How to make simple spots more interesting:

Direction*.

There's this series of Miller High Life ads done a few years ago. They have very simple ideas behind them. But all are very smart.

They play a similar tune as the current work being done. I'd imagine the brief read, "High Life is a beer to be enjoyed by the blue-collar, every-day man. The simple man."

The thing is, I think these spots (the old ones) would have flopped without the excellent direction of Errol Morris. It's just such a simple idea that if shot in a normal way, it would have been boring.

Here are three of my favorites from the extensive campaign. You can find the rest here.


Mosquito




5 o'clock




No Salad




*Oh, and excellent voice-over talent doesn't hurt. Keep in mind, you'll have to cast all these guys at some point. Yes - you. The one who wrote the spot. You're totally in charge of hiring someone to act out your script. That was the most surprising thing to me when I got into this. I got to make the call. No matter how junior I was/still am.

So anytime you write radio or tv, always know who your characters are. How do they sound in your head? How would they dress? The choice could make or break your spot.