Imagine a world without color … or color-copying, or red-eye reduction. For Kinko’s ultra-dedicated new spokesperson, Kenny, there could be nothing worse.
The character’s greatest fear is realized—actually surrealized—in the innovative :60 Kinko’s spot "Nightmare," which debuted during the telecast of the Academy Awards. The inaugural installment in a three-spot package directed by Tom Routson of bicoastal Tool of North America for TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, "Nightmare" introduces viewers to Kenny in a memorably dramatic way.
At the start of the ad, Kenny (portrayed by Ryan Stiles of The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway) is seen sleeping restlessly in pajamas patterned with the Kinko’s logo; a framed "co-worker of the month" photo is on his nightstand. Suddenly, everything turns black-and-white as the action shifts to Kenny’s dream, in which he hurries down rain-swept streets, where tiny, typewritten pages announce cars for sale, art festivals and store clearances. After a frantic man rushes past, screaming that his company needs "500 training manuals made by tomorrow," Kenny spots a color photo of a little girl in a store window. As he moves closer, however, the girl’s eyes open to reveal a nasty case of red-eye. Kenny wakes up screaming, "Doesn’t anyone know all the things Kinko’s can do?!" Realizing it’s all been a bad dream, he settles back to sleep, clutching a ream of Kinko’s paper, as a voiceover lists some of the solutions and services provided by the shops, including sign-, poster- and banner-making, and digital photo production.
In devising the strategy for the campaign, the TBWA/Chiat/Day team wanted to interest Kinko’s employees, as well as its potential customers. "When we got the creative brief from the client, they told us they wanted to be known for something other than copies," says Tony Stern, a creative director who has been with the agency for 12 years. "They wanted to push the concept of Kinko’s ahead and say, ‘We have a whole bunch of other services that are really going to help you, as an individual or as a business.’ The other part of the concept was to energize the employees. And if you can get somebody they can identify with, that’s all the better."
Enter Kenny. Copywriter Matt Shevin says that he and art director Liz Soares came up with the idea of a spokesperson during early brainstorming sessions. "We decided that the spokesperson should be a guy who works for Kinko’s, and who’s very excited about it," Shevin relates. "Originally, Kenny was a character who walked the earth, saving people from not knowing about Kinko’s."
"There was a sense of his being an evangelist of sorts," adds Soares.
Team approach
After inventing the Kenny character, Shevin and Soares came up with "Nightmare," as well as with the two other spots in the campaign: "Feeding Time" and "New Guy." The latter, which highlights Kinko’s partnership with Federal Express, features an efficiency face-off between Kenny and a FedEx delivery man, to the tune of "Dueling Banjos."
In "Feeding Time," Kenny enters the home of two long-suffering new parents, and explains to them how Kinko’s services and partnership with America Online will enable them to produce quality digital photos of their baby and send them to relatives. Meanwhile, the tyke happily pelts them with spoonfuls of strained peas.
When they were scripting the spots, Shevin says, "Liz and I started writing in this voice, and we realized at a point that Ryan Stiles was perfect for it. We really couldn’t picture anyone else in the part. It was just extreme luck that [when] we sent the scripts to him, he liked them."
The creatives liked Stiles as well. "What we came to find was that Ryan really is Kenny," Shevin laughs. "He is that eager, nice, really, really happy guy."
The same can be said for Routson, the spots’ director. While producer Mila Davis and the creative team were impressed by Routson’s reel, it was his spirited approach that truly won them over. "When we spoke to him on the phone, not only did he have great ideas, but he had this enthusiasm, and this understanding of what the spots could be," recalls Stern. "I don’t think that a lot of the other directors we bid saw the potential of the spots like Tom did."
A former creative at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, San Francisco, Routson collaborated closely with the TBWA/Chiat/Day team. "With his background, Tom brought something to the table in that he could help us conceptually," says Shevin of the director, who came up with touches like Kenny’s paper-ream security blanket. "As I look back on the whole shoot, I think Tom really went out of his way and worked very hard."
World Stage
When the client opted to buy time during the Academy Awards, the creative possibilities expanded. "We started with the idea of three :30s," Stern relates. "But because the Academy Awards were on the media chart, Laura Kurzu [Kinko’s VP of marketing] went the extra mile and said, ‘Let’s do a sixty.’ "
In devising a look for the Oscar-ready version of "Nightmare," Soares appropriately took her cue from movies and television. "We were thinking a lot of early Twilight Zone episodes," she says, "and the darker, older movies."
For the Hitchcockian setting, the team chose a back lot at Universal Studios. "It was perfect," Shevin points out. "A surreal city that you somehow recognize."
Despite "bad weather and screaming babies," Soares says all three shoots "came together beautifully." When nature unexpectedly provided the heavy downpour that was supposed to have been added in the post of "Nightmare," Stiles ran through the rain without complaint. And when the twin babies in "Feeding Time" proved less than cooperative, editor Dan Swietlik of Los Angeles-based Swietlik worked his own kind of magic. "There’s a shot in it of the kid’s arm, throwing food," explains Stern. "The kid never did that. In post, Dan created the arm and literally threw food where food hadn’t been thrown. I think what Dan did on that particular spot was amazing."
Property master Damon Cardwell helped make the perfect mess for "Feeding Time." "He invented a food-throwing gun," Stern reports.
"There was just a lot of energy on the set," remembers Shevin. "Everyone was working together. It was really nice." Particularly nice for Soares and Shevin: Kinko’s was the duo’s first campaign launch, although the two had done creative in the past for Kinko’s.
TBWA/Chiat/Day will be having more fun with Kinko’s down the line. According to the creatives, a new Kenny spot may potentially debut early next year. While Soares is moving on to the Apple Computers account with copywriter Chris Adams, Shevin is teaming up with art director Michael Rutherford for Kinko’s next installment. "[Rutherford] has already asked me, ‘Is Kenny androgynous?’ " Shevin laughs. "I said, ‘We put him in a single bed. His whole life is Kinko’s.’ He gets it. He definitely gets it."
