Michael Hill Jeweller has been showing its ‘14’ television commercial on Queensland screens again in the lead up to Valentine’s Day. Released in 2005, the ad features a young teenager eagerly counting the days until her fourteenth birthday when she has her ears pierced. It’s a touching celebration of teenage rites of passage.
The Turning 14 spot opens with a young woman adjusting her hair in front of a mirror, revealing her ears. Next shot shows her in a classroom looking at a blackboard with equations each featuring the number 14. She doodles a ‘14’ in her maths book. The next clue is in a hand-drawn calendar – she’s counting down the days to the 28th. The young woman walks through a building and looks up at a bronze statuette – the camera focuses on the ears of the nude woman. Outside the railway station she sees a young couple sitting on a bench. The boy’s whispering in the girl’s ear – an ear with dangling ear rings. It’s now getting close. Mum’s icing the birthday cake. Trying to sleep the girl squeezes her eyes shut. The shot transitions to her squeezed eyes opening to reveal a pair of ear rings freshly inserted at the jeweller’s. The camera swaps between the view of a little sister and the girl. The super: “When Did It Start For You?” A Michael Hill Jeweller box revolves, revealing the text, “Celebrate You.”
Turning 14 Credits
The commercial was created by advertising agency McCann Erickson Brisbane, with creative director Rem Bruijn, writers Nancy Hartley and Robbie Kantor, art director James Burchill and Katrine Bowman.
Filming was shot by director Peter Burger via Silverscreen, Wellington.
Post production was done at Oktobor, Auckland.
Music was provided by New Zealand band, The Phoenix Foundation
Michael Hill International operates Michael Hill Jeweller – a retail jewellery chain catering principally for the middle section of the jewellery market, with 158 stores between Australia, New Zealand and Canada as at 28 July 2005. The Company also specialises in higher priced diamond jewellery. The Company had its origins in 1979 when Michael Hill opened the first store in the New Zealand town of Whangarei, some 160 kilometres north of Auckland.