The American Professionals, a boutique music house (LA/SF), recently completed “It Belongs To The Woman”, the title of the alluring, soulful song that drives the controversial Cougarlife.com :60 television spot.
Headed by Creative Director Chuck Lindo and Executive Producer John Schulte, the company specializes in creating original songs for radio, television and web campaigns.
Cougar Town Controversy
The original commercial was pulled by ABC just minutes before it was scheduled to air on the debut of the network’s highly publicized series Cougar Town. Ironically, ABC felt that the website itself, which matches women with younger men, was too problematic for prime time. There were reportedly no objections to the commercial itself. Other networks, including NBC, have since aired the spot, which can be seen here.
Articles about the controversy have appeared everywhere from PerezHilton.com to The New York Times Business section.
A Different Approach to Spot Creation
Produced without an agency, Lindo and Schulte worked directly with the client, Avid Media Life, Toronto, from the early concept stages in order to find the right tone. “There was some mention of Stax Records meets James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World”, says Lindo, “And we figured if we took that idea and inverted it, it would give us the right amount of intrigue, along with a splash of humor.” Thus was born, “It Belongs To The Woman”, which turned out to be exactly what Avid Media Life was looking for.
Adds Schulte, “This was one of those dream assignments where the client asked us to write the music first, so that production and post would become integrated with the song throughout the entire process. It turned out to be an effective workflow for this kind of storytelling.”
About The American Professionals
Schulte has composed for several Santa Monica music houses in recent years. Lindo, who heads up the San Francisco office, is a founder of the band Actionslacks, whose work was recently featured in ABC’s Castle. The two joined resources and opened shop back in January of ’09. Recent clients include the Los Angeles Dodgers and CBS Radio.
Lindo explains, “Our obsession at The American Professionals is to create product specific, original work that has those intangible qualities of an established track. We want to make people wonder: Who is that? Can I buy that? Having that, and nailing the client’s desired takeaway feeling about their product, you’ve got the ingredients for a wildly successful campaign.”
Notes Schulte, “People are posting to Wiki Answers, asking, “What’s that song in the CougarLife.com commercial?” That goes to show that there is demand for original, product specific music in advertising, and that licensing existing work, while still appropriate and effective in certain kinds of campaigns, will no longer be the go-to move for clients and creatives.”
