August 9, 2022 • 20 mins
Tom and Eric only had “ears” for Gilbert Gottfried when they were choosing a spokesvoice for Aflac. Honestly, who could quack the name better? This week, I concluded my talk with Tom Amico and Eric David, the creators of the Aflac duck. For more on Tom and Eric’s work, check out TomAndEric911.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing podcast.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham
Owner and founder of Dreamr Productionsand Sound in Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate
brands and individualson the power of sound in marketing.
Now back to the show.
On January 1st, 2000, Americansgot their first glimpse
(00:22):
of a new innovativemarketing campaign for a little known
supplemental insurance companyin Columbus, Georgia.
When a little white duckwith a lot of personality stormed upon
the scene, Aflac made advertising history
and became an international powerhouse.
Since then, the Aflac duck has appearedin more than 75 commercials
and has helped catapult Aflacinto a household name.
(00:45):
We pick up where we left off in partone with Tom, Eric and I talking about
what happened as the years went onwith the duck as a mainstay.
I've also sprinkledlots of fun Aflac commercials throughout.
The whole original assignmentwas for brand awareness.
They wanted people to know the name.
Has that changed through the years?
It's been 20 some years.
(01:06):
Is it more about performance marketingor is it still just awareness and growth,
or are you? Well, we stopped working on it
like 5 or 6 years ago, but as
as the awareness thing,kind of it sort of resolved itself.
Right?
Because the awareness jumpedso precipitously just within a short
(01:27):
amount of time.
So then it was like,oh, I've now I've heard of that.
But but what exactly does that like, do?
And it's not like everybody knowswhat car insurance
and everybody knowswhat homeowner's insurance is.
It's like supplemental insurance.
What's that like?
Oh, does that make it sound like it's
not that necessary,cause it's called supplemental.
(01:49):
So we spent the latter part of the, timewe were working on it,
having to have the duckbe a facilitator for how,
you know,people would learn more about the XYZ
of what kind of policiesthey might have,
but we kind of stuck to our gunswith having the duck only say
(02:09):
one word, which was the quackthat sounded like Aflac.
And we had to dig in on thatbecause there were times when it's like,
can't we have the duck, like, talk andexplain what the benefits of Aflac are?
We kind of like died on the sword.
No- it's got to be germane to whatthe original concept of the idea was.
(02:30):
All the insuranceadvertising at the time was very serious.
And now, you know, nowthere's Flo from progressive who's comedic,
and the StateFarm, campaign is comedic and Allstate
and it's pretty much it'sthey're all comedic.
And it kind of was the duck that usheredin that sort of like, oh,
(02:54):
we could we don't have to take ourselvesso seriously.
We can poke fun at ourselves.
And I'll never forget I'm like,
after we came up with the idea
and I'm not sure of like,we had our commercial running already.
It was not a short time after that.
I mean, a very short time after thatthat I'm
seeing Geico and they have like a geckoas a spokesperson.
(03:18):
And I was like, how lame is that?
It doesn't even like rhyme,with Geico like such,
it's such a stretchbecause of course they’ve been running.
Both of the campaigns are 22 yearold campaigns.
Even insurance companies now, like,Liberty Mutual are trying to come up with
their little characters, their LemuEmu thing, which was their attempt at,
(03:40):
I guess, and being humorousand having kind of like a spokes animal.
But, you know, when we first did thisand like Tom
said, you know, they wanted, you know,how do we get people to know the benefits?
How can we get,you know, we want the duck to talk.
But but we were very strict.
We had guidelines of what the duckcould do and could not do.
You know,through just the way he would act
(04:02):
and the way he would present himselfor the way he would say Aflac or the way
you'd see him getting frustrated,that was the way he'd communicate.
And I think
because a lot of people, you know,
don't get heard and get don't get heard
and get frustrated and have to figure outways of getting through to people.
(04:23):
I think they relate to the duckon that level because, you know, here
the duck is giving them the answerand they're not listening.
Very determined.
We were not going to have a talking animalbecause we thought
that would just ruinthe whole mystique of the duck.
