Johnny Kelly's latest advert features a charming suitcase - and is wheely good

Date
10 June 2019

The arrival of a new advert by the absurdly talented Johnny Kelly is always cause for celebration, so get that champagne on ice as you ready yourself for a watch of the animator’s latest charming creation.

After the roaring success of his family-friendly spots for Cheerios, Johnny’s found himself giving wheelie suitcases a whole new lease of life in The Power of Doing, a new short for Irish financial institution AIB.

“The creatives, Stephen and James, had written a perfect little script featuring a suitcase that has never travelled,” Johnny says when we ask how you go about persuading a bank to let you animate a bit of luggage. “This campaign is about following your dream so our suitcase does just that – taking it upon herself to bust out of the wardrobe and hit the road. From what I understand AIB bank needed little convincing, and it was my job to not muck it up.”

The advert saw Johnny teaming up with puppeteer Damian Farrell – one of the very few people on the planet who can boast of working with both Zig and Zag and the cast of Star Wars.

Working hard to avoid creating anything that felt “too flowery or cartooney” Johnny and his team brought the suitcase – named Casey – to life in a subtle, unflashy way, with eyelets for eyes, zips for a mouth, and a sliding handle that “acts as a sort of eyebrow.” A “Frankenstein’s monster of various different cases” conjured into being by production designer Joe Fallover, Casey might be the runaway star of airport-based adverts in 2019.

“Ironically on the way home from making this I lost my own suitcase in Heathrow airport,” Johnny tells us. I like to think it’s off on an international escapade, perhaps traversing south east Asia right now…but most likely, it’s been destroyed.”

The AIB advert is screening on Irish television now, and is also available to watch on YouTube.

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AIB: The Power of Doing (Via Johnny Kelly/Antidote)

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AIB: The Power of Doing (Via Johnny Kelly/Antidote)

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AIB: The Power of Doing (Via Johnny Kelly/Antidote)

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AIB: The Power of Doing (Via Johnny Kelly/Antidote)

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AIB: The Power of Doing (Via Johnny Kelly/Antidote)

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AIB: The Power of Doing (Via Johnny Kelly/Antidote)

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AIB: The Power of Doing (Via Johnny Kelly/Antidote)

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About the Author

Josh Baines

Josh Baines joined It's Nice That from July 2018 to July 2019 as News Editor, covering new high-profile projects, awards announcements, and everything else in between.

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