Ben Hill and Daniel Oeffinger offer helping hand on Bucks' new animated spot for Cree

Animators Daniel Oeffinger and Ben Hill have collaborated on a new animated advertising spot for US lighting and electronics manufacturer Cree.

This latest animated spot for Cree’s Better Light campaign, part of a series produced by creative agency Buck where Daniel is creative director, features the lighting products anthropomorphised as helping hands in the lives of the consumer.

The animation distills the technology of Cree’s lighting into metaphor. As hands the light beams are shown to open doors, pass across lost objects, alerts the owner to dangers and waves the consumer off as they leave the house: “it knows when you’re there, and when you’re not…making your more productive at work, linking up so fixtures work as a team…”

The point is delivered with a degree of whimsy and humour befitting the animated style, taking a homely approach towards selling the brand’s products. Buck explains: “With a clean and bold take on illustration, we worked to support the message that from snakes and soccer games…better light does indeed change everything.”

Creative Director Daniel Oeffinger has previously conceived and directed the other animated spots in the Cree series, as well as an informercial campaign for charity:water alongside audio studio Antfood, and spots for Google’s Material Design team.

Lead designer Ben Hill says: “I come from a print background…many of the commercial projects that I’ve done lean heavily towards illustration, character and story based approaches — It’s especially nice when those worlds collide.”