21st Century Busby Berkeley Advertising

Via Wooster Collective, a collection of advertisements featuring overhead/aerial shots of people dressed in colorful outfits, choreographed to form dynamic shapes.

Of course, Busby Berkeley didn't have access to computer-generated extras.









And as a bonus video by Michael Gondry:



What's great about the internet and YouTube is that we can collect all these things together in a single blog post. What's less great is the lack of context: are any of these by the same choreographer? Are some of these copycats of others? (Three involve liquid being "poured" out of a bottle.)

What's great about modern brand advertising is that there are creatives and account planners persuasive enough to convince companies like Coca-Cola to spend bucketloads of money creating a street art stunt that makes me want to watch their commercial repeatedly, but in the aggregate doesn't really do much to sell more corn syrup water.

At least, not enough to justify the cost of the production, agency fees, and media buys.