Perfume commercials tend to lean towards the pretentious. There are deep musings on life, hazy shots of nature and beautiful bodies in various stages of repose. Not so in the commercial for Kenzo World perfume, appropriately titled My Mutant Brain. Dancer and actress Margaret Qualley beats her chest, rolls her eyeballs, and cartwheels through the corridors of a posh venue. It is not clear whether Kenzo World makes you smell nicer or causes a chemical reaction in the brain.
If the commercial looks very familiar, that is because Jonze has reworked his brilliant music video for Fatboy Slim’s 2001 single Weapon of Choice, in which the redoubtable Christopher Walken makes the chic corridors of a posh hotel come magically alive.
Jonze is better known these days as the director of Being John Malkovich and Her, but he cut his teeth on commercials and music videos like several other filmmakers. The edginess that he brings to big brands has not always been appreciated. His advertisement for the clothing label GAP in 2005, in which customers and employees destroy a retail outlet, did not go down well with the company.
Yet, big-name directors are frequently invited to lend their names to brands in order to help them stand out amidst the clutter. The list of filmmakers who have picked up fat pay cheques for a few days’ work is long, and includes Guy Ritchie, who has directed commercials for Nike with typical flashiness.
Ritchie was one of the directors who directed short films for the BMW automobile company in the series The Hire in 2001 and 2002. A superb example of subtle brand promotion, The Hire comprises eight short films with different plots and one constant: the man known only as The Driver and played by Clive Owen. The directors include Ang Lee, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Wong Kar Wai.
Like Jonze, David Fincher has directed several music videos and television commercials, including a famous one for Nike, featuring the John Lennon song ‘Instant Karma’. Here is Fincher directing Brad Pitt in a commercial for Heineken beer, to the strains of the Rolling Stones standard Gimme Shelter.
Ridley Scott brought his characteristic touches to a 1984 commercial for Apple’s Macintosh computer.
The Indian television commercial that has grabbed more eyeballs than any movie of late is rumoured to cost as three mid-budget productions. The commercial for the Indian Chinese spice brand Ching’s Secret has been directed by Rohit Shetty for an alleged budget of Rs 75 crore and stars Ranveer Singh. The extended version, clocking over five minutes, is set in a Mad Max-style dystopia in which Singh rescues a truckload of Ching’s Secret products. Shaad Ali, director of Bunty aur Babli and Kill Dill, directed the 2014 My Name is Ranveer Ching spot.
One of the longest public safety announcements clocks at a little over 35 minutes, and has been directed by enfant terrible Werner Herzog. The AT&T-sponsored commercial, which had the backing of Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, is about the dangers of texting while driving.