A Detroit area ad agency has put out a call for photographers to shoot car beauty shots on spec. Latcha + Associates of Farmington Hills, Michigan has distributed an electronic brochure called "Shoot a Sample" that tells photographers they can "assist in collaborating and evolving the style of a major automotive brand!"
That brand happens to be Lincoln, and the fine print informs photographers that "by participating in this exploratory project, you are agreeing to do so without reimbursement from Latcha or Lincoln."
If Latcha likes your sample, you might become eligible to bid for actual jobs. "We will create a talent pool of those who hit the mark," the brochure says.
It's a new and brazen approach. Normally agencies invite photographers to bid for jobs on the basis of what creative directors and art buyers see in the photographers' portfolios. It's a time-honored method that's fair and efficient. What Latcha offers is a test of desperation. And when the bidding starts, they know they'll be negotiating with a pool of photographers who are willing to work for free.
A new national, multi-channel advertising campaign that seeks to raise awareness about mental health issues within Hispanic/Latino communities launched last week with images shot by editorial and commercial photographer Cass Bird.
Debuting during National Minority Mental Health Awareness month, the campaign is a collaboration between the Ad Council, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and New York-based advertising agency Wing, which focuses on advertising to Hispanic/Latino audiences.
Bird was tapped for the campaign because of the honesty she conveys in her photography, Wing creative director Gustavo Asman told PDN during an interview last year on the set of the shoot. “Just by looking at the first three or four pictures I knew that [she] was the person” for the campaign, he said.
“I’m typically invited to collaborate on campaigns or portraits that are close to my esthetic style,” Bird related after the shoot wrapped. “Something that feels authentic is critical for me.” The clean, straightforward ads feature color and black-and-white portraits of young Hispanic adults shot on location in a café and on the street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
Watch the clip below and you’ll see the Canon 5D Mark II with Canon L-series glass being used frequently throughout the filming of the spot even though the G2 shoots 720p HD.
Truthfully, most consumers — who this camera and the commercial are primarily aimed at — aren’t going to notice (or care) but camera geeks will and the behind-the-scenes footage is already turning up far and wide in the tech blog-o-sphere.
Doh!
UPDATE: Looks like the behind-the-scenes video has been removed. Wonder why.
New York-based advertising agency Anomaly has won an Outdoor Lion Grand Prix award for their campaign for denim and clothing company Diesel. Images for the campaign were shot by photographers Kristin Vicari, Melodie McDaniel and Chris Buck.
Anomaly are among a small contingent of American agencies earning recognition at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival this week, and they are the only U.S. agency to win a top prize in any of the awards categories thus far (awards announcements continue through Sunday).
The winning ads feature the tagline “Be Stupid,” with bold copy that makes pronouncements like, “Smart may have the brains, but stupid has the balls,” or, “Smart has the plans, but stupid has the stories,” or simply, “We’re with stupid.”
The ads espouse the idea that “stupid” people are in fact the most innovative, or at least that they have the most fun until personal injury makes them smarter.
Photographs of young people doing an array of humorous and ill-advised things—flashing breasts at a CCTV camera (see above); body-slamming each other; trying to fit too many people on bicycles; posing for photographs with wild animals—illustrate the point.
On May 26 Wired released its first digital version designed specifically for media tablets (iPads).
The release was notable for a couple of reasons: It signaled the completion of an InDesign add-on that allows magazine designers to convert their print publications into media tablet format, and vice versa. The software was created by Adobe in collaboration with creatives from Wired. (The add-on will be available for purchase by other publishers).
Wired also reports that it sold 24,000 copies of the app at $4.99 in the first 24 hours, and has sold 73,000 copies to date, grossing more than $350,000. (What no one knows is whether the sales are a sign that media tablets can boost circulation numbers, or simply that many people were convinced to buy the app once, just to see what all the hype was about.)
A handful of advertisers, including a camera manufacturer, purchased premium ad space in the Wired app, which entitled them to ads “offering some kind of multimedia experience.”
Premium ads like the camera manufacturer’s—which features slide shows of images that show off the abilities of their new digital camera—raise the question photographers will be asking more if media tablet apps gain users: Will photographers be paid more to create ads appearing on media tablets?
