Sometimes a good swift kick in the pants is necessary to motivate someone to take action. And, as demonstrated in a campaign created by Seattle ad agency Wexley School For Girls, the deployment of a large construction crane can also work.
Wexley School For Girls turned out this package of commercials in conjunction with Nerve, Portland, Ore., which provided strategic support (i.e., account planning, research), for client micro_skills, a San Diego-based IT certification school.
In "Meter Maid," we see a woman writing up a ticket for an illegally parked car, while the owner of the vehicle argues vociferously with her. Meanwhile, a voiceover introduces us to the meter maid, whose name is Marguerite Flores. "Part of her job makes people furious," relates the voiceover. "She doesn’t like that part, but she won’t do anything about it."
A crane appears in the scene, and plucks the meter maid from the sidewalk. "Where do you think you’re going?" the car owner asks her, still belligerent. The meter maid screams as she dangles from the crane, which proceeds to lumber through city streets and take her into a suburban residential area.
The voiceover continues, noting that micro_skills will help this woman by showing her "the way to a new career in IT—where people need her, not loathe her."
At this point, the crane gently places the meter maid on a tennis court, where she gets lessons on her forehand from a young, good-looking male tennis instructor. The voiceover concludes that with IT training, the woman "will be paid better and soon can afford a Sunday afternoon tennis lesson."
As she gets into her lessons with the tennis stud, the micro_skills logo appears on screen, accompanied by the slogan, "Let’s do this."
The other two spots in the campaign similarly feature a crane plucking a stock boy and a welder, respectively, from their dead-end day jobs and transporting them to a better life. Clearly the crane represents micro_skills, lifting people out of career doldrums to more desirable livelihoods.
The package was directed by Steven Diller of Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica, and lensed in Toronto by DP Derek Rogers. Omaha and Radke Films, Toronto, teamed on the shoots in Canada, with Eric Stern executive producing for Omaha and freelancer Miriana DiQuinzo serving as producer for Radke. Steve Sheriden was the production designer.
Ian Cohen and Cal McAllister were creative directors/copywriters for Wexley School For Girls, with Keven Diller serving as agency producer.
Editor was Kelly Vander Linda of Slice Editorial, Seattle. Kevin Adams of Modern Digital, Seattle, was online editor/Smoke artist. Colorist was Modern Digital’s Tim Maffia. Audio mixer/sound designer was Steve Heinke of Pure Audio, Seattle.
Sandra Battaglini was the principal actor in this spot. The SAG/AFTRA Commercials Contract Standing Committee has granted a waiver to allow commercials to be available for viewing on SHOOTonline.com. The spots cannot be copied, downloaded or e-mailed.
