Rather than hire drop dead gorgeous models with perfectly silky manes to appear in “Three Women” (:30), which promotes Dove Styling hair care products, Ogilvy & Mather (O&M), Chicago, cast real women.

Well, real animated women–The Flintstones‘ Wilma Flintstone, Velma Dinkley of Scooby Doo and Jane Jetson from The Jetsons. “Even though these are cartoon characters, they were selected because of the fact that they represent real women,” explained O&M North American creative director Maureen Shirreff. “We could have easily selected Wonder Woman, Brenda Starr and Betty and Veronica, but they seemed to land on an image of more stereotypically beautiful women. We wanted to continue in the Dove use of women who represent everyday women.”

In the spots, which combine cel animation produced by Turner Studios, Atlanta, and tabletop product shots helmed by director Mark Klein of MK Films Corp., Chicago, Wilma, Velma and Jane complain about their respective hairstyles. “My hair has been stuck in the Stone Age,” Wilma laments.

“Jinkies, my hair doesn’t move!” Velma declares.

“My hair doesn’t feel free. I don’t feel free,” Jane opines.

By the end of the spot, each of the ladies is much happier, having achieved looser, livelier hairdos by using the Dove Styling products appropriate for their hair type.

 

LADIES FIRST

Created by the legendary Hanna-Barbera animation studio, all of the characters in “Three Women” are now owned by the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) division of Time Warner–O&M had to negotiate with the TBS’s Cartoon Network for permission to use the icons. Once that permission was obtained, O&M hired Turner Studios to animate the characters. “We were very excited about the possibilities for this because it was pushing these characters outside of their normal cartoon behaviors,” remarked Erika Lindberg Feldstein, a senior project producer with Turner Studios.

“It was kind of fun to see them with their hair down–literally,” added Turner Studios lead animation director Mike Schultze. “Really, they’re icons in cartoon land and then to change them like that made them a little bit more sexy. It was fun to play around with that.”

According to Shirreff, the creative team at O&M also enjoyed playing makeover mavens, debating what type of hairdos would suit Wilma, Velma and Jane while keeping in mind the Dove Styling tagline “Unstick your style.” “The thing we’re trying to talk about is, you can get the style you want but your hair will be able to move,” Shirreff noted.

“That was probably the biggest back and forth on this job–getting that hair to look the way they wanted it to look because that was what it was all about,” Schultze said.

To help communicate their wishes on Velma in particular, whose short, page boy hairdo presented less options, O&M sent Turner Studios video of O&M employees with various short hairstyles for inspiration.

While trying to please O&M, Turner Studios also had to respect the history and behavior of the characters. “Part of what helps us do that is we actually work directly with Cartoon Network as well, and they have people over there that are expert in those characters,” Schultze explained. “They can rein us in if we have gone beyond what they feel is comfortable for that character.”

Turner Studios created the characters utilizing traditional cel animation, although the process has been somewhat updated. “The characters were all hand drawn like they have always been, but we don’t cel paint anymore. In other words, we’re not drawing on the clear cels anymore and painting the cells. All the painting is done in the computer now,” Schultze shared, pointing out that the computer is able to paint the cells “probably twenty times faster” than a person could.

When it came to voiceovers, Turner Studios led O&M to voiceover artists experienced in portraying each of the characters–Tress MacNeill voiced Wilma; Mindy Cohn was Velma; and Lauri Fraser did Jane.

It was helpful to have talent that knew each woman well, Shirreff said. “The talent gave us some nice cues–like when Jane kind of laughs. We never wrote that. That came from [Fraser, the woman who voiced Jane] saying, ‘Well, this is what Jane would do.’ “

As for music, O&M has established a tradition of producing sophisticated soundtracks for Dove spots and continued on that course with “Three Women.” “Of course, we listened to music from The Flintstones and The Jetsons,” Shirreff said. “But we knew right away that it was not appropriate because, after all, these women are spokespeople for Dove.”

With Dove’s musical direction in mind, O&M instructed composer Michael Lande of Music Orange, San Francisco, to whip up a track for “Three Women” that was sophisticated with a touch of intelligent whimsy.

Lande, who has composed music for numerous Dove spots over the past three years, likens the resulting track he created for “Three Women” to that of an Italian film score. “They reference a lot of Italian soundtracks [in the music for Dove spots], so we were trying to keep in that genre,” Lande said, making note that his composition was performed by live musicians with “some electronic dabs” included in the mix.

 

CARTOON CALL

Not surprisingly, O&M has gotten a generally enthusiastic reaction to the “Three Women” spot, which appeals to consumers through the use of classic, down-to-earth characters we’ve come to know and love over the years.

In terms of execution, “Three Women” is not only a huge departure for Dove but “a huge departure for any hair care company,” Shirreff maintained. “I don’t believe anybody has ever used animated characters to talk about hair products.”

And while the use of animated characters is new for Dove, the use of real women isn’t, Shirreff said, citing Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” advertising effort, which seeks to offer a wider definition of beauty and inspire women to celebrate themselves. “They are really trying to call into question how beauty has been portrayed for so long,” Shirreff commented.

Noting the preponderance of models with lusciously gorgeous hair that we see in so many spot campaigns for hair care products, Shirreff said, “Anybody who works in the beauty business knows that this is totally unachievable. Nobody has hair like that. We don’t have stylists waiting for us in the wings. So it is about time we portrayed that every woman has her own beauty potential. We want her to celebrate that, and we want to provide products that are going to deliver. But what we don’t want to do is portray impossible beauty standards. People have really had enough of that.”

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