“Whoever is writing the NDP ads is kicking the shit out of the other guys”
– MacLean’s writer on Twitter

NOTE FROM DECEMBER 16, 2011:
Since Fuji Tamale News has caught a bit of attention, I will state here that I am not an employee or card-carrying member of the NDP of Canada. I am a freelance writer that worked on this campaign. I am not being financially compensated in any way by the NDP, nor affiliated with them currently in any way. The opinions expressed are a reflection of the NDP and not necessarily Andrew Bradley or Fuji Tamale Inc. So there.

On May 2nd, 2011, Jack Layton and the NDP increased their number of seats in Canada’s House of Commons from 35 to 103. The ‘Orange Wave’, as it was dubbed, was supported with advertising that was talked about on Twitter, CBC’s the National, in Maclean’s Magazine and many other daily newspapers and cross-Canada media.

Our strategy for the first phase of advertising? Attack the policies of the leaders of the other parties — unfortunately, nothing new for Canadian politics — but we decided to do it in a different way.

CW: Andrew Bradley
AD: Simon Tuplin
JACK LAYTON WRANGLER: Rich Cooper
GRAPHICS/ANIMATION: Crush
MUSIC &SOUND DESIGN: RMW Music

Not So Great Attendance :30

produced April 2011

Okay, let’s be honest. As a freelancer you don’t always get the plum assignments. But this is a project I was involved with at MacLaren McCann and I think the art director, Simon Tuplin, did an excellent job of serving up a lot of info in a palatable way.

CW: Me & Gary Lennox AD: Simon Tuplin ECD: Sean Davison

Producer: Adriana Laborde AGENCY: MacLaren McCann

Music: Imprint ED: Stephen Sora SFX: Julia Deakin

completed February 2011

It’s played in 12 countries that I know of.
It’s definitely overplayed in this one.

And it was a lot of fun to make.

I guess people like it cause at one point or another in our shopping lives, we’ve all had that feeling that we just got away with something.

“It’s Not a Mistake” :30

COPYWRITER: Me ART DIRECTOR: Allan Mah DIR: Mark Gilbert
CD: Lorraine Tao, Elspeth Lynn AGENCY: zig
PRODUCER: The great Janet Woods, Christine Harron
SOUND DESIGN/TRACK: RMW Music

As a sidenote, somewhere I have an alternate, failed cut where a stunt woman jumps through the car window to hasten the getaway — she actually broke her nose on one take, smacking it on the stickshift.

Most countries that picked it up ran the original or dubbed it. But Turkey had to be different.
They reshot it.

“Degil Bir Hata ” :30

And so did France.

“Il n’est pas une erreur” :30

I must admit that putting this in my portfolio is a bit of a stretch. I had nothing to do with the original idea. I arrived on contract at BBDO Toronto and John Terry — yes, of Gold Lion Tropicana fame — already had the idea. I glommed aboard from there and helped see it through revisions, director search, production, and all the way to final spot for air.

The spot was shot all in one take. It took 2 days of rehearsals and a lot of blocking and choreography to get it right. Nice job by Jeff Low from OPC.

AGENCY: BBDO Toronto
AD: John Terry
CW: John Terry, Andrew Bradley
CD: Peter Ignazi
MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN: TA2 MUSIC
EDITOR: Ross Birchall, Bijou

Produced June 2010

The Volkswagen Tiguan is truly a great vehicle. But it needed a bit of a relaunch in the spring of 2010. Sales were decent but not enough people knew about it. During my freelance stint at the newly opened Red Urban, I worked with Christina Yu on a new positioning for the 4×4 crossover. It’s fun to drive with a great engine, but it’s also made for people with families. Kind of inbetween worlds for people who aren’t ready to say they’re “grown up”. This led to our positioning and line…

Volkswagen Tiguan. Responsibly Wild.

Print was done and I think somewhere on the site (I’ll find a link eventually!). But the other challenge we had was that we needed a TV spot and we didn’t have the budget to produce one yet. Tough to shoot cars in January in Canada. So we looked at footage from around the world and put together the following spot.

AGENCY: Red Urban Toronto
ECD/AD: Christina Yu
CW: Andrew Bradley
EDITOR: Dave De Carlo, Posterboy
MUSIC: Eggplant

Completed February 2010