TDA Boulder Mocks American Politics with Puppets for FirstBank (Blah Blah)

By Erik Oster 

In its latest effort for FirstBank, TDA Boulder portrays the U.S. presidential campaign as two puppets on stage saying a whole lot of nothing in “Puppet Business.” Not entirely inaccurate!

“My fellow Americans, blah blah blah,” opens one candidate, a green puppet guy in a suit and tie. “Blah Blah, Main Street, not Wall Street!” retorts his opponent, a purple she-puppet (this is a word, trust us) with curly blonde hair. This (painful) format continues throughout the spot, with the candidates’ points (arriving in-between blah-blahs) boiling down to “backward economy,” “America,” “business” and “Job creation, innovation, stimulation!” before the ad finally arrives at the line, “They talk about jobs. You create them.”

The presidential election is undoubtedly at the top of viewers minds, though we wonder if this effort will stand out among the many related campaigns.

The puppet format allows TDA Boulder to mock the general spectacle of American presidential politics without targeting either side — although we can’t help but notice that one of the puppets bears a stronger resemblance to an actual candidate than the other one (hint: the qualified one). The approach is presumably intended to promote the bank’s offerings for small businesses, though it’s not quite clear why this bank would be better at that than its competitors.

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If this ad had been shot after last night’s VP debate, it would have been pretty funny to see one puppet say, “Your running mate claimed ‘blah blah blah'” before the other responds “No he did not” and then we cut to a close up of a third puppet’s inflammatory tweets.

Credits:
dvertising Agency: TDA_Boulder, New York, USA
Creative Director / Copywriter: Jeremy Seibold
Associate Creative Director / Art Director: Barrett Brynestad
Exec. Creative Director: Jonathan Schoenberg
Director of Client Services: Christi Tucay Clark
Account Supervisor: Colleen Callahan
Director of Strategy: Constance DeCherney
Agency Producer: Susan Fisher
Production Company: MJZ
Director: Perlorian Brothers
Director of Photography.: Sebastian Pfaffenbichler
Executive Producer: David Zander, Eriks Krumins
Line Producer: Jay Shapiro
Puppets Created by: Legacy Effects
Puppet Supervisor: Alan Scott
Shoot Location: Pasadena
Editorial / Post: Cosmo Street
Editor: Katz
Assistant Editor: Nellie Phillips
Executive Producer: Yvette Cobarrubias – Sears
Producers: Marie Mangahas, Chelsea Spensley
Color Correct: Apache
Telecine Operator: Steve Rodriguez
Mix / Sound Design: Lime Studios
Engineer: Zach Fisher
Animation: Bernard Tan
Business Manager: Tricia Krasnesk

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