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House Party
Sid Lee
In 2009, adidas Originals turned 60. Reaching such a landmark age surely deserves a party, and for its first major television commercial for the Originals brand, adidas threw an epic one, with guests including David Beckham, Katy Perry, Method Man and The Ting Tings. The idea came from Montreal-based advertising agency Sid Lee, who realized that a house party could be the perfect vehicle to bring together all the disparate groups connected to the Originals brand. ‘When we started studying adidas Originals, and seeing what they’d done in the last 60 years, we realized that no other brand has as much breadth and depth. They touch everyone from the punk to the skateboard kid, to the electro guy to the jock,’ says Kris Manchester, the agency’s creative director.
‘We had this epiphany that a house party was the perfect device to tell this story.’
01 Dancers at the adidas Originals house party, an ad campaign created to celebrate the brand’s 60th birthday. This image was one of a series of print ads that formed part of the campaign, alongside a 60-second commercial.
02-03 Drawing for a possible invite to the adidas party and a sketch by the ad agency showing a loose plan of how different areas in the house might be used on the shoot.
04–06 Sketches of possible scenes at the party, including a pool jump, a DJ entertaining the crowd, and lots of adidas shoes being thrown up in the air.
07-09 The ad brought together the different adidas ‘tribes’, from punk kids to jocks, who were all shown partying together. Also invited were several big name celebrities, including David Beckham, who mingled with the crowd.
10 More storyboard sketches revealing other ideas for the shoot.
‘We realized that the idea of a house party itself is open to a diverse audience. I remember when I was a kid at an open house party you’d have different crews there, all mixing up. You’d have the goth kids, you’d have the sports guys, you’d have the punk band and so on.… So we had this epiphany that a house party was the perfect device to tell this story,’ Manchester continues.
Initially, the idea was to focus just on these varying groups of kids, but as the creatives expanded the idea, they proposed including celebrities at the party. Although the brand has been involved in tie-ins with celebrities before, this was quite an unusual proposition for Originals, as Tom Ramsden, global director of communications at the company, explains. ‘The star thing came about later on in the development,’ he says. ‘adidas Originals has worked in entertainment for 30 years or so – we’ve had placements on Baywatch and with Run DMC – but never in a way where we’ve worked with people for a television commercial, or any overt commercial stuff. So it came about fairly organically; Sid Lee was brainstorming ideas, and it came to them saying, “Oh, you can imagine Will Ferrell doing this, or The Ting Tings”; or “What would happen if these people turned up?” Those things were thrown at us and we said, “Well, actually, we kind of know those people, we’ve got good relationships with them.” Not to sound too much of a cliché, but it was like inviting people to a house party – saying “we’re doing a TV commercial, it’s a house party, do you want to come?” And it really didn’t take much more of a sell-in than that on a lot of occasions.’
A major part of the ad’s charm is in the handling of these huge names, who are incorporated into the scenes at the party in a very natural way, rather than being given any obvious star treatment. We see Missy Elliott dancing in the living room, while David Beckham shares a joke on the sofa. Many of the celebrities are incorporated so subtly that they are easy to miss, though other moments, such as a flirtatious scene featuring Katy Perry, are less disguised. Sid Lee felt this naturalness was central to the spot, so hired a director – Nima Nourizadeh – who would be able to pull this off. ‘I think that ends up being the big idea, to be quite honest,’ says Manchester. ‘The big idea is the way we shot the celebrities; the way we positioned them; the way we showed them with just normal kids, as anybody else.… We didn’t want this to be a traditional spot. We had planned for it just to be a video clip, and that’s why Nima came on board. He had a huge amount of music video experience and had never really done a TV spot before.… He just got the brief from us and from adidas that this had to be the most authentic party ever.’
‘After many, many storyboards it ended up being something else when we were on the spot. It’s basically composing with what you have at hand. It’s sort of like documenting a live event. I think magic came out of that.’
‘The style in which it was made was what made it exciting,’ agrees Nourizadeh. ‘From the start I wanted it to be something that downplayed the whole celebrity scene. It was shot in a very documentary style. Even the house wasn’t something that was flash, where you’d normally see parties like this, with loads of celebrities. We were looking at the kind of house where we’d all been to parties – kind of run-down, not that exciting. Okay, it’s got a pool in the back garden, but it’s still not a really big, flash party. That just made it more exciting, more surprising, when you saw the faces – you know, you had Run DMC DJing, that was cool, Beckham pops his head out, that was cool. We just shot it in a very real way.’
When watching the film, it might be easy to assume that the director simply set up a party and then sat back and let the cameras roll, capturing the action. In fact, the shoot took place over six days in Los Angeles, in different locations, and required an inordinate amount of organization, especially when it came to the celebrities.
‘The big idea is the way we shot the celebrities; the way we positioned them; the way we showed them with just normal kids, as anybody else.’
‘It was the most insane schedule,’ comments Nourizadeh. ‘We had scenes that we had to shoot with certain celebrities, but their schedules dictated when we could shoot them. It was really difficult – for example, the idea might have been to shoot Beckham at night, but he was only available in the morning. There was a scene where Young Jeezy was playing poker with Kevin Garnett, but they couldn’t make the same time so we had to use body doubles. It was a real nightmare scheduling-wise.’
