So here it is, no great surprise either: this year’s winner of the Lion film grand prix at the Cannes ad festival. There’s no doubt that Tribal DDB Amsterdam’s ‘Carousel’ is a cinematic tour de force. It consists of one big tracking shot of a heist gone wrong, the conceit being only the camera moves while all the characters, on several dimensions, are frozen in time. Spectacular, gripping, you’ll want to see it again … that cop at the beginning, and the end, is he really a cop, or one of the gang about to get away? Why is the shoot-out taking place in a hospital instead of a bank etc etc?
But what it’s all about, again? Ah yes, Philip’s new 21:9 cinema-experience television set, priced at a modest £3,000. You didn’t see the brand name anywhere? Wake up, you don’t need to. The product is unique, and only those stupendous innovators at Philips, as opposed to Sony, Samsung or the rest, could possibly have come up with it. Besides, the ad’s not designed to run on the telly, or cinema screen; it’s digital, so you can get plenty of split-screen twiddly console bits that reinforce the cinematic experience … Not to mention that it’s viral, so it will get the product talked about. And, if you really didn’t know the point was a wide-screen Philips TV set, you’re not going to admit that in sophisticated company, now the ad’s got top prize. “Sales?” Did someone say something?
