For team mascots, passing time when the national pastime is on the road can be a challenge. In this campaign, Mr. Met, the head cheerleader for the New York Mets, shows his resourcefulness when it comes to the art of killing time at Shea Stadium, waiting for his ball club to return home.
In “Whittler,” we see Mr. Met seated in the dugout. He’s whittling away, putting the finishing touches on a figurine of a giraffe. He places it alongside a menagerie of wooden animals he has presumably whittled into being. They fill the top of the dugout bench.
But Mr. Met isn’t through–except now we see what he whittled down to make each animal in his mini-zoo: a full-sized major league baseball bat. Indeed he has a pile of bats next to him in the dugout–enough material to fill Noah’s Ark with a varied collection of creatures big and small.
A supered message sums it up: “The excitement returns to Shea this Thursday. And not a moment too soon.” The Met’s Web site address then appears on screen for those interested in getting tickets for the next home stand.
“Whittler” is one of five spots in a campaign in which Mr. Met is left to his own devices as he attempts to amuse himself in an empty cavernous stadium. He lives for the day when the Mets are back in town.
For instance, in “T-shirt Cannon,” we see a groundskeeper get hit in the head with an unidentified object. Turns out it’s a T-shirt being shot out of a cannon by none other than Mr. Met. This happens again–but the victim isn’t fooled. He sees Mr. Met’s oversized head peeking out from behind a stadium seat.
Similarly in “Jumbotron,” Mr. Met gets the stadium scoreboard operator to display self-congratulatory messages about the team mascot with the big head: “Mr. Met Is Super Awesome”; “Mr. Met Smells Pretty Today.” But even the Jumbotron operator has his limits–he looks at a piece of paper handed him by Mr. Met and exclaims, “No way I’m typing this.”
The final two spots in the package show Mr. Met checking his foot speed on a radar gun, and trying to make like daredevil Evel Knievel with a bullpen cart.
The commercials were directed by Tim Godsall of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, for Ogilvy & Mather, New York. Shawn Tessaro executive produced for Biscuit, with Shelby Ross serving as producer. The campaign was shot on location at Shea Stadium, Flushing, N.Y., by DP Derek McKane.
The Ogilvy team consisted of executive creative directors Joe Johnson and Josh Tavlin, copywriters Curtis Mueller and Mark Svartz, art directors Arturo Gigante and Josh Rosen, and producer Carrie Simon.
Geoff Hounsell of Lost Planet, New York, was the editor. Assistant editor was Paul Snyder. Betsy Beale and Jean Lane were executive producer and producer, respectively, for Lost Planet. John Shea of Nice Shoes, New York, was the online editor on “Whittler.” Also in on the conform was Nice Shoe’s Kevin Wade. Some minor color correction was done during the online edit. Audio post mixer was Philip Loeb of Sound Lounge, New York.
