By Malay Desai
From: Istanbul, by HappyPeopleProject
The business-to-business spot for Turkish Airlines’ cargo services opens with the claim that it ‘runs like clockwork’ and proceeds to show an alarm clock going off. This activates a chain of things – balls, balloons, darts et al falling and flying, and there are shots of cargo crates being transported. The film ends with creative mentions of all the continents the services reach and the alarm clock falling into a box with the TA logo and tagline.
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We’d like to believe Kamal Hassan did it first in Appu Raja’s climactic scene in which he kills Delhi Ganesh, and 1998’s Run Lola Run was only inspired from it. The domino effect, the phenomenon of one thing leading to another has wowed ad film makers simply by the challenge of filming.
After 2003’s Honda TVC grabbed awards and later Vodafone Italy made a guerilla-like stunner, there haven’t been too many iconic domino effect ads..until now.
Turkish Airlines, the Goliath of its industry had made a charming film using Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant earlier this year, but this is a different ball game. The TA are businesses – small and large which rely upon the modern web of precision logistics for survival. The point is to tell that they must choose a service which chooses the airline, because the service has assumed a great level of accuracy in delivery and other metrics.
In all ways, right from its title to its initial self-praising copy, this is a B2B ad, but boy, is it a joy to watch and listen to! Over a minute of the 85 seconds are pure dominos – made up of tiny plastic balls, wooden boards, darts, crates, wheel spokes, toy cars, balloons and more. The intermittent copy is clever, showing off the service’s unique facets and its expanse. The visuals range from the intricate at most moments to fun in bursts, never leaving a ‘wait, what?’ moment.
That said, the hero of this film, which safely to assume is a culmination of a zillion re-takes, is the sound design. The rolling of toy wheels on wooden tracks, the wheel spokes whirring and the ricketyrack of the cogs here gives a crucial dimension to the ad. Totally worth leaving out the background score for. The last time we had raved about sound, it was when Bart’s Bees, a cosmetic product had made the film ‘Music from Nature’.
The next time you receive a lifesaving drug on demand at your hospital bed, add Turkish Airlines to the thank you list.
(To watch this film, go to Vimeo.com/88043603, but to check Turkish Airlines other travails, look it up on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram)
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