It’s hard on some mothers to watch their sons go from boys to men as we see in a gloriously twisted Old Spice commercial titled “Momsong” that was created by Wieden + Kennedy (W+K), Portland, Ore., and directed by Steve Ayson of production house MJZ.
In the spot, young men—irresistible to women thanks to Old Spice Re-Fresh Body Spray—enjoy time with the opposite sex, unaware they are being stalked by devoted moms who just can’t bear the thought of losing them.
The moms are in bizarre “fly-on-the-wall” positions as they keep watchful eyes on their sons. The first mother is behind the door of her son’s bedroom as he leaves for a date. Next we see her outside in the park, coming out of the bushes to spy on her lad and his girlfriend who blissfully walk together in the rain.
Another mom is then seen hanging onto the rear bumper of a fast moving convertible car–with her son as the driver and a smitten girl as the passenger. The mom’s knees are in a laundry basket as the car whisks her along the road.
A change in scenery takes us indoors to a school cafeteria. One mom is kneeling to get an opportune vantage point on her son and his lass who are seated at a table in front of her. In the same cafeteria, we then see a janitor getting a look-see at another happy couple. The janitor turns his head 180 degrees and it’s revealed that the male face we saw was on the back of a mom’s head. We now see the visage of yet another melancholy mother.
Back outdoors, a male teen and his lovely gal frolic at the beach. Unbeknownst to them, they are being closely followed by a stretched-out mom who literally slithers under and along the sand.
Another mom is also beachside, washed ashore in order to get a better gander at her son and his girlfriend.
We later see a mom falling from the sky as she plays a violin, the instrument of choice when one is whining about what’s befallen her.
And finally we again see our first mom who is laid out on her back slithering from a couch in one room along the carpet to another room, eventually reaching another couch she slides up on, ending in a seated position as she continues to lament in song her son’s carnal coming of age. She picks up some knitting needles from the couch and knits away in her sorrowful state.
All the moms are singing their tale of woe throughout the spot, bemoaning the escalating sex appeal of their little angels.
Sequential musical
It was crucial that all of the action was intricately choreographed and storyboarded prior to the shoot given that “Momsong” is a musical with sequential lyrics, W+K creative director Craig Allen pointed out.
The lyrics to “Momsong” were written by W+K art director Ruth Bellotti and copywriters David Povill and Justine Armour as well as Brad Neely who served as composer/arranger via Walker, a Portland-based house specializing in original and licensed music for commercials, branded content, TV and film. “The creative team wrote some very funny lyrics, and then Brad made them even funnier when he recorded the demo track,” Allen said.
Neely, a comic book artist, musician and TV writer/producer (e.g., China, IL, a series that’s part of the Adult Swim block on Cartoon Network) was brought into the project by Walker after some brainstorming between the music house and W+K creatives regarding whom they’d ideally like to work with. Director Ayson was also enthused over the prospects of having Neely involved, saying he was “high on our wish list…He writes songs and stories for his online animation. It’s really odd, engaging stuff.”
Sara Matarazzo, owner of Walker, explained that her company’s business model has her involved in selecting the right talent for each job. “It’s not a traditional set-up with in-house staff composers who are essentially given all the work,” she said. “We work with composers who are veterans in commercials and at the same time we like to access those who aren’t traditional commercial writers and see what they can and would do. We like to bring about collaborative relationships between artists and brands.”
W+K, added Matarazzo, is an agency that embraces the unconventional, which is conducive to seeking out talent like Neely.
Walker had no direct connection to Neely prior to “Momsong.” A company staffer reached out to him with a tweet and he responded. “From the beginning, he understood the comedy,” related Matarazzo. “He knew what they were going for essentially. Brad composed and arranged. He adapted what he was given.
His arrangement was the first we heard and you could see he really thought about it and figured out how to put all these ideas into a song, a pattern, that made sense.”
Jason Bagley, Wieden+Kennedy creative director, explained the rationale behind going the musical route for Old Spice. “Watching their little boys turn into men can be deeply sad for moms,” he observed. “It’s a very relatable universal experience for moms and sons everywhere, so we wanted to find a funny, exaggerated way of portraying that. And just about everything is funnier when you sing it. Based on this science, we thought having moms sing about this universal heartache would be pretty entertaining.”
W+K and Walker worked together to cast the voices while the agency and Ayson chose the women portraying the moms. Of all the women cast as moms, only one had major acting experience. Neither the agency nor Ayson wanted to hire anyone who was too polished. “We just wanted moms who felt real but also had some comedic character to their look and performance,” Bagley noted.
Matarazzo said that the spot went to Warehouse Studio and GGRP Productions, Vancouver, B.C. for voiceover and to record music. Post engineer was Brock Babcock of Barking Owl, Los Angeles.
Agency roots
Earlier in her career Matarazzo was a music producer at Ogilvy & Mather, New York, and then managing director of Search Party Music, NY, before moving to Portland and eventually launching Walker. She enjoys bringing talent like Neely into the ad arena, noting that working with such artisans generally requires added support from the Walker team, acclimating songwriters to the architecture of the :60, :30 and :15 formats.
Matarazzo worked on “Momsong” in part during her maternity leave, quipping that the storyline gave her a taste of what she may face when her baby boy reaches adolescence.
