Showing ample leg and a bit of cleavage, a woman in a flatteringly fitted business suit sashays toward a group of boisterous construction workers at a building site on a busy city street. She seems headed for the inevitable series of whistles and catcalls, but instead the loud, laughing guys turn curiously subdued.
As the attractive gal smilingly passes, each guy bows his head, pointedly avoiding eye contact. The camera reveals noticeable bumps and bruises on the faces of the men—several even have bandaged, if not broken, noses. Reaching the end of this sidewalk line of macho men turned passive, the woman turns back and acknowledges them with a condescending, "Good afternoon, boys."
"Good afternoon," they respond meekly, in unison. One guy, however, can’t resist and looks longingly at her as she walks away. But a buddy reminds him with a jab that he’d better keep his eyes in his sockets if he knows what’s good for him.
"It’s good to know karate," explains a super, which is followed by the logo for Tiger Schulmann’s Karate training.
The :30 "Construction" is one of three spots in a campaign for the New York-based karate studios. The package of ads was conceived and produced by New York-based DCODE, a hybrid creative services/strategic planning/production house. DCODE is part of the publicly traded, Minneapolis-headquartered iNTELEFILM family of companies.
The spots were directed by C.J. Waldman, who also spearheaded the creative via DCODE. (Waldman’s official roost as a commercial director is Santa Monica-based Harvest.) The campaign was a joint production of DCODE and Toronto-based The Partners’ Film Company. Rebecca Ross and Jessica Stein were producer and agency producer on the job via DCODE. Paul Tilton served as DP.
Editor was Lucas Spaulding of MacKenzie Cutler, New York, who also served as sound designer/audio mixer on the job.
