April 23, 2006

gorgeous has a name




I first wrote about the current Jaguar XK commercial on April 4th. I then found I was getting a lot of hits to my blog from people searching 'jaguar commercial music' or something similar, so I wrote a second on April 11th to give the music info ("I Turn My Camera On" by Spoon - I still get an unusually large number of people coming to my blog from searching that).

In the first post, I mentioned Jaguar's ad agency for the overall "prefergorgeous" campaign, but didn't have any specific credits for the new XK spot. I got an anonymous email this weekend that gave some of them - so, a big round of applause for the minds and talents responsible for the Jaguar XK campaign:
Creative Directors: Alicia Johnson and Hal Wolverton
Editor: Neil Gust (formerly of the band Heatmiser)
Graphic Design: Jaime Lemond

I find this interesting, because Johnson & Wolverton's website (j-w.com) is one of the first places I went after seeing the spot - I just sensed they migh be involved. Until December of '05, I was the Design Director for Fine Living tv network. We launched in 2002 with a package that was initially designed by Johnson & Wolverton. They established the basics of a clean, simple, bold yet elegant look that was a joy to develop and evolve over my years there. I don't know if Johnson & Wolverton as an agency still exists (and Jaguar's ad agency hired them), or whether Alicia and Hal have moved on and are part of Jaguar's ad agency itself. Either way, it's clear that they and their cohorts are still creating great work.

1 comment:

Neil Chapman said...

Having been infatuated with the used Jag XK8 that I bought off ebay for the price of a Chevy, I approached its redesign with some trepidation. Granted, redesigning this car is no small order. But it wasn't until I saw the TV commercial that I wanted it. Damn! Like I've got 80 large laying around.

I figure I'll buy the 2007 XK in 2017!

Your blog is cool; found it searching for XK news.

Your comments on the Prefer Gorgeous campaign are probably spot-on except that, Jag needs something that audacious and offensive. It's a bold, cheesy gamble that just might work. Watching those ads is like watching Paris Hilton. I like to denigrate her, but man is she smokin!