Sometimes, in nightclub lighting, it’s hard to quite make out whether someone’s hot or not. So what about these two models? Guitar-arm and record-head aside, and assuming of course that you’re single: would you give either of these characters your number?

Well, no, in fact; you can’t. Because these faces aren’t real – they’re actually CGI…

Yep. Created for posters advertising Smirnoff’s “U R the Party” promo events, each face was constructed as a 3D model. Features from other faces – including the ad creatives from JWT, Bruno and Ronnie plus a few of the Saddington Baynes team – were spliced and blended together to give life to the final hybrids. The aim was to mould attractive faces, of course: to appeal to the outgoing, party-lifestyle target audience we wanted them to stop and eye up the guy and gal we’d created. Appropriate to the alternative and eclectic atmosphere that Smirnoff wanted to generate at the party, we wanted to make the guitar girl tough-but-cute in a rocky, alternative way; and the recordhead guy a bit slicker and more “dance”. And we reckon that’s about how they came out – they’re a decent looking pair!

But why? Why not just use real people?

Well, because the model release & re-usage fees would have been unjustifiable for a poster that was, after all, promoting just a single night’s event. This method allowed the creation of images that just wouldn’t have been viable if real models had been used, and all for a fixed, predictable and one-off budget.