Monique Kelley’s work on one of the most recent spots in the popular Five Alive TV campaign has earned her the 2003 Bessie for art direction. The winning spot in Kelley’s case is ‘Karate Kan,’ an ad made up of short vignettes targeted at a generation of channel-surfers.

Leo Burnett’s Five Alive work has been an attention-grabber since the first pool of spots hit in 2001. They were directed by then rookie Radke Films director Matt Eastman, and were a contributing reason he walked away with the Saatchi & Saatchi/Playback First Cut Award in 2001. For this go-around, the job was awarded to Industry Films helmer Spencer Susser.

Kelley, who was assigned to the campaign when she joined Leo Burnett almost two years ago, is going to walk away from the experience with the prestigious art-directing honor.

Kelley says she knew she wanted to be in advertising as early as high school.

‘I just liked the billboards and I thought it was neat to do stuff that everyone sees but no one knows who did it,’ she says. ‘I went to OCA, as most art directors do, and at the end of it all there was something called a portfolio night. I had my stuff up and I got a call from Ogilvy & Mather to be a summer student, and that’s how I started.’

From O&M, Kelley moved around a lot. Her path took her as follows: O&M to Roche Macaulay & Partners; from Roche to Cossette Communications; from Cossette to MacLaren McCann, and then finally to Leo Burnett. When she arrived at the latter, she was teamed with copywriter Marcus Sagar – the man behind all three ‘seasons’ of Five Alive spots.

‘I got the project when I arrived, which I was happy about, and Marcus had worked on it the first year, so he did all the tough ground work,’ says Kelley. ‘We work well as a team. We always work together through everything. Sometimes teams split up, but I value his opinion in the art direction and vice versa.’

The spot that gave Kelley the nod, ‘Karate Kan,’ is much like its predecessors in the ongoing campaign. It is made up of five, five-second vignettes, which go from the surreal to the hilarious, given the time constraints. The vignettes include a Five Alive can splitting a board in a dojo, a dancing robot and a collection of strange stop-motion clay animation creatures playing spin-the-bottle, which is a favorite element of the commercial for Kelley. She had never worked in clay animation before and found the experience ‘really cool.’

‘Through the whole process, everyone who worked on it did a fantastic job and really added to the process,’ says Kelley. ‘It’s one of those great things where with every step it just got better and better, which you hear about but it doesn’t always happen.’

Kelley has a few ideas regarding the popularity of the campaign, both among consumers and awards committees.

‘They’re kind of offbeat and different from what’s out there right now,’ she says. ‘And they go by so fast. Considering the stuff on the air, it’s more geared toward the people who are used to flipping channels. They are really quick little vignettes so every time you see it you might see something different in it. I think that has a big appeal.’

Kelley also notes that the Five Alive work is the first time she has ever worked on a TV ad that has the actual product predominantly placed throughout the commercial. And despite the wacky imagery found within the spot, which seems almost determined to distract the viewer from the product, ‘you never really forget what the product is,’ says Kelley.

Because partner Sagar has been working on the campaign since the get-go, much to the approval of the client, Kelley says it’s entirely possible that more Five Alive work will come her way.

‘While we’re here no one else is allowed to touch it,’ she laughs.

-www.leoburnett.com