Saving Par
If you have witnessed the human drama that begins with a badly hooked drive and ends with a bag of clubs sliding soundlessly into the depths of a golf course pond, you have an inkling of why we picked the movie Titanic to promote a local golf tournament. After all, some days golf can seem like a tragedy of epic proportions.
The task was to promote the Ad Council of Rochester’s annual Pro-Ad Golf Tournament for charity. We came up with our own movie poster depicting a golf bag as an ocean liner and the title and tagline: “Titanium – Nothing on Earth Could Save Par.”
Our “movie” featured a lengthy cast list, including the stars Leonardo De Caddio, Kate Wiffsit, Ethan Hacke, Tom Shanks, and Brad Putt. Bringing our concept to life required a lot of collaboration for prop building, studio photography, and photo illustration. We started with a full-sized golf bag with real titanium clubs. Making the golf bag-as-shipwreck concept work required meticulous attention to detail. Seeing the majestic beauty of our creation on the set each day made it hard to realize we were going to have to si nk her. On shooting day we tied little life preservers to each golf ball and placed a dented beer can floating in the foreground for effect.
Digital work brought the image all together with separate shots of the bag, water, sky, beer can, and golf balls seamlessly combined. The art was featured on posters and tournament invitations, which were mailed while Titanic was as at the peak of its popularity.
The poster helped the tournament achieve record participation and revenues this year. By the way, movie buffs, we still have some posters to give away.
