A tongue-in-cheek mock infomercial promoting a detergent that is a panacea for how dirty Subaru Outback drivers and passengers get from their outdoor adventures brings a different, quirky yet entertaining dimension to automotive advertising as conceived by Minneapolis agency Carmichael Lynch.
Directed by Scott Vincent of Hungry Man, the two-minute spot debuted last week (10/5) on The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien. The piece thrusts us onto the set of the happy-go-lucky infomercial “Don’t Fear The Dirt” starring two spokespeople, a man and a woman who tell us about the new detergent for Subaru Outback enthusiasts. Interspersed are case study slices of life which show the detergent coming to the rescue for lovers of the great outdoors.
We start with a married couple–the husband caked in dirt comes home to his obsessive compulsive neat freak of a wife. He kisses her on the cheek and then sits next to her on the pristine white couch in their living room. Her testimonial is that now with Subaru detergent, their marriage has “never been stronger.” The spouses each shoot each other a glance which makes you wonder if their marriage will even last, providing an extra undercurrent of humor to the proceedings.
Back to the studio, our spokespeople are demonstrating the stain removal power of the detergent, placing a dirty shirt into a bowl with water and soapy detergent. The shirt then emerges as completely clean. The guy even suggests that he is going to put the shirt on–even though it’s soaking wet. Nonetheless we can feel confident that volcanic ash, aggressive perspiration, tree sap and the like are no match for Subaru detergent. The studio audience applauds.
Next up is a woman at the top of a steep mountain, holding onto a line as her hubby is about to rappel down on. She affirms that they both love rappelling. He then falls with a thud below. But not to fear as we then see the happy couple seated in their Subaru–the woman in the driver’s seat, the man in the front passenger seat wearing a neck brace. The wife beams that Subaru detergent makes stains “a thing of the past.”
The spot then returns us to the studio where the spokeswoman holds up and smells a pair of shorts at the behest of her co-host who informs her that he just wore them on a 50-mile mountain bike ride. But once washed with Subaru detergent, the shorts now smell like “perfume” according to the lass who then passes them around the studio audience so they too can get a sniff.
Our third and final slice of life comes with a wildlife photographer in a bear costume who takes a picture of a nearby bird in the wild. He smiles that he can now photograph animals “without smelling like one,” which makes his wife very happy.
A final trip back to the studio finds our spokescouple exhorting, “Don’t fear the dirt.” A website address appears on screen (Outbackdetergent.com) along with a notice that bottles of the detergent are actually available at Subaru dealers while supplies last.
Playing it straight
Director Vincent said he and the Carmichael Lynch creatives agreed to play the infomercial pretty straight. “We didn’t set out to make fun of the infomercial genre, which is almost a little too easy to do,” related Vincent. “We tried to do the spot dead-on straight and let the situations, which were pretty ridiculous, speak for themselves. Instead of trying to make it bigger than it was, we kind of made it smaller. The announcers aren’t making fun of anyone–they’re just being announcers.”
Vincent observed that key was keeping the infomercial grounded. “If we played it big and over the top throughout, it would lose a lot of its humor,” he said. “That way the moments when we went a little cartoony–like the rappelling accident—didn’t lose their impact. If it were a cartoon throughout, that wink to the audience wouldn’t work as well.”
Acknowledging that the scenarios were intentionally ridiculous and stupid, Vincent said creative restraint was nonetheless exercised. “We didn’t let it sink into slapstick. The actor portraying the wildlife photographer played that character for real. At the same time, there was some subtle humor in the mix–like his using a telephoto lens to shoot a bird about a half a foot away.”
This was Vincent’s first time working with Carmichael Lynch. The agency creative team included chief creative officer Jim Nelson, group creative director Randy Hughes, associate creative director/writer Conn Newton, senior art director Bill Whitney, director of integrated production Joe Grundhoefer, senior integrated producer Freddie Richards, executive art producer Sandy Boss Febbo and art producer Jill Kahn.
