The St. Louis Rams weren’t the only winners at this year’s Super Bowl. Super Sunday also had the annual multimillion dollar advertising extravaganza that featured dancing monkeys, speeding cheetahs and a herd of housecats—as well as footage from a 60-year-old movie classic. FedEx’s "Oz," which was directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA via BBDO New York, placed in the top 10 of USA Today’s annual Super Bowl Ad Meter survey.
The spot, produced by Hyatt Choate, an executive producer at BBDO New York, is a clever, digitally composited piece that goes to great lengths to show that Federal Express will deliver to just about anywhere—even to the Yellow Brick Road. "Oz" opens as The Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy meets the Lollypop Guild in Munchkinland. As three Munchkin men sing her a high-pitched song of welcome, their voices begin to deepen. A FedEx truck then literally descends on the scene, crushing the Wicked Witch of the West. The urgent delivery consists of three helium balloons. The Munchkins grab the balloons and inhale the helium, which restores their voices to "normal." (The ad has since been pulled due to concerns of some advocacy groups about the practice of children inhaling dangerous chemicals to get high.)
Choate was excited about the idea from the moment it landed on his desk. "I don’t know anybody who hasn’t seen The Wizard of Oz at some point in their lives," he explains. "It was something that could touch so many people so easily. It’s a great vehicle."
To introduce the concept to the client and to Pytka, Choate used his editing skills to create a sample "Oz." "I took [The Wizard of Oz] and cut a sixty-second spot of it on the Avid, just to see how it would work to time," he relates. "We didn’t have anything else but the movie, a couple of drawings and a little FedEx truck that I’d shot on a greenscreen. So I stuck the truck in, and went from the movie to the drawings and back again. It gave you an idea of how the spot would work. And everyone who looked at it probably got the feeling of how big this commercial could be."
Many Hats
Choate, a onetime creative who describes himself as BBDO’s "in-house editor," says that taking such a hands-on approach to selling an idea came naturally to him. "Except for being in the accounting department and the media department, I’ve been in almost every position," he explains. "I like to try and do different things within the business. And I think one of the reasons I’ve been here for so long is that every time I need a new challenge, they’ve been open to giving me that opportunity."
Unlike many of his peers, Choate has spent his entire professional life at one agency. When asked what first attracted him to BBDO, Choate responds with candor: "It was the first place that offered me a job." That was 15 years ago, when Choate was fresh out of Boston University with a degree in radio and TV production, and no idea what he wanted to do with his life. "When I came home, my parents were like, ‘You better get a job,’" he recalls. "So the pressure mounted immediately. I started interviewing like crazy. I must’ve gone on a hundred interviews for all different kinds of things—advertising, film, working at a car wash, whatever. Finally, [BBDO] hired me in the audio/visual room. That’s where I started—dubbing tapes, and running around with cameras and doing little editing things."
Though he admits he was "overwhelmed" at first by the agency’s fast pace and huge staff—"I thought, ‘Oh, my God. I’m working in a corporation!’"—Choate quickly acclimated himself. After a year and a half in the audio/visual department, he became an assistant producer. "Assistant producer turned to producer and then senior producer," says Choate, now an executive producer Choate. "The titles change as they keep pulling you up the steps."
Choate’s other recent credits include FedEx’s "Action Figures," directed by Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international hungry man, which earned Top Spot recognition (SHOOT, 1/7, p. 14). Choate also enjoyed a brief stint in BBDO’s creative department. "I guess I was probably an art director," he says. "You couldn’t give me much of a title, though, because I didn’t have any real experience." What he did have was enthusiasm, and BBDO execs were happy to oblige. "I think I probably did five or six spots when I was over there, mostly for HBO and Pepsi," says Choate. "I was [art director] on one Super Bowl ad, so I was happy about that."
The spot, Pepsi’s "Stunt Racer," directed by David Kellogg of bicoastal/international Propaganda Films, debuted during the ’98 Super Bowl. (Kellogg recently shifted representation to bicoastal 8Media.) The action-packed ad featured race car driver Jeff Gordon doing what he does best. At the time, Choate’s life was also full of action—a little too much for his taste. "Our creative department is very demanding of your time," he relates. "I get a lot more of my life back when I’m on the production side. That’s important to me, because work isn’t my entire existence. I want to enjoy life and have fun too, and the production department gives me just that."
Producing also allows him to show his creative side along with his technical expertise, which Choate says is his main strength. "Because of my technical experience, I know what everybody’s doing and I like that. I like having that input."
Though Choate has been known to contribute script, shooting and editing ideas, he also knows how to delegate work. On "Oz," which he says was "seventy percent made in post," Choate gave Flame artist Johnnie Semerad of Quiet Man, New York, the space he needed. "Johnnie would send us new scenes periodically," he recalls. "We’d have little comments, but he did a wonderful job of putting it together, and of making it feel like the guys who [Pytka] shot are sitting in the actual plate of the movie."
While Choate insists that "I stink at the numbers and organization," he can still play those numbers for all they’re worth. It’s an important skill, as his average budget is at least $1 million-$1.5 million per spot. "In one way, having the money lets you get the right people and lets you get to do a lot more," says Choate, who is currently working on some new FedEx spots. "But to me, it’s still about how good a spot can it be. You can throw a lot of money at something, but it doesn’t always mean it’s going to be great. I always like to ask, ‘How can we make this better? How can we make this funnier?’ and then try and do it."t
