OLYMPUS | RED-EYED BABY | 2005

When a Photo Can Wreck a Family / OLYMPUS "RED-EYED BABY"

A husband terrified by a photo of a baby with red-eye. This ad, which pitched a digital camera's red-eye correction feature with the tone of a horror movie, won Gold at Cannes in 2005.

The insight

Red-eye caused by flash photography was one of the problems digital cameras needed to solve at the time. OLYMPUS had a red-eye correction feature built in, but the question was how to communicate it. Rather than explaining the spec, they tried to tell it as an experience.

The idea

A husband comes home and finds a photo of a friend's baby in the living room. The baby's eyes are glowing bright red from the flash. Using suspense-movie style direction to build dread, the ad asks: "Keep this photo? Or delete it?"

What happened

The campaign ran in several variations, including Distorted Dogs and Blurred Boy, and won a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.

Afterthought

This approach of explaining a feature through black humor feels very much like the edgy European advertising of 2005. It was also one of the last bright moments for SPRINGER & JACOBY, the legendary Hamburg agency.

Awards

Cannes Lions Gold 2005

Three more the bear picked for you

The Tourist Whose Head Got Cropped Out Is Screaming at the Door / OLYMPUS "CROPPED TOURISTS"

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OLYMPUS | CROPPED TOURISTS | 2005

The Tourist Whose Head Got Cropped Out Is Screaming at the Door / OLYMPUS "CROPPED TOURISTS"

This is one of a series of TV commercials Olympus ran in Europe in 2005. The campaign used dark humor to depict "photo failures," and it won a Gold Lion at Cannes. But at the time, it reportedly split opinion.

CENTRAAL BEHEER | BOX | 1993

This Is a Story About the Titanic / CENTRAAL BEHEER "BOX"

A group of men risk their lives carrying a heavy wooden crate marked "fragile" toward a ship. They nearly drop it again and again, narrowly saving it each time—and then, right at the end, the camera slowly zooms in on the ship's name. That's where fate takes its turn.

This Is a Ball Test / PENN ATHLETIC PRODUCTS "BOUNCE TEST"

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PENN ATHLETIC PRODUCTS | BOUNCE TEST | 1989

This Is a Ball Test / PENN ATHLETIC PRODUCTS "BOUNCE TEST"

In 1989, Minneapolis agency Fallon McElligott unleashed a 30-second spot on the world. To prove the "consistency of bounce" of a racquetball, it wasn't just balls getting dropped from a building.