We are all familiar with the genre of pharmaceutical television commercials that promote various drugs that help with erectile dysfunction. They are almost formulaic in their style. But what happens when you apply that style of production to a men’s dress shirt commercial? You get a hysterical spot that sells shirts. That’s exactly what happened in the new Mizzen + Main spot shot and edited by Burning Tractor. AdChat DFW interviewed Executive Producer, Joey Cade, to learn a little more on how they brought the idea to life.
AdChat DFW: Did Burning Tractor come up with this idea or did Mizzen + Main, like they did with the Phil Mickelson spot that went viral last year?
Joey: It was definitely them again. They have really strong creative and act as their own agency. Marketing director Lindsey Sullivan collaborates with Richard Ross, their creative director who writes and directs all their content.
AdChat DFW: What was your response to the concept?
Joey: We loved the idea immediately but all we knew initially was it was a mock erectile dysfunction campaign for the holiday push. Wes Myers, owner/director at Burning Tractor, stepped in to collaborate creatively and supervises editorial. He’s great at seeing what shots are needed to tell the story succinctly and also get a ton of additional content out of it to use for social channels. It was a great team effort between the two companies. Richard and Lindsey as Director and Producer and Burning Tractor’s team produced the live action with them, as well as all the post production. And, our line producer and AD Fonya Mondell thankfully got it all prepped super quickly.
AdChat DFW: Did you watch an ED spot to get inspiration for the spot?
Joey: We sure did. We watched many ED and general medical spots to see how they were laid out. We love the ‘sotto voce’ legal voice track about side effects. We used that to our advantage to pump up the humor.
AdChat DFW: Did you cast locally?
Joey: Yes, Lindsey and her team produced the casting internally. Talent credits are: Ali Nugent (Campbell), Steven Busby (Campbell), Greg Jake Gibbins (Campbell), Alan McFarlane (independent) and the awesome voice actor was Darrell Brown (Kim Dawson).
AdChat DFW: Is this just for the web or are they airing nationally?
Joey: They had a national broadcast buy over Thanksgiving targeting Black Friday. The campaign was a :60, :30 and many spots for web.
AdChat DFW: Where did you shoot?
Joey: One of the locations was a house with a large property and yard near DFW Airport. The airport complicated things because we wanted a drone shot but couldn’t get approval without more time as drone rules are federally mandated and this was a very fast-turn project. It worked fine without the drone shot and the property was perfect. The other house was a really impressive modern home filled with art in Preston Hollow sourced by locations manager Josh Clark. It was interesting because the owner is in advertising and kindly offered his pristine classic Porsche to use in the spot, which we of course jumped at and it’s featured in the spot!
AdChat DFW: Did the shoot go smoothly?
Joey: Yes, perfectly smooth, without a hitch. It’s amazing when it goes so easy when you have a super short turnaround prep, multiple locations and talent – plus, piles of puppies! But, that’s always the way, isn’t it?! It goes smooth when you don’t expect it and yet can go completely sideways on a simple shoot when you think you have nothing to worry about.
AdChat DFW: What has been the response to the spots?
Joey: Mizzen and Main are really happy with it. Like the Phil Mickelson campaign we produced with them earlier in the year, this was very well received. So much so that they’re still running it on web and cable and they continue to hear from fans and shoppers about it. It’s a really funny campaign we’re all proud of.
Watch spot…
Credits:
DIRECTOR/ RICHARD ROSS
PRODUCER/ LINDSEY SULLIVAN
PRODUCER/EDITOR WES MEYERS
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY/ JAKE BROWN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/ JOEY CADE
LINE PRODUCER/AD FONYA NAOMI MONDELL
GAFFER/ SCOTT PAYNE
KEY GRIP/ RICHARD PORTER
BEST BOY/ ELECTRIC CHRIS GONZALEZ
GRIP/ ANTHONY PLAKE
GRIP/ KEITH NAYLOR
SWING/DRIVER JT HUFFER
1ST AC/ DEAN DAVIS
2nd AC/ ANDREW CZAP
AUDIO/ TYLER FAISON
ART DIRECTOR/ GRETCHEN GOETZ
SET DIRECTOR/ PHILIP YONKOS
VTR/ CHRIS CUDD
MAKE UP/ MAYLSA CORREA
STYLIST/ JAI MIDGETTE
2ND A.D./ COLBY MITCHELL
