“I love sending nudes to my loved ones.”

Sweet Painting is hilarious. They can take anybody’s face, and meticulously hand paint it onto the body of any work of art. You can put your mom’s face on the Mona Lisa, or your dad’s face on The Creation of Adam.

The challenge: How do you make a great ad for a gift that people might not need right away?

The solution: By making it SO memorable, they remember your ad the next time a birthday/anniversary/etc rolls around. That meant, emphasizing the fact that you can recreate famous nude paintings…with any face you want.

My responsibilities as Creative Director:

Writing: The theme for this ad was a bit risqué, but that was really the point. We knew that chances would be low that somebody would see our ad, and immediately have a birthday/anniversary/etc they needed to buy a gift for. If people converted, they would do so in the future - when they have a reason to buy a gift like this. So, the only way to make them remember us in the future…was by creating an unforgettable ad. And what’s more bizarre than seeing a grandmother talk about sending nudes to her loved ones? While some of my other ads rely on beautiful visuals or interesting sets to help keep things interesting, this one was different: the power lied solely in the execution of the script.

Visuals: Planning these paintings was a bit of a fiasco. About 3 months prior to filming, I cast about two dozen people to be our talent, and had portraits completed for them. I managed one artist to make sure these portraits captured our talent’s features as well as possible and I’m truly thrilled with how they turned out! To keep the focal point on the portraits, the set itself is quite simple.

Post-production feedback: I gave detailed feedback to our editor to help ensure the cut reflected what was intended in the script.