Ad agency Rick Johnson & Co. is based in Albuquerque, N.M., but its creative output belies its regional location. Consider its most recent campaign for the New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department’s Traffic Safety Bureau, which uses humor to highlight unsafe driving. In "Driver’s Ed/Boy," a burly driving instructor gives a teenage student driver an unlikely version of the rules of the road: "Ben, we’re going to skip parallel parking and go straight to tailgating. Let’s get out there on the interstate, find us a semi, show ’em who’s boss." The instructor proceeds to tell his charge not to use the turn signal, and demonstrates how to sound angrier when yelling at motorists.
At spot’s end, a voiceover says, "You didn’t learn to drive this way, so why do you drive this way? If you don’t stop driving dangerously, we’ll stop you. New Mexico Law Enforcement."
In "Driver’s Ed/Girl," the same instructor now has a teenage girl as his pupil. He informs her at the beginning of the session that she will work on applying mascara and changing the radio station at the same time. "Stop sign—that’s just a suggestion," he tells her, when they encounter one. "You just roll through that."
"We had this message about aggressive driving that we wanted to relate," explains Scott Johnson, executive creative director at Rick Johnson & Co. "We thought an approach with humor would speak to the target audience—young males."
"The client liked the campaign because they saw we could pack in a lot of [risky driving] behavior in each spot," says Maclay. "The ads show that you can be absurd [and] true at the same time."
Jason Reitman of Tate & Partners, Santa Monica, directed "Driver’s Ed/Boy" and "Driver’s Ed/Girl." (The former was featured in SHOOT’s "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery [1/24, p. 11].) The package was produced through Sterling Productions, the agency’s in-house production house. According to Sam Maclay, associate creative director/copywriter, the choice of Reitman illustrates the agency’s penchant for working with young, up-and-coming talent, given its typically low budgets.
"It’s a huge priority for us to get good directors," says Maclay. "Jason is a real actor’s director, which may be partly due to his background growing up [Reitman is the son of feature director/producer Ivan Reitman]. He has a great sense of what would play on the screen."
"[Jason Reitman] has an ear for comedy," adds Johnson. "He understands the rhythm of the language, and he wasn’t afraid to let the actors improvise."
Both Maclay and Johnson note that the bar for the Traffic Safety PSA campaign was set pretty high, based on the agency’s previous 2001 campaign for the client that included "DWI," "Buckle Up" and "Underage," which was directed by Wrye Martin of Wilson Griak, Minneapolis. Aiming to get people to use seat belts and not drink and drive, the spots are chilling with their characters’ matter-of-fact delivery of dialogue.
In "Buckle Up"—which was also featured in "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery (SHOOT, 5/4/01, p.15)—a woman breezily tells her husband she’s taking the kids to the grocery store. "It’s not very far, so I’m not going to buckle the kids in," she says. "When we get rear-ended, Billy’s going to fly through the windshield and break his neck and back—so this is the last time you’re going to see him alive." A voiceover points out, "People don’t talk this way, but they act this way. If you don’t stop driving without seatbelts, we’ll stop you."
Got Milk?
Another one of the shop’s notable spot efforts was a three-spot campaign for Berkeley Farms Dairy, directed by Bob Ebel of Ebel Productions, Chicago. Each spot is set in a barn and features a youngster asking a cow questions. In "Mallory," for instance, a girl asks the large bovine: "Do you snore? Can you make me a milk shake? Are you always this quiet?"
The Berkeley Farms spots—the first TV effort for the dairy farm—are charming, but as Johnson notes, the shoot had its share of nerve-wracking moments. "If you put a two-thousand pound animal next to a small child, it’s going to scare them both," comments Johnson. "We brought out eight kids to see who was comfortable with the cow. A few of them wet themselves."
"It was probably the most terrifying shoot I’ve been on," adds Maclay. "The meter’s running and you have two unknown variables—an animal and children. It was also the most expensive shoot the agency’s done, and there was pressure to come back with something good."
Chairman Rick Johnson founded Rick Johnson & Co. in ’77 with one client—a local bank. The shop now employs about 50 people and bills $35 million annually. Because of the nature of the New Mexico ad market, the agency can afford to work on smaller pieces of business, notes Maclay. It currently services about 50 accounts (not all of which are active year round). However, five or six large accounts "keep the wheels rolling," including the State of New Mexico Tourism, Giant Convenience Stores, Los Alamos National Bank and PNM, a utility company.
"We’ve learned to do a lot with a little," says Johnson. Last year, Johnson himself pulled double duty, serving as creative director and director on "D.H. Lawrence," a New Mexico Tourism spot. Shot on location in the Gila Wilderness, Southwest New Mexico, the spot showcases the beauty of the natural landscape and appeals to travelers seeking to get in touch with their spiritual side. The project was so low budget that the client served as the grip on the shoot.
"We have to figure out ways to execute ideas cheaply because we don’t have the big budgets for exploding zeppelins," Johnson relates. To that end, the agency relies on Sterling Productions to produce about 98 percent of its jobs. "Sterling Grant Jr. [who heads up Sterling Productions, the agency’s in-house production shop] has a lot of contacts and knows all the crew people," says Johnson.
The agency also has relationships with regular collaborators, which include Dallas-based director/editor Michael Oleksinski, who recently helmed "Lawn Mower" and "Jogger" for Deans Premium Ice Cream, and just finished shooting a spot for the United Blood Services that is now in postproduction. Another is editor Ronnie Gordon of charlieuniformtango, Dallas and Austin, Texas, who has cut work for PNM and Rainbow Foods grocery stores for the agency.
"We’ve grown immune to hearing people laugh on the other end of the phone when they hear what our budget is," comments Johnson.
"Our TV budgets are the size of their catering budget," say Maclay, "but that doesn’t stop us from calling. We’re a small agency, but that’s never kept us from thinking big."
