A Commercial That Totally Nails It (Totes McGotes)

Sometimes it just comes down to the on-air talent.

Imagine the #throwback status updates on these timelines.

And you know, that’s not easy to admit. We’ve produced enough TV spots in our time that we’re accustomed to sharing the accolades with everyone involved. The whole team contributes to success: the writers, the creative directors, the producers and certainly not least, the clients who green-lit the things in the first place.

But every now and then we see an ad, or a series of ads, that turns that formulation on its head. Sometimes the idea is so simple, or so unexpected, that it’s destined to be a great big clinker unless exactly the right people are put in front of the cameras.

Sprint’s recent campaign, created by the Leo Burnett agency, is a prime example. To highlight and honor the everyday importance of everyday communication, roughly 16 TV commercials (not all have aired as of yet) consist of little more than a couple of actors role-playing other peoples’ phone conversations, texts, and email exchanges.

Which could have generated a lot of shrugs, and maybe a few yawns. But they went and casted James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell to handle the emoticon-y reenactments.

Sheer genius. And putting them both in tuxes, on a spare and darkened London stage? Almost too awesome to contemplate.

So what we got was two veteran character actors, whose bodies of works are nothing less than legendary, taking on the personae of tween girls (to hash out, once and for all, whether Ryan is a ‘Hottie McHotterson’), and a couple of bros pondering whether to go out that night (“Probably not…but I might!”)

We’re not saying other actors couldn’t have carried it off. But with these two, a smash-hit was almost guaranteed. And it’s not solely because of their individual talent, remarkable as they are. No, there was synergy and interpersonal chemistry at work here, and it’s plainly visible on the screen. Industry buzz has it that both Jones and McDowell signed on only when they learned the other was committed. It’s also telling that these were the first TV commercials Malcolm McDowell has ever done.

The results are amazing (or as McDowell-as-‘Kim’ would have it, “amazeballs”). But truth be told, it probably won’t turn our industry on its head. We’ll go on creating ads much like we’ve always done: as a creative, collaborative effort between a team of professionals, with the input and informed consent of our clients.

We’d like to say this is because it’s a proven method that’s served us extraordinarily well, and there’s more than a kernel of truth to that. But this is also true: There are simply not enough James Earl Joneses and Malcolm McDowells to go around.

The C4:

1. Sprint and Leo Burnett swung for the fences, and delivered. Such a simple concept: have a couple of actors play off each other with the content of other peoples’ electronic communications. Similar ads have been tried before. We forget by whom.
2. What made this a winning campaign is very easily identified: James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell. Their vocal and personal gravitas, their commanding presence, their tuxedos, for crying out loud—created a shocking yet delightful incongruity, as they inhabited the vernacular of these 30-second roles.
3. Give credit where it’s due. Just like any marketing endeavor, this one had a lot of champions. Every stakeholder at Sprint and at Leo Burnett shares this success. But let’s not kid ourselves, because they’re surely not; the actors made this work. If anyone else had been in front of the camera, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
4. We salute this success, but we can’t really see it changing how we work. We collaborate with our clients, and with each other, to create marketing that delivers exactly the right message to exactly the right audience. But having said that—Messrs. Jones and McDowell, you read our blog, don’t you? (Doesn’t everyone?) If so…CALL US.