Including an elaborate song-and-dance number in a commercial is not a new thing. The Gap did it in the late 1990s with an ongoing campaign featuring swing, mambo and line dancing. E*Trade weighed in a couple of years ago with "Monkey 3" (helmed by Bryan Buckley of bicoastal/international hungry man), which featured showgirls and a dancing monkey. And Nike’s "Freestyle" (directed by Paul Hunter of bicoastal HSI) pulled off a feat of modern choreography when he melded dance with basketball.
So when Daniel Chu, a copywriter at TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York, received a brief (no pun intended) for Joe Boxer calling for a music-driven commercial to promote the retailer’s new line of clothing available exclusively through Kmart, he knew he had to come up with something different. "Most people don’t know that Joe Boxer makes clothing, so we were basically launching a clothing company," Chu points out.
"I wanted to do a Broadway thing, but when I researched a lot of musicals, they all stuck out as too mainstream," he recalls. "It wasn’t until I listened to the soundtrack to Dreamgirls that I realized what was missing: soul. [The soundtrack] was raw and uncompromising, and it gave me the impetus to try and convince Kmart to go hip-hop."
Joe Boxer had previously run a music-based ad called "Boxer Boogie," which turned out to be very popular. The spot featured a 22-year-old model/dancer named Vaughn Lowery boogying in his Joe Boxer underwear for the full :30. The spot and its dancer were an instant hit; there are several Web sites devoted to Lowery and his dancing prowess, and Kmart included him in its Christmas ad campaign for Joe Boxer. Lowery has also made several personal appearances on behalf of the retailer. Looking to build on that momentum, the company wanted to do something with music again, but bigger.
The Spot
Charged with putting lyrics to this hip-hop musical/music video concept, Chu wrote several renditions based on two fictional characters he created, Jimmy and Jenny. "Having them was a good way to showcase everything—the clothes, the music and the personality [of the brand]," explains Chu. "It’s not necessarily a hip-hop brand, but it is a pop culture brand." Noting that a lot of advertisers are already using hip-hop to sell, Chu adds that they wanted to come up with something "a little more pure."
After getting approval from the client, the agency put together the ultimate hip-hop music video-making machine: music video director Dave Meyers, who is repped for commercials through bicoastal/international @radical.media, and by F.M. Rocks, Santa Monica, for clips; Grammy Award-winning hip-hop producer and occasional performer Timbaland; and choreographer HiHat, whose credits include Missy Elliott’s video, "Get Ur Freak On" (directed by Meyers, and produced by Timbaland), and the feature film Bring It On. Patrick O’Neill was the agency creative director on the spot, while Joseph Mazzaferro served as art director.
"We got Dave Meyers first, and he knew Timbaland," recalls Chu, relating that Timbaland wanted to perform the song for the spot because he wears Joe Boxer underwear.
The resulting :60, "Jimmy and Jenny," opens on a high school classroom where a note is passed to Jimmy from Jenny that reads, "There’s more to life than underwear." From there, the spot explodes into a teenage hip-hop video of sorts, complete with back-up singers and dancers. Jenny stands up and begins singing to Jimmy: "Jimmy, Jimmy, we have to share, you can’t see our underwear." Jimmy pops up and replies, "Jenny, Jenny, do we dare? There’s more to life than underwear."
Several seconds into the classroom scene, the set is rolled away by stagehands, and the focus shifts to another set containing a beach scene. Jenny, sporting her Joe Boxer bikini, turns cartwheels in the sand. Next, the camera trains on another stage that features Jimmy playing basketball on an outdoor court. Then we’re back to Jenny, who’s dancing in the street with her friends. The ad concludes with an elaborate light show and more dancing.
With each transition, a set is rolled away, and the camera shifts to a new one, giving the concept of a Broadway musical a rougher edge. "Exposing the sets was the most important way to differentiate what we were doing from your average musical," relates Chu, who came up with the idea.
Throughout the spot, there are several layers of music heard—the catchy beat that drives the pacing of the lyrics, Jimmy and Jenny singing to each other, the back-up singers, and Timbaland’s low voice saying, "There’s more to life than underwear," while his self-generated sound effects play in the background.
"It was four in the morning on Valentine’s Day night, we were still in the studio recording, and Timbaland just kicked us all out and started free styling," Chu recalls about that aspect of the spot. "He made [the music] come alive."
According to Chu, the project spent four weeks in pre-production, with everything meticulously storyboarded by Meyers. On average, Meyers shot 10 scenes a day over the course of four days at one location in Santa Monica. Editor Chris Davis of bicoastal Cosmo Street Editorial cut the :60 down into one :30 and two :15 versions that began airing last month.
"It’s amazing that with all the personalities involved, everyone had a vested interest in making this work," says Chu. "[While I was standing on the set, I thought,] ‘From paper to this!’ It was wonderful."
