« Comcast channels ‘$20,000 Pyramid’ | Main | A computer with your toothbrush? »

Schwab using ‘Waking Life’ animator Bob Sabiston’s animation lent the movie Waking Life (2001) a surreal, otherworldly quality. The technique, which involves taking live-action film clips and coloring over the frames, created animated characters that seemed pleasantly dreamy, perfect for the philosophical musings of the film. For the new Charles Schwab TV campaign, by Euro RSCG, Sabiston uses the same process on particularly undreamy footage of everday people talking about their investments. (You can see two of the spots on the Web site of Big Foote, which did the jazzy music.) It’s not too clear how this kind of animation lends itself to Schwab’s message, although the images themselves are eye-catching enough. One fortunate side effect of this campaign is that we ended up stumbling upon Waking Life actor Wiley Wiggins’ Web site, which features a mixture of ghoulish artwork, blog posts about the Austin scene and much more. —Posted by Tim Nudd

October 11, 2005 | Permalink

Comments

Schwab's advertising has continued its downward slide with this latest animated campaign. Makes me want to inest with them..Not. A company that has clearly lost its way and an agency (EUro) that can't lead them out of the morass>

Posted by: watcher | Oct 11, 2005 3:09:55 PM

A good ad campaign. You snobby morons that think "everything has to have some deep meaning associated with the company" are total idiots with no idea how ads really work. What your prof. teaches you in ad school about how the public responds is not necessarily how the public really responds. You ad snobs are the only ones that analyze ads in such a way. The rest of us either ignore them (most often) or like them because they are 'cool' not because of the "meaning" and how it relates to any given company. Random sells. Cool sells.

Posted by: greg | Nov 3, 2005 10:09:02 AM

These companies must not be able to get real people to endorse their products... so why not animate them?

Posted by: Nancy | Feb 16, 2007 3:21:40 PM

I like the animation technique ... It is the whining self important characters that disgust me.

Posted by: Tonya | Apr 23, 2007 2:16:57 PM

the animation is great

Posted by: zack | Apr 23, 2007 7:57:03 PM

Animation technique - good. Commercials and "people's" endorsements - suck. I hate them! They're so freakin' smug I could puke.

Posted by: Andrea | Oct 7, 2007 11:37:26 PM

These rotoscoped ads, in my opinion are simply creepy *shudder*.
They do nothing to induce me to do business with a "make believe" company.

Posted by: Rod | Jan 16, 2008 8:46:18 AM

I had no idea there were others who, like me, think these cartoon ads more than a little annoying. If I ever feel the need to invest my monopoly money, I'll be sure to use Schwab. As for my "real" money, I'll invest with "real" people, not cartoons.

Posted by: John | May 29, 2008 7:53:14 PM

these r real people..what r u ...when u put on shaded glasses are all people u see suddenly not real.stop hatin innovation

Posted by: hello | Oct 21, 2008 1:47:08 PM

Hahaha...who's more "self important"? The actors being paid to be in a commercial for a major company getting significant press for a new animation technique... or the people who have nothing better to do than watch these commercials and whine about them on a random ad blog site? You guys need new forms of entertainment.

Posted by: Lisa | Dec 10, 2008 10:42:54 PM

Post a comment

Name:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

The opinions expressed in comments are those of the individual poster. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Adweek or Nielsen Business Media. Comments of a promotional nature or comments that are otherwise inappropriate may be removed.