This week Great Guns founder and EP Laura Gregory and RSA
Films’ London MD Kai-Lu Hsiung shine a new light on the Spike Jonze-directed
Ikea spot ‘Lamp’.
The spot from Cripin Porter + Bogusky was the eighth most
awarded commercial of 2003 and even beat Honda Cog to the Cannes Lions Film
Grand Prix that year. It’s a tale of rejection, loss and Scandinavian
pragmatism and a slice of subtle storytelling that lends itself perfectly to
the ongoing Syncbubble Dubble experiment.
Find out how Laura
and Kai got on below. And don’t forget, if you want to have a go, you can join
in by heading to Syncbubble.com. Check
back next week to see if your new version of Lamp has made our showcase.
Kai-Lu Hsiung
Check out Kai's selection here.
Ikea "Lamp" - to be honest,
I don't know, recognise or remember the track that this commercial used. Do
you? I presume it may have been a deliberate decision to not make this
"all about the music", but more about the surprise at the end. The
pathos and sadness though is something that I thought could have been enhanced,
so I started with listening to a lot of very heart wrenching tunes to see how
they worked. Dave Trott said it last week – "a track has to have immediate
impact" - so with this in mind I picked The Betty et Zorg track from the
film Betty Blue. It immediately creates a great atmosphere as well as being a
real tear jerker. Another very sad piece of music is Arvo Part's Spiegel and Spiegel.
I also put this track on as I know Mr Part has absolutely refused to have his
music used for advertising purposes so to have the luxury of trying anything seemed
like an opportunity not to be missed. And then I had to try a few that did nod
to the humour of the commercial and Willie Nelson’s Always on My Mind just
made me smile. Whether it would have made a more memorable ad or not is a good
question, though?
Laura Gregory
Listen to Laura's choices here.
My first choice was My Conviction – the operatic swell brings comedy and an uplifting nature to the spot, giving a juxtaposition to the sadness of the video. And the words are interesting too; ‘conviction’ makes the viewer think the lamp has done something criminal perhaps.
Second up is Black Keys’ Never Gonna Give You Up. I like the
idea that the lamp and girl are intertwined as if in a relationship and she is
now broken up with him (the lamp) and seeing she with the next lamp.
Thirdly it’s Cypress Hill. The lamp is on the streets, there’s a ghetto
vibe now he is outside and wants to kill the new lamp that has taken his home.
The lyrics, after all, are ‘I just want to kill a man’ …
And finally I chose the Blind Willie Johnson’s Nobody’s Fault But Mine – it conjures up the idea that the lamp has done something wrong and it is all his fault.
The Verdict
In the words of Anchorman’s Brick Tamland, “I love lamp”.
This week’s spot gave Kai and Laura lots to play with. So far in the Syncbubble
Dubble experiment, we’ve re-dubbed ads which already featured high profile and
iconic tracks whereas Lamp doesn’t come with a particularly memorable track. So
this time around the wannabe music
supervisors had more of a blank slate. As a result Kai and Laura have come up
with a starkly different set of tracks – Kai has gone for an exploration of
sadness whereas Laura has changed up the story with a more gritty, contemporary
selection.
For LBB editor, Laura Swinton, both selections have a lot to
say about the role of music in advertising. “I think they’re both really
interesting – they show how important a role music plays in storytelling and
creating a character. Ultimately the main character is an inanimate object and
you can project all sorts of motivations and personalities onto him just by
tweaking the music. On the one hand Laura’s been really playful and shown how
music can be used to completely transform a film and give new insights. On the
other hand Kai has really built on the spirit of the original and explored how
more refined choices can further enhance the emotion.”
Meanwhile Syncbubble’s Simon Elms reckons that both women
have enhanced the original ad. “This is
advertising at its best - informative and funny. Great idea, well executed.
Having said that I think all of Kai's and Laura's suggestion actually bring
more to the spot than the original track which sort of suggests that they may
have missed a trick when they thought about the music. I'm really interested to
see what our other 'Dubbers' come up with over the next week.”
And with that – it’s over
to you!