Marjut Rimminen

Nokian NRV, Kastemato

1999 · Commercial · 35 seconds

Nokia / PHS

An earthworm crawls across wet stony tarmac under a bank of storm cloud, the whole film graded down to a near monochrome green so that the worm's pink is almost the only colour anywhere in it. The camera lies at ground level with the worm, then cuts to a car dragging a white wall of spray behind it, to water bursting off the road in a branching burst that fills the frame, and to headlights flaring past telegraph poles on a black road. There is no animation in this one at all, it is photographed throughout, but the idea underneath it is a visual rhyme: the worm's ringed body lies across a dark ribbed surface that reads as tread, ring against ring, so the animal and the product are built the same way. That rhyme also solves the pack shot, because the tread has already been made the subject, and the end card is simply a close view of wet rubber with the nokian NRV wordmark keyed over it. The voice-over says only "Nokian NRV. Its water grooves save lives", a road safety line delivered over an animal small enough that no driver would notice it going under a wheel.

A pale ringed worm on wet stony ground, storm cloud massed across the sky above The worm stretched out along the foreground, thin grass and standing water behind it Tilted view down a wet road, a car speeding away at top right and throwing spray White water bursts upward and fills the frame, thrown off the road surface A car on a straight road at dusk, headlights flaring towards camera past telegraph poles Close view of a wet tyre tread with the nokian NRV wordmark keyed across it

What is said: Nokian NRV. Its water grooves save lives.

  • 🥇 Best Seconds of the Month
  • 🥇 Epica Awards Gold Medal

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