James Albert Varney Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his broadly comedic role as Ernest P. Worrell, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award, as well as appearing in films and numerous television commercial advertising campaigns. He played Jed Clampett in a film adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) and performed the voice of Slinky Dog in the first two films of the Toy Story franchise (1995–1999). He died at age 50 of lung cancer on February 10, 2000, leaving two posthumous releases, of Daddy and Them and Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Ernest P. Worrell is a fictional character portrayed by American actor Jim Varney in a series of television commercials and later in a television series as well as a series of feature films. Ernest was created with Varney by the Nashville advertising agency Carden & Cherry and was used in various local television ad campaigns. The only national products he promoted were The Coca-Cola Company's sodas, Chex, and Taco John's. The first Ernest commercial, filmed in 1980, advertised an appearance by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders at Beech Bend Park, an amusement park near Bowling Green, Kentucky. The format of the commercials seldom varied, most often scripted to be comedic and fast-paced.
Mark Rydell is an American actor, film director, and producer. He has directed several Academy Award-nominated films including The Fox (1967), The Reivers (1969), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Rose (1979), and The River (1984). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for On Golden Pond (1981).
Robert Mandel is a film producer and director and television director from Oakland, California. He is best known for his film School Ties, which includes early film roles in the careers of Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Cole Hauser and Chris O'Donnell.
In marketing, branded content is content produced by an advertiser or content whose creation was funded by an advertiser. In contrast to content marketing and product placement, branded content is designed to build awareness for a brand by associating it with content that shares its values. The content does not necessarily need to be a promotion for the brand, although it may still include product placement.
Bob Giraldi is an American film and television director, educator, and restaurateur. He is known for directing the film Dinner Rush (2000) and the music video for Michael Jackson's Beat It (1983). Giraldi has been inducted into the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, one of the few film directors to be honored; and, in 2014, was the first director ever to be inducted to the Advertising Hall of Fame. His work has garnered several London International Awards, Cannes Advertising Awards, NY International Awards, Addy Awards, Chicago Film Festival Awards, and dozens of Clio Awards. He has been named one of the 101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising.
Mark A. Meily is a film director, producer and a film educator who started his career in the Philippines. He has directed campaigns for Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Coca-Cola, DocuSign, and FICO. His feature films have been presented at the film festivals of Deauville, Hawaii, Seattle, Goteborg, Marrakech, Montreal, Busan, Fukuoka and Brussels.
Rodman Flender is an American actor, writer, director and producer.
Christian Langlois is a Canadian film director based in Montreal, Quebec. He has directed several short films, video content, series, commercials, music videos and media installation. He studied at Université du Québec à Montréal in communications programs photography, cinema, art video and new digital media. He published several articles about the role of digital technologies and video in the development of visual and performing arts.
Flavia Mello Moraes de Oliveira is a Brazilian director and filmmaker. Owner of an important career in audiovisual and advertising, Flavia Moraes has built an expressive career as a director for over 30 years. Produced and directed more than 3,000 commercials, documentaries, movies and music concerts.
Simón Bross is a Mexican director and producer.
Farhad Mann is an American director, screenwriter of film, television and commercials, and owner of the production company FMPI.
The Life, also known as We Are ODST is a television and cinema advertisement launched in 2009 by Microsoft to promote the first-person shooter Halo 3: ODST in the United States. The 150-second piece follows a young soldier through enlistment, training, and battle as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST), analogous to a paratrooper that drops from space to a battlefield. The Life was created by advertising agency T.A.G., an offshoot of McCann Erickson. Production of the commercial itself was handled by production company Morton/Jankel/Zander (MJZ). It was directed by Rupert Sanders, and post-production was conducted by Asylum. It was filmed in Hungary, just outside Budapest in a coal mine and abandoned factories to give the sequence an "Eastern Bloc" aesthetic. The commercial and its associated campaign proved hugely successful; on the week of its launch, Halo 3: ODST became the top-selling game for the Xbox 360 worldwide, and over 2.5 million copies were sold within the first few weeks of release. The Life went on to win a number of honours from the advertising and entertainment industries, including two Clio Awards, a London International Advertising Award and several honours from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the most prestigious awards ceremony in the advertising industry.
Tag is a television and cinema advertisement launched by Nike Inc. in 2001 to promote its line of sportswear in the United States. It was one of four pieces forming the television component of the $25m "Play" campaign, which had been running for several months. Tag was created by advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy. Production was handled by production company Gorgeous Enterprises, who assigned director Frank Budgen to oversee the project. Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario.
Andrew Tsao is an American theater, film and television producer and director.
BFCS was a commercial film production company.
Sebastian Strasser is a German director of commercials and films. Strasser has received more than 200 international advertising awards. For example: 16 Lions in Cannes, multiple Gold at the London IAA, New York Film Festival, D&AD, Eurobest European Advertising Festival, One Show, Clio Awards, Montreux, etc. He won Gold at the D&AD Awards for the best Direction in France 2010, Gold at the German Advertising Festival (DWP) for the best Direction in Germany 2011, Graffite for the best direction at the London D&AD Awards 2019, Gold for direction at London International Awards 2019, Gold for direction at Cyclope Berlin 2019, and numerous Art Directors Club (ADC) awards worldwide. Strasser was ranked 13th in the Gunn Report’s Most Awarded Directors in the World, and his spot "Kids on Steps" for Volkswagen was elected among the 20 best commercials of the 21st century by the Gunn Report in 2015. His first short film, Happy End, premiered at Berlinale Filmfestival in 2005. The latest short, Apparat, finished post-production in November 2019. His drama television series Darklands, is currently in development with Warner Brothers and Ratpack Films and is estimated to start production in 2021.
Joe Pytka is an American film, television, commercial and music video director born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He holds the record for the most nominations for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Commercials.
Nico Beyer is a German film director and producer. He is noted for his unique visual style and wide array of different techniques and formats.
Martin Desmond Roe is a British-American film and television director, writer, and producer. He is best known for Buzkashi Boys (2012), Kobe Bryant's Muse (2015), Breaking2 (2017), Tom vs Time (2018), and We are the Champions (2020). Roe is the founder and Creative Director of Dirty Robber, a Los Angeles-based production company.
