Alka Seltzer 'Office', 'Weather' & 'Karate'

For many Americans the iconic character of Speedy plays a key role in their memories from the original 'Mad Men' era of advertising.

As the front man for Alka Seltzer (originally held by the Wade Agency, 1951), Speedy's signature theme song and quirky stop motion style was firmly planted in the subconscious of a generation, and secured his reputation as an American classic.

When Bayer decided to re-invent Speedy for modern audiences, they turned to Energy BBDO to handle this careful task. The agency's solution was to merge both modern and classic animation styles, and they approached JJ Sedelmaier Productions (Saturday Night Live/Beavis+Butthead) to forge a collaboration with Framestore.  

"We knew we were starting something special when we first saw the original Speedy spots online" says James Razzall, Executive Producer at Framestore. "Not only were we excited to work with JJ, but we saw a great opportunity to breathe new life into a classic character".

The brief was to create a stronger, modernized character which maintained the original quirkiness, but possessed a more commanding and modern animation style.

"The original Speedy had a classic charm to its stop motion animation style." says David Hulin, Animation Director. "In a similar way to our work with The Gecko, we focused on retaining what made him a lovable character in his former incarnation- and then brought our expertise to make him new but familiar. Speedy 2.0!"

"To modernize his appearance we wanted to evolve him from a puppet to a more life-like character", says Jenny Bichsel, CG Lead. "We used sub-surface skin textures, refractive eye shaders, and our in-house hair filter system to bring him to life."

With the first spot ("Office") already on air, the new Speedy is set to be another hit from the team at Framestore... 

"Plop plop, fizz fizz... oh what a relief it is.."