His punishment is to be thrown into the
hold.
When he is eventually released, he stumbles
out into the daylight wearing only his underwear and
carrying his clothes under his arm.
His actions are immediately copied by Didier
- the main character in the commercial - when he realizes this is
the only way he can get some time alone to drink his 'newly acquired'
bottle of Stella Artois.
* * * *
This commercial, which is called "Devil's
Island," won a Gold
Award at the British Advertising Awards.
Here is a little more information
on this advertisement.
The new ad, "Devil's Island," is directed by Jonathan
Glazer, whose 1997 "Last Orders" commercial for Stella
made his name. Since he shot the ad, in which a dying man's son
is unable to resist drinking the glass of Stella he has gone to
great pains to acquire for his father, Glazer has fulfilled his
long-held ambition to make a feature film (the acclaimed gangster
movie "Sexy Beast") and is now preparing to make his second,
"Birth," a big-budget Hollywood drama starring Nicole
Kidman and Lauren Bacall.
"Devil's Island" is extravagant even by Stella's
standards. Industry estimates put the cost of the film at more than
£750,000, thanks to a shoot in Argentina, crowd scenes that required
more than 850 extras, and the hiring of an 80-year-old ship which
had to be made seaworthy before it could be used for filming.
The hero is played by an unknown Italian stage actor called
Antonio Rampino, whom Glazer discovered in Rome after an exhaustive
trawl of talent in London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. The
shoot was held up for four weeks while he found his man, and when
filming eventually began, it lasted six days, far longer than a
normal ad shoot, and required the closure of four blocks of downtown
Buenos Aires to shoot the crowd scenes.
"Devil's Island," which will hit screens next month,
tells the story of Didier, a prisoner bound for the notorious French
penal colony. On the ship he witnesses one of his fellow inmates
attacking a guard with a metal soup ladle and knocking him unconscious.
As the prisoner is thrown into the ship's cooler for a spell of
solitary confinement, one of the soldiers becomes distracted and
drops a bottle of Stella.
The bottle rolls to the other end of the deck, where Didier,
unable to believe his luck, stashes it away in a rolled-up blanket
and waits for a quiet moment to enjoy his discovery. Unfortunately,
the prisoners never have a moment alone, and every time he tries
to sneak the bottle out he is eyed suspiciously by the others. Then,
in a moment of inspiration, he grabs the cook's metal ladle and
whacks the guard with an apologetic shrug. He is then dragged over
to the hold, clinging tightly to his blanket with a private smile
of anticipation on his face, as the words "reassuringly expensive"
appear on screen.
(Note: Ron played the
fellow inmate who attacked the guard with a metal soup ladle.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
British Television
Advertising Awards
"Gold
award"
Advertiser:
Interbrew UK
Product: Stella Artois
Title : Devil's Island
Advertising agency: Lowe
Production company: Academy
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Writer: Vince Squibb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
