GE generally does a good job of telling stories around technology that's diverse and specialized. A new collection of two-minute spots from BBDO New York is no exception.
There are three videos in the series so far, all beautifully shot and edited. One introduces a jet-skiing Japanese doctor who uses the brand's portable medical equipment to tend to patients on the country's islands.
A second interviews the inhabitants of another island halfway around the world, in Scotland, that gets power from underwater turbines made by GE. The third features a young boy in China taking his first flight to meet his soccer heroes, thanks to GE's jet technology.
The ads are a little heavy-handed in their sentimentality at moments and could probably accomplish the same thing in a smaller window, but the slower pacing isn't altogether unpleasant. They also aren't quite as inventive as the brand's recent, trippy spot that envisioned some of the same products through the eyes of a child.
But they do have the narrative appeal and human element that was missing from the clips of GE's research lab equipment smashing random objects, or the the shipping container dance that the brand choreographed. The global scope also brings to mind IBM's recent 60-commercial opus for the Masters, but with a somewhat less granular, more humble approach not aimed at proving that the brand is in fact everywhere at once—though it's still easy to imagine that it is.
CREDITS:
Agency: BBDO, New York
Client: GE
Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars
Executive Creative Director: Michael Aimette
Senior Creative Director: Chris Lisick
Group Director of Content Production: Anthony Nelson
Producer: George Sholley
Associate Creative Directors: Judd Counsell, Lance Vining
Head of Music Production: Rani Vaz
Senior Account Director, Worldwide: Emma Armstrong
Account Director: Katie Hankinson
Account Manager: Tessa Cosenza
Assistant Account Executive: Joslyn Dunn
Production Company: Greenpoint Pictures
Director: The Hudson Dusters
Director of Photography: Logan Roos
Music House: The Music Bed
Editing, Visual Effects House: Greenpoint Pictures
Editor, "Moon Power in Scotland": Logan Roos
Editor, "Zeng's First Flight": Philip Knowlton
Editor, "Kumiko's First Ultrasound": Philip Knowlton
Sound Design: One Thousand Birds
