Playing with my favorite Toons!

It’s Friday afternoon, just after receiving a call from Turner Broadcasting. I have 2 days to write a proposal for a series of commercials for Cartoon Network and Nintendo.

The spots will run every month for a year, a tie-in with Dexter’s Laboratory and Nintendo, featuring a new Nintendo game each month. The spots need to be exciting and fresh for a year. And the only competition... 3 advertising agencies in Atlanta!

Brainstorm time.
Let’s use lots of cartoons and live kids! Let’s have them playing Nintendo games and add in lots of action and f/x.
In 24 hours, I have 3 rough ideas.

Time to bring in the secret weapon: my son!
Silence, as he reads with a critical eye.
Looking up he criticizes, “Dexter would never say that and Johnny Bravo would do this...”
The rewrite is emailed Monday morning.
That afternoon I am awarded the project!

Producing the spots calls for 3 teams of animators, a blue-screen shoot with 3 energized kids, voice-over sessions with all the talent, ad-libbing in their cartoon voices until we were rolling on the floor laughing, creating original music, and 10 days of special effects and editing.

Getting into kids' minds and bringing the excitement of new games to the screen were necessary to make these spots successful.