When he was casting "Wigs," Jim Tozzi learned that one head can be better than two, or even three. In "Wigs"athe latest Tozzi-directed spot in the wacky Rice Krispies Treats campaign via Leo Burnett Co., Chicagoaa bald man dons a brown suit and a wig sculpted from chocolate Treats and heads for the disco. He’s a real hit with the ladies, until his doppelganger arrives on the scene, wearing a white suit and a "blond" wig comprised of original Treats. After a tense standoff, the identical disco kings resolve their differences by switching ties and boogying down.
The same actor plays both wigged-out Treats aficionados, as well as an admiring club patron in a yachting cap. But Tozzi, who is represented by bicoastal M-80, says that was not his original plan. "We were looking for two different guys to play the rivals," he recalls. "We had scheduled two or three days of casting, but we wound up using an extra day, because it just wasn’t happening. When it came down to matching up the two people, no combination seemed to work. We did have one character that we were happy withaa side character called The Gentleman Caller, who had the cap and the yachting look. That actor had been one of the first people called in for casting, and I’d said, ‘We definitely have to have this guy in this role.’
"On our last day, there was a mix-up, and he was asked to come back," he continues. "Just for fun, we had him go through the actions of the two main characters. We were like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty weirdabut weird in a good way.’ "
After the decision was made, Tozzi faced the unforeseen challenge of making one actor appear to be three separate characters. "That actually wasn’t very hard, because we didn’t want to make it look too slick in the first place," he relates. "I thought it would be funnier if it wasn’t too convincing. It’s part of the joke that we use these old tacticsabody doubles and a very simple, down-the-middle split screen [to make one character appear to be three]. Part of the inspiration was the old Star Trek, when they’d have these scenes where you’d see Captain Kirk get thrown, and it would obviously be some totally different guy wearing his clothes. We decided to cast a body double who was bigger than our actor. You can see that he’s taller when they’re dancing together, and the clothes didn’t quite fit him right."
The resulting ad, like much of Tozzi’s work, is sharp, clever and weird. "When I watch a spot, I want to be amused and interested, and also surprised," he says. "That’s always on my mind whenever I get a new board. I think, ‘How can this be done in a new way?’ I still want it to be referential to what the audience understands, but I also like to shock them a little bit."
