Love Our Work: Jess Wheeler on Leo Burnett’s Convention-Breaking Spot
All sectors of marketing and advertising have their go-to.
Insurance spots will show the worst case scenario, vitamins and wellness will have a dull portrait of life followed by one filled with colour, and sporting ads will have cheering fans and an inspirational musical swell akin to that in ‘Rocky. ’
There is nothing wrong with those formulas, when done well they are outstanding but when an agency takes the chance to subvert expectations, now, that is something special.
Leo Burnett successfully subverts your expectations in the campaign work done for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and Amazon Prime.
The work has been recognised by SICKDOGWOLFMAN’s Jess Wheeler as an incredible feat of risk and creativity.
LBB’s Casey Martin spoke to Jess on what makes this bizarre sporting ad so special and how we should be championing clients looking to break conventions.
LBB> Firstly, why do you like this particular piece of work?
Jess> There’s so many conventions being broken here. Due to the current obsession with ‘best practices’ and repetition-focused media plans that value quantity over quality, consumers are being hit with endless short, aggressive, hard sell ads. Stuff that, if we’re honest, is the reason that skip buttons and ad blockers are so popular. I love how curious and intriguing the spot is. It’s a slow burn. You’re immediately drawn into this bizarre scenario and you’re invested in seeing how it plays out. It backs itself to captivate and entertain, and then guide you to the payoff. Which isn’t a new concept, but has become a novel one in this day and age.
Then, there’s category conventions. Sport ads tend to all have a similar feel. High octane montages and yelly VOs. Ironically, just like what’s on Usman’s TV at the end of the ad. This might be the weirdest cricket ad ever made. I’m a big Fallout fan, and was watching the series at the time this was released. So the uncanny valley 50’s style art direction was a treat. The little details are great. Every time you watch it, you spot something new. Which is another point of strength, I found myself re-watching it four or five times to look out for another little cricket-themed easter egg. I didn’t even pick up on the stumps on the bins at first. How often do you say that about an ad? Even re-watching it again while writing this, I noticed new details.
I will always champion clients and agencies who aim to break with mandated rules and templates and conventions. It’s what has always led to good work. Lemon. Cadbury Gorilla. Guinness Horses. Copying the same rules and formats as everyone else can only lead to mediocrity. To do something great, you have to swing for the carpark and break a window or two.
LBB> In your opinion, what makes work great?
Jess> We are in a very privileged position. We get to make things and release them into the world for people to see. On their TVs, their phones, their radios, on giant billboards.
So we should always intend to use this privilege to make something that is worth people’s time and attention. So, for me, intent is important. We should make work with an intention to entertain, to make people feel something, to draw a smile, to make them want to share it, to leave them with a positive feeling about the brands we’re working with.
We should be trying to contribute to the cultural landscape, not pollute it. It’s why I love the work of agencies like Mischief, Mother, Uncommon, Bear Meets Eagle. They’re all inspirations for us at SICKDOG.
As an industry, we shouldn’t be intending to interrupt and annoy people for the sake of seeing a logo, which is sadly too often the case.
LBB> When looking for inspiration, do you believe it is important to look outside of your own agency?
Jess> I think that’s the only place we look! I always found writer David Thorne’s bio to be very funny.
“David Thorne is an Australian humourist, satirist, and New York Times bestselling author. His work has been featured on Have I got News For You, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
He has worked as a graphic designer, copywriter, branding consultant and creative director, and describes working in the design industry as the most uncreative experience of his life.
You have to look for inspiration outside of agencies and advertising. Inspiration spends a lot of time being crushed in our business.
Stephanie McCarty, a CMO based in the US, said recently that the first thing she does when working with a new agency is not ask to ‘see the work’, but to see the ideas their other clients’ rejected, because that’s where the real potential lies.
It’s for this reason that you can’t just look for inspiration internally. You have to tap from infinite wells. I always encourage creatives to not just look at, or make, ads. Read books (not just ad books), watch films, play video games, go to galleries, people watch, overhear conversations, travel, laugh, cry. The best ideas come from human truths and insights and behaviours and the only way to uncover them is to go and do human stuff. Inspiration doesn’t live on slide 93 of a deck.
