Barbara Lippert's Critique: Special Delivery

It's done a lot for the UPS brand, but I've always found the phrase "What can Brown do for you?" sort of unfortunate. Aside from there being way too many taglines in the form of questions these days, the color brown has obvious associations that are, shall we say, distasteful—ranging from the serious/world-historical (fascist "brownshirts") to the low and gross (potty humor involving a certain character on South Park). Plus, there's my grandmother, who, ever on a quest to avoid appearing "washed out," was known to tell strange brunettes in the dressing rooms of Loehmann's: "Brown does nothing for you!" Never mind. Brown has become quite fashionable, in a '70s, military kind of way. And the word, which vaguely rhymes with "ground," as in ground shipping, was all The Martin Agency had to work with. In the three years since it launched, the question, with its Kennedy-esque cadence, has caught on and seeped into the collective consciousness of the culture. As a result, the agency has endowed an old, faceless company, seen as dull and stodgy, with a vigorous, human, contemporary brand identity. That's exactly what advertising is supposed to do. And yet, despite being smart and nicely executed, until now the commercials supporting the tag were not particularly memorable. Within the category, FedEx owns humor-for-consumers (who might happen to own small businesses), while the UPS work is more b-to-b. It's hard to make that sort of message mass, entertaining, but still elevated. But I guess it's not impossible, since two of the spots in this latest campaign do just that. "Chase," the first 45-second spot, is so cinematic (and artfully shot by Phil Joanou) that I thought at first that it was a movie trailer. At the simplest level, the genius of the commercial is in its sheer forward motion. It's Run, Lola, Run meets Jennifer Garner in Alias. Your basic gorgeous, super-modelish female operative receives a disc and starts running, chased through a city by generic bad guys while getting instructions from some guy on a headset back at HQ. It sounds lame and derivative, but it's actually quite visually intriguing—you have no idea what it's selling. She makes a superhero-like leap, and then headset guy tells her to go jump off a building. Not only does she blindly follow (well, she does ask one question), but she does it backwards, without looking. It turns out she lands on a UPS truck, which breaks her fall—HQ guy knew he could count on it to be there just at that split second. Good and evil, life and death—it's a little more far-fetched than your average overnight delivery spot. And never mind the category—caper/thriller is a lot to carry off in 45 (and later, 30) seconds. In fact, I didn't really get it until I saw a second spot, which is more obvious (more on that later). For other confused viewers, here's my own personal FAQ for "Chase": Does Sydney/ Lola work for UPS? No. She just trusts her boss, who knows that if UPS says it'll be there, it will be. Is she in cahoots with the UPS driver? No. He just hears a thump and drives on. Were any major vertebrae compressed or shattered during filming? Well, the fall looks painful, but apparently her backbone remains intact. She seems to be wearing black. Does she have something against brown? Perhaps she thinks black is the new brown. The second spot, "Weather Man," is like the dumber younger brother of "Chase." A broadcaster guy, in full yellow Gorton's Fisherman regalia, stands in the midst of a big storm, predicting the worst ("roads are flooding, games are canceled"). He's really into the drama, showboating all over the place with the wind and rain in his face, much the way Dan Rather did while reporting on hurricanes. "Stay inside!" he cautions, and as he speaks, the camera focuses in on a scene behind him—through the storm, a UPS truck is making a pickup at a building. This is based on a true story (and strange as it seems, a similar thing happened while CNN was covering Martha Stewart's first post-prison press conference—the cameraman zoomed in on her monitor-less ankle). The spot is clever (yes, it does echo the Volkswagen campaign where the car was also in the background), and it's easier to solve the puzzle here. Now we see that UPS is always the inadvertent hero, working in the shadows of the story. Which helps "Chase" make more sense. This is polished, intricately constructed stuff. It's not going for laughs. It's more subtle—creatives' creative. A third spot, "Obsessive People" is the weakest, because it uses the previous strategy of focusing on UPS employees or customers. An elevator is out, so the UPS woman runs up the stairs. The voiceover is great—"What's the difference between 10:30 a.m. and 10:31 a.m.? 365,000 very obsessive people." The problem is how polished the spot looks. It's shot like a fashion ad—the staircase is circular, the camera angle is gorgeous, and this poor actress in her brown uniform is kind of plodding along to get the delivery done, in contrast to the fabulosity of the background. But overall, Brown now has a voice and a tone and an identity of its own. "Chase" begs for a sequel—is she a double agent (like Sydney), or can we see the action from three different viewpoints (like Lola)? That would be great to run in cinemas. If the spots keep getting that evolved and glossy and sexy, the next question might have to be, "What can mocha do for you?"UPSAgencyThe Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.Creative directorsAndy Azula, Chris JacobsCopywritersJoe Alexander, Josh GoldArt directorsKevin Thoem, Cliff SorahAgency producerBrian CooperDirectorPhil Joanou, MJZ, Los Angeles

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Barbara Lippert's Critique: Special Delivery

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Barbara Lippert