In order to provoke exciting footage, the team developed situations and activities for the celebrities. These all had to be approved, although they were often changed at the last minute due to timings, or the celebrity’s whim on the day. ‘It was such a special shoot; it was very spontaneous,’ says Manchester. ‘We’d never know who we were shooting with when and where – there was a lot of trust on the client side, because after many, many storyboards it ended up being something else when we were on the spot. It’s basically composing with what you have at hand. It’s sort of like documenting a live event. I think magic came out of that; it doesn’t feel like a normal commercial, it feels as if we were documenting this thing happening, which was half true.’
‘We had one day that was such a great day,’ continues Nourizadeh. ‘We had so many challenges – this was our big, scary day where we had eight or nine big people to shoot and it turned out to be our best day. We had Missy, who we’d allowed four hours in make-up for, and she had seven, so we couldn’t do the scene we wanted to do with her. So we ended up putting her in the scene with DMC, who’s DJing, and that turned out to be one of the best scenes for me, where they do that exchange at the decks.’
‘That was the same day we had Redman and Method Man as well. With them, I went into their trailer, and said “this is the idea, we want you to do this,” and they both just looked at me and there was silence. So I said, “okay guys, you don’t have to do that, I’ll figure something else out”. And I walked out and was like “get me a leaf blower, get me some party stuff, get me some silly string” – I literally on the spot gave them two things, and as soon as Method Man had the leaf blower, he didn’t put it down, he was going round blowing in everyone’s faces. And it was for real – we actually gave him something he wanted to have fun with. And Redman had the silly string, and he was spraying and totally covering people in it. There are moments in it like that where I had a great time.’
‘I don’t know if we were really lucky, or if we created something amazing, but people were just right on pretty much all of the time. There was never really a problem with anybody.’
11-12 Ideas sketched by the ad agency of typical party scenes that might be recreated on the shoot. While the agency and director devised a lot of scenarios in advance, many more were created spontaneously on set.
While the shoot was taking place, word got around LA, and Nourizadeh found himself taking calls from other celebrities who wanted to be part of it. ‘It was quite nuts,’ he remembers. ‘I was on the phone with Anthony Kiedis at one point – I was in the middle of the shoot, stressed – and he wanted to be in a scene with Kevin Garnett. I told him, “that sounds wicked, but we’ve already shot the scene with Kevin Garnett… is there a way we can still get you in it?” He said, “I’ll get back to you”, and I didn’t hear from him again.’
Such a full-on shooting experience did allow the agency and directors a certain flexibility to experiment with ideas that the client may not have approved in a normal, tightly organized set-up. For example, adidas was initially unimpressed with the idea of shooting a shoe sinking in the swimming pool – an image that became the final shot of the finished ad, offering a moment of reflection after the frenzy of the party scenes. The loose structure of the shoot meant that the team got the shot regardless, and then persuaded adidas of its value later on.
‘These are the kinds of discussions you have with the client where you say, “let’s just try it”,’ comments Manchester. ‘Even if you don’t believe it, let’s try it anyway. This is the shot that’s the poetic ending to the big bang. This is the kind of stuff you have to go above and beyond people’s levels to get, because you never know when you’ll need it. I would say the same thing with Method Man and Redman when they play with the leaf blower – you can imagine the number of hours of trying to sell in this comedic moment and in the client’s mind when you sketch that out or you talk about it, it sounds stupid. Then when you end up doing that and putting it in there, opinions change.’
At the end of the shoot, the team had 27 hours of footage, which had to be edited down to just a 60-second spot (plus some extra films for the web). Nourizadeh and the editors spent three months refining the film to produce the final ad. ‘That’s where Nima’s craftsmanship really came out,’ says Manchester. ‘You see him shoot and you think, “okay, the guy’s good”, but when you see the number of hours he spent with the editor to get the crystal, that’s where I’m the most impressed.’
One of the major decisions made at this time was the soundtrack. Beggin’, a cover of a Four Seasons song by Norwegian hip-hop group Madcon, was chosen, and provides the perfect blend of contemporary cool and retro to the spot. ‘It seems to resonate with everyone,’ says Nourizadeh. ‘The kids loved it, and I played it to my parents and my Dad was asking “what’s that song?”.’
The ad itself strikes a similar crossover note, with the infectious atmosphere appealing to people across different generations and different tastes. It proves that taking a loose approach to making an ad – unusual in the industry today – can result in gold, and also that working with celebrities can be fun rather than arduous.
‘You’d plan until the nth degree, then as soon as it started you were just rolling with punches and everyone’s doing what they can,’ remembers Tom Ramsden. ‘There were always simultaneous things happening. In that respect it was like a real house party – you were swapping stories about your version of events that day.… From my perspective, it was the first time I worked with a lot of names in one place. I was blown away by it – everyone was so friendly, amicable, up for it, patient. I don’t know if we were really lucky, or if we created something amazing, but people were just right on pretty much all of the time. There was never really a problem with anybody.’
13-15 The TV commercial was shot over six days in Los Angeles. By the time it was finished, the team had over 27 hours of footage that had to be edited down to just a 60-second spot. Photographs taken during the shoot were also used in a print campaign.