WALKNG FINGERS DO ALL THE WORK FOR YELLOW
July 17 2007, 1:51 pm | | 28 Comments
Yellow wanted people to reappraise their brand but maintain some of the equity they’d built up over so many years. Probably the best known thing about Yellow is the walking fingers logo, so the creatives at Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland turned the hands into helpful little critters who do the finding for you.
Product: Yellow Brand
Title: Party
Client: Yellow Pages Group
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Auckland
ECD: Mike O’Sullivan
Creative Group Head: Rob Beamish
Creative Group Head: Hilary Badger
Agency Producer: Jane Mill
Director: Mark Molloy
Producer: Wilf Sweetland
Production Company: Exit Films
Cinematographer: Greig Fraser
Animation: Animal Logic
Music: Bathtime in Clerkenwell by The Real Tuesday Weld
28 Comments
Yeah cool idea. It’s got legs.
I’m glad to see the exploitation of black labor is alive and well, even if it’s only black hands.
Boring.
I love this ad. I love the music. I love the way the hand rolls into the logo. Its a big improvement on the illustrated billboards from a couple of years ago. Well done.
I’d say it was a tad creepy, but that was obviously the idea. I’ll go out on a limb and say they’ll be talking about this one for years.
I’m sure this would creep out a few arachnophobics
One thing it isn’t 12.56, is boring. I reckon the music and animation make it funny. Surprising and completely different. It’s a shift of gear from showing plumbers and builders…
The hands look like something you would find in the rubble of the World Trade Centres. Creepy.I do like the music though.
I’d love to see ‘The Making Of’ from this one.(That reminds me, gotta watch that Adams Family again sometime!)
Any Adam’s Family fans out there feeling ripped off?
it is creepy- the music is creepy and i turn the channel whenever it’s on! it’s gross
Grotesque piffle from someone who couldn’t decide whether to repackage The Addams Family or Willie Wonka so decided to do both at once. Yuk. Good to see the Saatchi interactive department is busy though – wonder if you can enter self-serving blog comments in anything?
7.49am and 10.47am – I know both of you should be listening to David Bell or Paul White talk about their past glories rather than writing on this blog.
Why aren’t the hands yellow?
2:52 – at least they have glories to talk about. Until you get some, shut the **** up.
3.26? Are you kidding?
Hey 11.04, I’ll bet you don’t really switch channels.
Great music. I like this ad a lot and actually enjoy watching it. Well done. And this is coming from a person who really doesn’t like Saatchi…before you go accusing me of working there.
Have to agree with 11.04.Really hard to come up with something new for sure but this is one hell of a disturbing advt,definetly no Hi5’s for this one…
Geez look at those little guys go. They really get things done. Where do I buy me one of them. I’d never have to pick my own nose again.
The guy who checked the inside of my arse with his finger at the hospital likes it. But then he would.
And I was doing so well with my arachnophobia counselling…
How the hell is the ad going to sell anything when the device is so detestable? Couldn’t they have designed something people might actually LIKE? Or is that just too uh-obvious to make it at Saatchis?
Well its got all you lot talking about it. Job Done.I would also just like to point out that the word verification code i have to enter is [FKNAY] which i think is much funnier than anything else i have seen on this site.
who’s the twat that wrote into the weekend paper to complain about the ad.. accused yellow of racism and moreover slavery, sheesh, this country has become so bloody PC -where is the pat on the back for the creative input and intelligent angle of using a clients’ logo as an animation… wake up NZ.
I think this is great work. Well done to the team and to the brave client who approved it.Wish I had done it.
Shakeup at DDB, you’re saying?
“…so the creatives at Saatchi & Saatchi Auckland turned the hands into helpful little critters who do the finding for you.” Yet the ad shows the fingers helping out with fetch and carry work. This spot shows some diversity of services and products but does not illustrate how the Yellow Pages offers comparisons between suppliers. So I believe it misses a trick. Is not the Yellow Pages strong suit that it is the most long running and ubiquitous of search engines? It predates Google and the home computer,is free to access,every home and office has one,and it’s targeted to your area.And that makes it more useful in many cases than an internet search. Last year’s Ferrit ads expalined well how that resource allowed comparions of price and supplier.The Yellow Pages is a step removed from Ferrit’s specificity but supports the same queries over a much larger range of goods,suppliers and services. I believe this is the Yellow Pages trump and I dont think it’s properly illustrated here. Yellow Pages’ use of “let your fingers do the walking” is old.It was a call to save time and leg work back in the day.That Saatchis have chosen to be literal in their appropriation of the logo and not expand upon the publics first reaction (“Probably the best known thing”) seems to me a little lazy.I hope their client does not suffer as a result. And sinister is a half better description than spooky.