Animated Commercials

Commercials are a great creative opportunity and a way for smaller studios to make money. There are always companies and ad agencies looking for ways to get their products noticed. I wouldn't recommend trying to develop characters specifically for commercials unless you are willing to sell most if not all of the rights as part of the deal. It is not unusual for you to get models and a storyboard and basically your part is the execution of the animation. But for smaller clients they may be more open to being more flexible creatively because they don't have the big budget resources of the larger companies. There continues to be opportunities for animated web and mobile commercials, again it is the smaller companies that provide the best situations for smaller studios. Little guys are often more open and comfortable working with other little guys. The key to getting noticed by people wanting to develop commercials is to create a reputation for cartoon work that is fresh, and unique. The ideal web commercial is one where people seek it out or pass it around because it is so funny and entertaining. The sponsor gets noticed, their products get noticed, and you get the chance to do more commercials which helps pay the rent.

I think commercials are an incredible challenge for any cartoon maker. Creating a successful commercial is not only rewarding financially but it is quite exciting to see your work well received and effective. The downside is that most commercials are anonymous except between you and the agencies or clients but still they are very satisfying.

A lot of people might be surprised at how many potential clients exist who have a need for web-based advertising. Many ads are irritating and annoying and no where is that more true then on the internet. Yet so few people take advantage of the fact that commercials can be entertaining and informative if creatively done and it is a win-win for the viewer and the sponsor. Most internet advertising is very poorly done and ineffective based mainly on the fact that it is ignored because it is boring or irritating. Much like most internet content, there is a big gap between the well done material and the not so well done. And that spells opportunity for the creative cartoonist.

I think that one of the funniest and most creative uses of animation was the stomach character that use to be in Alka Seltzer commercials. The little stomach argues and pleads with its human owner in a very funny animated discussion. I remember at the time thinking what a really fun way to get people to watch a commercial about upset stomachs and medicine. Very creative, we all have conversations with our stomach on occasions and it does seem to be telling us how it is viewing life at the moment.

The "Man vs. Stomach" campaign by Jack Tinker & Partners in 1971 featured an R. O. Blechman's cartoon drawing of a man's stomach complaining about his owner "You should see the way he stuffs himself at his mother's." When the man defends his love of pepperoni pizza the stomach shouts back "Do you like heartburn! Well, you're going to get it." Of course, the upset stomach was finally soothed by the curative powers of Alka Seltzer. Listen closely to the stomach character; I’m pretty sure that voice is the famous comic Gene Wilder. This was funny, entertaining and it informed us of the product and its benefits, a great example of a simple animated commercial. Of course with today's humor it would be a guy arguing with a big ugly fart character about "you eat that stuff and your going to release my devastation on to millions of innocent noses as a WMD!!!."

On a more serious note, these types of commercials help to remind us that creative animation is an excellent way to advertise products or services that otherwise would be very difficult to promote. There are some products that just wouldn't be able to attract much viewer interest without humorous animation.

What do you think of using an animated cartoon character to promote a political candidate? I always thought that a good cartoon would be killer for getting somebody elected; it sure would beat all the name calling and mudslinging. For a politician their biggest challenge in being elected would be to get people in the voting booth with their name prominently on their mind with a very positive image. It wouldn't matter who they are running against as long as their commercials made them a household name that people just liked. I realize this is very cynical but it sure beats the way we approach most campaigns where as voters we always seem to be voting for the least jerky of a group of jerks.

Related article: Animated Commercials an Often Overlooked Creative Treasure Chest

More Thoughts on Creativity

Being creative can often be difficult. Last time I wrote about the frustrating situation we all run into so often when we find that our latest great brainstorm has already been done before. But sometimes being angry or frustrated is a real creative blessing. Historically, many great cartoon ideas have come as the result of anger or frustration. Chuck Jones documented in many of his autobiographical writings how many of his most famous creative works were the direct result of the anger and frustration he and his coworkers experienced with their interactions with Warner Bros. studio executives. The “suits” in the front office were constantly making life difficult for the various Looney Tunes cartoon units. But rather than these obstacles being a negative, they helped to spur on great creativity. This same sort of thing helped to spawn the highly creative cartoons of UPA in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. Many of the directors and cartoonist that produced the landmark cartoons at UPA were former Disney creators who were rebelling against the Disney way of making animation. Later in the 1960’s the cartoons of Jay Ward and Bill Scott like Rocky and Bullwinkle also benefited from anger and frustration for their creative inspiration. This time it wasn’t internal to the studio but rather external anger and frustration at the system. At that time TV was the expanding new frontier for cartoon making and TV was controlled by Madison Avenue advertisers and the big cereal companies like General Mills and Kellogg and Post. They dictated which shows were produced and how they were produced and even what was appropriate subject matter and what wasn’t appropriate. The guys at Jay Ward productions were very funny creative folks but they had to work with in the watchful control of their sponsors. They also were constantly being squeezed financially by impossible budgets and forced to farm out most of their cartoon production work to Mexico. The animation production work was often substandard and embarrassing but they had to use it or get canceled. So, they made the best of it by writing some of the funniest material every made. They also constantly poked fun at Madison Avenue and the cereal companies in their cartoons. Everything from an economic collapse of society brought about by counterfeit cereal box tops to the emotional trauma created when a metal eating mechanical mouse chewed up all the TV antennas in Frostbite Falls and no one could watch TV anymore. This created a national crisis for the boys in advertising because not only were people not watching TV shows they weren’t watching the commercials.

So if there are things in your world that anger or frustrate you, don’t necessarily think of those things as negative but rather use that anger to fuel your creativity.

Thoughts on Creativity

Being creative isn’t always easy. So often we have these really creative bursts of brilliance, and then the cold wet splash of reality abruptly puts out the fire as we realize that “this has already been done before”. It can be very frustrating. Original and unique ideas are harder and harder to find. Perhaps this is the reason that so often we watch something and think, “That’s familiar” or “I saw that before”. Being creative is by its very nature a form of recombination. We take many disassociated things and combine them in new ways.

Lately, I have been trying to “discover” a new concept for a “web” series of cartoons. I have a style in mind but coming up with the concept has not been easy. I keep running into the old “this has already been done before” brick wall. So, for those of you, who labor trying to be creative, you can take comfort in sharing my torment. It rarely comes easy.



The best advice I can give anyone is start out with the familiar and turn it upside down. My favorite example is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. When the guys at Warner Brothers wanted a new concept they took this children’s story and flipped things around. First they dumped Goldilocks. Then they took a fresh look at the three bears. The baby bear became a huge hulking giant named Junior. They kept the mother bear pretty much as expected and then they made the father bear, Pa, a short hot tempered foil for Junior’s well meaning actions. The old became a new twist and the humor flowed in many cartoons over the years.



As always, Marty has to add in his two cents worth to remind me that explosive creativity can be as dangerous as playing tennis in a lightning storm.