And, you know, it's the duck that quacks the
name of the company.
That's it.
The other thing that wewe tried to achieve was tap into this sort
(04:47):
of universal belief that, you know, no,nobody likes not to be heard.
Right.
And basically, this is a duckgoing around saying, look at me
like I am the answer to a big problem.
you could be having. Hey, over here.
This idea of having like a persnickety
sort of not listen to duck, sort of,I think, tapped
(05:10):
into or hita nerve that helped its popularity.
And, and the other ingredient that helpedthat along to that end is that we casted,
Gilbert Gottfried, who
mostly at the time was a standup comedian.
He had been the voice of the parrot
in the Aladdin movie,but he basically was a kind of,
(05:35):
you know, filthybut very funny stand up comic.
And goodness knows,
if theclient ever, like, saw his standup act,
they would have never okayed him,okayed him for The voice.
But when we came up with the idea,I'm like,
oh my God, we have to get GilbertGottfried and it turned out
(05:55):
we both grew up one neighborhoodover in Brooklyn.
I had seen him performingsince he was a kid.
We did think that Gilbert would be perfectbecause he was loud and annoying
and sort of like thatwas the part of the ducks personality.
So instead,
rather than just give him the job
(06:15):
and we wanted to do our due diligence,especially for the client.
We auditionedlike we auditioned like 2000 people,
including celebritieslike Penny Marshall and Dan Castellaneta,
who is the voice of many of The Simpsonsvoices.
We brought in voices from South Park.
And after doing all that, nobody could sort of deliver it,
(06:40):
what whatneeded to be delivered by Gilbert,
which was to be funny,to be shy, to be loud, to be rude.
We would direct himevery time we shot new commercials.
We bring him into the studioand direct him.
Say this way, say it like you're drunk.
Say it like you are crying.
Say like you're really even.
(07:01):
Extra annoyed.When we did the roller coaster spot
where he's on a roller coasterand he gets off the roller coaster
and the duck is like, okay, Gilbert,sound like you're about to throw up.
Relax.
We got supplemental insurance.
What are you talking about?
Aflac! Nobody’d get injured in this work.
(07:25):
I think I was paying other expenseswith this,
with what.
Plus they pay you cash.
Great huh?Who does? Aflac! Aflac, ask about it at work.
Oh, yeah.
We did a
synchronized swimming spotin which he had to say Aflac under water.
(07:47):
So we had him, you know, with.
We gave him a bottle of Spring water in the booth,
and he he basically gargledthe word Aflac.
You know, some people don't thinkwhat we do is a sport that's just.
You can't get hurt doing it.
Otherwise,I'm not sure what insurance. Aflac!
(08:10):
What?
Come again?. The one that pays you cash.
Oh, yeah.
If you're hurt and can't work.
Yeah, it's.
What?
Aflac.
Ask about it at work.
And he was, like, nonstop in the booth,gargling with
the water was getting all over himand everything like that.
(08:31):
But we would keep having to hit the stop.
You know, the talkbutton stop stops. Stop.
Because he’s just so funny.
He just would just go on and on and onand we got it Gilbert we got it.
And now here's the next thingyou need to do
by casting Gilbert, because I'm familiarwith Gilbert Gottfried.
Also, it gives you even more reasonother than your others to just
(08:52):
have him say one thingbecause, yeah, then you're safer and like,
you know, networktelevision commercials and campaigns.
You've got it.
You know, his one word that you just
why do you think people connectso much to the duck?
Is it just because it, like, joltsyou out and surprises you?
Like, why is a duck yelling at me?
(09:12):
Or is there something else to itthat makes it more personable?
What would your opinion be?
I think part of it also was that
people thought the duck was real.
People thought that the duck was like,how are they getting the duck
to do all these things?
How do they get the duck to talklike that?
I had a friend who was, I forgethow old he was
(09:36):
when the When the Duck debutedlike five, 5 or 6 years old and was like,
oh my God,they trained the duck how to say Aflac.
