The Salvation Army Canada and Grey Canada work with London-based Nexus Productions on new ad campaign
The Salvation Army in Canada and Grey Canada have engaged Johnny Kelly director at London-based animation studio, Nexus Productions, to create three ads that will air in Canada from Sunday 25 November.
Tasked with directing the ads, Kelly took Grey Canada’s initial brief, centred on a ‘see-saw’ idea, to inspire the design for each of the films. In each film coins are dropped into the Salvation Army kettles, making the initial darker scenes transform into optimistic scenarios in a bid to highlight how a few coins can change lives.
Stop motion animation was used to create the films, in order to draw attention to the contrast between ‘before’ and ‘after’ the team used quick lighting changes, immediately shifting the colour from cold night time to warm daylight, emphasising the transition between the two.
Of the campaign, Johnny Kelly, director at Nexus Productions, said: “Inspired by a Frankensteinian cocktail of W Heath Robinson and Mad Magazine’s ‘Fold Ins’, this series of ads were the perfect opportunity to live out my fanboy fantasies when it came to animated transitions. When I was little I was hooked by a little wooden lifeboat donation box - you drop a coin in and the lifeboat rocks. I wanted to create something that had the same warmth as this, and a similar immediacy. Without having to drain my parents pocket change...”
Art director Andy Gent worked on the characters and worlds featured in the series of ads which can be viewed on the Nexus Productions site.