As big fans of the classic era of The Simpsons (roughly seasons 1-8, with 2-5 as the peak but don’t get me started…) we can’t help but love this new spot from San Francisco agency Camp + King promoting YouTube video ads entitled “Homer Simpson saves the day with YouTube.”
The spot reworks footage from the classic Jon Vitti-written season four episode “Mr. Plow” (it original aired on November 19, 1992) with new segments presenting YouTube advertising as saving Homer’s business. In the ad, he turns to YouTube when it looks like he’s going to have to sell the plow, but the video ads have customers flocking to the business. The added bits actually do a good job of keeping with the tone of the show, as when Lisa signs up the business for the TrueView advertising program, enters “Springfield” for the town and then scrolls past several options for state until she finds “Our State” (the ambiguity of Springfield is a long-running joke on the show). Fandom aside, the ad does a good job of showing how the service can help small businesses attract attention, a point Google elaborates on in a blog post stating, “Video advertisers like Homer can see how people are engaging with his video ad and use this information to make small but important changes to his campaign.” We’ve included the family’s original Mr. Plow ad from the episode below, because it’s great.
Credits:
Client: Google/YouTube
Agency: Camp + King
CEO, Jamie King
CCO, Roger Camp
Creative Director, Rikesh Lal
Associate Creative Director, Justin Hargraves
Copywriter, Mary Hernandez
Visual Effects Designer, Zach Corzine
Brand Director, Emily Dillow
Brand Manager, Kelsey Towbis and Grace Lazarus
Director of Content Production, Stacy McClain
Content Producers, David Verhoef and Vince Genovese
Talent/Property Negotiation, Vanessa Bendetti
Business Affairs, Tricia Krasneski
Postproduction: Misfit
Executive Producer: Jim Vaughan
Editor: Matt O’Donell
Asst Editor: Marissa Rosado
Audio Post: M-Squared
Sound Engineer: Mark Pitchford
Asst Sound Engineer: Phil Lantz