Revisiting the Velvet Bowels of Advertising Part 1: "Bud´s Dance"

Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Neighbors, Boys and Girls...

I have been going though the vast vaults of the Robin Willis Memorial Commercial archives located in Crawford, Texas just down the road from Jorge´s rancho, right next to an abandoned "Hot and Now" drive thru.

So let us begin at the beginning. Well at least the part where there is some hope of upward movement... before that it was just too sad as I desperately tried to convince the world to love me.

Speaking of desperation I had pretty much given up hope of the above happening and had gone back to school to finish my degree. 10 years or so previously I had majored in "Incomplete" at the hallowed halls of Portland State University. I was digging my new life as an older student at Marylhurst College, dominating discussions in class, calling up the professors to have my grades changed to A´s. Burning though 120 credit hours in 3 semesters though a cunning combination of professorial brow beating, testing and writing. Call me Robin College, I got a 4 point!

Anyway my friend and fellow director Todd Korgan called me up and asked if I wanted to direct a couple spots for the Portland Creative Conference. They had... wait for it, 500 bucks for both epics. Being nuts I said yes... under the conditions that I would write it, shoot it, cut it and would be left totally alone to twist slowly, slowly in the wind. Todd said he was hoping I would say that.

So I asked my next door neighbor, retired math teacher "Bud" Eugene Boughton if he would be so kind to star in these productions. He agreed and with the help of a water glass full of scotch delivered a stunning performance.

The spot was a big hit and went on to win many awards including "The Rosey"... which was and is Portland Advertising Federations big award. This might not sound like much but the fact is that Wieden and Kennedy, "the most groovy advertising agency in the world" also resided in my home town and had traditionally gobbled up everything. But this spot, which cost $250 dollars... that´s right 250 bucks, won one. Hurrah for the little man! Hurrah for being an ego maniac! Hurrah for moi!

Anyway things got strange after this. People from big, big agencies located in big, big cities would call ¨the office", my cubby hole over the bedroom looking for "Robin Willis´" reel. I would disguise voice to sound like a a high powered "executive producer" kind of guy and say off handedly that I´d see what we could do... And what we (me) could do was... panic.

In the future I shall be dusting off more of these icons of modern comedic advertising. Forgive me.