Now in its 15th year, PDN honors “the best and most innovative images of the year” in its PIX Digital Imaging Contest. R. Jerome Ferraro won first place in the advertising category for the Hoover “Clean Freak” campaign. Ferraro worked with art director Mark Brye and art buyer Julie Ahlman Sanders of The Martin Agency.

While Ferraro admits that consistently maintaining “the clean” is elusive to her house and office, she can relate to the campaign as she is a self-confessed “organization freak.” When bringing the six characters of the campaign to life, no less than 500 emails passed between Ferraro’s production team, stylists,  and the creatives. Ferraro remarks, “[The characters'] evolutions took place with much collaboration, deliberation, and attention to detail. We wanted to imbed the meticulous nature of these people into a simple, quick read.”

Despite all of the careful planning, a minor hiccup occurred when the model posing as “the cat lady” turned out to be allergic to cats and Ferraro had to hold the animal in between takes. Ferraro remembers, “the stylist was working overtime with the roller tape on that one.” Allergies aside, Ferraro and the creative team crafted the worlds of the characters so effectively that people on the set were overheard saying “I want to live in these pictures.”