Good night, Mr. Crawford

Heard through the advertising grapevine that one of my advertising colleagues has just passed away. Not sure if colleague is the correct word. He was a director/radio pioneer/and provocateur and we hired him to direct a campaign for the Nissan Dealers of Southern California. 

Way back in the last century. When I had hair. And not in my ears.

Unless you're older than me or a longtime resident of the San Francisco area, chances are you've never heard of John Crawford. And chances are you never will. My understanding is he was a very private individual. His digital footprint is non existent. I know, I looked.

He came to my attention back in 1991. He was Billy on the Street long before Billy Eichner was a glint in father's oysters. John was a great improvisor. And would turn regular pedestrian interviews into comedy gold.

We brought John and his run-and-gun crew of videographers (that's right, we shot the whole campaign about 6-8 spots on Beta) to interview business owners in Southern California who might be suffering the adverse effects of the Big Nissan Sales Event, that we posited was drawing millions of people to the dealerships. 

It was winter -- you know, as winter goes in SoCal -- and we went to an ice cream store.

John: "Seems kind of slow in here, how are sales?"

Pimply Faced Ice Cream Scooper: "Uh, not good."

John: "Could be every body is visiting a Nissan dealer. With $1500 cash back on a new Maxima, can you blame them?"

Scooper: "Uh, Ok, yeah."

It may not seem so funny on paper, but the authentic responses and the cutaways to the running footage of the cars, made for some award winning work. OK, they were Belding awards, but so what.

The best of the bunch involved a guy who was selling his used car from a lot in Venice Beach. We lingered on the For Sale sign in the window and called him on the phone.

"Hi, I'm interested in your 1973 Buick Riviera. Is it still for sale?"

"Dude, it's been for sale for three months."

"No one's biting huh?"

"I suppose if it had a backseat they might."

"Could also be because Nissan is having a huge sale. Air conditioning is standard on the Sentra. Does your car have air conditioning?"

"If you open the windows. The passenger side window is kinda stuck."

We had hours and hours of this hilarious happy hands-at-home kind of footage. And John, being the consummate pro, helped us pick out the best pieces and shorten time (for 30 seconds spots) with some clever intercutting. This was all when advertising was fun.

In the end we had Dealer spots unlike anything, anywhere. 

In your face Jan (Toyotathon). 

Thank you John. And Rest in Peace.