Marjut Rimminen

Commercials

Vivante

1971 · Commercial · 30 seconds

Bathroom cosmetics by Berner. Marjut’s first commercial.

Vivante still, a drawn woman lathers a man’s hair as they share a claw-foot bath, three Vivante by Berner shampoo bottles standing across the front

A 30-second ode to a bubble bath. Banned by Finnish television for the “merry exposure of a girl sharing her bath with a man”. Won Best Animated Commercial at Zagreb 1972, beating Preston Blair and Geoff Dunbar. The award led directly to the move to London.

Marjut had a Kulttuurirahasto grant to study animation abroad, but her career as an art director in Helsinki had taken off so fast she could never get away. The summer of 1970 finally got her to the Mamaia film festival in Romania, where she sat through morning-to-late-night animation screenings and met the British animation producer Dick Arnall.

I got very inspired, sat in the festival from morning screenings till late shows, and got a high-dose injection of animation straight to my brain. I could see what makes animation special, and also what were the worn-out and conventional approaches. I also met Dick, the love of my life, in the festival, and the Vivante commercial was a result of these exciting experiences.

Marjut Rimminen, on Mamaia 1970
Dick Arnall, Geoff Dunbar and John Perkins at the Mamaia animation festival in 1970, with an unidentified woman in a patterned dress, black and white
Dick Arnall, Geoff Dunbar and John Perkins at Mamaia, 1970. Marjut Rimminen: “This is where Dick and I met.” Photograph from Marjut Rimminen’s collection.

A few months later, in the Kauppatori cafe in Helsinki, Marjut bumped into Lemmikki Nenonen, a commercials director who had been asked to make a TV spot for Berner’s Vivante bath cosmetics but couldn’t find an idea.

I suggested animation, and having a man and a woman sharing a bath together (something that Dick and I indulged in). I promised to draw some sketches.

Marjut Rimminen
Sketch in ink and blue wash: a woman with a cloud of curls lathers the hair of a man sitting in a claw-foot bath. Sketch: a couple lie together in the bath under a dripping shower head, a Vivante bottle on the rim. Sketch: the woman stands in the bath covering her breasts, a man stretched out under the water. Sketch: the shower pours into an empty bath, three Vivante bottles standing in front.
Marjut’s sketches for Vivante
Vivante still, a drawn woman with a cloud of white curls sits in a claw-foot bath of blue water, a Vivante by Berner shampoo bottle tipping in at the right

Berner liked the sketches and approved three months of production time. The first line test was terrible: the bath tub had been redrawn on every cel, and the picture juddered as if floating in a heavy storm. That is how Marjut learned to put things on layers.

When the commercial was finished, Mainos-TV banned it for being too risque. The Lintas agency had faith in the project and entered it into Klaffi-kilpailu, Finland’s annual best-commercials competition, where Vivante won an award. The following spring she sent it to Zagreb, where it took the Grand Prix for best commercial, beating spots by Preston Blair and Geoff Dunbar. After that Mainos-TV changed its mind and put it on air.

Marjut Rimminen and Dick Arnall sit in the front row on the left in a crowded festival auditorium with a balcony, Zagreb, 1972
Zagreb Animation Festival, 1972. Marjut Rimminen: “Dick and I are sitting here in the front row on the left.” Photograph from Marjut Rimminen’s collection.

In the summer of 1972 the magazine Anna wrote about Marjut and her brother Sakari, who were both winning prizes with their first films: Sakari the Grand Prix at San Remo for Pilvilinna, Marjut first prize at Zagreb. The article tells how Vivante was banned from television and asks why Finnish commercials are so sombre. Marjut answers that clients who come to commission a commercial always ask for some humour as well.

A page of Anna magazine, 1972, headed Liian villi televisiolle: a photograph of Marjut and Sakari Rimminen, a Vivante still of the bath, and the article.
Anna, 1972: “Liian villi televisiolle”, too wild for television

Even a sponsor less flexible than the alphabet can still produce delicate pleasures, as the prizewinner for the best commercial proved. Marjut Rimminen’s Vivante, a 30-second ode to a bubble bath, has been banned by Finnish television for its merry exposure of a girl sharing her bath with a man. Instead it now delights cinema audiences, and wins festival prizes.

Derek Hill, The Times, on Zagreb 1972

In recent years such sprightly talents as Lemmikki Nenonen and Marjut Rimminen, who won a prize at Zagreb for their commercial, Vivante, … have revealed an idiosyncratic and vigorous approach to animation.

Peter Cowie, Finnish Cinema, 1976

The year after Zagreb, at Annecy 1973, Lee Mishkin invited Marjut to come and work at Halas & Batchelor in London. A few months later, at Cannes, Derek Younghusband, also from Halas & Batchelor, stood in the festival cafe waving a telegram from his boss and called out: “Are there any Finns around, and does anybody know Marjut Rimminen? She is invited to work in London.” Marjut moved to London in autumn 1974 and has been there ever since.

Dark blue-green ink billows through pale water, filmed close, filling the top of the frame. A drawn woman with a cloud of white curls sits in a bath of teal water, her knees drawn up. A drawn man reclines in a bath of teal water, one hand out along the rim, three Vivante bottles at the right. Teal water rears up in a drawn wave, three upright Vivante bottles at the right. Seven glass bottles and aerosols photographed together, every label reading vivante by Berner.

Awards

Credits

Direction
Lemmikki Nenonen and Marjut Rimminen
Design and animation
Marjut Rimminen
Client
Berner
Agency
Lintas Advertising

Screenings and broadcasts

  • In Animated ads at the Tampere Film Festival, 2008

Retrospectives

Writing about the work

Get in touch

For festival and screening enquiries, teaching, masterclasses, or correspondence:

marjut.rimminen@gmail.com