Boots Skin Care Trust

Boots the pharmacy company launched an artful television advertising campaign in July 2005 with ‘Tear Drop’, ‘Translucent Baby’ and ‘Human Plant’, pointing viewers to the micro site: www.boots.com/trust.

A toddler who’s new in the art of walking sees a teddy bear on the sheep skin rug. As the baby leans over to pick up the bear the light from a glowing globe behind shines through the baby’s skin. The voiceover: “Boots know that a baby’s skin is thirty percent thinner than that of an adult, making it more prone to dryness and irritation. That’s why they’ve Boots work with pediatric experts to develop every product in their baby skin care range.” We see the baby’s feet resting on his/her mum’s feet, and then the baby sitting in front of the light globe again.

Click on the image below to play the Translucent Baby video.

A tear drop moves back in time, from being splattered on the ground to dripping off the chin and oozing out of a young boy’s eye. The voiceover: “Boots know that a cut can take weeks if not months to fully heal. That’s why they’ve developed plasters using hospital proven technology that actually speed up the healing process.”

Click on the image below to play the Teardrop video.

A pink shoot bursts out of the ground, growing up and up, forming a leaf. The pink leaf grows in to a woman’s body. The voiceover: “Boots know that to get the most out of plants you don’t just need a chemist you need a botanist. That’s why they worked with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew to develop truly effective plant based skin care”.

Click on the image below to play the Human Plant video.

Production Credits

The Boots Skin Care campaign was developed by advertising agency Mother London who tend to work as one large collaborative team. Take a look around their web site – which means take a look around their building, interacting with the many staff. Megan Risdale is the one name I’ve tracked down that is linked with the campaign.

The team from film production company, Blink, includes the three directors known collectively as LynnFox. LynnFox are Christian McKenzie, Patrick Chen and Bastian Glassner, three directors working collaboratively. They first met at Bartlett School of Architecture where they worked together on an assignment submitted as a music video. Once they had graduated they realised that making music videos was a lot more interesting than architecture. They’re well known for their work with singer Bjork, particularly for her music video ‘Oceania’. Other members of the Blink team are producer Nick Glendinning and Director of Photography Stephen Keith Roach.

Post Production for the Skin Care campaign was done at The Mill, London, by producer Darren O’Kelly, CG producer Jo Sheppard and Telecine artist Paul Harrison. Editors were Art Jones at Speade (Tear Drop & Human Plant ) and Suzy Davis at Final Cut (Translucent Baby).

The soundtrack for each of the advertisements is the same: “Nobody Teaches Life Anything” from the EP, “Man Bites Man”, by Dogs Die In Hot Cars.