Ringan Ledwidge of production company Rattling Stick is one of the industry's most-respected directors, with past work including celebrated ads such as "Three Little Pigs" for The Guardian, Axe's "Susan Glenn" and Lynx's "Getting Dressed."
Ad Age's Creativity caught up with him about his most recent project– Sainsbury's holiday ad via AMV BBDO, which recreated the Christmas Truce of December 1914 during World War I.
Did you have a particular vision of how you wanted the
Sainsbury's spot to be?
I didn't want it to be all about the football match –
originally, that was a bigger part of the brief. The game is just
one aspect of the sharing message. The important fact was that a
group of men that had been shooting at each other suddenly came
together. I also made more of the moment when the soldier puts his
hands up and stands up in the trench – that moment is a
reminder of the violence that's going on.
You had a relative who died in World War I yourself? Did
that make it more of a personal connection?
My great uncle, Francis Ledwidge, was an Irish war poet who was
killed in 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele. He's studied in
Irish schools today. And I did grow up knowing a lot about him, so,
yes, I did feel a personal connection. His poetry was less about
the war and more about home and basic normal things, stuff that
everyone takes for granted. Normality to these men was a privilege,
and again I tried to bring that to the ad in the moment where the
two soldiers meet.
The ad has attracted its share of controversy (over 240
complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, although these
were not upheld). How much was it on the radar that this would be a
delicate subject to pull off? And that it might offend some people
that a brand was using the war for commercial
purposes?
That was definitely in my mind, and I wouldn't have become involved
if it weren't for the support of the Royal British Legion in the
project. They were closely involved in every aspect of the shoot
and everything had to be signed off by them. But you have to ask
yourself: 'How come it's fine for a big studio to do a movie about
the war, and make a lot of money for a huge corporation, and not
for a supermarket?' It's an anti-war film and just because it's
financed by a brand doesn't take away from that. If anything, the
fact that it's going out during "The X-Factor" and will be seen by
a young audience makes it more important. Rattling Stick has been
inundated with emails and calls from schools wanting to know more
about the film. So yeah, it's an easy target if you want to attack
consumerism, but my feeling is the positives outweigh the
negatives.
One striking thing about this ad was how much people
were sharing it on social media. What do you think social sharing
has done for advertising -- does it allow advertisers more creative
freedom to do long-form content?
Definitely. This ad started out as a two-minute film and ended up
as 3:20. The Nike ad I did this year
("Winner Stays") was 4:20. Even I thought that
was crazy at the time, but so many people watch it online and share
it. When YouTube came out, everyone said it would be the death of
commercials, but it's totally wrong. It's made it a really exciting
time for creativity. And production companies are changing as a
result -- you have to be a lot more nimble and have diversity to
what you do.
Your portfolio of work seems very eclectic - is there
one particular genre that appeals to you?
Not at all -- I still choose what I do purely on the idea. For
example I did the Dead Mouse Theater spots straight after
Sainsbury's. They couldn't have been more different, but the idea
really appealed to me.
What other work have you admired recently?
I'm traveling eight months of the year, so I don't get a chance to
watch as much as I should. But I always look out for Dougal
(Wilson, of John Lewis penguin fame). And
Lance Acord is also someone I really
respect.