So there was,even though it was partially alive
partially a puppet, and partially a CG duck,
depending on what we needed,the duck to do, there was this thing
that he became humanized somewhatby actually saying kind of a real word.
(10:02):
And then I think this personality
sort of trait that that he had,
that's sort of like, you know, empathy,
you felt empathy for him because, like,he's trying to get this message through.
Right?
And and no one's listening.
And, and I think people relate to that.
And, and, you know, just
(10:22):
the more he was frustrated,I think the more people related to it.
Somebody told me kids or people would useAflac, sort of like shorthand
for like kind of yelling at their friendsor at more being frustrated.
Rob and the accounts personwho didn't want us to even show the duck.
I'll never forget she wasshe was in Italy online
(10:44):
like a very long lineto see, like to get into the Vatican.
And someone in the back of the line was
pissed off and just started saying Aflaclike randomly
to give voice to her frustrationof not getting in to see the Pope.
How does the creative come?
Do you come up with the copyright first,
you come up with the A sloganis there music that you have?
(11:07):
Like maybe playing in the backgroundwhile you're thinking, you know,
do you go to lunch at one of our offices?
Used to be, right outside Bryant Park.
So we would just go sit in BryantPark and work
and, you know,we were, you know, very observant.
And we looked at people going backand forth and seeing what they're doing.
And we would just get ideas being out.
(11:29):
You know, we got more ideas being outsideand just, you know,
seeing things that caught our eyethat might inspire an idea.
We also used to work a lot in Starbucksand Starbucks used to be all plush
with couches and stufflike that back in the, back in the day.
And if you remember, Tom you saw thatguy, he had a pet pig.
This guy was dressed, he had a bow tie on,
(11:51):
and he just was dressed like a character,and he was walking a pet pig
in front of Starbucks on the streetand said,
I wonderif we could do something with that?
But we were always out morethen in the office, coming up with ideas.
And then music wise, if a particularpiece of music fit, like we did
(12:12):
this part called Silent Movie,which was kind of in and the antithesis
to what we're talking about, sound like,how do you do a silent one with a duck?
That says AFlac?
We did the classical, you know,(Silent Movie Music in background)
piano,you know, silent movie music and stuff (Silent Movie Music in background)
like that. And.(Silent Movie Music in background)
(12:33):
But I don't think musicis really a driver.
I think we did a number of celebritiesin our spots, but
the celebrities were always relatedto a way of getting our message across,
like when we did the spot with Yogi Berra,
you know, because he always hasa unique way of saying things.
So we thought he'd be a great personto work with.
Signal. Right?
(12:54):
Not too close. What do you think?
I got that insurance.
What insurance is that Yogi?
Aflac. The one you really needto have if you don't have it?
That's why you need it.
Need what?
Aflac. Well, if you get hurt and miss work,it won't hurt to miss work,
And they give you
(13:14):
cash, which is just as good as money.
He didn't grow Aflac.
Ask about it at work.
I mean, when we sit down to work, it's
sort of like it starts with, like,what's the idea?
What? Let's come up with the good idea.
Maybe it's a songthat is relatable to the product.
(13:35):
Maybe it's a mnemonic.
The other kind of big campaignthat Eric and I did
that still on the air is, Napa Auto Parts.
For that, we came up with the linefirst Napa Knowhow,
which grew out of a truthabout their brand that unlike AutoZone
(13:56):
and O'Reilly'sand other auto sort of repair places,
Napa actually hired mechanicsto be in the front of their store.
And so there were knowledgeablesalespeople and not like some kid
who was working at Walmartor Target the week before.
And now it's the front of the storelike an auto zone.
(14:18):
Cardiology.
I don't have the heart. Pulmonary doctor
No cigar.
I can't diagnose a simple cold or flu.
But if you.
engines got a call, I know what to do.
Give it six of theseand wash it down with this.
A new air filter.
All to help it catch its breath.
(14:40):
Napa know how.
No no no no no.
Napa Know How
how to make sure that Napa know how.
