strong brand, but with high unemployment and a host of other problems tarnishing the state, this spot is one small step in trying to motivate people to take an immediate, easy action: cleaning up after themselves," said Neil Levy of BBDO. "Tool did their usual great job bringing this idea to life. Replicating the iconic genre of the beach musical comes with major technical challenges, and Geordie and Jeff created a best-in-class team that perfectly captured that look and feel."
The Creds:
Client: Keep California Beautiful
Spots Title: Beach Party
Air Date: July 2009
Agency: BBDO West
ECD(s): Jim Lesser, Jon Soto
CD/AD: Roz Romney
CD/Copy: Neil Levy
Prod Company: Tool of North America
Director: Geordie Stephens
DP: Ross Richardson
EP(s): Brian Latt, Jennifer Siegel
Line Producer: Jeff Tanner
Production Designer: Peter Benson
Editorial: The Whitehouse Post
Editor: Dan Oberle
Asst Editor: Jeff Carter
Producer: Joni Wright
Telecine: New Hat
Colorist: Beau Leon
Online Company: Vendetta
Online Artist: Shauna Prescott
Title Design: Superfad
Music: Human Worldwide
Audio Post: Lime
Mixer: Joel Waters
Shoot Location: Westward Beach, Malibu, CA
About Tool:
Bicoastal Tool of North America represents top-tier artists to the advertising industry. Tool's collective of talent includes: directors, photographers, cinematographers, technologists, mobile content creators, and video game creatives. This diverse talent pool affords Tool the ability to serve as a resource for agencies across commercial and digital productions, packaging the best creative teams available to develop compelling advertising with our agency partners.
About KCB:
Keep California Beautiful (KCB) is a nonprofit environmental education organization that promotes individual responsibility for California's environment. Each year KCB mobilizes tens of thousands of volunteers in conducting cleanup, recycling and beautification projects across the state. KCB provides resources, education tools, and campaign materials designed to support local municipalities and non-profit partners in implementing litter prevention strategies, volunteer recruitment and training, community outreach, and information sharing. Keep California Beautiful is a nonprofit 501c3 organization.
