Creative Focus: Retro Redux

In new ads, John Kricfalusi draws from the past The mastermind behind Nickelodeon's outrageously funny cartoon about a neurotic chihuahua and his beloved feline roommate, John Kricfalusi has finally returned to television--sort of. The animator's signature retro style can now be seen in two new commercials for Old Navy, which began airing this month. Reminiscent of The Ren & Stimpy Show's parody commercials, such as "Log," which promoted the ultimate children's toy--a log--the Old Navy ads, created in-house, pitch the retailer's new line of children's jeans. In "Big Pockets," young hikers have trouble with their gear, until a boy saves the day, pulling a camper out of his Big Pocket jeans. In "Flare Jeans," featuring Old Navy's flare line, a girl is skipping along, listening to the radio when she hears, "Coming up The Flares." Pants shoot down her legs, and she is instantly transported into outer space where, in a Josie and the Pussycats moment, she becomes a guitarist in an all-girl group "The Flares." "I don't work in television much," admits Kricfalusi, founder of the Glendale, Calif.-based production company, Spumco. A fiery dispute with Nickelodeon in the early '90s over artistic freedom soured Kricfalusi's opinion of TV networks. Last fall, he turned to the Internet, launching "The Goddamn Liquor Program!" an online cartoon that, free of network censorship, takes raunchy humor to the max in the wacky story of George, Ren and Stimpy's owner, and his son, Jimmy the Idiot Boy. "I like to create my own stuff, and I like to try different styles. Commercials are great that way because each is different," says Kricfalusi of his sporadic advertising ventures. "At the networks, everything is, 'Let's do it the same way we've being doing it for the last 40 years.' They don't have a new thought, which is extremely frustrating for a creative person." While Kricfalusi has retreated from network programming, he has directed a number of commercials, including spots for Nike and Barq's for Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore.; Village Pantry for Ron Foth Advertising in Columbus, Ohio; and most recently, a Cadbury ad for TBWA GGT Simons Palmer, London. Last year, he animated Bjork's "Miss You" music video, in which a number of his wacky characters appear. Kricfalusi appreciates TV's golden age, a time when animators wrote the scripts and cartoons were fun. Even online, where Kricfalusi has found freedom of expression, he is decidedly retro. Not only is his innovative Web cartoon similar in format to early radio serials--fans click onto the Spumco Web site (www.spumco.com) monthly for additional installments--he is selling paid sponsorships written into the cartoon. At the end of one episode, "brought to you by" Tower Records, George urges fans to shop at the music retailer. "You don't want to see Jimmy starve do you?" he asks. The cartoon then takes viewers, whether they want to go or not, directly to Tower Records' Web site. "That's the way it used to be. No one was ever offended by it," notes Kricfalusi. "I always ate what my favorite cartoon characters ate." Though the Internet offers great potential for advertisers, Kricfalusi finds it underused. In fact, he would like to see Spumco either start an online advertising division or pair up with a like-minded agency interested in making online commercials, not banner ads. "People have spent the last two years building the banner model for online advertising; to me, they'll be gone in a year or two," he says. "That was only an intermediary step. People just tune them out. We can do full-blown animated cartoons, either create characters for the sponsors or have them sponsor our characters and drive traffic to their Web page. It'll be like the early days of television." n

Brand Marketing

Creative Focus: Retro Redux

Eleftheria Parpis

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Eleftheria Parpis