The Escape Pod couldn’t be happier to announce the launch of the new 2012 Toys R Us holiday campaign.
This was a lot of fun to do. If you can’t have fun with toys, something is wrong with you.
It’s like being appointed Santa’s agent.
It’s a big responsibility.
Our thinking was this: to a kid (and to a lesser extent parents) the new toys are the biggest news of the year.
So let’s treat it like that. And let’s not expend an ounce of energy reminding people that it’s Christmas, or explaining what Toys R Us does. Everybody already knows all this. And the one thing we can be sure of is the airwaves will be filled with Santas and Reindeer selling everything from cars to soft drinks.
Also, the demand for what we’re selling is pent up. We just need channel it our way.
So let’s get on with the show, was our thinking.
The amazing director Jon Watts once again decided to spend time with us on this one.
This was the third time we have worked with Jon. He is a great problem spotter and a great problem solver. That’s very rare. I strongly suspect that his film career will shortly put him beyond our reach. Use him while you still can!
And a shout out to our compadres at ZOIC studio for helping us mold what was a very intricate mix of animation and performance and graphics and music.
We shot more than 70 spots in English and in Spanish over 5 shoot days.
We got really lucky with the casting, as you have to. And we did.
American readers over the age of 30 will be ultra-familiar with the famous Toys R Us jingle from the 80s. it was a real earworm, insanely hooky and memorable.
Well guess who has never heard of this jingle? This generation’s 10-12 year old kids.
None of the hundreds of kids we auditioned for these spots had heard of it. But all their parents know it by heart.
So we shot this video to rectify this abomination and bring the generations closer together. United by the Toys R Us jingle.
A :60 version of this will run later on TV.
(the suggestion to ask the kids to sing the jingle in casting came from our client btw)
