Insurance worries have never been more darkly comic than in Conseco’s "Working Stiff" via Fallon McElligott, New York. A man enters an office and asks, "Bob, can you make sure Carol gets these?" to a seated co-worker wearing dark glasses. Later Carol stops in: "Oh, thanks Bob! Have a good night." The mailman is fond of him, too: "It’s payday Bob," he says, tossing a paycheck onto the desk.
At the elevator bank, a man hails a middle-aged woman on her way to the office: "Hi Karen. Husband’s still in there, working late again." Karen laughs nervously: "What a trooper." Then we see her in Bob’s office, clutching a change of clothes. She grabs his paycheck. A voiceover asks, "How do you plan on providing for your loved ones after you pass away? Conseco’s life insurance policies can give your loved ones a regular monthly paycheck." This is followed by Conseco’s logo and the tagline: "Conseco. Step Up."
Directing collective Traktor helmed "Working Stiff" for bicoastal/international Partizan. The spot is part of a package that includes "Senior Shakedown," where an elderly couple bounce guests up and down on a sofa, then gather the change that collects beneath the cushions; "Tooth Fairy," in which cash-strapped parents accost a bewildered tooth fairy, and "Child Prodigy," featuring a tennis dad who spurs his daughter to greatness for the sake of his own financial security.
Traktor’s executive producer, Ole Sanders, explained, "These spots look quite straight, [so] people have to do a double-take to realize how dark they really are. Then it has an after-effect on people, which I think is quite good for the shelf life of the commercial."
He continued, "Another thing we think we achieved in terms of finding the right timing on the comedy is [we didn’t] signpost [the fact] that anything out of the ordinary is going to happen. You don’t put wacky camera angles in there; otherwise you think, ‘There’s a commercial, let’s wait for the twist.’ When you see some commercials you just know that ‘Oh, we’re in ad land, so anything can happen.’ I think we would have failed if you knew from the first frame that this was going to be an ad."
Traktor is well known for its kitschy style, exemplified in spots like Isuzu Amigo’s "Slinky" for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco (SHOOT "Top Spot of the Week," 3/27/98, p. 14), and Miller Lite’s "Robot Love" via Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis. "Working Stiff," however, is set in an ordinary office. Sanders explained, "The previous campaign was also quite realistic. We wanted to keep that." It was shot on location in an empty office building in downtown Los Angeles. Director Ulf Johansson said, "It wasn’t that hard to find the office; it’s all about the dressing, really. We changed some walls and [added] some glass to open it up a little bit. We sat down [with set designer/DP Andrezj Sekula] with a lot of reference pictures from real offices."
At Fallon McElligott, "Working Stiff"’s associate creative director/art director Matt Vescovo and copywriter William Gelner said they wanted to create insurance ads that wouldn’t "talk down to the audience," as Gelner put it. The resultant spots are simple ideas taken to their logical, if horrific, conclusions. The pair also claim that the premise of "Working Stiff" is rooted in fact: "It has happened!" Gelner insists. "Especially at big companies."
The plot twist was the primary concern for editor/partner Gavin Cutler of New York editorial house MacKenzie Cutler. He noted that the editorial process involved continually gauging an audience’s reaction to new cuts to see when, if ever, they caught on. He commented, "We had to find the line between giving too much away versus not giving it away at all. The whole experience while watching the commercial is, ‘Something’s not right here,’ but it’s more successful if you don’t know exactly what wasn’t right. … As we continued to work, we ended up staying longer and longer on the guy ("Bob"), and that’s a bit of a tip because he’s not doing anything! So it makes you wonder."
The genesis for these spots also addressed Gelner’s and Vescovo’s long-term goals: to feature midgets and dead bodies in spots. "Originally, we wanted a dead midget," explained Gelner. They compromised with a dead body in one and a midget in "Tooth Fairy." The spots will run through the end of the year, and the pair is already thinking of more ways to give viewers a jolt. However, Gelner advised, "Maybe you’d better not mention them."
