When Coilcraft, Inc.'s John Stellberg wanted to show how fast his company's chip inductors were, he originally thought up the idea of a motorcycle cop with the inductors reflected in the patrolman's mirrored sunglasses. The headline read, "Do Our New 0302 Chip Inductors Break the Laws of Physics?"
Prior to shooting the cycle cop image, though, John had a better idea: "How about if the cop is Albert Einstein?" The challenge now was to cast our character with an Einstein look-alike. Ford Models came up with Angelo Demetriou, whose lower facial structure matched almost perfectly the classic Philippe Halsman photo of the sad, avuncular physicist. Hair/makeup artist Christine Conley fabricated a bushy mustache out of yak hair and we were off and running, shooting the ad in two versions: One showing our cop in the classic highway patrolman's campaign ("Smokey the Bear") hat and brown uniform, and this one with the motorcycle cop's helmet and badge. Later, it was decided that the highway patrolman's look was a uniquely American image, and as the ad would run internationally, the helmeted version won out.
A second postproduction visit by Ms. Conley gave us better hair to work with, and the actual products were shot with some distortion to fit the curved lenses of Officer Einstein's aviator specs. The badge was reworked to say "Physics Police", and the ad was complete.