It has happened again. For the 3,957th time.
An idea we pitched in August of 1997, and ditched in August 1997, on the same day, in the same hour, in the same meeting, has reared its fanciful head in 2022, only 25 years later.
Let me rewind the machine in my own head that faithfully keeps track of every idea slaughter in my career, particularly when the executioner was some high level management schmuck who rode the Peter Principle to undeserved heights.
While at Chiat/Day (Happy? Paul MacFarlane?) we had been invited to pitch the Charles Schwab account. A huge potential client that had always spent a boatload of money on TV. They still do. With dismally boring hamfisted commercials, but that's besides the point.
One of the young teams working in our group, Bill Hornstein and the human idea machine, Mikey Collado, came to John Shirley and I with a unique campaign idea.
In short it featured the actual Charles Schwab returning home from a speaking engagement. Sadly he gets in a car accident. But through the miracle of science, emergency medical technicians are able to salvage his head and keep it on life support. His disembodied head was after all the vessel in which all the Charles Schwab financial wisdom was stored.
In subsequent commercials, Charles Schwab would dispense vital information to young couples, early retirees, and people in their twenties who need to set up the 401k plans. It was the classic Talking Head campaign, only in our case, our "Disruptive Case" if I may borrow some proprietary Chiat/Day vernacular, the CEO's noggin was disembodied from his torso.
Strategically, it checked off all the boxes.
It was brand specific.
It featured the CEO.
It gave us a simple platform to discuss complicated financial issues.
But the team, driven more by fear than by ambition, took issue with decapitation. What's wrong with decapitation?
Fast Forward to 2022, when a nation can ignore the murder of 19 schoolchildren and a former president can blurt out, "Maybe they should have hanged Mike Pence."
Now witness the return of the Disembodied Head pimping Fruit Smash Super Hard Seltzer. You can see the spot here.
It's fun, engaging, and has a beat you can dance too. I like it.
But I can't help but think it would've been better in 1997. If for no other reason than to hear a director shout out,
"Lighting is in place, actors take your mark. And Bring me the Head of Charles Schwab."
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