Each week, we'll be discussing an ad campaign that has been deemed especially noteworthy by an industry professional. This feature will be called Tearsheet. We'll kick off our first installment with input from Amanda Sosa-Stone, a freelance photography consultant. Before moving to Florida and starting her consulting career, Sosa-Stone was an art buyer at Foote, Cone & Belding in New York. As a consultant, Sosa-Stone advises photographers on portfolio structuring, marketing and promotion, website design, film editing, and more. The lady knows her stuff!  And she's psyched about whiskey. Me, I've always thought it tastes like soap. It's a shortcoming. But I agree with Amanda that the new Canadian Club ads kick some serious ass.

Hey Amanda! Why do you like these CC ads that Robert Whitman shot?

Amanda:  "Robert executed the Art Director's vision to the "T" on this project. With Robert's style and the art director's vision this ad to me was very successful.  With creative copy, a great concept and good photography this is a home run."

OK, let's take a look.

First off, I'm pretty happy about the irreverent tone we have here. "Damn Right Your Dad Drank It" is a hilarious tagline. They're treating me like an adult. They're not taking themselves too seriously. Plus, my dad was smokin'! Look at him! This angle seems like it will work for men and women, although presumably a whiskey ad is geared more towards men. So, if I'm pretending to be a man for a second, I'm thinking "My dad was smokin'! I'm smokin' too! Plus, I feel thirsty."

Second, the imagery is outrageously authentic-seeming. Nothing beats a wood-paneled basement with a polka dot dress. These images look like they're really, truly from the '60s. How'd they do that? We'll investigate!

Here is the list of creatives who are responsible for this campaign:

Advertising Agency: Energy BBDO, Chicago, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Marty Orzio
Creative Directors: Derek Sherman, Jason Stanfield
Copywriter: Derek Sherman
Art Director: Jason Stanfield
Designers: Steve Denekas, Jason Hardy
Senior Art Buyer: Liz Miller- Gershfeld
Assistant Art Buyer: Jackie VanWinkle
Print Producer: Linda Dos Santos
Photographer: Robert Whitman
Account Services: Doug Ryan, Marzena Grecki

I spoke with the Senior Art Buyer, Liz Miller-Gershfeld, to understand the process. First, the concept is sold to the client, and BBDO wins their business. This happened in early summer 2007. Art director Jason Stanfield and copywriter Derek Sherman took the lead there.  Then, Liz got involved. I asked Liz if the art buyer position is always clear-cut, and she said no: "It depends on the art director. Art buyer is a shape-shifter role. I've done it for a long time. At its most basic level of collaboration, I'll do a photographer search, and the AD and I narrow down the field together. We bring in some books. I'm very involved in the conversations with the photographers."

In this case, the original idea was to use only actual old family photographs, and not to shoot anything. But this posed some problems. Liz: "Reality comes in and there are a lot of legal issues, especially with a liquor client. Everyone in the image has to be twenty-five. So we looked at people who shot period photography, but we really wanted spontaneity. So we also looked at people who shot reportage." They finally settled on Robert Whitman. Liz had worked with him in the past, and felt that there was "nothing canned about his work." She also knew he'd be willing to experiment until they had the right feel.

Next, Liz helped find a producer who could add cinematic experience to the production. They found a costume designer who understood film, having worked on Walk the Line, and 310 to Yuma. It was critical that the pictures look authentic, especially since they decided to intersperse real imagery with the images that Robert shot. The actual shoot took about a week, and was in Los Angeles.

I spoke with Robert Whitman to see what his thinking was."My approach was to shoot it with old cameras.  We shot mostly with an old Brownie Hawkeye, and found a lab in Colorado that still processes C22 film".

Robert said the experience was amazing, especially since he had the freedom to find the right tone for the imagery. In addition to the Brownie, he experimented with a Contax point and shoot, a Nikon F6, and a Holga. When the final images were made, they were scanned and edited in post to "look a bit more worn".

Liz and everyone at BBDO were thrilled with the results, as was the client. She knew they had nailed it when she got a call one day from someone saying his father was in one of the images, and that the woman he was with was not his wife. Liz's heart sank, thinking somehow a model release hadn't been procured for one of the images that was actually taken in '60s. She was enormously relieved (and proud) when she realized the man was mistaken; he was referring to one of the pictures Robert had made.

Job well done!

See more of the Canadian Club ads after the jump! That link down there. I like that man with the van.