Full of Stars
Broken Heart Love Affair Debuts Eerie New Cinema Spot for Royal Ontario Museum
February 23, 2022
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a cherished cultural institution beloved by everyone to youngsters who spent an hour on a bus from the burbs to see dinosaurs, to those with tales of the pre-Libeskind era. To celebrate the launch of the ROM’s first new gallery in more than ten years, the ROM commissioned a spot from agency partner Broken Heart Love Affair that questions the nature of life itself.
The new gallery, Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life, is a state-of-the-art 10,000 square-foot gallery that houses a collection of nearly 1,000 fossil specimens drawn from the museum’s palaeontology collections. It is home to some of the oldest objects on Earth, including one dozen “evolutionary gamechangers” that speak to key moments in the evolution of life as it exists today.
“Our goal with any of our work is to get people to stop and think, and maybe change some people’s perspectives,” says Spencer Ryan of the creative approach that he and Jordan Hamer took to the campaign.
And stop and think you will when you watch the evocative and eerie campaign that feels as if you just bumped into an infinitely black monotlith. The team had nearly unfettered access to the ROM thanks to COVID-19 closures, which makes the spots release just as restrictions are being lifted, all the more timely.
CREDITS
Title: Dawn of Life
Client: Royal Ontario Museum
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer: Lori Davison
VP, Brand and Marketing: Kathryn Brownlie
Marketing Specialist: Kaitlyn Olo
Creative Agency: Broken Heart Love Affair
Chief Creative Officer: Carlos Moreno, Denise Rosetto, Todd Mackie
Chief Strategy Officer: Jay Chaney
Chief Business Officer: Bev Hammond
Creative Director: Jordan Hamer, Spencer Ryan
Writer: Jordan Hamer
Art Director: Spencer Ryan
Agency Producer: Erica Metcalfe
VP, Client Success: Joline Matika
Production Company: Undefined / Radke Films
Director: Spencer and Jordan
Executive Producer: Dan Ford
Producer: Julian Weiman
Director of Photography: Shady Hanna
Assistant Director: Keith Giesbrecht
Production Manager: Erwin Abesamis
Coordinator: David Benchitrit
Covid Screener: Chelsea Maiato, Lucas Bender
Editing House: Saints
Editor: Chris Chang
Executive Producers: Michelle Rich, Mackenzie Goodwin
Post-Production House: Darling
Colourist: Kassi Bellamy
Colour Assistant: Will Culverwell, Eric Kingsbury
Executive Producer: Kristen Van Fleet
Producer: Morgan Campbell
Visual Effects: Fort York VFX
Flame Artist: Melissa Vasiliev
Producer: Valerie Moss
Audio House: OSO
Creative Director: Daenen Bramberger
Executive Producer: Hannah Graham
Media Agency: OMD
TALENT
Curious Child: Arjen Liu-Ernsting
Mom: Jessie Liu-Ernsting
Curious Child Stand In: Isaac Ng