The other day I made a brief mention of the "How many licks?" Tootsie Roll Pop commercial.
The late 60's and 70's had some of the best animated commercials. They weren't always slick or rendered out to perfection, many times suffering from the limitations from that era. If you squinted, you could probably even find some actual blood, sweat and tears in some frames. From the monotone coffee can audio to the rough pencil line work, these 30 second spots have a soft spot in my heart.
It was brought to my attention over at Mark Evanier's site of a CGI version that exists which uses the same audio from the original spot that ran in 1970's but with fluid 3D animation.
My instant knee-jerk reaction was of declaring "blasphemy". I'm not against the use of CGI, but I feel it is a medium that has been overused.
So I start Googling the whole issue behind the creation of the spot and as you could have probably guessed, the reaction was mostly negative. Let me pause here and say I didn't find one individual in the spot's targeted age demographic (probably from age 5 to 12) that complained or even cared. It was the 30 to 45 year old crowd who seemed to have the biggest issue. Last I checked, Tootsie Roll Pops weren't something I actively pursued when shopping. Perhaps maybe Tootsie Roll was more interested in developing an ad for the youth market more accustomed to CGI. Perhaps Tootsie Roll was more concerned about, gasp, selling more Tootsie Roll Pops!
The folks at lucidCircus are the ones responsible for creating the spot, but let me state NOT necessarily responsible for the "blasphemy". I have a suspicion that their original designs were probably closer to a 3D version of the original art style from the 1970's, and through the development process, they evolved into what we see in the finished project.
People, we forget that those who work in the creative field are just like everyone else and share many of the same passions. We all tend to be nostalgic. Star Wars, retro pop culture, cartoons, Transformers, classic Disney, Hanna Barbara, film noir, GI Joe, Legos, Flash Gordon, Tarzan, Universal monster movies, George Romero zombie flicks. The list goes on. In the end, we're all fans and love preserving the classics.
Lets put down the pitchforks and torches and give these guys a break. It was a job. People have to eat, they have mortgages and utility bills. Screw that artist's ideology of "not selling out" or in this case "contributing to the downfall of culture". They had a client that requested a service, and they responded and performed well within the allocation of the client's scope, deadline and budget.
It's easy to judge when you have no clue what goes on in the development process. I've been there. You make your case to the client, you state the pros and cons, you give the options. You defend your vision, and sometimes they go for it. Sometimes they don't. Your job, when it comes to advertising, is not just to make "pretty pictures". It is to first and foremost MAKE YOUR CLIENT MONEY or GET THEIR MESSAGE HEARD. Otherwise, if you don't do it, they will find someone else who will. Look, I'm all for artistic integrity, however you need to learn what battles are worth fighting for.
I've used the same type of paper for both invoicing and drawing. Just because a project utilizes a medium used by other artists, doesn't mean it is art.
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