Aside from the alliterationof all the ends seeded in people's heads,
we did come up with a songand we hired a southern band.
I forget the name of the bandRascal Flatts.
(15:02):
Yes. Yeah.
Thank you.
So. And he came up with this songand then.
No, no, no.
Napa. know how? Napa know how.
So when that broke, it also like, you kindof couldn't get it out of your head.
And the other thing, you know, I'd saythat is unique to those campaigns.
And what we've kind of set out to dois that only,
(15:25):
only Aflac could have had a duck
quacking the name of the companythat sounded like a quack.
So it turned out that eventually,ultimately, you couldn't
ever separate out the duck from Aflacor Aflac from the duck.
They became so entwined that wheneveryou saw a duck, you'd think Aflac.
(15:45):
And whenever you sawAflac you think of the duck.
And similarly, you know, AutoZoneknow how it doesn't quite
have the fit,
the alliteration or memorabilityof Napa know how.
So that only Napa could say Napa. know, how?
Because of their knowledgeable people andbecause of the alliteration of the words
(16:07):
Tom said.
Like the alliteration, you know,Napa know how and like, you know,
you know how that just like,you know, is easy to say,
like kind of runs off the tongue.
And then when Wendell, didyou know, the Napa know how that just
accentuated it even more in between,you know, it's own
little memorable device,you know, from a sound point of view,
you've done, you said, I think, 90different spots for the Aflac duck.
(16:31):
Can you both tell me what's your favorite?
Do you have a favorite?
I have like three favorites.
One is Yogi
One is,
silent movieand the other one was film noir.
Those are my favorite three.
Yeah, I have to agree.
(16:52):
We we shot one and we had a 60 second versionthat was a total
take off of like black and white filmnoir movies
with a damsel in distresswho's who's hurt and she can't work.
And we kind of did it way over the top,
which we tend to do.
She was beauty, brains.
(17:14):
And damp. You have to help me.
I'm afraid I'm going to get hurtand I need cash.
You have that insurance,don't you, sweetheart?
What insurance?
Aflac. There's a rough.
I couldn't remember what it pays youthe dough when you're hurt, miss work.
Come.
Go ask about whatever.
(17:35):
It's called.
Ask about what it's like. AFLAC!
And so, you know,sometimes we we try to find little.
You know,
genres to put the duck in, you know,and then, you know, and then we did
a Christmas spot and, with Rudolphand we worked with the Rudolph people.
We did an animated Aflac spot with,that we worked with Warner Brothers and,
(17:58):
and we had Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and,
Wilee Coyote, in that animated spot.
And we worked closely with,with them as well.
So when we first came up with them,we said, oh,
maybe this campaign will last 2 or 3 yearsif we're lucky.
Even leaving the editors,you know, when we finished
the first three spots,we were in the cab saying,
(18:19):
you think this is going to be good?
You know, you know, you don't know, like,who knows what's going to hit.
But I, I yeah.
And I guess,
I guess the one spot we didn't make,but we tried to was using Ben Affleck
about five years into the campaign,Ben Affleck was on like talk
show saying,that damn duck is driving me crazy.
(18:39):
Like little old ladies in the airportcoming up to me like, Affleck
Affleck Affleck Affleck.
So we actually we actually gota, storyboard into his hands.
And he actually,he actually left me a voicemail on my,
on my
phone saying that duck is driving mecrazy.
So, yeah, maybe we'll look at it.
It never got anywhere. But he didn't.
(19:01):
He didn't need the name recognitionlike Dan Amos did.
That would have been amazing, though, man.
Yes, that would've been hilarious.
Well,thank you both so much for your time.
I really enjoyed this.I hope you guys had a good time too.
Thanks for having us.We'll enjoy this year.
Thanks for having us.
And you said
for the exhaustive history of the Aflac,duck, hey, can't get enough.
(19:25):
Well, I know,
I hope you're enjoying the show.
Don't forget to subscribeon all the major podcast channels, share
with friends, follow and rate.
Spread the word because, well,more people should know about this stuff.
I know you know that. Now.
