Thinkbone and Whybin/TBWA Melbourne send Bear Grylls on an adventure in Nissan X-Trail TVC
Just nine months after start-up, Thinkbone has had a grand adventure with superstar-survivalist, Bear Grylls, culminating in the production of a new Nissan X-Trail TVC for Whybin/TBWA Melbourne and Discovery Channel, which aired yesterday.
The star of Discovery Channel’s Man vs Wild was in Australia recently and took part in the TVC campaign, which filmed in the picturesque Glenworth Valley outside of Sydney.
Thinkbone also created the on-air promotional campaign for the newseries of Man vs Wild, now airing on the Discovery Channel andFOXTEL/AUSTAR and which also features Bear.
Thinkbone creative director, Dean Friske, directed the Nissan TVC, anddescribed working with the British action man as being “like playingwith a giant action figure. Before you could say “hey Bear, can you jump off that cliff, eat thatsnake, urinate on that rag and tie it around your neck?” he’d be doingit.
In fact, one of the biggest challenges was to be ready for whateverhe threw our way and make the most of the moment.
“We only had him for a short time, yet we shot two ads’ worth of coverage. I can’t imagine doing that with anyone else”.
“The production was an adventure in itself,” says Thinkbone executive producer, Andrew Marsh.
“With a big star on a tight schedule and complicated action to shoot,everyone had to be on top of their game. Thankfully we had a lot ofcrew in place from filming the Discovery on-air campaigns, and couldpull it together. We have a great team who all did a great job.”
The project is another in a series of impressive assignments forthinkbone, the broadcast creative company established in July 2010 bythree award-winning creatives from FOXTEL’s Area 51, Friske, Marsh andfellow creative director Darren Ralph.
Ralph explains the company’s approach to creative and production: “Wehave a lot of in-house capability and a flexible attitude, which meanswe can go end-to-end if a client needs it, or jump in and out at anypoint of the process. And, while we take the work seriously, theculture is pretty laid back which clients seem to like.”
22 Comments
Great idea to get BG for the brand. And that’s as far as it goes. Disappointing.
What a dull and boring use of Grylis. The integration of the required product shots are remarkably ham fisted and obvious. It feels like an 80’s ad.
Agree 4.21 what a shame they couldnt hold off to reveal car at end of commercial..boring after first cut away….personally think there were much beter ads around in the 80’s…from Scott!
Needs more drinking of his own piss.
New Nissan X-Trail TVC for Whybin/TBWA Melbourne and Discovery Channel. Better drink my own piss.
Hands down the worst thing I’ve seen on here lately… and that’s saying something!
Piss poor.
The stuff BG is doing looks fun. Proper adventure.
The stuff the family is doing looks dead boring.
If Nissan wanted a bit of the Bear Grylls aura to rub off on their brand, I suspect they’re getting the opposite: all this spot does is highlight how far removed a soft-roader is from actual adventure.
Missed opportunity with good talent
Director? Production Company/ Not listed in the credits.
Thinkbone, thinkbone, thinkbone why oh why would you plug this turd???
Another turkey from Nissan’s agency.
Why don’t Toyota and Nissan go back to the eighties and check out the work done for NIssan by Chiat Day US then..particularly for the series of ads that was an adventure driving across the US…classic writing and filming and concept that has yet to be beaten in the last twenty years on broadcast tv.
Probably the worst use of a potentially great celebrity ever! Whoever wrote the script needs slit their wrists… It is a miniscule bit more palatable with the volume off!
I wonder if they showed this in the ANZ pitch. I suspect not.
Thinkbone creative director, Dean Friske, directed the Nissan TVC.
Great talent. Would have been better if car was revealed at the end.
5.19 – turn it up! Worst thing you have seen on here lately? It’s not that bad.
Shame it has to reel off the product features and show the car driving but, it is a car ad, and that tends to be what car ads do.
7.08 – good point. Bear fun – family boring.
The former in-house CD with Area 51 at Foxtel, now bringing that ‘in-house’ feeling to Nissan with Thinkbone. Read ‘in house’ to mean what it always has, compromised financially, compromised creatively, and in general, poorly executed by someone who can’t decide whether to be a creative director, an account director, or to try his or her hand at being an actual director.
There’s a reason why agencies hire talented directors and their production companies to bring their ideas to life, and there are plenty of examples of CDs who made the transition to directing and who are some of the best in the business, but if you’re a CD who really wants to direct, then hang out your shingle and see who wants to hire you, instead of continuing to hire yourself and compromising the results.
We can see the difference, and it’s not flattering.
Stop thinking about boning and start doing some good ads people!
ZZZ – They should have got Ash Bolland – his direction of Bear was much more interesting!
It’s hard to tell who to blame for this.
Did the agency write it, or this chap from Thinkbone?
I find it even harder to see how Mr Grills was constantly surprising the director. He appears to be simply jumping around in the bush. Which is what he does.
A textbook case of how not to use talent.
When it comes to misuse of talent in an ad, this is about as bad as it gets. Shite.