A campaign full of faces

Lolita Harper

NEWPORT BEACH -- She stares at you from the page. Her eyes are

nearly as wide as her smile and wisps of hair fall into them from her

ponytail.

“I apply glass cleaner to my rashes and minor burns,” says a

caption near the bikini-clad woman’s picture.

No, it is not a personal ad, it is an announcement for the Newport

Beach Film Festival found on the inside pages of area newspapers.

Under her picture lies the question: “What will you take away?”

Another woman, with more clothes and a less welcoming expression

also promotes the festival. Her eyes are focused. Her neck muscles

bulging out from under her red turtle-neck sweater. Her bangs frame

her face and her lips sit in a flat line, neither smiling nor

frowning. The word “homie” is stamped to the left of her nose.

The unnamed middle-aged face adorns the cover of the festival

media program, along with 39 other mug shots captioned by words such

as “clone,” “overlord,” “swashbuckler,” and “cyborg.”

Todd Quartararo, publicity director for the festival, said this

year’s ad campaign was designed to illustrate how ordinary people

take away assorted concepts from the featured films, hence the

question printed under the varied faces.

“People come and get such great insight into other people’s lives

and their films and characters,” Quartararo said. “Normal everyday

people come and watch and take away with them some unusual

characters.”

An unassuming 20-something male, with a striped polo shirt and

visor, is branded a “dead witch.” An unsmiling woman with

shoulder-length hair and dark eye glasses that sit on the end of her

nose is tagged as “assassin.”

The faces are young, old, smiling and stern. They encompass all

ethnicities, skin, hair and eye color. Promotional pieces include

media packets and programs with various characters and larger bus

covers and posters, featuring one person and the random tidbit they

take away from a film.

More than 250 bus stops in Orange County are decorated with these

miscellaneous characters.

The concept was the brainchild of the creative forces at Young &

Rubicam in Irvine and Quartararo said he could not be happier with

it. The creative marketing scheme embodies the assorted line-up at

the annual Newport Beach Film Festival, which offers nine days of

nonstop entertainment, parties, a children’s festival and in-depth

seminars and symposium series that explores the world of filmmaking

through the eyes of recognized industry players, Quartararo said.

“Every time I look at our posters I find new characters,”

Quartararo said. “It is fun to watch people stare at it for 20

minutes, pointing out new things to their friends. We had a lot of

fun with this campaign.”

* LOLITA HARPER writes columns Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and

covers culture and the arts.