New HP Campaign: A “Twist” on the Old?

Eight VFX teamed up with director Olivier Gondry to create a three-spot campaign for HP. The first spot in the series stars fashion designer Vera Wang, and it’s been getting some serious airplay lately.

Goodby, Silverstein and Partners/SF, the agency behind the campaign, is obviously building on the success of their previous “Hands” campaign (which featured beautiful design and animation executed by Motion Theory). But there’s a degree of separation in this new spot that I think detracts a little from the spontaneous acts of personal expression implied by the “Hands” approach.

Instead of the talent directly manipulating the objects of their creativity, this new approach leans towards celebrities watching over tableaux that seem to be created by someone else. Each scene seems prepackaged, in a way; all the talent needs to do is pull on the right doohickey or push the right button. (Maybe that’s also indicative of HP’s approach to personal computing?)

The scenes are clever, though. My favorite is the self-referential commercial-within-a-commercial moment. Very Gondry. (Both Michel and Olivier.)

Technically, Eight VFX did a smashing job. Their sense of scale is perfectly consistent, which really bolsters the impression that you’re witnessing little universes play out on a table top. They seem to have great chemistry with Gondry, opting for a little less whiz-bang slickness in favor of practical effects and straightforward live action compositing when possible.

Full credits in this press release.