Elephant Journal's 'Rainbows' film campaign, created by TDA_Boulder in July 2013, marks a rare foray into branded video for an independent mindful-living media
Elephant Journal Bets on Film to Reach Mindful Readers
Latimes.clapboard.com/archive/chirpy-elephant-trunk-entertainment">Elephant Journal's 'Rainbows' is a branded film campaign created by TDA_Boulder and published in the United States in July 2013, designed to build awareness for the independent mindful-living publication through a single cinematic video asset, according to Iab.
Elephant Journal operates as an independent media brand with no identified parent company, occupying a distinctive niche in the United States media landscape as a publication oriented around mindful, conscious living. In 2013, the broader American media environment was undergoing significant pressure from digital disruption, and independent titles faced growing challenges in sustaining audience attention against well-resourced competitors. Rather than relying on conventional editorial promotion or social-media content alone, Elephant Journal commissioned TDA_Boulder — a Boulder, Colorado-based creative agency — to produce a film-format advertisement capable of communicating the brand's ethos in a compressed, emotionally resonant format, according to Nexttv.
The campaign consists of one media asset, a single film, and was positioned for the United States market. Its creative and strategic ambition lies not in scale of production volume but in the specificity of its message: to translate the sensibility of a mindful-media brand into the visual and narrative language of short-form film, according to TechCrunch. The Clapboard Score for 'Rainbows' stands at 56 out of 100, reflecting a campaign that demonstrates clear creative intent while operating within the modest resource constraints typical of independent media advertising.
Elephant Journal identified film as the medium best suited to communicate an editorial identity that resists easy categorisation. As an independent publication without the marketing infrastructure of large consumer-media groups, the brand needed a single creative execution capable of doing the work that sustained campaign budgets achieve through repetition. Film offered emotional density that static formats could not provide within the same timeframe.
The United States digital media environment in 2013 was undergoing a structural shift that made branded video increasingly viable for smaller publishers. Digital magazine advertising revenue was growing at a meaningful pace during this period, according to data from Slideshare, while the broader print magazine sector was essentially flat — consumer-magazine revenue globally was forecast to grow at less than one percent annually through 2017, per the same source. For an independent title such as Elephant Journal, the strategic logic was clear: invest in a format with upward momentum rather than defend ground in a declining one.
The mindful-living and conscious-media category in the United States had no dominant single advertiser at the time, leaving Elephant Journal room to establish a visual brand identity through film before the space became more crowded. TDA_Boulder, based in Boulder, Colorado, brought regional creative sensibility and national craft standards to the brief, translating Elephant Journal's editorial voice — rooted in yoga, sustainability, and considered living — into a campaign format capable of travelling beyond the publication's existing readership and reaching new audiences across the United States.
The 'Rainbows' film was produced by TDA_Boulder in collaboration with production and post-production company dWb, based in Los Angeles. The creative team was led by executive creative director Jonathan Schoenberg, with Jeremy Seibold serving as both creative director and copywriter, and Neal Desai as art director. Danielle Borden produced for the agency, while David Beglin directed and also handled VFX editing — a dual role that gave the film a tightly unified visual and post-production sensibility. Stefan Silvers served as director of photography, Mitch Livingston produced on the production side, Eric Griswold managed production, and Abazar Noorizad edited the finished film.
On screen, the film presents a scenario rooted in everyday observation: a character encounters the phenomenon of a rainbow and responds with a sense of wonder that the film frames as both sincere and gently self-aware. The piece builds its argument for Elephant Journal's editorial worldview through this single visual metaphor — the rainbow as an emblem of small, genuine moments of beauty that a distracted culture routinely overlooks. The tone is warm rather than earnest, allowing the film to avoid the po-faced quality that can undermine mindful-living brand communications.
David Beglin's combined directorial and VFX editorial role is particularly significant to the finished work. By maintaining creative control across both the shoot and the post-production visual effects, Beglin was able to ensure that any augmented or composited imagery remained consistent with the film's naturalistic, grounded aesthetic — a coherence that separate director and VFX teams do not always achieve. The Los Angeles base of dWb placed the production within reach of a deep pool of technical craft talent, while TDA_Boulder's Boulder, Colorado perspective ensured the creative framing stayed true to Elephant Journal's geographic and cultural roots.
No verified performance data for the 'Rainbows' campaign is publicly available. No campaign-specific sales lift, market-share change, or brand-tracking results have been published, and no budget, media spend, or production cost figures are on record. No verified awards from Cannes Lions, the Effies, One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or WARC have been found for this campaign.
Structurally, the decision to build the campaign around a single film asset reflects a resource discipline common among independent media brands in the United States. A single high-quality film can achieve repeated exposure across digital channels without additional production expenditure, making it an efficient format for a brand without a large advertising budget. The choice of dWb in Los Angeles for production and post, combined with TDA_Boulder's creative direction, suggests the campaign prioritised craft quality over volume — a strategy that tends to generate stronger per-impression brand recall than multi-asset campaigns spread across lower-quality executions.
The Clapboard Score of 56 out of 100 places 'Rainbows' in the mid-range of the archive's evaluative framework, indicating a campaign that makes a coherent creative argument for its brand without reaching the executional distinction of the most awarded work of its era. For an independent publication competing for attention in the United States media sector without the support of a major corporate parent, that level of creative ambition represents a meaningful strategic commitment.
'Rainbows' is a branded film campaign created for Elephant Journal by TDA_Boulder and published in the United States in July 2013. It consists of a single film asset designed to communicate the independent mindful-living publication's editorial identity to new audiences through short-form cinematic storytelling.
TDA_Boulder created 'Rainbows', with executive creative director Jonathan Schoenberg leading the team. Jeremy Seibold served as creative director and copywriter, Neal Desai as art director, and Danielle Borden as agency producer. Production and post-production were handled by dWb, based in Los Angeles, with David Beglin directing.
The film presents a character encountering a rainbow and responding with sincere, gently self-aware wonder. The rainbow functions as a visual metaphor for small, genuine moments of beauty that a distracted culture overlooks — an argument that directly reflects Elephant Journal's mindful-living editorial perspective.
No verified awards from Cannes Lions, the Effies, One Show, D&AD, the Clios, the Webby Awards, or WARC have been found for the 'Rainbows' campaign. The campaign received a Clapboard Score of 56 out of 100, placing it in the mid-range of the archive's evaluative framework.
Elephant Journal chose film because it could communicate the brand's editorial sensibility — rooted in mindful, conscious living — with an emotional density that static formats could not match. As an independent United States publication without large marketing resources, a single high-quality film offered efficient, repeatable brand exposure across digital channels.
TDA_Boulder, based in Boulder, Colorado, served as the creative agency for 'Rainbows', responsible for strategy, creative direction, copywriting, art direction, and agency production. The agency partnered with Los Angeles production company dWb for the film's physical shoot and post-production, including VFX editing led by director David Beglin.
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