Whether it’s the influence of MTV, the dot-com approach to advertising, or teen comedies such as Scary Movie and Road Trip, there’s no denying a movement toward over-the-top humor among advertisers that once were known for a staid approach.
It’s not hard to find cereal spots that carry just a bit of a stalker mentality, carpet ads with quirky, conspiratorial pets, chicken advertising with a rabid guinea pig on the attack, and snack commercials featuring dismemberment and sexual fantasy.
Creatives at the agencies behind these ads say they are turning to humor today for the same reasons that ad people have always used it. The difference is that audiences—especially the younger demographics that some of these accounts are now targeting—are more difficult than ever to reach.
One of the most visible advertisers to use edgy humor is Kellogg’s. For Raisin Bran Crunch, a variation on Raisin Bran cereal, agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT), New York, took a decidedly new approach. "We needed to distance it from Raisin Bran, which has the image of an old fogey’s kind of [cereal]," says Alan Platt, group creative director at JWT. "[The agency and Kellogg’s] decided mutually to make it kind of an MTV cereal, to aim it at those kids because that’s a huge group. It’s a very good demographic to build on, and it’s turned out to be the most successful launch in Kellogg’s history."
The basic strategy of the campaign was to present documentary-like vignettes showing what young adults would go through for their Raisin Bran Crunch. In one spot, "Haircut," a guy with incredibly long hair cuts off his bangs in order to eat his Crunch with milk. "Blender" shows a college-age man with a broken jaw who has his friend put his flakes through the blender, all so the injured man can drink it through a straw. "Sneak Out" features a guy who sticks around for breakfast after a disastrous one-night stand. All three ads were helmed by director Peter Darley Miller of Stiefel+Company, Santa Monica. Miller also directed "Slacker," which copped a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in ’99.
"This audience is the hardest audience to sell," Platt says. "They’re so ad-savvy. Advertising is part of their culture. They don’t like to feel targeted or advertised to. They will forgive you, however, if you meet two criteria—if you’re funny and entertaining, and if you are pretty real. These are all very real situations. We were very careful to make them very slice-of-life, like the guys [in "Slacker"] who wake up after a night of God knows what, eat breakfast and go back to sleep."
Another Kellogg’s brand, Rice Krispies Treat Bars, has news ads that seek to change the way the snack product is viewed by consumers. "They were perceived as a pantry snack that mom would buy in bulk and kids would eat over a period of time," says Desmond LaVelle, a copywriter at Leo Burnett Co., Chicago. "We changed the target. We thought it would be interesting to see if we could make this brand sort of cool for teens, so instead of mom just buying them, kids would be going into quick shops and buying them singly off the shelves like a candy bar."
Recent spots push the envelope about as far as any recent dot-com effort. "Commute" shows a weary straphanger who can’t keep his grip in a lurching subway car. An advice-giving narrator suggests that a solution would be to mold a Rice Krispies Treat Bar around the handle. The snack proves so sticky that the commuter’s arm is wrenched off at the shoulder. In "Floating Friend," a lonely, hirsute man fashions a female companion out of Treats and hangs out with her in his above-ground swimming pool. When he goes inside for drinks, a neighbor’s dog tears her head off, sending him on a crying jag. The spots were directed by Jim Tozzi of bicoastal M-80 Films. LaVelle thinks it is a mistake to assume that humor is not appropriate for some products. "We didn’t do this work just to have fun," he says. "We did it to execute a business objective, which was to appeal to teens and become a relevant brand in their lives."
Although carpeting does not, at first glance, lend itself to humor, spots for DuPont Stainmaster have for years come up with funny, but not really edgy ways that kids can spill stuff on carpeting. With "The Con" and an earlier spot, "Here Kitty," DuPont Stainmaster’s agency, BBDO New York, took the comedy to another level, says Bill Bruce, executive VP/senior creative director. "It seems humor can work in a lot of different situations in terms of disarming people and easing expectations or preconceived notions," Bruce says. "It’s a good way to get people to let their guard down and enjoy the story rather than feeling something is being shoved down their throat."
"Here Kitty," directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA, was a spot from ’96 that featured a malevolent parrot who enticed a cat into the room and then did a dog impression, frightening the cat, who knocked over furniture, soiling the carpet. "The Con," helmed by David Kellogg of bicoastal Anonymous, began airing in May, and continues the destructive animal trend. The spot shows a dog, a cat and a mouse scheming together to trip their owner, who was planning to have lunch in front of the TV. The trio of pets works to place an ottoman in the path of the unsuspecting man, causing him to dump his meal on the carpet for them to eat. In both spots, the humor is in the movement and expressions of the animals.