For any other inquiries, you can find meon LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
(19:47):
Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
All links will be provided in the shownotes.
Let's make this world of soundmore intriguing, more unique, and more
and more on brand.
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing podcast.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham
Owner and founder of Dreamr Productionsand Sound in Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate
brands and individualson the power of sound in marketing.
Now back to the show.
On January 1st, 2000, Americansgot their first glimpse
(00:22):
of a new innovativemarketing campaign for a little known
supplemental insurance companyin Columbus, Georgia.
When a little white duckwith a lot of personality stormed upon
the scene, Aflac made advertising history
and became an international powerhouse.
Since then, the Aflac duck has appearedin more than 75 commercials
and has helped catapult Aflacinto a household name.
(00:45):
We pick up where we left off in partone with Tom, Eric and I talking about
what happened as the years went onwith the duck as a mainstay.
I've also sprinkledlots of fun Aflac commercials throughout.
The whole original assignmentwas for brand awareness.
They wanted people to know the name.
Has that changed through the years?
It's been 20 some years.
(01:06):
Is it more about performance marketingor is it still just awareness and growth,
or are you? Well, we stopped working on it
like 5 or 6 years ago, but as
as the awareness thing,kind of it sort of resolved itself.
Right?
Because the awareness jumpedso precipitously just within a short
(01:27):
amount of time.
So then it was like,oh, I've now I've heard of that.
But but what exactly does that like, do?
And it's not like everybody knowswhat car insurance
and everybody knowswhat homeowner's insurance is.
It's like supplemental insurance.
What's that like?
Oh, does that make it sound like it's
not that necessary,cause it's called supplemental.
(01:49):
So we spent the latter part of the, timewe were working on it,
having to have the duckbe a facilitator for how,
you know,people would learn more about the XYZ
of what kind of policiesthey might have,
but we kind of stuck to our gunswith having the duck only say
(02:09):
one word, which was the quackthat sounded like Aflac.
And we had to dig in on thatbecause there were times when it's like,
can't we have the duck, like, talk andexplain what the benefits of Aflac are?
We kind of like died on the sword.
No- it's got to be germane to whatthe original concept of the idea was.
(02:30):
All the insuranceadvertising at the time was very serious.
And now, you know, nowthere's Flo from progressive who's comedic,
and the StateFarm, campaign is comedic and Allstate
and it's pretty much it'sthey're all comedic.
And it kind of was the duck that usheredin that sort of like, oh,
(02:54):
we could we don't have to take ourselvesso seriously.
We can poke fun at ourselves.
And I'll never forget I'm like,
after we came up with the idea
and I'm not sure of like,we had our commercial running already.
It was not a short time after that.
I mean, a very short time after thatthat I'm
seeing Geico and they have like a geckoas a spokesperson.
(03:18):
And I was like, how lame is that?
It doesn't even like rhyme,with Geico like such,
it's such a stretchbecause of course they’ve been running.
Both of the campaigns are 22 yearold campaigns.
Even insurance companies now, like,Liberty Mutual are trying to come up with
their little characters, their LemuEmu thing, which was their attempt at,
(03:40):
I guess, and being humorousand having kind of like a spokes animal.
But, you know, when we first did thisand like Tom
said, you know, they wanted, you know,how do we get people to know the benefits?
How can we get,you know, we want the duck to talk.
But but we were very strict.
We had guidelines of what the duckcould do and could not do.
You know,through just the way he would act
(04:02):
and the way he would present himselfor the way he would say Aflac or the way
you'd see him getting frustrated,that was the way he'd communicate.
And I think
because a lot of people, you know,
don't get heard and get don't get heard
and get frustrated and have to figure outways of getting through to people.
(04:23):
I think they relate to the duckon that level because, you know, here
the duck is giving them the answerand they're not listening.
Very determined.
We were not going to have a talking animalbecause we thought
that would just ruinthe whole mystique of the duck.
And, you know, it's the duck that quacks the
name of the company.
That's it.
