Grocery shopping is rarely an exciting task. Surprise, yes? Like reading your aunt’s Facebook status; its a pleasant if tedious necessity that serves to keep everyone happy at home thank-you-very-much. Truth is, even if you enjoy mooning over the fresh produce section every now and again, you’re likely gonna grab some shampoo and frozen peas before you swipe your card at the check-out.
Ho-hum.
Well, if you’re a grocery chain and you’re smart, you’re in touch with this experience and do what you can to acknowledge it and elevate it all with a playful, knowing wink.
Enter, absurdity.
Preston Kelly, the Ad Agency who handles Roundy’s, has done exactly that with the latest batch of brand radio they’ve been recording with us here at Babble-On. Called, fittingly enough, “Great Moments In Food-dom”, the spots regale the radio listener to peek into the lives of some everyday heroes and their day-saving moments of brilliance.
With much fanfare (literally) we are told the incredible tales of…
• Young Sammy, whose mother, having remembered to pack something sugary in his lunchbox, insured that he would be “the king of the lunchroom. And he wore a crown… made of cookie.”
• The Tressell family, who were stunned by the size of the Easter ham Grandma Tressell brought to the table. Imagining the leftovers, the family dreamed aloud. “Ma said ‘I will make split pea and ham soup.’ And Junior said ‘I will make sandwiches.’ And Baby Tressell said ‘globba she bin plooo’… because she was a baby.”
• Brendan, who while shaping and forming burger patties “with wild abandon,” found he could combine two undersized patties to create “Megaburger” (insert Michael Bay brand reverb here).
[wpaudio url=”https://www.babble-on-recording.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Cookie-RROU-4864R.mp3″ text=”Moments – Cookie” dl=”0″] [wpaudio url=”https://www.babble-on-recording.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Easter-RROU-4902R.mp3″ text=”Moments – Easter” dl=”0″] [wpaudio url=”https://www.babble-on-recording.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Mega-burger-RROU-4948R.mp3″ text=”Moments – MegaBurger” dl=”0″]As you can hear, the spots playfully poke fun at life’s moments while still getting in the necessary meat of price points, specials and a distinct brand image – not so easy to wedge all that into a standard sized cart of 60 seconds. These radio ads require some real editing chops in both writing and production.
Charlie Tournat who wrote these spots (with a feathered quill we assume) said, “We tried to glorify the small things we do or think every day with food. Because most of us eat every day. It’s a different way to pay off ‘living up to your life’. And I’d add that these spots would be nothing without the audio wizardry of Greg Geitzenauer, the Danny Elfmanesque music, and the golden pipes of Bill Vogel — who I think would be a fabulous narrator in the next Dr. Seuss adaptation movie. I’ll bet you 5 bucks it will be “The Sneetches” starring William H Macy. Because he’d make a great sneetch. I do not know why.”
Now that sounds, …absurd.