Most of our radio advertising clients have a “general” commercial handy. What makes a commercial “general” is that it can play any day of the year and not sound out-of-date. It’s a good thing to have handy during those little pockets of time when there isn’t a specific sale, event or promotion to advertise.
Our friends at Redman’s Shoes have been using the same general ad for quite a while. so I wrote two new ones for them. The first of these is now done and ready to roll.
The fun thing about doing radio in a small town is that there’s a shorthand you have on your side going in. Dave Pearse, alias Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, has for decades been the name and face of Redman’s Shoes, and that gives us the chance to have some fun with him.
Dave’s account executive, Mamacita, and I presented the script to Dave at his store a couple of weeks back. He had a couple of good notes, one of which was to use the name of an actual teacher of his. The teacher is voiced by the fantabulous Tammy Q. Griffee. The female voice towards the end is Trish Johnston, who works with Dave at Redman’s.
General spots are a great chance to do something fun, because the goal is just to keep the client and their product or service in the minds of potential customers. The demands are greater, detail-wise, for a commercial advertising a sale or similar limited time event. You can still have fun with those but it’s a trickier equation.