About a year ago I received an email from the Dutch postcard company, Boomerang, (you know those free postcards you can pick up in bars?) asking to use my painting “Aburrido” from the Spanish 101 series I did at the end of 2006. I agreed and didn’t think anything more about it.
At the end of last year I was contacted by the art director at the Dutch branch of the ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. It turns out that he had picked up my postcard in a bar, had loved the painting, and wanted me to do three small paintings for an ad campaign Saatchi & Saatchi were doing for the Dutch Cancer Society. The campaign, called the Friends of Cancer Patients, addresses the idea that children who watch their parents smoke are twice as likely to end up smoking. For some reason, it was never used in Holland, but was instead used in Dubai. Yup, Dubai! That was cool, and I didn’t think anything more about it.
At the end of last year I was contacted by the art director at the Dutch branch of the ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. It turns out that he had picked up my postcard in a bar, had loved the painting, and wanted me to do three small paintings for an ad campaign Saatchi & Saatchi were doing for the Dutch Cancer Society. The campaign, called the Friends of Cancer Patients, addresses the idea that children who watch their parents smoke are twice as likely to end up smoking. For some reason, it was never used in Holland, but was instead used in Dubai. Yup, Dubai! That was cool, and I didn’t think anything more about it.
The F-Word
Stairway
12.4 Seconds
Advertising Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Creative Director: Magnus Olson Art Directors/Copywriters: Tim Bishop, Avinash Sampath Illustrator: Gregory Ferrand Retoucher: Jeroen Wartenbergh
Yesterday morning, I received a surprise email from Saatchi & Saatchi with “Are you ready for this big piece of news? :)” as the title… And I wasn’t! Out of over 4,000 entries worldwide, the ad won a Silver Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival last week! As you might imagine, I'm pretty surprised but really excited about it. I also want to thank everyone who worked on this at Saatchi & Saatchi, this definitely was a team effort!
To find out more about it and go to the official website, go here.
