Archer>Malmo Makes Heroes of Client's Customers

Archer>Malmo’s new campaign for ServiceMaster Clean employs comic book and B-movie imagery to pitch janitorial and disaster restoration services.

The Memphis, Tenn., shop’s direct-mail effort is designed to jolt insurance adjusters and facilities managers away from the quality-of-service approach typically used to target their industries.

“Rather than chest-beat about how great the service is, we decided to focus on who the audience is,” said Archer>Malmo creative director Gary Backaus. “It’s not often, for example, that insurance professionals have opportunities to be depicted as heroes.”

“The Mark of the Smoke Demon,” a poster scheduled to kick off the campaign, does exactly that, using images (a frantic housewife, complete with painted nails and décolletage, threatened by a one-eyed monster) and copy that could have been lifted from a Roger Corman movie.