MJZ director Tom Kuntz has had some big advertising hits. Most notable, of course, was the original, Emmy-winning Isaiah Mustafa spot for Old Spice. He also directed the great "Cable Effects" ads for DirecTV, and had a couple of spots on this year's Super Bowl—Oreo's "Whisper Fight" and Volkswagen's Jamaican-flavored "Get Happy." But all that work is pretty mainstream. As evidenced by much of his artwork, Tom can make weirder stuff. And here's a very odd commercial he just did for Citroën's DS3 Cabrio car, via French agency H Paris. Seems the vehicle is targeted at a certain type of man who imagines himself, while driving, to be a cherubic toddler with long, flowing, flaxen hair, galloping along pristine beaches astride a giant white horse. (Yes, once again, he's on a horse.) Red lights occasionally interrupt this fantasy, though not enough to derail it. The campy, retro vibe—another Kuntz specialty, seen in other recent ads like the Hahn SuperDry spot from Australia—is cemented here by the use of Spandau Ballet's 1983 pop ballad "True" (a song that's suddenly a favorite of car ads, having popped up in that Chevy ad last year as well). Anyway, it's nice to see Kuntz finding an outlet for his more peculiar instincts—even if he has to go to Europe to do so. Credits below.
CREDITS
Client: Citroën DS3 Cabrio
Head of Marketing Worldwide: Jean Marc Savigne
Spot: "Baby"
Agency: H Paris
Worldwide Creative Director: Gilbert Scher
Creative Directors: Marco Venturelli, Luca Cinquepalmi
Art Director: Luca Cinquepalmi
Copywriter: Marco Venturelli
Head of TV: Chritopher Thierry
Agency Producer: Sarah Bouadjera
Account Director: Hugues Reboul
Production Company: MJZ
Production Company: Smile Unlimited
Director: Tom Kuntz
Director of Photography: Chris Soos
Editing: MacKenzie Cutler, New York
Postproduction: Eight VFX, Los Angeles
Sound Design: Kouz Production, Paris