If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking, or had the misfortune of being around someone who’s making every effort to cut the cord, you know that the words “funny” and “humorous” don’t get uttered – unless, of course, you want your head zipped off like a dandelion in the mower.
All the more reason for us to call attention to a really great series of radio spots that we’ve been working on with Clarity Coverdale Fury for a few years that’s been sympathetic, helpful and… funny: QUITPLAN Services “Monkey On Your Back” campaign.
Back in ’08, Michael Atkinson and Lynda Crotty, the writer and producer respectively, began recording this series with Greg Geitzenauer. That first radio spot called, “Loon”, had the goal of letting people know about the new flavors of Nicorette Gum as part of QUITPLAN Service’s free nicotine replacement therapy.
It worked – setting records for calls to QUITPLAN service’s help line and increasing their web traffic and sign-ups.
And people say that traditional media is dead. Hmmmm.
Due to that notch in the belt, more spots were recorded here at Babble-On that worked the same angle – this time using a Cat, Penguin, Robot, and even a Parrot posing as the pesky monkey.
The campaign has been so successful that everyone involved decided to keep a good thing going further by producing more radio ads, but this time the concept would evolve to support QUITPLAN’s new TV spot, designed to promote a “personalized approach” to quitting. So, for this go around, the radio scripts depicted (yup, you can do that on the radio) an actual monkey on the backs of L.A. voice-over talents Scott LaRose and Hudson Campbell whom we recorded via ISDN Digital Patch from Atlantis Group Recording. Vanessa Marshall was the Announcer.
Ironically, however, in the process of doing sound-design for these ads Michael, Lynda and Greg came to the conclusion that real monkey sound-effects weren’t cutting it. So, local actors Tim Russell and Brian Sostek were booked into Studio C to provide monkey vocalizations that would better fit the scene. For those of us bopped past our kitchenette that day (which is right near studio C) the racket was such that even Jane Goodall might have flinched – or offered proper direction. The final results were screechily dead on.
Here’s that series of radio spots –
[wpaudio url=”https://www.babble-on-recording.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Social-Monkey.mp3″ text=”Social Monkey” dl=”0″] [wpaudio url=”https://www.babble-on-recording.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Mini-Me-Monkey-mix-05Feb2010.mp3″ text=”Mini-Me” dl=”0″] [wpaudio url=”https://www.babble-on-recording.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Cowboy-Monkey-mix-05Feb2010.mp3″ text=”Cowboy Monkey” dl=”0″] [wpaudio url=”https://www.babble-on-recording.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Bungee-Cord-Monkey-mix-03Feb2010.mp3″ text=”Bungee Cord” dl=”0″]And, the TV spot to which it is all tied is here
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0RGOK3a-V4
If you’re looking to hear more of the campaign, feel free to peruse our samples page (it has quite a few there), and look at our sound-design page to see how we creatively approach some of the vexing audio situations we come across.