The conference room at Trahan, Burden & Charles Advertising in Baltimore.
In Attendance
The ad agency's creative director, Allan Charles and VP, Howe Burch; Enid Traub, VP of marketing for Ratner Cos and Diane Daly, director of PR. Several junior account executives and media buyers are seated at the end of the table with instructions not to speak.
The Topic
Now that TBC has won the account away from Adworks after a 12-year run, it's time to put television advertising into the mix. The agency is unveiling their creative for the campaign.
The Conversation
Burch: Enid, Diane - thank you for making the drive to Baltimore today. We're very excited about the new television commercial we've prepared for you.
Traub: I'm expecting to be blown away.
Charles: OK...it's very simple. We have this young, twenty-something girl wearing a slinky black dress dancing on a rooftop.
Traub: How does this sell hair cuts?
Charles: Well, you see, she's really, really skinny. And pale. It looks like she probably uses drugs instead of eating.
Burch: You see, he's really, how do you say it, hip and groovy?
Daly: Uh, no, I think those terms are a bit passe.
Charles: And she has some odd tattoo on her shoulder, so we know she's really a modern, urban contemporary type. And on the roof there are all sorts of paintings and art - really modern stuff, so people know Hair Cuttery is modern.
Traub: But, again, how does this sell hair cuts?
Charles: OK, she's dancing to some music - I'll tell you want in a minute because it's really the key to the campaign - and her hair is totally bleached blonde and all different lengths and falling into her face. It looks like someone just hacked at her head with a pair of scissors with no concern for how it would turn out!
Burch: Don't you love it?
Daly: But....
Charles: Now get this...we do a lot of jump cuts and go back and forth from color to black and white. This way everyone will completely buy-in to how cool Hair Cuttery is. But the real kicker . . . the song she is dancing to is . . .
Daly: I think I might have a hard time explaining this to the press.
Burch: Hot Child in the City!
No one responds.
Charles: You know, Nick Gilder's song from 1978? (singing) hot child in the city...dum dumdum...looking pretty...dum dum dum..
Daly: 1978? Nick Gilder? Are our customers going to...?
Burch: Come on...don't you get it? "Looking pretty"? Anorexic drug addict girl dancing on the roof with art all around her. Black dress and tattoo? Jump cuts? Tousled hair in her face?
Long pause.
Traub: I like it!
