Smith & Foulkes: Stop, Look & Listen

This one nearly slipped by the radar. “The Boy Who Didnʼt Stop, Look & Listen” is the first installment in a three-part series for the Department for Transport THINK! Child Road Safety campaign in the UK.

Leo Burnett set up the series for success by penning “Tales from the Road,” an eerie set of nursery rhymes that show kids what might happen when basic safety rules are ignored.

In the hands of Nexus Productions’ Smith & Foulkes, the stories become painterly visions that are one part children’s book illustration and one part nightmare. They walk a fine line between quiet and creepy, crawling under your skin in the process.

Says Smith & Foulkes, “We wanted these commercials to act as a pause in a child’s TV viewing, holding the gaze of the immobile injured characters almost painfully long as a contrast to the hi-energy multi-coloured frenzy of your average childrenʼs programming break.”

Pay attention to the little details, like the quivering crutch as the boy reaches for his ball or the subtle dimensionality of the vignetting during camera moves. It’s all beautifully realized down to the finest detail in typical Smith & Foulkes fashion.

Stay tuned for parts two and three of the series. They’re worth the wait.

Client: Department for Transport
Title: ‘The Boy who didn’t Stop, Look & Listen’
Length: 1 x 40″
Production Company: Nexus Productions
Director: Smith & Foulkes
Executive Producers: Chris O’Reilly and Charlotte Bavasso
Head of Production: Julia Parfitt
Producer: Melody Sylvester
Production Assistant: Denise Abraham
Character Designer: Mustashrik Mahbub
Project Lead: Mark Davies

Further credits from Leo Burnett:
Executive Creative Director: Jonathan Burley
Creative Directors: Guy Moore and Tony Malcolm
Copywriter: Christopher Birch
Art director: Caroline Rawlings
Planner (creative agency): Nick Docherty
Media agency: Carat
Planner (media agency): Laura Braithwaite
Editor N/A – animation
Audio post-production: Anthony Moore @ Factory
Exposure: National television