The other thing that wewe tried to achieve was tap into this sort
(04:47):
of universal belief that, you know, no,nobody likes not to be heard.
Right.
And basically, this is a duckgoing around saying, look at me
like I am the answer to a big problem.
you could be having. Hey, over here.
This idea of having like a persnickety
sort of not listen to duck, sort of,I think, tapped
(05:10):
into or hita nerve that helped its popularity.
And, and the other ingredient that helpedthat along to that end is that we casted,
Gilbert Gottfried, who
mostly at the time was a standup comedian.
He had been the voice of the parrot
in the Aladdin movie,but he basically was a kind of,
(05:35):
you know, filthybut very funny stand up comic.
And goodness knows,
if theclient ever, like, saw his standup act,
they would have never okayed him,okayed him for The voice.
But when we came up with the idea,I'm like,
oh my God, we have to get GilbertGottfried and it turned out
(05:55):
we both grew up one neighborhoodover in Brooklyn.
I had seen him performingsince he was a kid.
We did think that Gilbert would be perfectbecause he was loud and annoying
and sort of like thatwas the part of the ducks personality.
So instead,
rather than just give him the job
(06:15):
and we wanted to do our due diligence,especially for the client.
We auditionedlike we auditioned like 2000 people,
including celebritieslike Penny Marshall and Dan Castellaneta,
who is the voice of many of The Simpsonsvoices.
We brought in voices from South Park.
And after doing all that, nobody could sort of deliver it,
(06:40):
what whatneeded to be delivered by Gilbert,
which was to be funny,to be shy, to be loud, to be rude.
We would direct himevery time we shot new commercials.
We bring him into the studioand direct him.
Say this way, say it like you're drunk.
Say it like you are crying.
Say like you're really even.
(07:01):
Extra annoyed.When we did the roller coaster spot
where he's on a roller coasterand he gets off the roller coaster
and the duck is like, okay, Gilbert,sound like you're about to throw up.
Relax.
We got supplemental insurance.
What are you talking about?
Aflac! Nobody’d get injured in this work.
(07:25):
I think I was paying other expenseswith this,
with what.
Plus they pay you cash.
Great huh?Who does? Aflac! Aflac, ask about it at work.
Oh, yeah.
We did a
synchronized swimming spotin which he had to say Aflac under water.
(07:47):
So we had him, you know, with.
We gave him a bottle of Spring water in the booth,
and he he basically gargledthe word Aflac.
You know, some people don't thinkwhat we do is a sport that's just.
You can't get hurt doing it.
Otherwise,I'm not sure what insurance. Aflac!
(08:10):
What?
Come again?. The one that pays you cash.
Oh, yeah.
If you're hurt and can't work.
Yeah, it's.
What?
Aflac.
Ask about it at work.
And he was, like, nonstop in the booth,gargling with
the water was getting all over himand everything like that.
(08:31):
But we would keep having to hit the stop.
You know, the talkbutton stop stops. Stop.
Because he’s just so funny.
He just would just go on and on and onand we got it Gilbert we got it.
And now here's the next thingyou need to do
by casting Gilbert, because I'm familiarwith Gilbert Gottfried.
Also, it gives you even more reasonother than your others to just
(08:52):
have him say one thingbecause, yeah, then you're safer and like,
you know, networktelevision commercials and campaigns.
You've got it.
You know, his one word that you just
why do you think people connectso much to the duck?
Is it just because it, like, joltsyou out and surprises you?
Like, why is a duck yelling at me?
(09:12):
Or is there something else to itthat makes it more personable?
What would your opinion be?
I think part of it also was that
people thought the duck was real.
People thought that the duck was like,how are they getting the duck
to do all these things?
How do they get the duck to talklike that?
I had a friend who was, I forgethow old he was
(09:36):
when the When the Duck debutedlike five, 5 or 6 years old and was like,
oh my God,they trained the duck how to say Aflac.
So there was,even though it was partially alive
partially a puppet, and partially a CG duck,
depending on what we needed,the duck to do, there was this thing
that he became humanized somewhatby actually saying kind of a real word.
