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CDP: Inside Collett Dickenson Pearce (Hardcover) by John Salmon (Author), John Ritchie (Author)

Publisher: B.T. Batsford Ltd (30 Jan 2001) ISBN-10: 0713484039 ISBN-13: 978-0713484038

HUGH HUDSON

Eton and Harvard educated Hudson is a graduate of Collett Dickenson Pearce, often described as the best advertising agency in the world ever. His greatest moment was Chariots of Fire, which won the Oscar for best film in 1981, and he is credited with single-handedly reviving the ailing British film industry. Subsequent efforts such as American War of Independence movieRevolution and Greystoke: the Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes failed to achieve the same high standard.

Perhaps better suited to the world of advertising imagery, he is responsible for a clutch of commercial classics. Greatest hits include the surrealist masterpiece "Iguana" for Benson & Hedges cigarettes and "Christmas", a £2m epic for BA.

(CAMPAIGN MAGAZINE) Campaign Hall of Fame (Part 2 of 2) 20/12/99 GALLAHER IGUANA, COLLETT DICKENSON PEARCE

Year: 1978

Title: Iguana

Client: Gallaher

Agency: Collett Dickenson Pearce

Art director: Alan Waldie

Writer: Mike Cozens

Director: Hugh Hudson

Production company: The Alan Parker Film Company

Created by the legendary Alan Waldie during the golden years of Collett Dickenson Pearce, this classic piece of surrealism inspired many a creative director who, on first seeing the ad at the cinema, vowed to get into advertising. The commercial was shot by Hugh Hudson and is imbued with an ominous atmosphere and mounting tension which are only released at the dramatic climax. Audiences had never seen anything like it. Why is the helicopter there? The iguana? We never found out, which of course was the point. The ad was part of a long-running campaign produced by CDP for Benson & Hedges which demonstrated how advertising restrictions could in fact fuel creative potency rather than restrict it. Indeed the lack of a traditional idea in this commercial openly mocked the ban on saying anything about cigarettes in advertising. An ad that changed advertising.