Automotive Brands Served On Ice
Backdrops of scenic ice and snow landscapes for filming automotive commercials, offer great opportunities for car marques to demonstrate responsive driver control and cutting edge technologies for safer travelling, being tested in scenarios of hazardous driving conditions.
1. Citroën Professional E-Range, The Ice Ballet
Advertising Agency: BETC, Paris, France
Chief Creative Officer: Stephane Gibers
Creative Director: Nicholas Bakshi
Copywriter: Nicolas Richard
Art Director: Romain Ducos
Production Company: Zauberberg, Berlin, Germany
VFX and Post Production Studios: b-Epic, Berlin, Germany
Music and Sound Design Studios: GUM, Paris, France
BETC Paris agency’s integrated advertising campaign, in support of Citroën’s new, fully-electric, ë-Berlingo, ë-Jumper, and ë-Jumpy, professional utility vehicle range, is spearheaded by a commercial masterly directed by filmmaker Max Malkin, and filmed on a dense expanse of ice in Helsinki, Finland.
Avoiding stereotypical depictions of doughty workmen in hard hats, the commercial features an agile Citroën utility vehicle owner, performing a highly entertaining ‘ice ballet’, in surrealist harmony with his ë-Berlingo ‘partner’, to the accompanying soundtrack of Joe Cocker’s resonant, “Up Where We Belong” love-song’.
2. Alfa Romeo Stelvio & Giulia, Wicked Game
Advertising Agency: Doner, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Executive Creative Directors: Brad Emmett, Sam Sefton, Kerrin Kramer, and Rob Legato
Brand Leader: Alex Drader
Senior Art Director: Michelle Mussallam
Senior Copyriter: Liam Soren
Production Company: Supply & Demand, Los Angeles, California, USA
Director of Photography: Steve Green
Doner Detroit agency’s 2017 film-scenario, for Alfa Romeo’s luxury, all-wheel-drive vehicles, was brought to entertaining life by filmmaker and director Sean Thonson, with the Stelvio Q4, and Giulia Q4, depicted as performers in an ice ballet, sliding around one another with impressive coordination and precision.
The featured soundtrack is a cover version of American singer, songwriter, and guitarist Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”, by British film director, screenwriter and composer. Frederick Lloyd, also known as Ursine Vulpine.
3. Citroën C4, Ice-Skating Transformer
Advertising Agency: Euro RSCG, London, UK
Creative Director: Justin Hooper
Agency Producers: Caroline Guillard, and Mana Catford
Post Production and VFX Studios: The Mill, and Automotion, London, UK
Holocaust survivor Henry Orenstein, who passed away in December 2021 at the age of 98, will be famously remembered for his ingenious action figures transformations from cars to robots.
In 1983 he bought his ‘transformer’ concept to American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company Hasbro, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and history was made.
Worth billions of dollars globally, ’Transformers’ became one of the world’s most successful action figures spanning TV shows, feature films, promotional merchandise, and inspiring commercials, such as Citroën’s CV 4 ‘Alive With Technology’.
Euro RSCG London agency’s 2006, Citroën CV 4 film-scenario, of a transformer ice-skating robot, was brought to spectacular life by the H5 filmmaker collective of directors Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Ludovic Houplin, and Herve de Crecy.
Filmed on a frozen lake in Canada, with additional filming on a Sheffield ice rink with thirty Vicon MX40 cameras, motion sensors were placed on British speed skater Nicky Gooch, so that every move he made could be recorded for the computer generated robot’s human-like moves.
The featured ‘Walking Away’ soundtrack of the award-winning Clio and Epica commercial, is a Tosca-Disco remix by British electro-funk band, The Egg.
4. Peugeot GTI, The Legend Returns
Advertising Agencies: BETC, Paris, France, and Havas, Dusseldorf, Germany
Chief Creative Officer: Rémi Babinet
Creative Director: Vincent Behaeghel
Creative Team: Marcus Herrmann, Oliver Hilbring, and Stefan Muhl
Agency Producer: Thibault Blacque-Belair
Production Company: WIZZdesign, Paris, France
3D Animation and VFX Studios: Unit Image, Paris, France
The action-packed, 2014 James Bond themed scenario ‘ The Legend Returns’, directed by WIZZdesign ANDY’S filmmakers collective, celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Peugeot 205 GTi launch, with its death-defying scenes, by introducing its 208 GTI successor, in a cinematic chase scenario, with a a rocket launching, combat helicopter.
5. Suzuki Kizashi, Sled
Advertising Agency: Siltanen & Partners, Los Angeles, California USA
Chief creative officer: Rob Siltanen
Creative director: Joe Hemp
Production Company: Boxer Films, Culver City, California, USA
Impressively directed by filmmaker Jim Zoolalian, the classic Super Bowl ‘Suzuki Kizashi Sled’ commercial features a great soundtrack of “Movin’ on up” by American Rapper, 50 Cent.
Filmed in Canada on Alberta’s frozen Spray Lake, the panoramic, arctic landscapes, provide a cinematic backdrop to an entertaining story with an endearing cast of a convivial sled-dog musher and his rap-loving canine companions, in an amusing scenario twist.
6. Nissan Rogue, Winter Warrior
Advertising Agency: TBWA, Toronto, Canada
Art Director: Susie Lee
Copywriter: Jonah Flynn
Agency Producer: Nadya McNeil
Production Company: Sons and Daughters, Toronto, Canada
Director of Photography: Chris Soos
Post Production An VFX Studios: The Mill, Los Angeles, California, USA
Directed by filmmaker Mark Zlbert, Nissan’s seven-seater, all-wheel drive Rogue, comes to the rescue in a city under siege by evil, menacing snowmen, who represent the worst that Canadian weather conditions can offer.
For Canadian motorists, winter can feel like a concerted assault on their mobility, but fortunately there is a ‘Nissan Winter Hero’ that can cut through the snow, and smash through the threatening, zombie-like, snowmen.
The surreal escape from a ‘Canadian Winter War’, is an action packed scenario that makes for entertaining viewing.
7. Mercedes-Benz, Snow Date
Advertising Agency: Merkley+Partners, New York, USA
Chief Creative Officer and Chairman: Andy Hirsch
Group Creative Director and Copywriter: Eddie Van Bloem
Group Creative Director and Art Director: Saks Afridi
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, California, USA
Director of Photography: Simon Duggan
Post Production and VFX Studios: MPC, New York, USA
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich
Audio Production and Music Studios: Heard City, New York, USA
Merkley+Partners agency’s 2016, Mercedes-Benz ‘Snow Date’ film-scenario, was brought to charming life by renowned filmmaker and director Noam Murro, in a scenic commercial featuring a soundtrack of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” by American band Sleeping At Last.
8. KIA Sorento, The Perfect Getaway
Advertising Agency: David&Goliath, Los Angeles, California, USA
Production Company: MJZ, Los Angeles, California, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Colin Jeffery
Group Creative Directors: Steve Yee, and Ben Purcell
Creative Director: John O’Hea
Senior Art Director: Mike Cornell
Senior. Copywriter: Andy Sciamanna
Art Director: Ben Tolbert
Copywriter: Chris Juhas
David&Goliath Los Angeles agency’s ‘Kia Sorento’ film scenario, brought to cinematic life by by renowned filmmaker and director Matthijs Van Heijningen, centres on a producer unpacking a proposal to James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, to star in a film about the perfect getaway vehicle.
What makes for rewarding viewing, is the action-adventure of driving a Kia Sorento that Pierce Brosnan envisions, will be packed with numerous movie cliché firepower portrayals, amusingly turns out to be an exhilarating fireworks adventure of a romantic nature.