Giving life to new ads

There has been a shift in creative preference when casting for television commercials to unknown characters, who give a commercial greater sincerity, but this does pose a challenge when directing performance driven commercials.

The two new Liberty Life adverts, one of them entitled 'Bingo', were particularly challenging, according to J Walter Thompson's Clifford Thompson and Warren Sassenberg.

Bingo required the lead characters to be in their eighties and to be able to inject a dry subtle humour into their performance. The actors needed to remember a hefty dialogue as well as detailed direction.

Fresh Eye's David Gillard says: "For this reason, casting was crucial and we must have seen about a hundred couples from different retirement homes. The characters we selected weren't even a couple, but they had great chemistry and it worked really well. Also the contrast between the brash Bingo Master and his dolly-like assistant, to the group of sweet elderly people adds another interesting dynamic to the commercial."

The second commercial, which highlights Liberty Life's increased attention to service, is aptly named "Taxi". Filmed almost entirely inside a typical South African taxi, it is a spoof on air travel.

Says Gillard: "Although these characters had all acted once or twice before, their performances were still pretty amazing given their relative inexperience."