I’m always trying to ride this line between what’s absurd and what feels real. And I like to think the two aren’t mutually exclusive," says Chris Hooper, who directs a special brand of ad humor through bicoastal Bob Industries. "If you can pass somebody off as a believable, knowable character and then make them do something absolutely ridiculous, and then at the end, bring them back a little bit, the concept becomes more believable."
Hooper combines the ridiculous and the real in Bud Light’s "Satin Sheets," a spot he directed via DDB Chicago, which broke during this year’s telecast of the Super Bowl, and scored well with viewers—it was voted number one on USA Today’s poll of Super Sunday commercials. The spot shows a guy sprawled out in front of a television, eating munchies. Cut to his attractive wife, who is ready for romance up in the bedroom. As she lights a candle, she gently calls to him, "Honey, I’ve got the black teddy on." His only response: a distracted, "Yeah, OK." Trying further to seduce him, she lets him know that the satin sheets are on the bed. The guy is still not showing much interest in heading upstairs. But when she tells him that she has some cold Bud Light, his eyes light up and he runs upstairs, stripping down to his boxers on the way. He charges into the bedroom and dives onto the bed, only to slide across the sheets and crash through the window into the yard. With his underwear caught up in a tree, and only a welcome mat to hide behind, he meets up with some neighbors on his way back inside. The familiar tag, "Make it a Bud Light," follows. "Satin Sheets" was part of a package of spots that includes "Fireplace," "Firewood" and "The Stranger."
Hooper describes how he pushed "Satin Sheets’ " inherent absurdity even further: "Rather than the guy flying through a window that was open, I said, ‘No, let’s put him through glass. It will be that much more ridiculous.’ I think with a spot like that, the more ridiculous, the better."
The director also attempted to ground the ad in realism. "I did suggest that, rather than have some spectacular, knockout girl on the bed waiting for the guy, have a woman who was believable," he notes. "I thought that was important. It’s much more engaging to see someone who is attractive, but not out of the ballpark. I think that hooks people a little more."
Of course, Hooper is happy that the ad was such a hit. "I’m always pleased when a spot gets attention," he states. "As long as people are laughing, I’m pretty happy."
Circuit City’s "In & Out," which Hooper directed through bicoastal Tool of North America (his roost prior to Bob) out of FCB Chicago, is another commercial that demonstrates the helmer’s ability to meld the likely and the unlikely. The ad shows a couple having a discussion outside of a Circuit City store. The woman tells the man she wants to keep this shopping trip short and sweet. He agrees, reluctantly, to only shop for what he needs. But once he’s inside, he can’t control himself. He takes off in pursuit of electronic products as the woman helplessly looks on. The image freeze-frames on the man madly dashing through the aisles as we hear a voiceover intone, "We know how you feel." The couple is then seen leaving the store, as the man, holding an armful of purchases, turns to his annoyed mate and says, "I think that went really well." Since signing with Bob, Hooper has directed three more spots—"D.Y.I.," "Congratulations" and "Checkout"—for the retailer.
Referring to the Circuit City campaign, Hooper explains, "These spots were trying to look into people’s secret obsessions with products and entertainment. [The ads] were trying to identify and portray intimate moments in people’s lives. That’s the kind of work I love to do."
When Hooper first met with the creatives at FCB, it was clear that the ads were over the top. He knew he would need to "make sure the performances were believable and the characters had enough personality so that you would buy them. Maybe [the characters] are eccentric, maybe they are slightly odd, but you know these people, and you can identify with them and think, ‘I’ve had those little moments myself.’ "
When Hooper is awarded a job, he knows what the agency wants from him. "If I get the call, the agency is after someone to bring in a human element that people can respond to," he observes. "I think you can do the most absurd things in the world, but if the absurdity isn’t based in some sort of familiar behavior, you’re going to lose people."
After graduating from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif., with a degree in advertising, in 1990, Hooper worked as an agency art director at Chiat/Day (now TBWA/Chiat/Day), Los Angeles, for two and a half years. He then moved to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GS&P), San Francisco, for another two and half years, before turning to directing in ’96, when he joined Tool of North America.
Last summer, he shifted his representation to Bob Industries. Why the switch after five years? "I needed a change," replies Hooper. "Bob had a lot to offer me. They had a different type of management style. I felt that I was at the point where I could stay where I was or really take off. I felt that these guys would be able to help me move up to the next level."
Hooper’s recent jobs include a campaign for Domino’s pizza, out of Deutsch, New York; a DirecTV package via Deutsch LA, Los Angeles; and three A&W spots for the Canadian market, which he directed through his Canadian roost, Radke Films, Toronto, out of Rethink Communications, Vancouver, B.C.
In a way, Hooper’s work is quite personal. "My fears about my own vulnerabilities are evident in some way in most of my spots," he notes. "If there’s any sort of unique performance or special coloration to a character, a lot of times it’s something from my own worries: fear of humiliation, frustrated efforts for love and sex, and avoidance of death, mutilation and long-term disease. That’s the holy trinity of comedy.
"Especially humiliation," he continues, laughing. "Being caught in a moment when you’re your true self. Making fun of that is always good fodder for comedy."
