You would think that Thanksgiving, a holiday focused on family and food, would be the perfect setting for a multitude of classic cinematic stories. Unfortunately, it was often overshadowed in classic Hollywood films by more commercial holidays like Halloween and Christmas. Since it was one of my favorite holidays growing up, I decided to create a digital design series celebrating some of the movies that feature plot points set in or around Thanksgiving.
My design inspiration for this campaign came from a stack of old "The American Home" magazines that my relatives gave me. The issues, dating from the 1930s through the 1950s, are filled with advertisements for various brands of food, silverware, appliances, and much more. I used a selection of these vintage product ads as the basis for a set of nine animated graphics. My series of digital advertisements each incorporated an original GIF highlighting a different cinematic scene featuring the Thanksgiving holiday. To firmly connect each design to the holiday, I added the tagline of "Serve up some classics this Thanksgiving" and also included the official Turner Classic Movies hashtag of #LetsMovie.
When I first shared this design series with the TCM community on Twitter, I asked my #TCMParty friends to guess the name of each Thanksgiving movies. Some of the films I showcased were immediately recognizable, like Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), but others were more challenging, like Broadway Danny Rose (1984). Of all those who participated, only a few folks guessed all of the films correctly.
In case you missed any of my posts on Twitter, you can see my entire Thanksgiving series in the gallery below. To view my other film-inspired designs, you can look on my Twitter page, read through some of the project recaps on my blog, or explore the "Work" section of my website.
To TCM and the #TCMParty community, I would like to say a huge "thank you" for all of the likes and retweets of my Thanksgiving series. As I continue to explore my love of classic film through my designs, I am so incredibly thankful for your support and engagement! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.