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Deirdre Czarina Emeritus

Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 13023 Location: Camp Cooper
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:37 pm Post subject: Copy: putting our foot down |
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This is part of an ad campaign for a large hotel's "family package" for February vacation week in Boston.
Quote: | Have lunch, dinner or brunch at [restaurant name], Boston's best seafood restaurant! Once the kids are asleep in [hotel name]'s heavenly bed, Mom and Dad can relax at the hotel's hip [name of bar], serving cocktails, martinis, and light [ethnic] fare. |
This is how it came to us to produce and while we usually gloss over the eggregiously stupid Unique Selling Points of most of the ads we get (and fix grammar on the fly) we balked at this.
Can you imagine this? "Once the kids are in bed, go the the hotel bar!!"
What— each room comes with a staff member to babysit?
We just stopped recording this piece until we could get a change.
Luckly, the person in charge of this promotion was easy to convince, and we ended up with
Quote: | Have lunch, dinner or brunch at [restaurant name], Boston's best seafood restaurant! Relax at the hotel's hip [name of bar], serving cocktails, martinis, and light [ethnic] fare. |
Thank goodness.
edited for clarity about "stopping a session" _________________ DBCooperVO.com
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Last edited by Deirdre on Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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richgates Guest
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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I can't say much more than yikes! What would you have done had they refused to budge? I am curious what Voice Over people tend to do when presented with a gig that somehow goes outside their principles. |
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Deirdre Czarina Emeritus

Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 13023 Location: Camp Cooper
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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I'd have had my production guy talk to the head of sales-- just escalate the danged thing. _________________ DBCooperVO.com
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Dave Lucky 700

Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 727 Location: Houston, Texas
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:34 pm Post subject: |
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richgates wrote: | I am curious what Voice Over people tend to do when presented with a gig that somehow goes outside their principles. |
(1) I point out the reference and ask if they meant to "say it that way...as it comes across as.... (?)....to me" About 98% of the time they make the needed changes (thankfully).
(2) The other 2% of the time, if it remains as written and I have an "ethical crisis" I simply tell them so and don't do it.
All I have is my reputation and I'm stick'n to it!
Dave _________________ . If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you. |
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todd ellis A Zillion

Joined: 02 Jan 2007 Posts: 10531 Location: little egypt
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | What— each room comes with a staff member to babysit? |
Room's got a TV ain't it? Dadgum, the bar is "hip" and it's got "ethnic" food! They 'prolly got HBO and everythin'! _________________ "i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?
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donrandall Guest
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:28 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, why not just tell the folks to leave the kids in the car and take the money they save and blow it in the bar?
By the way, not an ethics kinda thing, just bad grammar in a national spot: Lincoln - Mercury has one running in rotation that starts out "How is the tires on your car?" |
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simonru Guest
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:07 am Post subject: Voice Overs with Principles |
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Mmmmmm. So I'm producing a session with a hired Voice and suddenly they are picking over the words. The client has already made a dozen changes and there's a problem with "leaving the kids in the room while you go to the bar."
Suddenly my list of "preffered voices" reduced to the tune of 1.
I phone the hotel after the session and they confirm that they have a "nanny service" of an open radio link to the room... like a baby radio.
I now have to rebook the session with a voice that will read the **** words on the page. I don't need this extra stress in my life.
Does the ad say "Go down and Get Drunk like irresponsible parents"? No, I've checked it.... AND CLEARED IT!
I go home, kick the dog and shout at the wife, who packs her bags and goes to stay with her sister. |
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tway12 Guest
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:36 am Post subject: You saved their ^#%$!! |
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Hey DB,
Frankly, you saved them from a P.R. nightmare. Their competition would have jumped all over it, some family would have actually done it, something bad would have happened and at the end of it all congress would have convened a special panel to get to the bottom of it. The president might have even referred to the client as, "Evil Do-ers." |
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Deirdre Czarina Emeritus

Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 13023 Location: Camp Cooper
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:43 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | Mmmmmm. So I'm producing a session with a hired Voice and suddenly they are picking over the words. The client has already made a dozen changes and there's a problem with "leaving the kids in the room while you go to the bar."
Suddenly my list of "preffered voices" reduced to the tune of 1. |
Were this a "hired voice" episode at an audio studio, I would guess that the copy would have been vetted differently.
I'm a hired gun (staff announcer) for the radio station doing the promotion with this hotel, so we lost no time, nor caused any real inconvenience other than trying to push the Ad Exec and sales manager into doing their jobs a tiny bit better.
While we waited for a rewrite, we continued recording the stack of spots we usually have every day.
And thank you, Tway. We do think we helped the client save face. _________________ DBCooperVO.com
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BenWils The Thirteenth Floor

Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 1324 Location: In a Flyover State
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject: |
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Victory over de feet!! Good work! _________________ Ben
"To be really good at voiceover, you need to improve your footwork and hip snap." |
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Deirdre Czarina Emeritus

Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 13023 Location: Camp Cooper
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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Heh.
I love you, Ben. _________________ DBCooperVO.com
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Yoda117 M&M

Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 2362 Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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donrandall wrote: | Hey, why not just tell the folks to leave the kids in the car and take the money they save and blow it in the bar?
By the way, not an ethics kinda thing, just bad grammar in a national spot: Lincoln - Mercury has one running in rotation that starts out "How is the tires on your car?" |
WTH, Don. Why aren't the kids at the bar with mom and dad? After all their parents have done for them, those ungrateful kids ought to be buying a round or two for their dear folks.
I had one for "increasing the number of words you can read by 10,000%. In the time it takes your friends to read one book, you can read 10."
Despite explaining the math, client wanted it that so, and as such it was done. _________________ Voiceovers by Gregory Houser
Philadelphia based Voice Actor
Blog - A man, a martini, and a lot of microphones |
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ConnieTerwilliger Triple G

Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 3381 Location: San Diego - serving the world
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:43 pm Post subject: |
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Welcome Simon,
Points taken. But on some copy there is a point at which some discussion should be had. (That's a sentence!)
My line in the sand came several years ago when I got a last minute call from my agent asking if I could zoom over to a radio station to do a quick spot. I had been there the day before doing some car spots, so I didn't think much of the call and had the time to get over there right away.
So I am met in the parking lot by the producer who thrusts the copy through the car window before I even had a chance to put on the parking brake. I'm reading the copy on the way up the walk and by the time I get to the door, I stop and tell them that I can't do the spot.
It was for a local mayoral race that had grown very ugly and I simply was not comfortable saying those kind of things about the opponent - any opponent! Pure mud slinging garbage. The client went sort of nuts - "You'll never work in this town again," kind of bull. I said, sorry and went back to my car.
As I was pulling out of the drive, the engineer for the session was pulling back in, he had gone out to get a bite to eat. He called out to me, "Connie where are you going!?" I told him that I couldn't do the spot. His reply? "Oh, you're the second person." That was the reason for the last minute call. Heard the spot the next day done by the receptionist at the radio station.
More recently, I did a political spot for a client on the other side of the country that was pretty benign. We chatted about the potential for mud-slinging spots and that I had had a bad experience once. He said that they loved my voice and wanted me to do another, warning me that it was a bit more edgy. I said as long as it wasn't a "liar, liar, pants on fire" spot, I could probably do it.
I could hear him laugh...the spot in fact used those very words. I actually did the spot - mostly because the client was on the other side of the country in a market where my voice isn't saturated, but also because the tone was a lot lighter and despite using those words, wasn't in the same mean spirited nasty vein. _________________ Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger |
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Deirdre Czarina Emeritus

Joined: 10 Nov 2004 Posts: 13023 Location: Camp Cooper
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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For the sake of further clarity-- it was the producer who took the offending copy to the Sales department. HE hated it worse than I did. _________________ DBCooperVO.com
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DaveChristi King's Row

Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 1033 Location: Bend, OR
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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Deirdre wrote: | For the sake of further clarity-- it was the producer who took the offending copy to the Sales department. HE hated it worse than I did. |
As a writer/producer, I'm always open to suggestions. Bob Souer was a great help with one line in the recent Pahlisch Homes spot that he voiced for me. _________________ Dave "Christi" Felton
The Character Voice Actor |
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