Since 1998, Fallon Minneapolis, has been creating spots for Lee Jeans that feature the indestructible and lovable doll known as Buddy Lee. The latest round of ads featuring the iconic hero, originally used as a Lee promotion item in the ’20s, is one reason the ad shop has been named SHOOT’s 2001 Agency of the Year.
In the summer, "Apartment," "Street" and "Suburbia," directed by Traktor of bicoastal/international Partizan, hit the airwaves. Since then, "Red Cross," created in response to the events of Sept. 11, and directed by Fallon art director Harvey Marco; and "Barbershop," directed by Craig Gillespie of bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ), have also aired. The creative team responsible for these sly yet sincere ads consists of Marco, creative director Bob Moore and copywriter Dean Buckhorn. The spot’s catchy song, "Be Like Buddy Lee," was written by T-Bone Burnett and performed by country singer Junior Brown.
In "Street," a good-looking, energetic young man wearing Lee Dungarees makes his way down a road. As Brown sings, "I want to be like Buddy Lee/ and help out everyone I see," the young man deposits a coin into a stranger’s parking meter. In an off-the-wall moment, the young man waves to rapper Chuck D, who’s eating in a restaurant, as Brown sings, "I’d go to coffee with Chuck D/ like Buddy Lee." Our hero keeps moving along until Buddy blocks his path, preventing him from stepping out into the street. As Junior Brown sings, "But at times it occurs to me," a street sweeper rolls over Buddy Lee and explodes. The heroic doll has saved the aspiring humanitarian from getting smashed, and Brown sings his last line, "It might hurt to be like Buddy Lee." Of course the indestructible doll is just fine. At ad’s end, a voiceover declares, "Lee Dungarees. Can’t bust ’em." The other two ads in the package, "Suburbia" and "Apartment," feature similar themes.
"Our task was to evolve [the campaign] from the Buddy Lee ‘Challenge,’ which they had done last year," explains Buckhorn. "The client had asked us to explore a couple of different things: to try to make someone other than Buddy seem heroic, and to make sure the jeans came through strongly.
"We came up with this idea of people wanting to be like Buddy Lee," continues Buckhorn, "which seemed to let us take the core values that Buddy has—the unstoppable spirit, the indestructibility—that the brand represents, and to apply them to humans. We talked about a lot of different executions, and we ended up producing this musically driven campaign with a heroic anthem."
"The client loved the idea of using Junior Brown and having that relate to the ‘Can’t bust ’em’ spirit, but also having a counterpoint of unusual visuals," adds Moore. "It was like a twist on a thirty-second music video."
Marco talks about why Fallon chose Traktor to direct the three spots which started airing this summer: "We’re always trying to keep the campaign fresh; we’re always looking for a different approach," he notes. "This year, with the first three spots, we felt Traktor would push the needle a little bit. We wanted an Americana take on it, but we wanted it to be skewed."
New Direction
Of course, after Sept. 11, everything changed. Just days later, Fallon produced "Buddy Lee/Red Cross," a simple, touching spot that encouraged viewers to donate blood. In the ad, a traveling shot pans across a field before moving in for a close-up of Buddy Lee. An even tighter shot shows the doll wearing a tiny Red Cross "I gave" button and a little Band-Aid on his arm. Lee Jeans and Red Cross logos appear at the end of the ad, and a slightly altered version of the "Be Like Buddy Lee" track adds to the spot’s poignancy.
"We felt compelled to say something," explains Marco. "We felt that with this icon, and all the things we established about him doing good, he was a perfect spokesman for a cause."
The creatives decided that the Red Cross could benefit from Buddy Lee, but they knew that time was critical. "What if we put Buddy in a field and put a Band-Aid on him?" Marco recalls them asking. Then, "We went out the next day with a small crew and put it all together. A week later it was on the air." This ad’s version of "Be Like Buddy Lee" uses only instrumentals and background vocals.
The most recent Buddy Lee ad, "Barbershop," features the original Junior Brown song. The spot shows an African-American young man who’s just had his hair cut, still sitting in a barber’s chair as he checks out a photo of Buddy Lee. He’s obviously happy that his funny-looking haircut approximates the doll’s ‘do.
On his way out of the barbershop, he spots a white guy sporting a mullet and holding a magazine photo. Unquestionably this second guy is ready to get a haircut like the one in the picture. The black guy hands him the photo of Buddy and the white guy likes what he sees. The black guy stops to greet the mullet-wearing man’s wife and kid, who also sport that popular ’80s hairstyle. A moment later, we see the white guy, clearly pleased with his new Buddy Lee-style haircut, as we hear the lyrics, "But then it occurs to me/ Not everyone can be like Buddy Lee." The white guy looks like hell with Buddy Lee hair.
"Barbershop" was created after "Street," "Apartment" and "Suburbia." (Those three ads, which all feature explosions and other destructive elements, were pulled off the air following the Sept. 11 events.) "We had an issue because Buddy is all about being indestructible," says Marco, referring to the doll’s ability to survive just about anything. "We said, ‘Let’s back off Buddy a little bit. We’ll let the ideals of the song come through and let’s do a spot about a guy who idolizes [Buddy] so much he actually sports a Buddy Lee haircut.’ "
The members of the Buddy Lee creative team are all advertising veterans. Moore was creative director/ copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., for 10 years before joining Fallon in ’00. Marco worked at Ammirati & Puris (now Lowe Lintas & Partners), New York; Fallon; and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. He returned to Fallon last year. Buckhorn has been with Fallon for 10 years; prior to Fallon, he was with such agencies as DDB Washington, D.C., and Earle Palmer Brown, Bethesda, Md.
With more Buddy Lee ads in the works, Buckhorn says, "I think you could probably do [the campaign] forever because of the attributes [Buddy Lee] represents. You can put him into pretty much any situation you want because he’s such a classic hero."
