At www.BuddyLeeGuidanceCounselor.com, the Lee Dungarees mascot Buddy Lee lives on. This time he’s playing the role of a guidance counselor for any young person in need of some direction. On the site you can take career tests, learn interview tips and calculate salaries.
Of course, all of the content is ridiculous. When determining the salary for a choreographer, the starting pay is $81,000. However, after you account for the $15,000 studio rental, $4,700 super-absorbent leotards, $30,100 worth of Michael Bolton CDs, and $11,000 in lavender scented Bengay, you only have $20,200 left. If you’re considering becoming a romance novelist, you will be in the red by $41,000 after expenses like a $49,000 lobotomy.
The creatives behind the work at Fallon Minneapolis (at press time, the agency had parted ways with the Lee account) are art director Scott O’Leary, copywriters Ryan Peck and Dean Buckhorn, executive creative director/interactive Kevin Flatt, and creative director/interactive Paul Bichler.
For those unfamiliar with Buddy Lee, he is a doll whom O’Leary described as a man of action, though he has the innocent countenance of a toddler’s toy. “I think the kids pick up on the tongue-and-cheek element, how he is a man of action but he can’t move and he can’t talk and he doesn’t do anything,” Peck said. “It’s like we’re just kind of having fun with how stupid he is.”
LIVING ON IN CYBERSPACE
The Web site is an extension of Buddy Lee’s appearance last year in sponsorship of MTV2’s Control Freak, a television show that usually allows viewers to vote online for the video they want to watch. In the three Buddy Lee episodes that aired during commercial time for Control Freak, viewers were introduced to a student seeking career advice from his or her guidance counselor, played by Buddy Lee. The audience members could vote on one of three careers that Buddy had presented to the student.
The footage from Control Freak is online and intended to orient visitors who may be unfamiliar with the project. One of the three students Buddy meets with is Darcy, a nerdy band member. She says that she is interested in nursing and asks Buddy what it was like when he was a male nurse. The footage of Buddy and Darcy’s conference cuts to the inanimate doll in a hospital standing by a patient’s bedside and preparing to give a sponge bath. It appears from the many clips on the Web site that Buddy has tried a multitude of professions.
After that nursing story, Darcy decides the job is not right for her so the short film goes on. Darcy continues to ask Buddy questions as snippets from his past jobs in the art world and then as a marine biologist tell of his experiences. Neither prospect sounds good to Darcy.
The scene then shift to the school’s hallway where glee club members sing. Through lyrics, they set forth instructions explaining that it is time for the viewers to help Darcy find a job that will suit her. The choices are: Hollywood stuntman, a pianist and rock ‘n roll photographer.
On the site, an image is offered next to each of the three choices. Choose one of the paths and explore what the profession was like for Buddy.
“One thing we wanted to be sure of is if you hadn’t seen Control Freak and you went to the site, at least you went through the episodes that we created, at least one of them, so you understood the idea and [then] I think the games makes a little more sense,” O’Leary explained.
The site was developed to keep the Buddy Lee guidance counselor story alive in the minds of kids. To drive traffic to the site, the agency put together five :15 and five :30 teasers that are running in banner ads on the Web.
EXTENSIONS
One of the elements created specifically for the site is the career test section, which allows visitors an opportunity for some fun with games. You can test your skills as an Alaskan fisherman, matador, judo champion or helicopter rescuer.
In a less interactive portion, the interview tips section, Buddy offers suggestions like how to stay calm. Instead of imagining the interviewer being naked, you should imagine him wearing a fuzzy puppy costume in order to calm your nerves. As the viewer flips through the virtual pamphlet, he or she will find it filled with more fodder of this kind.
The target audience is 12-18 year olds and primarily male, a bit of the skater crowd. On why the character Buddy Lee appeals to this group, O’Leary said that the doll has a cult following and the fact the he can’t speak is weird and kids like that. Peck added that Buddy is presented as indestructible and that ties into the toughness of Lee Dungarees Jeans. Overall, though, they aren’t over-thinking it. To O’Leary, the audience response is visceral. And since Buddy is billed as a man of action who has done and seen everything, it made sense for him to guide America’s youth, he said.
Additional credit at Fallon goes to Mark Hines, producer/interactive; Sandra Lee, project manager/interactive; and Paul Bastyr and Nate Hinz, designers/interactive.