Ft. Worth, Texas mayor Mike Montkrief unhesitatingly agreed to appear in a TV campaign that boosted attendance 20% for his town’s baseball club, the semi-pro Ft. Worth Cats.
Christopher Jones’ Cadillac Brothers produced the five-spot package using an unusual camera device ? a remote helicopter — to capture the overhead arc of a ball sailing through the air.
“The smaller ?copter is a viable tool in photography, when the conditions are dangerous or cost-prohibitive. Mine was the latter,” Jones explained.
Inspired by the campaign tagline, “Just a Long Home Run from Downtown” ? which was aimed at reminding fans of the ball park’s accessible location, Jones said, “I wanted to “take a ride with that ball and imagine that a ball conceivable could make it downtown,” about a mile over the right field wall.
“You don’t get a sense of scale when just watching a baseball or golf ball sail into the air with blue sky behind it.”
In the first 15-seconds of each spot, right fielder Charles Carter smacks the ball out of the ball park. The camera follows the arc as the ball heads downtown, where it is either caught by Texas personalities, or playfully interrupts their daily routine.
