This spot opens on Purity Dairies’ VP of Ice Cream, who seems a bit stiff and awkward seated in his office before the camera. He reads a letter he received from a customer: "Kim Becker of Nashville asks, ‘How do I keep my kids away from my O’Charley’s Caramel Pie Ice Cream?’"
We cut to the answer, which lies in the Purity employees’ lounge/lunchroom. A worker saunters in, looking for ice cream, only to walk away disappointed after finding a freezer filled with packages of frozen broccoli. In fact, he has been victimized by his fellow workers who want to keep the ice cream for themselves. They have put up a facade, upon which pictures of broccoli packages have been painted; the facade hangs inside the freezer door. When their colleague with the sweet tooth has left, they reveal their deception, pulling the facade up like a window blind. We can then see that the freezer is actually full of O’Charley’s Caramel Pie Ice Cream.
Next, the spot returns to the Ice Cream VP, who hopes he’s satisfied his letter-writing Purity customer. The exec then asks viewers to look for Purity’s Carmel Pie Ice Cream in
stores.
"Subterfuge" is one of three humorous spots in the Purity campaign, conceived by ad agency Lewis Communications, Nashville. In "Crispy Cones," for example, we see to what extreme Purity goes to ensure that the cone pieces are crispy in its Nutty Buddy ice cream. Three people dressed as ice cream cones are then drenched by water shot out of a large fire hose. Only one cone is able to stand up under the water pressure. And that’s the cone good enough to make the Nutty Buddy grade.
"We knew we had to come out with something that communicated Purity’s passion for ice cream, yet didn’t have them taking themselves so seriously," explained Cindy Sargent, Lewis Communications’ VP/creative director. "The spots had to be funny and executed extremely well, or they wouldn’t work at all, because with all the physical humor and subtle acting, the potential was there for them to come off badly. We were fortunate to work with such great talent and production people who had no problem pulling it off."
Key in that mix was director Joe Schaak of Twist Films, Minneapolis. His support team included executive producer Jim Geib, producer Jason Hunt and production manager Bonnie Chung. DP was Stefan von Bjorn.
The creative ensemble from Lewis Communications consisted of creative director/copywriter Sargent, senior art director Robert Froedge, copywriter Laura Powers and producer Jenny Burton.
Editor was Deb Treagle of Coast Mountain Post Production, Vancouver, B.C. The contingent of talent from Vancouver-based post/effects shop Northwest Imaging & FX included colorist Claudio Sepulveda, Fire assembly artist Rob Appleby, Inferno artist Todd Liddiard, Combustion artist Erica Henderson and visual effects supervisor Paul R. Cox. Audio mixer was Martin Taylor of Sound Kitchen, Vancouver.
The principal actor for this spot was Allen Price.
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