2012 is shaping up to be a big year for Wes Anderson. His new movie, Moonrise Kingdom, will open the Cannes Film Festival next month. And in his spare time, the 42-year-old director has been busy with a fairly consistent hobby—shooting TV commercials through Moxie Pictures. Already this year he's directed two Hyundai ads and a global spot for Sony Mobile. But these are just his most recent commercials. Past efforts include a trippy Stella Artois ad (co-directed with Roman Coppola), a Japanese ad with Brad Pitt, a truly strange series of Ikea spots, and one of the great American Express ads ever. After the jump, check out 10 of his greatest hits.
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SoftBank (2008)
Agency: Dentsu. Anderson teamed up with Brad Pitt for this spot for Japan's SoftBank, which isn't a bank at all but a telecommunications and Internet company. Inspired by Jacques Tati's 1953 French film Les Vacances de Monseieur Hulot, the commercial was shot in a seaside town in France in September 2008. -
Stella Artois (2010)
Agency: Mother. Co-directed with Roman Coppola. In a high-tech bachelor pad, a woman pushes switches and winds up getting swallowed by a couch—as her date is preoccupied by his Stella. The '60s French vibe is vintage Anderson. -
Hyundai (2012)
Agency: Innocean. Anderson celebrates pop culture's most famous voice-responsive vehicles in the spot above, for the 2012 Azera's "bluelink" technology. A second spot, below, shows a mom delaying her re-entry into the insanity of her home by relaxing in her luxurious Hyundai. Both ads broke on the Oscars this year. -
Hyundai (2012)
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Sony Mobile (2012)
Agency: McCann Worldgroup. Anderson asked more than 75 kids what they thought goes on inside Xperia phones and recorded their answers. One kid, 8-year-old Jake Ryan from from Long Island, gave a particularly magical response.
After the jump: AT&T, Ikea and American Express.
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AT&T (2007)
Agency: BBDO. This delightful series of spots featured floating backdrops and fantastic wordplay to promote the geographical reach of the AT&T network. There were five ads altogether. We've posted three here. -
AT&T (2007)
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AT&T (2007)
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Ikea (2002)
Agency: Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Ikea furniture makes you feel right at home—and that means having gut-wrenching family crises even while you're in the showroom. Truly subversive stuff from the client's "Unböring" campaign. -
American Express (2006)
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather. One of the best American Express commercials ever made, this spot featured Anderson roaming the set of a fictitious movie he's directing (starring Jason Schwartzman, among others) and giving pointers on how to make films. But of course, it ends up being a sendup of how people assume Anderson might make films—i.e., extremely creatively and with the single-take flow and absurd interactions of the movies themselves. His crowning achievement in a varied commercial career.