Memorable comedy was used primarily because the company isn’t a heavy advertiser, producing a new spot only every three or so years. "DuPont is just looking for something that’s going to make people remember DuPont as a brand and Stainmaster as a carpet, and is going to resonate with people," Bruce explains. "They understand the power of comedy to stay with people. When you don’t have a lot of media money, you have to get attention other ways."
Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, has been moving its long-time client Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes more toward comedy with three campaigns over the last couple of years, says Bob Akers, creative director/art director on the account. "There’s always been a little bit of humor for the adult stuff from Frosted Flakes," Akers notes, recalling the "Shadows" campaign more than a decade ago in which adults testifying about Frosted Flakes were too embarrassed to show their faces on camera. "That had a kind of dry sense of humor about it, but we didn’t get into the kind of humor we’re doing right now until about two years ago," he says.
The current campaign, "Love Songs," features a hopelessly bad amateur songwriter named Russell who writes jingles about Frosted Flakes while eating them. As Russell discusses his music and his muse, Frosted Flakes’ mascot Tony The Tiger can be seen out of a window. Christopher Guest of bicoastal Moxie Pictures has helmed three spots—"Hot/Cold," "Math Teacher" and "Eat Jazz"—and more are expected. Humor is a natural for the product, Akers says. "It seemed the way to go. It’s a brand with a tiger in it and you’re talking to adults," he explains. "It’s not something you want to take a serious approach with. Comedy is kind of a universal language. It’s a way to get everybody who’s watching to sort of engage with your brand. It wasn’t like all of a sudden we’re talking to the MTV generation and we have to shift gears and be funny."
The approach is similar to the one Perdue Farms Chicken is taking, ramping up a style of humor that has been a mainstay for the company. Patriarch Frank Perdue was the self-deprecating spokesman for the brand for years, a role that has been taken up by his son Jim, in ads that use more off-the-wall humor. The more recent spots reflect more of the younger Perdue’s personality, relates Simon Bowden, executive VP/creative group head/art director at Lowe Lintas & Partners, New York.
David Lowe, executive VP/creative group head/copywriter on the commercials, points to "Chicken/ Duck," helmed by Jason Reitman of Tate & Partners, Santa Monica, which opens with the image of a white chicken flying into a pond inhabited by a couple of mallards. "The one thing we wanted to get at was making sure that the humor carried a message—that it wasn’t gratuitous humor, that there was a point to it," Lowe says. " ‘Chicken/Duck’ is a good example of that. Jim is making a point [that competitors add water to their chickens] but the backdrop to that point is an unusual, pretty funny, rather arresting visual."
Perdue tested the limits with the spot "Trippy," directed by Tom Routson of bicoastal Tool of North America, promoting its instant entrees line. As if modern lifestyles don’t put enough pressure on harried moms who want to serve a nutritious dinner, "Trippy" added a rabid guinea pig to terrorize the family. Bowden thinks of "Trippy" as something of a one-off that isn’t part of a continuing campaign. " ‘Trippy’ was a little bit of a different spot because it was for a new market—a younger audience, [and we wanted] to get more attention," he says. "We wanted to push the humor on that one, but it’s not the normal kind of spot we would do."
Trust Factor
With the exception of Raisin Bran Crunch, a new brand, all have long relationships with the agencies. Leo Burnett, for example, came up with Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes. Those long relationships suggest a level of trust between client and agency that allows for reasonable risk-taking. The campaigns are likely to stay with humor, the creatives say, at least as long as the product continues to move off the shelves.
One of the things the agencies like, especially those for the cereal products, is that the new emphasis on comedy has let them work with bigger name directors. "A few years ago it was very difficult to get good directors to work on packaged goods, and cereal in particular," says Leo Burnett’s Akers. "Suddenly we broke through that." In addition to Guest, Leo Burnett has also worked with director Kinka Usher of House of Usher, Santa Monica, on Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
"Now there’s not that barrier," Akers continues. "It’s become a much easier thing to find good directors because they look around and see somebody of the caliber of Christopher Guest and Kinka Usher shooting it, and they’re willing to get involved."
As would be expected, the high- profile directors all played collaborative roles in developing and shooting the spots, and, according to BBDO’s Bruce, Kellogg had to deal with a celebrity mammal in "The Con" for DuPont Stainmaster. "It’s always interesting working with animals," Bruce says, "especially a mouse, which by the way was Mr. Jingles from The Green Mile, so it was a famous mouse. He has a feature credit." f
