Birthday Party Without Milk
California Milk Processing Board produced a classic ‘Got Milk’ television commercial, “Birthday” in 2003.
A boy and his father are on their way to a birthday party, traveling through the rain. The boy’s carrying a gift . “Stop!”, he calls from the back seat of the car, in time to save the life of a dog crossing in front of the car. They walk the last part of the journey in the rain, father carrying the umbrella. “Wait!”, the boy says, in time to avoid being crushed by a falling tree.
At the party the boy creepily tells everyone not to eat the cake. They blithely ignore him and tuck into the chocolate cake. Their happiness is deeply disturbed by the sounds of a scream from the kitchen. The hostess runs into the dining room with an empty milk carton.
The super: “Got Milk?”
Credits
“Birthday” was developed at advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, by creative Directors Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, copywriter Colin Nissan, art director Sean Farrell, agency producer Cindy Epps.
Filming was directed by Noam Murro at Biscuit Filmworks, LA, with producers Karen O’Brien and Scott Craig. Director of photography was Stefan Czapsky with Dattner Dispoto & Assoc.
Editor was Avi Oron, Bikini Editorial, NY, who host Got Milk Birthday as a 2.9 mb quicktime video.
Music was composed by Chip Jenkins and Christopher Kent at Elias Arts, LA. Audio Post production was done at Crescendo! Studios by David Baker who hosts Got Milk Birthday as a 2.49 mb quicktime video.
The boy with sixth sense is played by Cainan Wiebe who has since appeared as Duncan Germaine in The 4400, and as Billy in Black Christmas. The father is played by Sherman Howard. The woman who screams was Melanie Blackwell. The twin party guests were Kylie and Amy Macklin. Kid party guests were Rachel Victoria (in chair), Evan Smith, Nazar Poverlo, Michael Kurliak, Mikhael Speidel. Adult party guests were Jessica Schreier, Mark Burgess, Julie Howgate.
Noam Murro
Noam Murro is working with Dreamworks on Douglas Coupland’s “All Families Are Psychotic“, with Elevation Filmworks on Stephen Amidon’s Human Capital, and with Warner Brothers Pictures on a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train. His first venture into feature directing was with Dreamworks’ The Ring 2 in 2003 -- 2004 but ended with Murro pulling out due to creative differences.
See my reviews of Noam Murro’s other television commercials
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Posted in Inspiration, TV Ads Cinema and Online Videos
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(4.92 out of 5)
personally, I really could not understand the last part of the ad. Though I do not have many experiences on ad evaluation, but i believed i have done a few pre-ad and post-ad evaluation (both qualitative and quantitative approach) in Malaysia, i just couldn’t get the message. Perhaps I’m not the target audience. Furthermore, i’m surprise there isn’t the milk moustache signature (which is so Got Milk).