As a smart or even not so smart consumer, you’re not gonna [want to] pay a lot for this muffler … or that car battery.
But the Interstate Battery brand is the latest in a long long line of businesses faced with the unique challenge of convincing the public that maybe it’s worth spending a little extra on something that doesn’t seem, on first glance, like the most important product in your life.
Creative agency Firehouse of Dallas (which does not make “wallpaper”) recently came up with several ways to illustrate that point as part of a national campaign for the client, also based in Dallas.
First, preroll ads are exactly like cheap, dead car batteries … in that they prevent you from getting to where you really want to be.
Stick with it, there’s a theme developing.
For example, here’s an extended version of a spot that started running on TV after Halloween in which the protagonist is about to escape from the Jason/Freddy horror film type until realizing that his car won’t start because he cheaped out on batteries.
The next pair of spots could really double as ads for the Texas Lottery. Speaking of which, who has that account these days?
The protagonist in this wedding-themed spot is a confident guy who somehow knew the woman in question would be “his girl” until his friend swooped in and stole her again thanks to … you guessed it … a dead car battery.
As the press statement puts it, “The ads each convey the same idea: When you need to be there … or when you need to escape, you need an Interstate.”
Firehouse, by the way, is led by CCO, CMO and partner Tripp Westbrook, former creative director and copywriter at GSD&M, Fallon New York, Hal Riney and The Martin Agency, among others.
Our personal favorites in the series are the top one and this number, primarily because they poke fun at that lowest-hanging of fruit, the preroll ad. (Besides the banner, of course.)
Bit of a different play on that theme than the now-famous Martin Geico version.
CREDITS
Agency: Firehouse
Client: Interstate Batteries
Executive Creative Director: Tripp Westbrook
Writer, Creative Director: Michael Buss
Art Director, Creative Director: Jason Heatherly
Account Director: Amanda Driggers
Account Supervisor: Matt Kirby
Project Manager: Phil Brito
Client Team: Tom Gray, Tracy Honore
Producer: Chelle McDonald
Production Company: Arts & Sciences
Director: Michael Illick
Director of Photography: Andre Pienaar
Line Producer: Gillian Marr
Executive Producer: Mal Ward
Editorial Company: Cut + Run; Charlietango
Editor: Jay Nelson