Bathroom humor has moved to a new venue—a park being the bathroom, first seemingly for a dog and then for a creature quite larger. In this :30 for Seattle’s Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, a couple of guys jog through Point Defiance Park. They appear to be a tad competitive, as their exercise looks like a bit of a race. One of the men steps into a pile of dog poop and has to pull up. The other jogger glances back smugly, then disappears from view—but only momentarily.
Off-screen we hear a "glop"-type of sound. And we see that the smirk has been wiped off that other jogger’s face. He is up to his neck in a massive pile of dung.
The spot cuts to a Tyrannosaurus Rex graphic accompanied by a voiceover, which explains that a dinosaur attraction has returned to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
We return to the jogging path, where the first man has caught up with his competitor, who remains mired in excrement. Jogger number one extends the branch of friendship—actually it’s the tree twig that he used to remove the dog doo from his shoe. Clearly, the stick doesn’t offer quite enough scraping power to extricate his nearly buried buddy.
"Joggers" was conceived by Seattle agency WongDoody and marks the directorial debut of Chris Nelson, a longtime spot producer who recently signed as a helmer with Los Angeles-based Ritts/Hayden (SHOOT, 7/27, p. 7).
The WongDoody team included creative director Tracy Wong, senior writer Dean Saling, art director Mark Watson, executive producer Darryl Hagans and producer Kelly Vander Linda. The latter served as offline editor of the commercial, utilizing a suite at Modern Digital, Seattle.
For Ritts/Hayden, Bill Hayden served as executive producer, with Martha Davis line producing. The spot was shot by DP Kris Kachikis on location in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park.
The post ensemble at Modern Digital consisted of online editor/Flame artist Zach Paul and colorist Tim Mafia. Audio engineer/sound designer was Vince Werner of Clatter & Din, Seattle.
