Aussie expat director Kim Gehrig helms brilliant, chaotic NY Times campaign via Droga5, New York
Droga5 has launched ‘Life Needs Truth’, a new campaign for the New York Times that looks to show its journalism as part of the fabric of life and the issues of our time – how it can guide us every day, from daily news to podcasts, opinions to cooking, technology to home. The campaign, which is a new iteration of the the newspaper’s incredible The Truth Is Worth It campaign, has been brought to life by Aussie expat director Kim Gehrig and Somesuch.
Life itself has come into sharp focus – understanding the world and having the correct facts and the right information have never been more essential than now. The truth can help guide people through life, help people see and help people learn to understand and navigate the current world. Now is the time when the power of good, quality, independent journalism is needed the most. It’s this insight that led Droga5 to the ‘Life Needs Truth’ work, which looks to show New York Times journalism as part of the fabric of life and the issues of the current time – how it can guide us everyday, from daily news to podcasts, opinions to cooking, technology to home. The work looks to capture the current time in America through the lens of Times reporting – it responds to the idea that, in times like these, we all need journalism to help us process the world.
Kim Gehrig is represented by Revolver/Will O’Rourke across Australia and New Zealand.
16 Comments
Fuck that is well done. Like really, really good. An amazing film.
Damn, and you know this concept is going to look amazing across channels. Love it.
What makes this film, other than the beautiful , simple , creative editing and jazz soundscape is the catalogue of world class still photography that the film employs. Cheers to still photography. And cheers to New York Times for always commissioning such high quality work.
For the most part in this industry , still photography is so undervalued and overused.If only there was such a healthy respect for this craft in Australia we too would have campaigns as bold as this. What a fucking awesome campaign.
So fucking true Cory big part of why I moved OS in my early days as a photojournalist, serious lack of understanding the power of a still photograph, this is a powerful campaign!!
Yep. This is great. What Cory said (also… love your work mate), the mixed media and impeccable editing make this. Awesome to see some Australian Talent making work of this caliber.
After skipping straight to the comments I was amped to treat myself to almost 2 and a half minutes of advertising genius.
Got 46 seconds in.
While I sit here processing emotions of disappointment the words ‘bland’ and ‘underwhelming’ come to mind.
You sir/madam must be joking. This is both tremendous and triumphant. And a complete craft masterclass. I sent it to my parents and my girlfriend I liked it so much. Haven’t done that since SuperHumans.
Turn your sound on.
The design company that put this together should be credited here – along with the photographers who capture these images.
This Campaign is absolutely about photography and editing craft.
It’s not unusual for our work ( still photography) to be used in storyboards, artwork and campaigns without any hint of a credit. In fact it’s rare that the PR team who write these Campaign Brief press releases ever credit a photographer, even-though they use our hero imagery , and yet the bloody unit operator gets a credit. And I can not count the amount of times my own images have turned up in briefs and directors treatments , etc , yet I will often not even get a look in on the job. Nepotism is alive and well in Australian Ad Agencies – thats for sure. Im glad I moved to a country where our craft is respected and actual Art Buyers exist. A campaign would never get made like this in Australia because Art Directors know nothing about still photography these days.sadly. Well Done NYT.
This is one of the best pieces of work I have seen in years. Maybe a decade. It is stop-in-your-tracks, make-me-watch-it, brilliant.
Amazing work. A masterclass in execution of all aspects of craft, deft direction and writing. And what a library to draw from.. which is essentially the central idea… great advertising.
That is a horrendous generalisation and maybe you’ve just never worked with the right AD…
This ad is awesome, but also pure technique. I’d love to know what was presented to the client and what Kim added to it. Was it a reference film that made them go ‘wow’ from some movie credits or did they cut something together then engage Kim? Or engage her during the process?