In choosing the best creative teams for this year’s top-spotters, two names that came up often were writer Jana Peck and art director Wain Choi out of Cossette Toronto, the duo behind some of Saturn’s more famous spots.

The pair have been together for nearly a year and have already amassed their share of respect in the advertising community. They have collaborated on two Saturn spots so far as well as last fall’s Bell Mobility ‘What would you do with 350 minutes?’ campaign, which consisted of four 15-second black-and-white spots. And they are about to begin working on a new Coca-Cola campaign.

Peck has been with Cossette for more than three years, and Choi, whose cv includes a four-year stop at Bates Advertising, joined the agency two years ago. The two teamed up after each of their creative partners left the agency.

The new union created a buzz around the Cossette office.

‘We are both strong personalities,’ Peck says. ‘Everybody was saying, `They’re going to put Jana and Wain together? Oh my God!’ But it works out very well.’

Peck believes a good creative partnership is based on the ability to listen to each other and develop a singular vision for a given job.

‘The key thing is I think you have to find somebody to work with who agrees with your creative opinion,’ says Peck. ‘It makes the relationship a lot easier if you’re both kind of in the same ballpark of what you think is good or bad creatively.’

When looking for people to flesh out the skeletons they provide as writer and art director, Choi says he and Peck usually choose people who ‘understand the creative from the beginning until the end, and we all believe in that direction.’

Peck is adamant about one thing when bringing together a team: ‘I don’t like working with difficult people and I won’t,’ she says. ‘Neither of us want the grief because the job is hard enough already.’

The two agree that one of their finest efforts has been the latest Saturn three-door coupe spot. Peck calls the production process a ‘great’ experience, although the ad nearly didn’t make it out in time.

‘We finished the spot at the eleventh hour [just before] it was supposed to go to air,’ Peck says.

The Saturn spot in question was directed by Ray Dillman and involves two elderly women sitting on a porch looking out at the street. They are ogling the rear ends of men as they deposit parcels in their cars. When a good-looking young man comes along, the women get excited. However, as he bends over towards the car, the view of his butt is blocked by Saturn’s new third door.

Peck says the spot has been received very well by the brass at gm. ‘They love it, they absolutely love it,’ she says. ‘And the response from the public has been tremendous.’

‘I think that the two Saturn spots were relatively easy compared to most of the stuff we have to work with,’ says Choi. ‘From the client perspective they were really great. They were on board. They’d say, `Hey, you guys are the creative guys, so do what you think is right. We’ll just kind of sit back here. Let us know if there are any problems.’ ‘