If you are a parent, you have probably been in this position: The night before school, your child suddenly informs you that he or she desperately needs a few random items for class the next day. And, of course, it’s always something—like a clarinet reed or a baseball glove—which you can’t just pick up at an all-night convenience store. Next morning, you find yourself scrambling to locate the necessary objects so your kid won’t go off to class empty-handed and disappointed.
That’s exactly the scenario cleverly portrayed in a new Debit MasterCard spot created by McCann-Erickson, New York, and directed by Samuel Bayer of bicoastal Mars Media for MasterCard International Corporation.
Titled "Running Errands," the :30—presented in letterbox format—opens on a woman who is literally on the run, making a mad dash through a downtown area. If it weren’t for the appearance of the MasterCard logo on the lower right-hand side of the screen, you might think you were watching the trailer for an action flick.
A graphic is superimposed over the scene. It reads, "calculator: $20." A voiceover says, "Calculator: $20 on debit card." While we don’t actually see the woman buying the calculator, we get the picture.
Cut to a shot of the woman sliding her Debit MasterCard across the counter in a store. Another superimposed graphic reads, "clarinet reeds: $22." The accompanying voiceover says, "Clarinet reeds: $22 on debit card."
The next stop on the woman’s mad dash is a sporting goods store, where we see her paying for a baseball glove. A superimposed graphic reads, "baseball glove: $53." The voiceover says, "Baseball glove: $53 on debit card."
With that final purchase completed in record time, the woman is on the move again, sprinting across a pedestrian overpass. She stops suddenly, then leaps over the side of the overpass, landing on top of a yellow school bus that is driving below. Eat your hearts out, Arnold and Sly.
Quickly finding her balance, she leans over the edge of the speeding vehicle to hand a bag through a window. A little boy is on the receiving end, and the bag is full of the items that our hero just purchased. At this point, it is apparent that she is actually a mom who embarked on the wild shopping spree to buy her son last-minute supplies.
Another superimposed graphic reads, "running errands faster: priceless." The voiceover says, "Use your debit card and avoid the hassles of checks."
Having completed her errands and successfully delivered the goods to her son, the mom is seen running in front of the bus. A superimposed graphic and voiceover say, "there are some things money can’t buy." This is followed by another graphic and voiceover: "for everything else there’s Debit Mastercard."
The picture turns black, and the MasterCard logo appears on the screen. Mom’s mission has been accomplished.
Certainly, it was a concept that McCann-Erickson executive VP/deputy creative director Joyce King Thomas could relate to all too well. "For a mother of two, it happens constantly," she related. "They forget to tell you about something they desperately need, and you so want to be there for them."
This spot, according to McCann-Erickson VP/senior copywriter Larry Platt, taps into that desire to be there for one’s children, and effectively illustrates how a Debit MasterCard can make the busy lives of working mothers easier. "Can you imagine how long it would have taken her to do all of these errands if she had to write a check at each stop?" Platt asks.
While the mom is portrayed almost like an action hero, noted Platt, "It’s all done with a wink. When we were thinking about ways to dramatize the premise, it didn’t seem we’d have the right energy if we just had the mom standing in line at the store."
It didn’t take long to get Bayer up to speed on what the job entailed. "We really felt Sam understood this commercial," Platt said. "He understood the energy the spot would need. He understood how to construct it, and he understood that this woman had a single-minded purpose."
The director also understood that it was crucial to cast the right woman for the role of the mom. Actress Susan Washburn won the part, beating out several women—including a few athletes—during auditions in Los Angeles. "We really wanted someone who could be a real mom, which Susan Washburn is, and someone who could also run, and she runs every day," explained Tracie Norfleet, an executive producer at Mars Media. (Bayer was on location and unavailable for comment at press time.) Having the stamina to run take after take was particularly important: "We didn’t want someone who would be panting after every take," Norfleet pointed out.
The woman cast in the role also had to have the right stride. "It’s funny, but everyone has a different style of running," McCann-Erickson VP/senior art director David Fox observed. "And we thought [Washburn’s] running style seemed to fit what we were looking for: It was very determined and athletic."
"Running Errands" was filmed over two days in Los Angeles, this past September. While the scenes of the woman running downtown were shot in Montrose, the leap off the overpass was done at Los Angeles Center Studios. Norfleet said that the Studios offered a believable scenario, and—even more importantly—a controllable one. "It looks like a city, but it was a controlled situation. We didn’t have to worry about stopping traffic," she told SHOOT. Given the setting, Bayer was able to shoot the scene without rushing through it, therefore ensuring the safety of the performers and the quality of the finished product.
Washburn actually dared jump off the overpass herself: She was connected to a bungee cord. "She was really gung-ho. She wanted to do it. She was a 100 percent trouper," praised Norfleet.
But a stuntwoman made the actual landing on the bus. Norfleet noted that Bayer had all the angles covered, as he shot the scene with several cameras. "We usually have four to six cameras up at any time," she said.
That gave editor Andre Betz of Bug Editorial, New York, plenty of film to work with when it came to constructing the climactic bus scene. "Sam pushed everything very hard and gave us a lot of film, and a lot of options," reported Platt.
Composer Sherman Foote of Big Foote Music, New York, was brought into the project during the editing stage. The agency wasn’t quite sure how to approach the spot musically, Foote said. "We helped them come up with their solution on this one, and it definitely needed something really high energy and contemporary," he explained.
Foote began constructing a track, and fellow Big Foote Music composer Darren Solomon couldn’t resist giving his input. "Darren heard the rhythm track and said, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. Can I try something on that?’" recalled Foote.
Solomon took what he describes as a DJ approach to the music, sampling from old Big Foote Music outtakes, "finding everything from orchestral to big band stuff and laying them through the track on filters," Solomon said.
"I was doing something that was a little bit more traditional, and ended up throwing it away because what Darren did on top of it was much cooler," added Foote.
In the end, the pair produced what Foote calls "a big beat DJ track."
Like a lot of the people working on this spot, Foote and Solomon had a personal feel for the concept. "We’re both fathers," Foote said, adding with a laugh, "You just do the kids’ bidding."
Likewise, Norfleet has found herself running around doing last-minute shopping for her nine-year-old son. "But I, of course, have never jumped on a school bus," she declared.
Would she go that far herself? "I’d start the stunt," she said, laughing. "But I’d have a stuntperson finish it off."
