The Mill turns back time for McCains’ 25th Anniversary

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the oven chip, TBWA “fortuitously stumbled upon some un-used footage from 1979 of Valerie Singleton hailing the longevity of the humble oven chip".
At the end of this mammoth 3 ½ minute commercial, Valerie makes some spookily accurate predictions about what the next 25 years holds – texting, mobile phones and a Russian billionaire owner for Chelsea. It is, of course, at this point that we realise we’ve been conned by a hilarious and engaging spoof, typical of TBWA’s maverick creative directors Trevor Beattie and Bill Bungay.
The Mill was handed the task of reversing the ageing process on Valerie Singleton. Every shot of Valerie was smoothed out to remove wrinkles, while her eyes and teeth were whitened for a more youthful look. The footage was initially shot on 35mm so that all smoothing and whitening could be executed at a proper resolution. But once these effects were completed, the footage was down-res’ed by playing-out to one-inch twice and then back to digi.
Analogue video drop-out and dirt particles were also added to create an authentically old feel.
(GB)