Commercials for Hooters restaurants usually leave little to the imagination, the eye candy being the curvaceous waitresses in tight fitting tops and shorts. But this campaign for Hooters eateries in the Boston area provides a welcome departure from that norm, proving that it’s often more stimulating to let one’s imagination fill in the blanks.
Indeed, there’s no cleavage to be found in this series of commercials for New England Wings, the New England franchise group for Hooters. Instead, we witness the effect the waitresses have on male customers. In "Menu," for instance, we see a guy seated at a booth, reading a menu. Well, at least he’s got a menu in front of his face, but he keeps looking up from it. Then the camera pulls back a bit to reveal that he’s actually holding his menu upside down. The Hooters logo is revealed at the bottom of the menu, so we now know why his eyes have been wandering.
The :15 ends simply, with the Hooters logo and cities in which the restaurants are located in Massachusetts—Boston, Manchester, Nashua and Warwick.
The campaign consisted of five :15s directed by Paul Riccio, who at the time was with Czar Films, New York. (He has since joined Good Films, New York.) Agency was Big & Tall Advertising, New York.
Other spots ("Spoon," "Stare," "Birthday," and "Ketchup") are similar in nature, with girls that are never seen, only implied, but causing men to go to ridiculous lengths for an eyeful nonetheless. For example, in "Ketchup," a guy unnecessarily calls over the waitress to ask for a bottle of ketchup when there’s one already sitting on the table.
The Big & Tall creative duo was creative director/art director Scott Kaplan and creative director/copywriter Tom Kraemer.
Jeanette Gonzales executive produced for Czar, with Anne Bobroff serving as producer. The DP was Derak McKane.
Offline/online editor was Jerry Fried of Red Car, New York. Colorist was Carlos Rodriguez of Moving Images, New York. Audio mixer/sound designer was Rex Recker of audioEngine, New York.
