Hedgehogs, lions strut their talents

By IRENE CHAPPLE

In the name of their art and the hope of an AXIS advertising award they risked their lives.

Well, sort of. The shoot starred lions but from all accounts they weren't particularly hungry for human flesh, or dangerous.

And they were inside a cage, with the camera, on a crane, swaying over its walls.

Still, DDB creative director Paul Catmur does recall with a dreadful moment when it seemed the lion wanted to bite the head off its trainer.

Or was that just a yawn? The trainer survived, the advertisement went as scripted and it now sits on the AXIS Awards finalists' list, awaiting possible recognition at the advertising industry's glamour night of the year.

The Lions advertisement for Sky TV documentaries is recalled as one of television's creative highlights of last year.

It featured a female lion at home, reclining on a couch, who greets her husband when he walks in the door.

Their conversation reveals he has been on a business trip, the traffic was hell and he's bought some antelope home for dinner.

All very mundane, domestic stuff, until wife lion, watching a Sky documentary on wildlife, spots her husband in a rather comprising position with another lioness.

The catchphrase: Life, if only it was as wild as Sky Documentaries.

Lions is seen by many in the industry, along with Land Transport Safety Authority work, as being some of the most creative advertising produced during a time in which budgets were strapped tight.

The LTSA work, created by Wellington agency Clemenger BBDO, slipped outside the better-known shock tactics in its road safety messages.

It created Dave Likes Art, the four minute story of three exquisitely animated hedgehogs who live in Hoggsville.

The message bombarded audiences through the cinema and the internet.

The style is subtle, the hedgehogs likable. The twist comes after they have gone for a drive through Hoggsville, checking out chicks and chatting about how to be cool.

Suddenly, they are airborne. They have driven off a cliff and crashed, crawling out of the wreck as ghosts.

The Dave Likes Art mini-movie is revealed to be another of "those ads", the ones that leave with the LTSA message: The Faster You Go, the Bigger the Mess.

The campaign is a cinema and copywriting finalist.

This year's AXIS Awards are not expected to raise industry hackles quite so much as last year.

While awards ceremonies, by their very nature, promote debate, last year's was noticeable for post-mortem industry discord.

Many in the industry felt the popularity of small-scale, quirky, campaigns was unfortunate as it pushed out the corporate clients and raised questions about the awards' relevance.

The Communication Agencies Association (CAANZ), which runs the awards, responded by broadening competition categories and splitting others.

Industry players are hopeful the tactics will diffuse last year's frustrations, with big name players like Air New Zealand, McDonald's and Vodafone popping up in the finalists' list.

CAANZ says interest has been much higher than last year, with more than 800 tickets sold and less than a hundred left for the July 24 event.

* Next week: More from the AXIS awards - highlights of the year's print advertising.