Best lip-syncing ever?
This fun, innovative spot from TBWA\Chiat\Day, touting the Feb. 15 Grammy Awards telecast on CBS, takes the practice in an unexpected direction.
The work features a catchy mashup of tracks from all five Album of the Year nominees: Kendrick Lamar, Alabama Shakes, Chris Stapleton, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd. While the artists themselves don't appear, their album covers, T-shirts and promotional posters do. And when a dude gets off a bus and saunters down the street, the artwork comes to life all around him as the artists sing along to their own music.
"We wanted to do something to get people excited for the Grammys, featuring multiple artists, that had a bigger conceptual idea than the usual list of celebrities, but didn't have the time or money to get them all together for a shoot," agency creative director Jason Karley tells Adweek.
"That difficulty led us to the idea of a mashup of all five nominees," he says. "We were inspired by a cool music video that we found using this effect of the lips moving"—Roy Kafri's "Mayokero" from 2014—"so we contacted that video director, Vania Heymann, and got him."
The spot is a bit goofy—in a good way—and strangely hypnotic. One big plus: It's not overdone. (If, say, Kendrick Lamar started dancing on his album cover, that would've been too much.) The treatment remains subtle; only the lips move, so it might take a moment for viewers to realize the artists are mouthing off at all.
Plus, putting an average guy—actor Micah Dijon—at the center of the action keeps things grounded. This isn't complete insanity, just a mildly skewed version of reality.
"He's the anchor that guides us through the spot, and gives the camera motivation," Karley says. "It's much more compelling then just cutting around and seeing various posters and things singing to us. But he is on his way to the Grammys—there's a ticket in his pocket—so that's the justification for everything coming to life around him."
CREDITS
Client: Grammy Awards
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day LA
Chief Creative Officer: Stephen Butler
Creative Director: Jason Karley
Creative Director: Micky Coyne
Sr. Art Director: Tiffany Lam
Sr. Copywriter: Angie Ogburn
Managing Director: Stan Fiorito
Account Director: Pamela Lloyd
Account Executive: Ashley Pratt
Account Executive: Caroline Hanley
Director of Production: Brian O'Rourke
Executive Producer: Anh-Thu Lee
Producer: Micah Kawaguchi-Ailetcher
Director of Business Affairs: Linda Daubson
Executive Business Manager: Lisa Lipman
Business Affairs Manager: Mimi Hirsch
Group Planning Director: Neil Barrie
Planner: Audrey Tyau
Production Company: Pretty Bird
Director: Vania Heyman
Director of Photography: Hunter Robert Baker
Executive Producer: Suzanne Hargrove
Head of Production: Tracy Hauser
Producer: Natan Schottenfels
Editorial & Animation:
Editor: Vania Heyman
Online, VFX and Color: Brewster Parsons
VFX Supervisor/Lead Flame Artist: Louis Mackall
Flame Artist: Graziella Gandolfi
Tracking: Jarrod Avalos
VFX Producer: Jami Schakel
VFX Coordinator: Amanda Macke
Executive Producer: Darcy Parsons
Executive Producer: Jason Cohon
Mix: Beacon Street Studios
Lead Mixer & Sound Designer: Rommel Molina
Executive Producer: Erin Reilly
Assistant Mixer: Aaron Cornacchio
Music: Squeak E Clean
Remix By: Justin Hori for Squeak E Clean Productions
Creative Direction: Justin Hori
Executive Producer: Carol Dunn
Senior Producer: Amy Crilly
