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The Inside Story
The Making of the "Mosquito" Commercial
By Galen J. Greenwood
Writer, Creative Director
DDB Needham Advertising, Dallas, TX
"Well, here's what I can tell you about the development of the TABASCO® "Mosquito" spot, which is properly titled 'Burn Out'. We started with a new strategy encouraging heavy use by Gen Xers. Tom Moudry, the art director and I sat down to concept, and, if memory serves, this idea came to us shortly after Tom had returned from a mosquito-infested weekend in Minnesota. Plus, Tom had an image of a mosquito on his desk from a GTE/Scientific American print ad. We both spied it, and said something like "What if somebody loaded up on TABASCO® sauce, got bit by a mosquito, and the mosquito blew up." Tom then drew a storyboard which remained pretty much the commercial we produced. As for words, what more could I say?
"Originally, the main character was dousing cheese and cracker snacks. But we decided to push TABASCO® use on pizza. The challenge was making sure the pepper sauce would show up well, even against the tomato sauce background of a piece of pizza.
"We probably developed another 20 ideas, and storyboarded about 10, but this was the spot that really excited everyone.
"Despite our high hopes, we were turned down by a number of good directors who either wouldn't do it for the money or who weren't thrilled by the concept. Finally, Dick Buckley of Squeak Films took the job and to his credit, worked like a maniac to make it great.
Casting was a very entertaining process as virtually all the actors professed an unnatural love of TABASCO® sauce. More than a couple of ex-child actors auditioned, including the older brother from The Wonder Years, and the super-geeky guy who appeared in the classic Little Caesar's "Pterodactyl" commercial.
"Incidentally, no mosquitos were harmed during the production of this commercial. We ended up recycling the same mosquito from a GTE print ad, but it had to be reconstructed so its legs could move for the shoot. (We used the same animal model company that makes Salem the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.)
"Because all the sets in LA were busy, we had to shoot in Valencia, CA, next to the set of Melrose Place. Unfortunately, we never did get to see Heather Locklear.
"Originally, we'd planned on using the song "Love Hurts" as background music. Collectively, we decided the commercial would get more attention with sound effects alone. Other creative credits go to Jim Ferguson our Chief Creative Officer, who helped push the commercial through, and editor Michael Vanderkammer at PostOp in Dallas.
The spot has done everything we could have asked of it. From our ad peers, we’ve received many awards, and the spot has ranked as an overall favorite commercial among tv viewers.
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