(10:02):
And then I think this personality
sort of trait that that he had,
that's sort of like, you know, empathy,
you felt empathy for him because, like,he's trying to get this message through.
Right?
And and no one's listening.
And, and I think people relate to that.
And, and, you know, just
(10:22):
the more he was frustrated,I think the more people related to it.
Somebody told me kids or people would useAflac, sort of like shorthand
for like kind of yelling at their friendsor at more being frustrated.
Rob and the accounts personwho didn't want us to even show the duck.
I'll never forget she wasshe was in Italy online
(10:44):
like a very long lineto see, like to get into the Vatican.
And someone in the back of the line was
pissed off and just started saying Aflaclike randomly
to give voice to her frustrationof not getting in to see the Pope.
How does the creative come?
Do you come up with the copyright first,
you come up with the A sloganis there music that you have?
(11:07):
Like maybe playing in the backgroundwhile you're thinking, you know,
do you go to lunch at one of our offices?
Used to be, right outside Bryant Park.
So we would just go sit in BryantPark and work
and, you know,we were, you know, very observant.
And we looked at people going backand forth and seeing what they're doing.
And we would just get ideas being out.
(11:29):
You know, we got more ideas being outsideand just, you know,
seeing things that caught our eyethat might inspire an idea.
We also used to work a lot in Starbucksand Starbucks used to be all plush
with couches and stufflike that back in the, back in the day.
And if you remember, Tom you saw thatguy, he had a pet pig.
This guy was dressed, he had a bow tie on,
(11:51):
and he just was dressed like a character,and he was walking a pet pig
in front of Starbucks on the streetand said,
I wonderif we could do something with that?
But we were always out morethen in the office, coming up with ideas.
And then music wise, if a particularpiece of music fit, like we did
(12:12):
this part called Silent Movie,which was kind of in and the antithesis
to what we're talking about, sound like,how do you do a silent one with a duck?
That says AFlac?
We did the classical, you know,(Silent Movie Music in background)
piano,you know, silent movie music and stuff (Silent Movie Music in background)
like that. And.(Silent Movie Music in background)
(12:33):
But I don't think musicis really a driver.
I think we did a number of celebritiesin our spots, but
the celebrities were always relatedto a way of getting our message across,
like when we did the spot with Yogi Berra,
you know, because he always hasa unique way of saying things.
So we thought he'd be a great personto work with.
Signal. Right?
(12:54):
Not too close. What do you think?
I got that insurance.
What insurance is that Yogi?
Aflac. The one you really needto have if you don't have it?
That's why you need it.
Need what?
Aflac. Well, if you get hurt and miss work,it won't hurt to miss work,
And they give you
(13:14):
cash, which is just as good as money.
He didn't grow Aflac.
Ask about it at work.
I mean, when we sit down to work, it's
sort of like it starts with, like,what's the idea?
What? Let's come up with the good idea.
Maybe it's a songthat is relatable to the product.
(13:35):
Maybe it's a mnemonic.
The other kind of big campaignthat Eric and I did
that still on the air is, Napa Auto Parts.
For that, we came up with the linefirst Napa Knowhow,
which grew out of a truthabout their brand that unlike AutoZone
(13:56):
and O'Reilly'sand other auto sort of repair places,
Napa actually hired mechanicsto be in the front of their store.
And so there were knowledgeablesalespeople and not like some kid
who was working at Walmartor Target the week before.
And now it's the front of the storelike an auto zone.
(14:18):
Cardiology.
I don't have the heart. Pulmonary doctor
No cigar.
I can't diagnose a simple cold or flu.
But if you.
engines got a call, I know what to do.
Give it six of theseand wash it down with this.
A new air filter.
All to help it catch its breath.
(14:40):
Napa know how.
No no no no no.
Napa Know How
how to make sure that Napa know how.
Aside from the alliterationof all the ends seeded in people's heads,
we did come up with a songand we hired a southern band.
I forget the name of the bandRascal Flatts.
(15:02):
Yes. Yeah.
Thank you.
