Backyard Draws Colorful Campaign for Crayola

Backyard Draws Colorful Campaign for Crayola

Backyard Director Chace Strickland, working via McGarryBowen, recently crafted a four-spot campaign celebrating all things Crayola and introducing the company’s Dry Erase Crayons and Story Studio products. The campaign is both a stirring celebration of childhood and a plain good time.

Oneupsmanship is representative of the kid-centric tone and energy driving the campaign. A brother-sister pair take turns swiping a dry-erase board from one another and creating ever-more-inventive pictures with Crayola crayons – she draws a turtle; he turns it into a sea creature by erasing the legs and adding tentacles; she replaces the creature’s head with a human face, transforming the legs into a crown and creating a queen. As the kids giggle and tease one another, a narrator touts the product’s many benefits: washable, smudge proof, don’t dry out, wipe away. The spot was recently highlighted in Ad Age as number 3 in the Top Ten Back to School Ads of this year.

“True to their spirit and brand awareness, Crayola let us have a lot of creative freedom on this one,” noted Strickland. “Between the client and McGarryBowen, we had incredible partners who contributed to every facet of this campaign. We are all really happy with the end result and the spirit and energy we were able to capture.”


Credits:

• Client: Crayola
• Spots Title: Oneupsmanship (featured), Transformation
Air Date:
• Agency: McGarryBowen
• Creative Director(s): Tom Pratt (ECD), Whitney Clark (ACD), Steve Morell (ACD)
• Copywriter(s):
• Art Director:
• Producer: Maria Real
• Group Managing Director: Brian Horowitz
• Prod Company: Backyard Productions
• Director: Chace Strickland
• DP: Zubin Mistry
• Producer: Kelly Amato
• EP: Eric Bonniot
• Editorial: Bikini Edit
• Editor: Avi Oron
• EP: Gina Pagano
• VFX: Gravity NYC
EP: Bob Samuel
• Shoot Location:  North Vancouver, BC