reported by Brian Scott, CyberScreenwriter.com

JWT, the largest advertising agency in the U.S., has released a short film directed by and starring Martin Scorsese for the Spanish cava producer Freixenet. "The Key to Reserva," a holiday campaign developed by JWT Spain for the sparkling wine Carta Nevada Reserva, includes commercials, print ads, posters and the Scorsese-directed short.

In the nine-and-half-minute film, Scorsese pays homage to Hitchcock, preserving one of his unfinished movies. While previous Freixenet campaigns have featured movie stars in traditional advertisements, this time the innovative idea, crafted by JWT executive creative director Alex Martínez and his team in Barcelona, focuses on the star behind the camera -- marking a new era in Freixenet's advertising.

The film has Scorsese offering his vision of Carta Nevada Reserva, portraying the cava as a true cultural product.

"Never before has art been so close to and tied in with advertising," says Martínez. "We wanted to produce something that would be pure entertainment, something that was true to our philosophy that it's not enough now to 'buy' audience time -- we need to create advertising that the audience chooses to spend time with."

While previous holiday campaigns were seen primarily in Spain, today viewers anywhere can watch the work by visiting Freixenet's Web site: www.freixenet.es.