So. And he came up with this songand then.
No, no, no.
Napa. know how? Napa know how.
So when that broke, it also like, you kindof couldn't get it out of your head.
And the other thing, you know, I'd saythat is unique to those campaigns.
And what we've kind of set out to dois that only,
(15:25):
only Aflac could have had a duck
quacking the name of the companythat sounded like a quack.
So it turned out that eventually,ultimately, you couldn't
ever separate out the duck from Aflacor Aflac from the duck.
They became so entwined that wheneveryou saw a duck, you'd think Aflac.
(15:45):
And whenever you sawAflac you think of the duck.
And similarly, you know, AutoZoneknow how it doesn't quite
have the fit,
the alliteration or memorabilityof Napa know how.
So that only Napa could say Napa. know, how?
Because of their knowledgeable people andbecause of the alliteration of the words
(16:07):
Tom said.
Like the alliteration, you know,Napa know how and like, you know,
you know how that just like,you know, is easy to say,
like kind of runs off the tongue.
And then when Wendell, didyou know, the Napa know how that just
accentuated it even more in between,you know, it's own
little memorable device,you know, from a sound point of view,
you've done, you said, I think, 90different spots for the Aflac duck.
(16:31):
Can you both tell me what's your favorite?
Do you have a favorite?
I have like three favorites.
One is Yogi
One is,
silent movieand the other one was film noir.
Those are my favorite three.
Yeah, I have to agree.
(16:52):
We we shot one and we had a 60 second versionthat was a total
take off of like black and white filmnoir movies
with a damsel in distresswho's who's hurt and she can't work.
And we kind of did it way over the top,
which we tend to do.
She was beauty, brains.
(17:14):
And damp. You have to help me.
I'm afraid I'm going to get hurtand I need cash.
You have that insurance,don't you, sweetheart?
What insurance?
Aflac. There's a rough.
I couldn't remember what it pays youthe dough when you're hurt, miss work.
Come.
Go ask about whatever.
(17:35):
It's called.
Ask about what it's like. AFLAC!
And so, you know,sometimes we we try to find little.
You know,
genres to put the duck in, you know,and then, you know, and then we did
a Christmas spot and, with Rudolphand we worked with the Rudolph people.
We did an animated Aflac spot with,that we worked with Warner Brothers and,
(17:58):
and we had Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and,
Wilee Coyote, in that animated spot.
And we worked closely with,with them as well.
So when we first came up with them,we said, oh,
maybe this campaign will last 2 or 3 yearsif we're lucky.
Even leaving the editors,you know, when we finished
the first three spots,we were in the cab saying,
(18:19):
you think this is going to be good?
You know, you know, you don't know, like,who knows what's going to hit.
But I, I yeah.
And I guess,
I guess the one spot we didn't make,but we tried to was using Ben Affleck
about five years into the campaign,Ben Affleck was on like talk
show saying,that damn duck is driving me crazy.
(18:39):
Like little old ladies in the airportcoming up to me like, Affleck
Affleck Affleck Affleck.
So we actually we actually gota, storyboard into his hands.
And he actually,he actually left me a voicemail on my,
on my
phone saying that duck is driving mecrazy.
So, yeah, maybe we'll look at it.
It never got anywhere. But he didn't.
(19:01):
He didn't need the name recognitionlike Dan Amos did.
That would have been amazing, though, man.
Yes, that would've been hilarious.
Well,thank you both so much for your time.
I really enjoyed this.I hope you guys had a good time too.
Thanks for having us.We'll enjoy this year.
Thanks for having us.
And you said
for the exhaustive history of the Aflac,duck, hey, can't get enough.
(19:25):
Well, I know,
I hope you're enjoying the show.
Don't forget to subscribeon all the major podcast channels, share
with friends, follow and rate.
Spread the word because, well,more people should know about this stuff.
I know you know that. Now.
For any other inquiries, you can find meon LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
(19:47):
Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
All links will be provided in the shownotes.
Let's make this world of soundmore intriguing, more unique, and more
and more on brand.
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