Bob Giraldi (born January 17, 1939) is an American film and television director, educator, and restaurateur. He is known for directing the film Dinner Rush (2000) and the music video for Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (1983). Giraldi has been inducted into the Art Director's Hall of Fame, one of the few film directors to be honored; and, in 2014, was the first director ever to be inducted to the Advertising Hall of Fame. His work has garnered several London International Awards, Cannes Advertising Awards, NY International Awards, Addy Awards, Chicago Film Festival Awards, and dozens of Clio Awards. He has been named one of the 101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising.
Early life
Giraldi was born on January 17, 1939, in Paterson, New Jersey, to a working-class Italian-American family. He attended Eastside High School. Giraldi attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1960. He was a student of Herschel Levit.
In 1960, he worked as a graphic designer at General Motors in Detroit, then spent the next nine years as an art director and creative supervisor at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam and Della Femina & Partners.
In 1965, teaching advertising at The School of Visual Arts in New York he became the chair of the Advertising Department. In 1968, President Silas Rhodes appointed him the Assistant Director of the school. During the Vietnam War, Giraldi stepped down and remained on the school's board of directors, and today is the chair of the Masters in Director's Program. Then in 1981 he directed and produced a film "Burnt Umber", a recruitment film featuring a then-unknown actor Denzel Washington for SVA's recruitment program.
In 1970, Giraldi left his career at the advertising agency DellaFemina & Partners to form his production company Giraldi Productions, which has produced and directed close to 5,000 commercials, music videos and short films.
Career
Advertising
Bob Giraldi has produced and directed over 5,000 unique visual marketing and advertising pieces.
Directing his first commercials at the ad agency Della Femina in the late 1960s before moving on to form his own company with Phil Suarez in the 1970s, Giraldi has had success as a commercial director over the years, picking up numerous awards along the way.
Although there have been several feature and short films, music videos, and restaurants to distract Giraldi from his commercial work down the years, he has never strayed far from the medium and the business that he owes it all to. Still working and producing fine work to this day, Giraldi runs his own production company, Giraldi Media, out of New York and Los Angeles, with a network of other commercial directors connected through the company.
Michael Jackson hair fire incident
Bob Giraldi was the director of the Michael Jackson: Pepsi New Generation ad that was released in 1984. During the shooting of the commercial, an accident with the pyrotechnics caused Jackson's hair to light on fire and caused second-degree burns to his scalp. Michael Jackson's autobiography states that Giraldi told Michael to stay under the sparks for a longer period of time. "Michael, you're going down too early. We want to see you up there, up on the stairs. When the lights come on, we want to reveal that you're there, so wait."
In a 2014 interview, Giraldi reflected back on the event, "I don't have fond memories of that shoot," he tells Yahoo Music, "It's not a moment that I like to remember. I've put it out of my repertoire when I think of working and being around Michael in his genius."
Music videos
His narrative and musical storytelling abilities were first seen in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (1983) music video, as the video swept the country and won numerous awards including that year's American Music Award, the Billboard Music Award and the People's Choice Award. Originally the "Beat It" video was to be directed by Steve Barron, however his theme for the video was rejected. Giraldi was hand-picked by Jackson himself after the singer saw an Eye Witness News commercial directed by Giraldi, about an elderly blind couple holding a block party for their new Black and Hispanic neighbors, the "Beat It" video featured cast members that were real life members of the Bloods and the Crips.