WongDoody’s ‘Bobbles’ Are Dodgers Fans

LOS ANGELES Four new spots from independent WongDoody for the Los Angeles Dodgers—all featuring The Bobbles—break after Memorial Day, the agency said.

As part of an eight-spot, summer-long push for the club, WongDoody’s creative team, working under Michael Boychuk, invented a cast of Dodger-blue-blooded bobbleheads through New York production company Czar.Us and a director known as PES. By George Inc. sculpted the dolls’ expressive faces to complement comical dialogue.

“We wanted to make it sort of like a sitcom,” said Boychuk, associate creative director and art director at WongDoody in Los Angeles. “Introduce the characters, then get the fans involved with them and want to know what would happen next.”
In introductory spots that broke this month, the Bobbles park their toy car and sing altered lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”; suggest that catcher Paul LoDuca warm up with their head movements; a foot-stomping rally sends dad into a sea of peanut shells; and outfielder Shawn Green obliviously autographs the boy bobble’s face.

In spots breaking from May 29 to June 19, the Bobbles daughter sings during the 7th inning stretch until grandpa’s head cracks and flies off its bobble-spring. The family, seeing pitcher Eric Gagne’s bobbleheads in the stands, thinks he’s been cloned. As the father extols the virtues of Dodger baseball in Chavez Ravine, three family members chow down on a single hot dog, as if feeding from a trough. In the final spot of the season, the Bobbles try to turn their hats backward into rally caps. Since the hats are immoveable, the family is facing away from the action.

WongDoody is in its fifth season with the Dodgers. In its first year, it used actor Anthony Edwards’ voiceovers and showed fans doing things typically done only in a stadium in other public locales. “Then we turned our focus on moms and families, and starting emphasizing Dodger stadium,” said Boychuk. “We tried to keep it real, and talked to fans who reminisced with real stories, and shot and cut footage to what they said. They were nostalgic, all shot on super 8mm for that feel.”

Despite the Mr. Bill-like trials the Bobbles endure, the agency held back. “The Dodgers are not an edgy brand, so we didn’t want to be edgy,” said Boychuk. “We just wanted them to be funny. Bobbleheads in commercials had better be funny, or they are just cute and annoying.”

The Dodgers spent $2 million last year on advertising, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.