I have written often about my fascination with process. I’m curious about how things are done, and why, which is what draws me to some damned good documentaries.
The latest I’ve seen, and the newest addition to my Movies You Might Not Know list, is “Art & Copy,” a look into the world of advertising and the people who create it. Director Doug Pray interviewed some of the top agency people in the world to discern the stories behind the campaigns they’ve created.
We hear from the team behind the “Got Milk?” slogan, learn that Nike’s “Just Do It” was based on the last words of Gary Gilmore before he was executed, and discover the link between Toulouse-Latrec and some iPod billboards. We also get to see a couple of billboard technicians putting up a brand new ad (I always wondered how they did that) and hear one ad man explain how he literally made Tommy Hilfiger famous overnight.
These stories are accompanied by some stunning visuals that give “Art & Copy” a lot more energy that you’d expect from a documentary full of talking egos. Sadly, the movie doesn’t spend any time on clever radio commercial campaigns like those created by Dick Orkin, Stan Freeberg, and others. Maybe someone else will make an equally good documentary about them someday.
See my entire Movies You Might Not Know list for more ideas.