In “Amarillo,” the third episode of the second season of AMC’s Better Call Saul, Bob Odenkirk‘s character, James McGill (who has yet to create the Saul Goodman moniker the character goes by in Breaking Bad) directs an ad for law firm Davis & Main which later lands him in a good deal of trouble. In a case of life imitating art, the real life Odenkirk directed a series of spots in RPA’s latest campaign for, which also sees the return of Jeff Goldblum as Brad Bellflower.
It’s not Odenkirk’s directorial debut — that would be the hilarious “It’s Insane, This Guy’s Taint” segment from Mr. Show with Bob and David back in 1998. The campaign, of course, follows RPA’s “Moving Day” Super Bowl spot for the brand, which featured Lil Wayne in addition to Goldblum. The new campaign will feature a total of ten spots, the first three of which made their debut this week.
In the 30-second “Earth,” Bellflower gets meta, holding a small, glowing globe in his hand, referring to it as “the biggest apartment in the world” and noting that it houses over 7 billion people (who, as a whole, are pretty awful tenants). As the camera zooms out, we see groups of people silently walking past and around Bellflower in a blank scene, until one of them interrupts him. While most of the brand’s advertising to this point has been aimed at renters, “War Room” targets property manager, as Bellflower tells a woman looking for tenants “You should list on Apartments.com: it’s free, it’s easy and we have millions of renters,” before making it “rain” renters. The ad even changes the tagline to “Change where you list your apartments, change the world.”
“The perception that our advertisers are ‘paying’ for our marketing efforts is an idea our competitors like to tout. But in reality, Apartments.com offers one of the least expensive apartment listing site subscriptions in the industry, and the site clearly provides more value for the investment,” explained Andrew Florance, founder and CEO of Apartments.com parent company CoStar Group.
A third, 15-second spot, “Bundle of Joy,” is pure goofiness. The $100 million campaign will feature a mix of broadcast, digital, social and SEM platforms and run throughout the year. So far, it sees a slight change of pace from previous efforts for the brand. But the Bellflower character, who already felt like a tired caricature upon introduction, isn’t exactly aging well. At least he doesn’t sing this time around.
Client: Apartments.com
Titles: “Earth” :30, “War Room” :30, “Bundle of Joy” :15
First air: 3/28/2016
Agency: RPA
EVP, Chief Creative Officer: Joe Baratelli
SVP, Group Creative Director: Pat Mendelson
Creative Director/AD: Hobart Birmingham
Creative Director/CW: Perrin Anderson
Associate Creative Director/AD: Kirk Williams
Associate Creative Director/CW: Eric Haugen
Jr. Art Director: Joshua McCrary
SVP, Chief Production Officer: Gary Paticoff
Assistant Producer: Grace Wang
VP, Executive Producer: Selena Pizarro
VP, Director of Business Affairs: Maria Del Homme
EVP, Management Account Director: Tom Kirk
VP, Account Director: Jim Sieminski
Account Supervisor: Angelica Hollander
Sr. Account Executive: Tyler Brockington
Assistant Account Executive: Madeline Logan
Sr. Project Manager: Dawn Burdue
Production Company: Bob Industries
Director: Bob Odenkirk
Executive Producer: T.K. Knowles, John O’Grady, Chuck Ryant
Director of Photography: Neil Shapiro
Producer: Bart Lipton
Production Designer: Floyd Albee
Editorial Company: Cut+Run
Managing Director: Michelle Eskin
Executive Producer: Amburr Farls
Producer: Remy Foxx
Editors: Sean Fazende and Steve Gandolfi
Music For Earth :30/:15 & War Room :30/:15: Barking Owl
Creative Director: Kelly Bayett
Composer: Seth Olinsky
Producer: K.C. Dossett
Telecine: CO3
Executive Producer: Rhubie Jovanov
Senior Colorist: Stefan Sonnefeld
Post Producer: Adam Van Wagoner
VFX & Finishing: A52
VFX Supervisor: Urs Furrer
Head Of CG: Kirk Shintani
Executive Producer: Patrick Nugent
Head of Production: Kim Christensen
Producer: Adam Reeb
Audio/Final Mix: Lime Studios
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan
Sound Engineer: Rohan Young
Casting: Francene Selkirk Casting
Casting Director: Francene Selkirk
Masters & Distribution: Tylie Jones & Associates
Contact: Lee Anne Frazier
Contact: Veronica Strong