Object & Animal dazzled with artistry from its diverse bench of talents

Within a year after Object & Animal founders Dom Thomas, Justin Benoliel, Morgan Clement and James Cunningham opened the doors of their global production firm in 2018, it landed on this list as a Production Company to Watch with its impressive storytelling for big brands including Apple, Nike, Uber and others. Since then, the company has steadily upped its game and in 2021 delivered yet another round of tantalizing tales from its impressive bench of talents—which also happens to be one of the industry’s most diverse. See all of Ad Age's A-List 2022 winners here. Though FKA Twigs is perhaps best known for her music, she was a poet behind the camera on a spot for Facebook’s skateboarding-themed campaign that debuted ahead of the Summer Olympics. The dreamy ad, via Droga5, captured the graceful moves of longboarders swerving and dancing throughout the streets of Los Angeles, Seoul and Barcelona. Amber Grace Johnson brought her visual flair to spots for H&M, Nissan and Spotify. The latter was a global b-to-b push for which Johnson combined live action and visual effects to depict how Spotify immerses listeners in their own sonic paradise—an ideal platform for advertisers to capture their attention. Speaking of immersion, Meta and Droga5 turned to Andrew Thomas Huang to depict the wild world promised by the metaverse by imagining French artist Henri Rousseau’s 1908 painting “Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo” coming to life. On a more whimsical note, Bert & Bertie were on board to help McDonald’s and Leo Burnett London squeeze happy tears from viewers once again, with the feel-good holiday spot “Imaginary Iggy.” Other notable turns include Natalie Rae’s “Play New” ad for Nike Korea via Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo that challenged the bullying aspect of sport; Chrstine Yuan's artsy film for Louis XIII cognac highlighting the scarcity of its N°XIII offering, from Fred & Farid; and an ad directed by Quinn Wilson for Billie razors taking on society’s unconscious biases toward women. See all of Ad Age's A-List 2022 winners here. Mike Hasinoff, executive producer at Droga5, worked with the Object & Animal team on the Facebook Olympics push, the Meta film as well as work for Lululemon with director Rae. On the Facebook spot shot by FKA Twigs, “There was an energy created with this fully diverse and exceptionally talented team of underrepresented collaborators that was unlike anything I’d experienced before," he said. "This was a fully safe space where no one was asked to mute themselves in any way, and that energy translated to the visual poetry that ended up in the film. This is now the benchmark for how I approach every job moving forward.” Buy your ticket for the Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Gala at AdAge.com/ACGala.

Object & Animal dazzled with artistry from its diverse bench of talents

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