Class act

It used to be that when you mentioned the word ‘retail’ in connection with advertising, especially tv advertising, the mind conjured up images of noise and offense.

Then along came Canadian Tire and Leon’s who showed that retail advertising can be every bit as filmic and image-building as the big brand stuff.

Now add Eaton’s the department store to that list.

A big pool of 60s and 15s promoting kids’ back-to-school clothing goes far in challenging the mold of traditional retail advertising.

The storyline, created by copywriter Peter Byrne for ad agency Robins Sharpe, is fairly simple – and that’s why it works.

We see kids being kids, flying a kite, playing around on the boardwalk at Toronto’s east-end beaches, kicking up the sand and skipping stones.

Then comes the clincher: kids talking. Real dialogue among a bunch of children, carried off with a nice and unobtrusive touch. All they do is talk about stuff.

In the meantime, Eaton’s gets its message across with style and ease that it is the department store where you can come to outfit your kid with back-to-school clothing.

The copyline is: ‘Going back to school isn’t the end of the world. It’s just the end of summer.’

The spots were directed by New York-based Peter Goldschmidt, newly signed in Canada by Radke Films. dop was Greg Califano. The two combined to give the spots an appropriately youthful visual feel that has warmth and yet a bit of an edge as well.

And the unsung hero of the piece is editor Bruce Copeman of The Partners’ Film Company, who managed to bring all the elements together.

Assistant director was Wayne Lawley and the producer was Anne Phillips. MS

Playing Ketchup

Another bit of unexpected pleasure comes from a new spot for Heinz Ketchup from DDB Needham.

Generally speaking the spot plays on the old positioning that ‘it’s nothing without Heinz Ketchup,’ but it’s served up with a fresh and entertaining story.

We open on a stuffy old butler about to serve lunch on a silver platter. As we follow him down the panelled hallways of a huge and seemingly Old World mansion, we are somewhat puzzled by the background din of heavy metal music.

The butler opens the doors to a vast room where we find the author of the noise, a twentysomething millionaire rock star grinding away on his electric head-banger.

He opens his burger, sees no ketchup, and the butler responds with the correct Heinz answer and the parting comment of ‘No problem-o.’

Director was Richard Radke working with dop Barry Peterson.

Art director was Dan Pawych and copywriters were Craig Cooper and Tom Goudie. Creative director was Kurt Hagan. Martha Scandrett was agency producer. MS