Gary Graf TV Commercials

     As with radio, there doesn't seem to be any direct correlation between creating successful TV commercials and effective websites. Just the ability to think outside the square and to get the message across with a minimum of words.
     Over the years I saw some 130 TV commercials that I helped create go to air. I've picked five for inclusion here, but in time others will take their place. The video quality isn't what you'd call brilliant, but you'll get the idea.
     BTW, clicking on the names of the production houses will take you to call sheets for each spot. And sometimes a bit more.

Ricegrowers/Sunlong .30

'Made in Australia'
Art director: Richard Dearing; Clemenger Sydney
Director: Peter McIntosh, Ross Woods Productions
This campaign, featuring rice sculptures which form and deform right before your eyes, must be one of the best known and most successful in Australian advertising history. I came up with the original strategy and wrote three of the first five.

Pal Mealtime .60

'Monolith'
Art director: Rob James; Clemenger Sydney
Director: Ron Windon, Ron Windon Productions
This was the biggest commercial Pal had ever done. Sixty-seven dogs in all were employed, most of them turned loose to run over hill and dale...with only a few bitings and one nasty scratching. It aired in test markets in Victoria and Tasmania and achieved phenomenal 'recall' scores over 90%.

Ampol Corporate .60

'Malcolm Douglas'
Art director: Warwick Majcher; Clemenger Sydney
Director: John Ashenhurst, Ashenhurst Hughes Film Co.
Warwick and I had hoped to score a trip to the Kimberley with this spot. But since it was the fourth to be shot in the campaign, there wasn't enough money left for travelling across the country. We made do in and around Broken Hill. And yes, I ate a witchetty grub.

RTA/Speed Reduction .60

'Courthouse'
Art director: Dean Mortensen; Clemenger Sydney
Director: Ray Lawrence, Window Productions
Changing driving behaviour continues to be one of the biggest challenges in advertising. Contrary to what some people think, shock ads featuring blood, gore and hysteria don't work. Despite the millions that have been spent on them all over the world. People simply rationalise, It will never happen to me.

Kim Trash Bags .30

'Refuse Abuse'
Art directors: me, John Murray; Needham, Harper & Steers, New York
Director: Bill Alton, Alton/Melsky Productions
My first TV spot, which I wrote before the agency got around to giving me an art director to work with. It won gongs from AIGA (50 Best), Creativity '71, San Francisco Film Festival (Best of Category), US Television Commercial Festival (First Place) and the Cork International Film Festival.

If you'd also like to peruse my print work, just click Print. To listen to my radio spots, click Radio. And to watch more Television Commercials, click Archives.