Directed by James Barr of Flying Fish, the latest series of Paper Plus commercials are a double-minded proposition from the pen of Creative Director Glenn Jameson.
"Repositioning the Paper Plus brand was a difficult brief, troubled with what's known in the business as a double-minded proposition; in other words, the client wanted to sell two things at once. Normally I pin the client down to a single idea, but since Paper Plus sells both books AND stationery I had no choice but to embrace the schizophrenia. The solution came from thinking about the proposition being double-minded - as in having two minds. In a brainstorm I suddenly thought about my two daughters whose brains are genetically split into dominant left and right hemispheres. The eldest is all about order and the youngest is chaos, one's a book worm and the other is a stationery nut. In creating the Paper Plus characters - the identical twins Molly & Polly - all I had to do was flip my daughter's respective passions and viola, the campaign practically wrote itself."
View Paper Plus Commercial"It was a remarkable production with Flying Fish producer Carne Bidwill squeezing every drop out of a tight budget, affording director James Barr three days to knock off 18 spots. We rehearsed with theatre actress Andi Crown for a whole day shortly before the shoot, video taping her performances, allowing her to get into both characters and nail the tricky comic timing.
Once it was all in the can we were well looked after by the indomitable Lucy St George who rallied her troops at Images to bring the twins together in the same time and space. There was a special moment for us all when Flame Artist, Brenton Cumberpatch effected the exchange of gifts between Molly and Polly in the Christmas spot. It was magical - or as James called it, "... a present to the Paper Plus customers who are following the campaign."
The conjoining of the twins was so seamless that many of the 700 plus Facebook fans are still convinced they're real twins."
Glenn Jameson
Creative Director