Symbicort

Hie i'm sorry to ask this but i'm an upcoming graphic designer. i havent yet done kl stuff like you but i'm hoping to do so this summer. i like how you used the green screen. so do you create ur environment 1st in photoshop/illustrator/flash/after effects before you insert ur chromer keyed footage. also it might seem like a dumb question but what are the white X's for on green screen and how do i bring that up in after effects. thanks.

the white X's are tracking marks, that are actually stuck to the greenscreen, that way you can track the environment in after effects. sometimes the environments are designed ahead of time, and sometimes they are done later. it really depends on the project.

One thing that bugs me is that why is the actors and and the main actress all black instead keeping her in color?

I thought for sure that the silhouette effect was used to cover a mistake. Now I learn that it *is* a mistake.

An innovative spot. However, I found it disturbing and creepy. If I had to bet, I think this will be a critical success, but commercial failure. I think people like to know who is talking to them, and believe the lack of a face will work against selling the product. Having worked at A-Z it doesn't surprise me.

Isn't the woman Vannessa Williams?

I'm sorry, but I'm a graphic designer and artist and I have to say that ever since I saw this commercial, I was absolutely certain that a major mistake had been made during the making of it, and it had been too late to change. I think it looks terrible, regardless of whatever interesting or memorable design was intended. The background artwork looks great, but the stark contrast with the black silouettes of the foreground people just does not work at all. They completely detract and distract from any of the beautiful colour and art used for the background, and just ends up muddying it all and as I said always makes me think that it was an unintentional mistake during the creation process which could not be fixed in time for the commercial's release. Too bad, because had the people been done in a colourful cartoon fashion, it would have looked great! Just my opinion...

I have to agree - the end result is really creepy. People can trust others when they look them in the eyes; here there are no eyes to look into. Therefore she seems deceptive and unapproachable. Sorry.

I THINK THE COMMERCIAL IS GREAT. EVERYTIME I SEE THIS, AND THE NEWEST ONE, I WATCH IT FROM BEGINNING TO END. I REMEMBER THE NAME AND IMAGES. ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU WANT A COMMERCIAL TO DO?

I was certain it was amy brennamen.

In the commercial that has been airing for the past month or so has an actress whose voice sounds like that of Molly Culver. She was in Pam Anderson's show VIP. Hope the link works - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0191742/resumephotos

I was expecting the commercial spot to end with them revealing who was doing the talking, and at that point it should be someone the public trusts. Otherwise the shadowed effect should have some tie in with the product, and I wasn't getting it... though I may have been distracted by the person being in shadow. My time was spent trying to figure out who it was, rather than knowing what the product is.... however they did get their product name out there.

Wow, soooo creative, silhouettes, blossom-ey squiggles, contrast-ey landscapes...never seen (or done) that before. This is uninspired and massively derivative. These commercials are irritating because there is zero artistry, it's warmed over post millennial hot dog water. Several years ago, working as an inhouse designer for a large corporation, I'd fall back on this kind of "art" when I had a time crunch and didn't have budget for suitable stock photography or time to render anything with any style. There is just no excuse for this when you have resources. For one thing, the style is totally inappropriate for the subject. Why BLACK silhouettes? Why silhouettes at all? Apple's commercials worked for the subject because they were all about kinetic movement, so you aren't focusing on the silhouette, but the MOVEMENT. Here, the "people" move so slowly, I keep trying to squint and see them. It's frustrating and exhausting to watch. Also, do I really want to buy medication based on the advice of some faceless wraith creature? I don't think so. Even the little things, like the wildly overarticulated gestures similar to a model showing off a prototype at an autoshow, are annoying.

I completely agree that these commercials are very poorly conceived and executed. I hate that I cannot see the face of the person who is talking to me. I can't wait for them to go off the air.

Hey Everybody, I would like to point out a key piece of information that a lot of the people here seem to be missing, namely that of talent payments and SAG residuals. Every time a recognizable human appears in a tv commercial, show or movie they get paid a residual sum due to the Screen Actors Guild contracts that we all must adhere to. Sometimes certain decisions in advertising are influenced by budget constraints more than they may be based on a creative idea. So when people say things like "there is no excuse when we have the resources" the truth is that we can't control how much money the clients ultimately want to spend.