A man has dozed off on the couch, in front of the TV set. Another guy then enters the picture. For a moment, we assume he’s going to turn off the television and maybe put a blanket over his friend to make him a bit more comfortable. But instead, the man picks up his sleeping pal and places him in a most unusual position. Still asleep, the guy—belly up—is now laid across the lap of his buddy, who’s now seated on the sofa.
The friend begins to stroke the tummy of the slumbering man, then repeatedly pats his chest. Rousing from his deep sleep to find his roommate heavily petting him, the now wide-awake man is understandably confused and shocked. Caught in the act, his friend looks about sheepishly.
A supered message puts this bizarre behavior into context: "Some things you can only do with a pet."
An end tag then appears against a black background—a logo for British Columbia’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA), accompanied by the slogan, "Adopt soon," and a Web site address (spca.bc.ca).
Titled "Roommates," this spot is one of four similarly themed :30s directed by David Shane for agency Palmer Jarvis DDB, Vancouver, B.C. The other spots are "Husband," "Friends" and "Dad."
In the latter, a father and son are shown playing catch on a beach. Suddenly the father throws the ball as far as he can into the ocean, and says to his son, "Go get it, boy!" The kid looks at his dad in bewilderment. Indeed, "some things you can only do with a pet."
In "Husband," a woman is seen bending over an open refrigerator. She grabs a chicken drumstick and starts chomping away. Coming up from behind, her husband grabs her and starts fondling her tummy. "Who’s my chubby one?" he coos in a baby voice. Needless to say, the wife isn’t amused.
And "Friends" features the same two guys in "Roommates," only this time the guy stroking and petting his friend doesn’t wait for him to fall asleep first.
The campaign was produced by Circle Productions, Vancouver and Toronto, which provided support to Shane, who’s on the roster of bicoastal/international Hungry Man. Shane was loaned out by Hungry Man to Circle for the project. Executive producer was Tom Murray of Circle; line producer was Howard Dancyger. The DP was Phil Linzey.
The Palmer Jarvis DDB team consisted of creative director Alan Russell, copywriter Paul Little, art director Lara Palmer and producer Janice Crondahl.
Ian Jenkins of Coast Mountain Post Production, Vancouver, served as offline/online editor. Colorist was Gary Shaw of Toybox, Vancouver. Audio mixer/sound designer was Craig Zarazun of Wave Productions, Vancouver. Music composer was Wave’s Bob Smart.
Kevin Royce and Toby Berner were the principal actors in this spot. The SAG/AFTRA Commercials Contract Standing Committee has granted a waiver to allow commercials to be available for viewing on SHOOTonline.com. The spots cannot be copied, downloaded or e-mailed.
