Bears don’t have to raid campsites these days to get their paws on delicious s’mores. That’s the premise behind "Bear in the Big City." The humorous new spot, which features an endearing bear, was created by DDB New York, and directed by David Kellogg of bicoastal Anonymous Content for Hershey’s S’mores candy bars.
At the outset of the project, Kellogg recalled thinking, "Can you get a performance out of a guy in a bear suit that people feel sympathy for?" Ultimately, Kellogg was successful, thanks in part to both a clever concept and an amazingly realistic bear costume—complete with an animatronic head—provided and operated by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Hollywood.
The :30 "Bear in the Big City" (there are also two :15 versions of the spot) opens on a family on a camping trip enjoying s’mores around a picnic table. A voiceover—that of a bear—says, "Getting my paws on those delicious s’mores used to be a whole to-do." Suddenly, the bear barrels into the scene, scaring away the family and gobbling up their s’mores.
"Not anymore," the bear voiceover continues. "Thanks to Hershey’s S’mores candy bars, life’s never been better." We see that the bear has left the woods and taken up residence in a city apartment, where he now spends his time watching TV and doing small chores like vacuuming.
Via the voiceover, the bear continues to explain how Hershey’s S’mores have made his life easier. We see him pushing a grocery cart into a store, where he stocks up on the treats. On the way out, the happy bear high-fives a passerby.
As he makes his way back home with his bag full of Hershey’s S’mores, the bear’s attention turns to an attractive young lady. Passing her while crossing the street, he spins around to take a better look at her, sharing his appreciation through a sexy growl. The flirtation is interrupted, however, when a yellow taxi slams on the brakes to avoid hitting the distracted bear.
The spot ends with a shot of the product and the tagline, "A simpler way to enjoy a classic."
GIMME S’MORES
In conceptualizing the spot, DDB creative director/copywriter Scott Grayson said the creative team initially envisioned a family enjoying s’mores. "But that just seemed a little quiet," Grayson said. After some brainstorming, the idea of a s’mores-loving bear came up.
"He’s not a bad guy," Grayson said of the bear. "He means well, but he just can’t help himself because he loves s’mores. Now Hershey’s has made his life so much easier and better. He can get all the s’mores he wants without hassling anybody."
Kellogg was on the same page as the agency creatives in terms of how to portray the bear, according to DDB creative director/art director Richard Sharp. "We didn’t want to make him cartoon-y. We didn’t want to give him a Disney-esque feel," Sharp said. "We wanted to keep him somewhat real and give him a personality—make him human. We tried to play it straight."
The man charged with the task of portraying the bear was John Cameron, a performer with a jockey’s build for whom the bear costume was specifically built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The performer’s head only came up to the chest of the bear suit, and he was barely able to see out of the costume through a mesh of hair. "The guy was operating blind," Kellogg remarked.
Still, Cameron, who had previously studied bear movement by watching hours of nature videos, was able to give a great performance, Kellogg praised. "We were both pressuring him to be a real bear and to have a sympathetic personality," the director pointed out. While Cameron controlled the bear’s body, Alan Trautman, a puppeteer from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, took charge of the bear’s facial movements via remote control.
WILD KINGDOM
"Bear in the Big City"—which was DPed by John Schwartzman—was shot over two days on location in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park and on city streets.
While most of the scenarios were pre-planned, Sharp said there was plenty of room for improvisation, noting that, for example, the scene in which the bear pushed a grocery cart into a store was a last-minute addition.
As the shoot progressed, Grayson said he knew that they were onto something good. "We felt really good about the spot because we were holding up traffic for a while to shoot the taxi scene, and instead of being angry, people were laughing and really enjoying the scene," Grayson related. "It was a good focus group."
Some people even wanted to have their picture taken with the bear, Kellogg added.
While the shoot went smoothly, the edit—performed by Dave Koza of MacKenzie Cutler, New York—was also painless, Grayson and Sharp reported. Getting the voiceover right, however, was a challenge. "I think that was one of the hardest things," Grayson said. "I rewrote the script after we edited the spot together, and we listened to different voices as different things came into my mind. We were looking for a deeper, richer quality that wouldn’t sound cartoon-y, yet we wanted to make him sound like he belonged in the bear suit."
Once the right voiceover artist was cast and recorded, stock music—a light, whimsical track—was selected to accompany the spot. "We didn’t want the music to overpower the spot," Grayson commented. "We wanted more of a rug because the spot isn’t musically driven."
Looking back on the job, Kellogg reflected, "I’ve got to say, it was pretty easy. A bear in any kind of human situation is funny."
That said, the job certainly could have been much more difficult. "I heard that somebody else who bid on the job wanted to use a real bear. About midway through the shoot, I went, ‘That would have been rough,’ " Kellogg said, laughing.
