Seems like Rushes UK is closing

Unfortunately we have been told by reliable sources that Rushes staff have been informing their clients that the iconic effects and post house is closing shop. We have contacted Rushes for official comment, while they initially said they would comment, they later declined to add anything further, but they did not deny the story.

Founded in the middle of the creative explosion that saw The Sex Pistols channel teenage angst and Vivienne Westwood’s work come to the fore, Rushes opened its doors for the first time in 1977 taking its place amongst the creative dynamic cultural changes happening in the late 70’s that still shape our lives today. Creativity, pushing boundaries and developing imaginative concepts is still Rushes USP, known for not only outstanding work but exceptional client services and brilliantly talented people. For 40 years clients, creative staff and working professionals around the world have kept an eye on the English company for inspiration and trailblazing innovation. One cannot over stress how influential Rushes has been in the world of visual advertising and break through communications.

Rushes work today

Broadcast Now is reporting, that Rushes 60 staff are currently in consultation with management. Deluxe is “looking at all opportunities within the company where employees can be redeployed.”Rushes’ turnover for 2016 was £4.7m with a pre-tax profit of £23,000. In 2015 it made a loss of £1.7m.In a statement, Amanda Cupples, the president of International for Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, said, “As the global ad market continues to evolve, the economics of maintaining a local commercials post facility in London is not proving a viable option. Our wider Creative Services division offering a full suite of post-production services by leading brands Encore, Company 3 and Editpool is still very much a core part of our business and going strong.”

The company become famous early on for its work on Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing video, the first pop promo to be played on MTV Europe when it launched in 1987. The video won Video of the Year at the 3rd MTV Video Music Awards.

The video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and it was ground-breaking at the time of its release. Originally, Mark Knopfler was not at all enthusiastic about the concept of the music video. MTV, however, was insistent on it. Director Steve Barron, of Rushes in London, was contacted by Warner Bros. to persuade Knopfler to relent. Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair created the animation, using a Bosch FGS-4000 CGI system and a Quantel Paintbox system. The animators went on to found computer animation studio Mainframe Entertainment.

The company was bought by Liberty Livewire (now Deluxe) in 2000.  With 40 years’ experience of TVCs, music videos and innovative imaging, Rushes closing says a lot about the state of the advertising industry. Once upon a time, before perhaps Youtube and second screens, TV commercials were extremely profitable and Rushes has produced some of the most creative and most innovative spots of the last forty years. Today they are in part a victim of the so called FANGed effect, the lighting rise of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google. These companies and others have so changed the high end TV advertising landscape. FANG has changed how people view their television content and where advertising dollars are spent. The UK’s Guardian Newspaper reported earlier this year, that Google and Facebook alone attracted one-fifth of all global advertising spending in 2016, nearly double the figure of five years ago. Online advertising has overtaken television to become the world’s largest ad medium, according to data and analysis agency Zenith. As a result companies known for making TV ads have suffered.  Some companies may fail due to poor management, some may close due to lack of innovation, some due to subsidies and Govt. policy: it appears that Rushes was just caught on the wrong side of a tidal movement in Ad spending and thus on the wrong side of history. Such as closure should in no way reflect on the incredibly talented artists who, for 40 years, have made Rushes such a cool place and respected company in the global post-production landscape.

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