At the center of THE CHRISTOPHERS is an artist, played by Ian McKellen, whose personality is as complex and contradictory as the art world he inhabits. He is thought-provoking, dramatic, bold, fluid, aggressive, miserable, distressing, harsh, unrestrained, weathered, chaotic, brilliant and joyful. For our spot, “ART WORDS,” we built the entire concept around that duality. Rather than relying on traditional copy, we used a series of carefully chosen single words that could just as easily describe a work of art as they could describe the artist himself. Each word becomes both critique and character study, revealing another layer of his volatile personality while reinforcing the world of the film. The result is copy that does more than sell the story. It becomes part of it, using the language of art criticism to paint a portrait of the man at its center.