Director Jonathan Notaro of Brand New School calls out the history of humanity’s tooth-cleaning habits in the Philips Sonicare spot “Stick with Technology.” The ad for Ogilvy + Mather takes us on a time-traveling “Odyssey,” raising the question of why, despite adopting technology at a rapid rate, haven’t the majority of people held their oral healthcare to the same standard?  To illustrate this dilemma, the Brand New School NY team created a vivid story covering one man’s journey through 5000 years of manual tooth-brushing technology (which essentially remains simply rubbing our teeth with bristles on a stick.)

“We wanted the actor to literally ‘brush his way through time,'” said Notaro. “So we practically tethered the actor to the camera/dolly and dragged them through the various period-specific scenes.” The actor is centered in the foreground, his environment and wardrobe changing behind him as he passes through vignettes of historical eras – from caveman times to modern day.

The films were shot on location in Budapest, including a Victorian train station with a locomotive, as well as on studio lots with constructed medieval sets.  In order to get the most realistic results with wardrobe animation, Brand New School shot on green screen mannequins with garments run across them. The team also developed other complex animations using stop motion techniques at the BNS film studio stateside. The result is a visually stunning primer of civilization that confirms that 2013 is the year that our oral healthcare should get with the times.