Five ‘30-Second Movies’ Rate Emmy Nods

Television commercials for the first time were nominated for an Emmy award Thursday, as TV ads make the leap from program interruptions to entertainment.

The five commercials competing for an Emmy have among them the elements of prime-time programs: costly special effects, pop music and social commentary.

“They say a great ad is like a 30-second movie,” said David Verklin, general manager of Hal Riney & Partners of San Francisco, whose spot for the General Motors EV-1 is among the five nominees.

In that spot, produced by Industrial Light & Magic of San Rafael, Calif., an assortment of household appliances comes to life and greets GM’s electric car. The commercial, which combined animatronics, computer animation and live action, cost $1.5 million to make but aired in only four television markets, including Los Angeles.

Other contenders are two commercials created by Foote, Cone & Belding of San Francisco for Levi’s wide-leg jeans and two spots that proved controversial: a Nike ad introducing champion golfer Tiger Woods as its latest endorser and an HBO spot depicting talking chimps watching TV over the shoulder of scientist Jane Goodall.

The first Levi spot shows a couple fantasizing about romance in an elevator while the soundtrack plays the Partridge Family tune “I Think I Love You.” The second commercial shows an injured young man being wheeled into an emergency room, where doctors, inspired by beeps of monitoring equipment, dance to the tune “Tainted Love.”

Levi Strauss said the ads resulted in double-digit growth for its wide-leg jeans. Nonetheless, the company is abandoning them in favor of a soon-to-be announced campaign that will stress the Levi brand rather than specific product lines.

The Nike spot, created by Portland, Ore., advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy, told Woods’ story in captions: “There are still courses in the United States where I cannot play because of the color of my skin.”

Critic Bob Garfield of Advertising Age accused Nike of “playing the race card” to generate athletic-shoe sales from black customers.

The HBO spot, produced by New York advertising agency BBDO, was criticized by Garfield and others as misleading because it did not use Goodall or her voice, and HBO is not available in the wilds of Africa, where the commercial is set. HBO has said it had Goodall’s permission for the spot.

No advertising executives contacted Thursday were aware that their ads had been submitted to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for an Emmy. About 250 ads were submitted by production companies, many of which are members of the ATAS.