AICP SHOW 2011 - The Art & Technique Of The American Commercial

The AICP (Association of Independent Commercial Producers) took its 2011 show to the creative hub of Chicago earlier this month. For those not in the know, the AICP honors everyone involved with the production of great creative and each year it  takes its Next Awards and a screening event  of winning work on the road across the US .  Fittingly the awards are titled the ‘Art & Technique Of The American Commercial’  and this year feature work for Jim Beam, Old Spice, Nike and many more.   Take a look at www.aicpshow.com for more info.

The Reel’s new US Correspondent Dan Patton was on hand to capture the mood and views of the attending local advertising community, in particular their take on the Dictionary Films produced mini-doc that preceded the commercial showcase.

Star athlete becomes chiseled landmark, celestial aria plays to galactic violence, spindly rock star floats naked with anti-rock star doppleganger and together they pee: this is the presentation of the 2011 AICP Show, “The Art and Technique of the American Commercial.” Ronaldo, Kevin Bacon, Willem Dafoe, Conan O’Brien and Homer Simpson all make appearances, but the audience begins to fidget when the party next door gets loud. They are eager to enlighten the tinkling hurrah with their fresh take on Chicago bike messengers.

“Y’know, they’re all high or they, y’know, are dirtbags or whatever,” is how Jay Patton, Director from Dictionary Films, describes the stigma that inspired him to roll with a small crew and a Red Epic camera alongside one such pedaler through Chicago’s wet October streets. “We thought it would be a unique perspective,” he continues, “What do they do? What makes them tick?” The footage he shot would eventually launch the show.

But first, it was passed to Dictionary’s sister companies, Sol Design and Another Country, where the titles and the sound were respectively perfected. Along the way, 35 to 40 logos were cut and tracked into the piece. The exact placement and duration of each one satisfied specific terms of various sponsorship agreements. The subtlety of their impact satisfied a challenge that Patton calls, “a little bit of a dance.” Then the mothership, Cutters Studios, edited what became the official sponsorship reel of the Midwest portion of AICP’s annual extravaganza.

When the show begins, the bike messenger mini doc earns rousing applause for all the companies that helped pay for the food and drink outside: Fletcher Camera’s logo decorates the bike messenger’s coffee pot, Ogilvie adorns a paper bag at a reception desk, Burnett fills a giant marquis. The ensuing feature length presentation holds the audience like a cavalcade of continental broadcast advertising excellence should: almost all the way through. When it ends, a crowd of cashmere, fake fur, high heels, absent neckties, designer frames and carefully groomed facial hair spills into the third floor of Chicago’s Cultural Center, a neoclassical limestone building that serves as “the city's official reception venue, where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed Presidents and royalty, diplomats and community leaders,” according to Wikipedia.

They join a constant stream of guests who climb a white marble Grand Staircase inlaid with intricate green tilework leading up to Preston Bradley Hall. Tall glasses of bright green and orange champagne toast their arrival at the thrilling cacophony bouncing under the largest Tiffany glass dome on earth.

It stokes the mood and conversation comes quickly. An executive producer from a design firm expounds on her blog, “What Designers Like.” An account supervisor from a digital production agency confirms that video game “cheats” hidden behind internet walls are deliberately placed there by the game creators themselves. A VP from a public relations company reminds the freelancer who neglected to include the proper fonts when he recently submitted her print ad to a film publication that, “It looks like ass.” His tipsy admission is answered with a smile and a promise, “I’ll make sure you do it right next year.”

Few of the guests seem to realize how good the beef stroganoff in the corner tastes, or if it’s even there at all, because the carved turkey and risotto serving stations are much closer and who’s gonna pass that up? Plus, it’s in the room down the hall — yeah, a whole ‘nother room — and getting there is a gauntlet of handshakes, remember when’s, cheeks-to-cheeks and endlessly attractive midlevel client service associates. The icebreaker du soir is, “What did you think of the reel?”

“As soon as it started,” recalls an account executive from a music and licensing company, “it grabbed my attention, like hmm... Where are we going with this?”  Expecting to see “a montage of different aspects of the business,” he was impressed by the “great, unorthodox perspective of the ground level” instead. It moved him to give unsolicited props to the bike messenger: “He’s just as important.”

Or, in the words of Dictionary Films’ Executive Producer Megan Maples, “Bike messengers make the world go around.”

This appreciation for the city’s pedalers is highest among what the creators hoped to achieve.

“This is, like, such an important mission,” Patton explains. “The last step in months of creative planning and production and editing and graphics and, you know, client service.” He speaks like a director who’s raced the clock before. “All this stuff goes into, like, ‘okay the tape is in the bag and this guy’s picking it up, our deadline is eight o’clock and it’s, like, 7:55.’” He concludes like a dude who’s thanking his friends. “They’re a pretty integral part of this industry that we’re all in.”

The greatest joy in remembering these last minute urgencies is that nobody seems to be facing any tonight.
So the alcohol keeps flowing long after the charm runs dry. It carries guests to an industrial loft beyond the galleries of River North, where Protein Editorial’s post production space becomes a night of free booze, dancing, upscale grabass, hookah smoking and transnational toking at the unofficial after party. Sultan’s Market supplies the hors d’oeuvres and DJ Madrid mixes the sounds. It’s the last call of a week long industry happy hour that spanned some of the trendiest spots and loudest dives in Chicago. From the Paris Club to the Boss Bar, from the Hard Rock to the Hubbard Inn, from Sable to the Blue Frog, there will be no time sheets or expense reports at the end of this one.

Chicago’s ad community will give its hardworking bike messengers the break they deserve.

Dan Patton