By Jacqueline Tobin

To help create awareness about messages being spread on off shore drilling by oil industry lobbyings, Saatchi & Saatchi  Los Angeles  hired photographer Aaron Ruell  to shoot a  new print campaign for Surfrider Foundation,  a nonprofit environmental group dedicated to preserving the nation’s oceans, waves and beaches.

“The truth is out there,” explains Juan Bobillo, one of three art directors (along with Josh Gilman and Erek Vinluan) who worked on the ads. “Corporations just don't want you to find it. The campaign drives people to nottheanswer.org where they can read about the consequences of off shore drilling.”

To convey that concept visually, Ruell photographed three different subjects with their ears being plugged by someone else reaching around them.  “I liked the idea of using this concept [of a second subject in the frame] to make it slightly creepy,” Ruell explains. “It’s a weird thing, because on first glance, you might think it’s just our hero's arms that are at the ears, but after a second or two, you realize its someone else and the proximity of those arms to our hero’s body gets kinda creepy. That idea of someone else being that close to you and sneaking their arms around you, and the look on the hero’s face is unsuspecting. It all adds a somewhat unsettling tone to the images.”

The creative team at Saatchi  & Saatchi Los Angeles says Ruell brought exactly the feel they  were looking for the the ads.

“His portfolio showed a unique style for shooting people. Very clean, nicely art directed and a subtle quirkiness for casting. Also, he used the word ‘creepy’ the same way we use the word ‘creepy.’ That was cool.”

The campaign has been running in different national magazines since the beginning of April.