Page 159 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

150 ACCIDENTAL GENIUS

advertising, you understand our dilemma. Four seconds is an eternity,
especially in a 15-second commercial.
As I recall, the initial thought was to look at some of the takes we
had passed over to find a replacement scene that could fill our four-
second hole. But then someone with an open mind (I still can’t recall
who) said, “Hey, let’s try slowing the footage down to fill the hole.”
Well, let me tell you, the gods of creativity were smiling down on us
this day. When we slowed down the tape, not only did we get to see
Roseanne lumbering toward the camera in slow motion like a charging
rhino on Wild Kingdom, a very funny sight, but, surprising all of us, the
slowed-down sound track created an amazing effect. If you don’t know
anything about sound recording, slowing down a sound creates a lower
pitch. I’m talking about a much lower pitch... like turning Tweety
Bird into Lurch on The Addams Family. So now the charging-rhino
housewife is sounding like lizards-turned-dinosaurs in a cheap Japa-
nese horror flick.
Believe me when I tell you, this commercial was hilarious, and not
only funny to a bunch of advertising executives who had just dodged
a minor bullet, but to a much more demanding audience. You see,
this innocent little low-budget local TV spot impressed some of the
most savvy advertising professionals in the business that year, and
they put this commercial into the winner’s circle at the One Show
Annual, one of the most prestigious, most difficult advertising com-
petitions on the planet.

BO DOESN’T KNOW

Another commercial that benefited from some accidental genius was
from Nike in the early 1990s. Most students of advertising remember
the epic “Bo knows Diddley” spot created by Wieden + Kennedy for
Nike’s cross-trainer using cross-sport athlete Bo Jackson and rhythm-
and-blues great Bo Diddley.
The commercial featured big-name athletes from various sports
saying “Bo knows [insert appropriate sport].” Michael Jordan saying,
“Bo knows basketball.” Jim Everett saying, “Bo knows football.” Joan
Benoit, John McEnroe, Wayne Gretzky, and others exclaiming the
athletic prowess of Bo Jackson. This introductory phrase was intercut
with images of the versatile athlete playing the various appropriate
sports, all to the rhythm of Diddley’s signature hand-jive beat.