AICP's artistic expedition

In a new short promoting AICP Week 2024, an advertising creative comes home to tell his husband, a struggling artist, that his commercial for ‘cheesy bread’ is going to be in "that museum in New York you’re always talking about". 

It transpires that his commercial has made it into the AICP Awards and the ‘cheesy bread’ spot will be on display at the legendary Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), news that is met with a look of incredulity. Despite this, our creative proclaims that he believes it’s worth making the trip to go see his opus in situ at MOMA. 

So starts The Journey, directed by David Shane through O Positive, which follows our hero in his quest to reach MoMA. Co-written by Shane, Ian Reichenthal and Michael Clancy, the nine-minute film was executive produced by Ralph Laucella (the 2024 AICP Show Chairperson) and Marc Grill. 

“Making a short film is different from making an ad or a branded content film,” said Shane. “It’s not just a collection of jokes. It has to have a story that sustains itself, and hopefully this does. We made The Journey as both a parody of – and a little love letter to – creatives like us who aspire to make ads that are art adjacent.” 

"Journeys, like the creative process, can be winding and treacherous, as our hero exemplifies," adds Reichenthal. “We read a book that said you’re supposed to torture your main character, and with this piece we feel like we accomplished that.”