Sehsucht: Head and Shoulders

Posted by Justin Cone

Clever writing and subtle motion graphics combine in this memorable campaign for Head and Shoulders. Although they’re certainly capable of high-end wizardry, Hamburg-based Sehsucht pulled back the throttle and let the concept have center stage. Props to agency Saatchi & Saatchi NY both for their concept and good taste.

One suggestion: Watch these with the sound off. The voiceover kinda ruins the puzzle aspect for me.

“Brazil” | “Concert” | “Interview”


Advertiser: Procter & Gamble
Product: Head and Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo
Agency: Saatchi and Saatchi New York
Executive Creative Director: Tony Granger
Creative Director: Kerry Keenan
Art Director: Michael Schachtner, Menno Kluin
Copywriter: Julia Neumann, Scott Cooney
Agency Producer: Michelle Strank
Production Company: SEHSUCHT GMBH
Executive Producer: Andreas Lampe
Producer: Kristina Neurohr
Director: Timo Schädel, Niko Tziopanos
Animation: Martin Hess, Christian Heyde
composition: Supreme Music, Beatsucht
Maximilian Olowinsky
Felix Müller
Florian Lakenmacher

About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.
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26 Comments

Matt

Ditto. No VO makes them stronger.
By the way, I think making an outstanding piece by pulling back the throttle is a much more difficult than gunning it.

Very nice work.

pogo

wow…every student can pull this off
in 20 minutes. would be interesting to
know how much money they got for this job…
40,000K
think about it!

cheers

Marc B.

I agree.
Maybe Justin was referring to the agency concept more so than Sehsucht’s part.

I also think that the transition from type and the dandruff itself doesn’t look convincing enough.

Matt

Are talking about the concept or the animation being easy to pull off? Because I seriously doubt ANY student could’ve come up with this concept and executed it as finely. In addition, if you asked students to replicate these spots, I’d bet that most couldn’t produce it as smoothly (not to mention the sound design or VO work).

Not rapping students here, because I’ll always be one, but the trenchant simplicity in design (or the arts in general) always seems to be mocked by the green. It’s like strolling through a Modern Art exhibit with the 5th grade class, or my grandma.

Not saying these are my favorite spots of all time, but they beat the hell out of literally showing a person with dandruff on their collar, then washing hair with the product. As Sehsucht successfully displays, even in the mograph world, storytelling without pictures creates a more personal, imaginative piece.

Simon Robson

i couldn’t agree more, although I’m positive the concept came from the copy-writer in the creative team at the ad agency.

It’s just one of those spots that works on the strength of the writing. No “whizz-bang” required. And actually, this sort of spot is quite threatening to the main-stream mographer, because there it shows great ideas don’t always need complex executions.

Don’t worry guys, there’ll be plenty of tricksy bits on the next “big” car ad for you to do!!!

bdemong

“…simplicity in design (or the arts in general) always seems to be mocked by the green. It’s like strolling through a Modern Art exhibit with the 5th grade class, or my grandma.”

Nailed.

anonymouse

why do i get the feeling you’ve never actually worked on a project of this scope before.

sergio

nice concept

Loving it

Beautifully designed, genius writing, powerful add campaign. This is not a student job just shows that pogo doesn’t understand the industry at all.

Deocliciano

Beautiful and HONEST!

henry

Really hope the second part was joking. Beautiful in simplicity and concept, but certainly not honest – otherwise thousands of non-Head and Shoulders users would be condemned to lives of friendless, jobless, loveless lives. Love the idea but the message is on the deep end of hyperbole.

mami

I agree with pogo every intern can pull off
this animation…and the concept isn’t that new.
but it seems the motionographer community is
getting really horny about it

get some bitches

Simon Robson

> get some bitches…

what!!??

mami

sorry….I didn’t know you are into boys

escee

i guess the collective motionographer community (which i must say is seeming a bit more like one these days) just needs to get some bitches.

well don’t worry about us “mami”. those of us who can appreciate the subtle symbiosis of concept and execution here happen to be rockstar designers, and therefore have the “getting some bitches” part down by default.

escee

ps, im starting to think “rockstar” might be the new ultimate cliche adjective for people like us… granted, i still think the concept of a rockstar still holds a strong relevant meaning, i just hear it too often.

any takers on a replacement or two??? my creative lexicon is blanking…

mami

> …happen to be rockstar designers

I guess “american psycho” is one of your favorite movies… recalling the scene guys showing off their cool business card

you wouldn’t get my girl

oeuf

“get some bitches

-mami”

Ha, I can resort to saying “I have a bitch, you might know her, she’s yo momma”, but i won’t.

Like others have said, concept is deceivingly simple that an intern could pull this off, but in reality it takes a lot of people. From concept, sound design to animation. I like this spot, it lies in the other spectrum of mograph of subtle graphics.

mami

>Ha, I can resort to saying “I have a bitch, you might know her, she’s yo momma”, but i won’t.<

you wouldn’t be able to satisfy her anyway

zahnarztfrau

na, langeweile? zur zeit arbeitslos, pogomami? würd mich nicht wundern.

mami

you sounds like a 2 bob cunt

mami

P.S. mein kuehlschrank ist schon lange voll…
ich komme hier nur ab und zu her und mache mich lustig ueber solche leute wie dich.

tomorrowisclosed

if i pulled this off as an intern, i would’ve been the ‘carlseberg’ of interns.

boca

Simple, spot on, wicked.

randy

scam!

TheDorm

Great execution to an otherwise “simple spot”. I like these sorts of spots. You don’t always need a butt load of things flying at you to make a good ad. Its sorta’ like music styles–different flavors and quite often it will revert to an “old school” feel/undertone.

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