1993 I was hired to create and run a music video television network to be streamed exclusively to Hard Rock Cafes around the world. By 1994 the network was up and running, but I felt that there had to be promos and IDs that proved to the viewer that HRCTV programming was unique to the Hard Rock Cafe audience. Steve Routhier was VP of Memorabilia, second in command of corporate, and my boss. He didn’t like the idea of corporate promos or “commercials” so he said, “give me anti-commercials,” and that was all I had. So, I created a series of odd sketches that ended with a HRC logo. They were fun to watch and defiantly not a commercial. I created two seasons of anti-commercial commercials with the thought of bringing in Rock stars for the next season. But, sadly there was never a third season of anti-commercial commercials.
It seems that I had fans of my anti-commercial commercials. The heads of promotions for MTV and ESPN often dined at HRC in NYC and were enjoying what I had created and copied the style. Before I knew it, I was watching my new genre of anti-commercial commercials on other networks! MTV in particular liked the style to the point where MTV re-produced one of my promos word-for-word and shot-for-shot. The anti-commercial commercials continued with MTV for a few years, but ESPN kept it going with SportCenter for 20 years before they finally retired the genre.
What you see here are the original anti-commercial commercials. Some are strange. Some are dated. Many still make me laugh over 25-years later.
The 1994 campaign won GOLD at the Charleston International Film Festival. The 1995 campaign won a national Addy award (Advertising agency awards), GOLD at the Houston International Film Festival and GOLD at the Charleston International Film Festival. They also won a SILVER award at the 1996 Houston International Film Festival.
On a technical note. I hope to give these anti-commercial commercials a new transfer soon. Until then, please enjoy the best quality I can currently offer of these historic mid-90s promos.
1996 Hard Rock Cafe Memorabilia Tour
If you like the music memorabilia in Hard Rock Cafes, you’ll go nuts over what’s in the HRC memorabilia warehouse! Watching this film today, is still exciting to experience this peek inside HRC’s amazing archive! Steve Routhier was the VP of Memorabilia and is the host of this tour through HRC's historic Rock properties.
1994-1995 Generic Promos (12 promos)
A series of fun, retro, arty and generally silly quick HRC promos. Of note, the girl getting the tattoo (it's not a real tattoo) was my daughter’s nanny. And the girl drawing the HRC logo is my daughter Mary. My favorite promo is the little lost Bear - a tip of the hat to Sergei Eisenstein.
1994-1995 Lenny Lee (5 Promos)
Creating sketches and developing characters with fractured storylines offering hints of something that might be bigger, was the premise of anti-commerical commercials. Shane Caldwell came up with a brilliant collection of oddball characters, with Lenny Lee being my favorite. He not only made fun of the music business but also offers some true insider info. I really wanted to expand the Lenny Lee character Shane had created. It started as a one-off that I tried nudging along as samples for a possible mocumentary. The schizophrenia that Shane and I created was so well received in Los Angeles that the intercutting style of reality (in color) and crazy (in black and white) was later used in a major motion picture with Bill Pullman or Bill Paxton (I always get them confused). Lenny's rant about Carole King happened to air while Carole King was dining at the HRC in London. I'm told she took it well and howled over Lenny's story.
1994 Webb Wilder (7 Promos)
There are two different types of promos here. One is in color. These were to be examples of something fun for other Rock stars to do for season three of promos (sadly, season three never happened). The other is in black and white. I had pitched a comic Film Noir television series to HRC to back and they were up for it! So, as a sample of what could be done, these anti-commercial commercials were made. Unfortunately, a few months later, when all of the final pitch material for the television series was ready, HRC changed CEOs and the new CEO wasn't interested. ::sigh:: So, here's a fun glimpse of a small bit of what might have been.
1994-1995 Troy Duke (4 Promos)
Shane Caldwell brings us another one of his brilliant characters, farmer Troy Duke, who has an opinion on everything. These redneck rants were considered cute, ridiculous and funny in the 1990s. 25 years later, they're a little too close to real (right down to the red ball cap), although still funny. Troy's rant on Music Videos was the most popular of this collection.
1994 Thelma's Salon (5 Promos)
The joke was, what will vibrant middle-aged 1960s Teenyboppers and Hippies of the mid-1990s look and sound like as Senior Citizens 25 years later. Well, that fictional date passed by in 2019 and those Teenyboppers and Hippies sure do look and sound exactly like they do in these videos. And their crazy reminiscences are still funny today. These spots were so popular that MTV recreated "Don't Take The Brown Acid," shot for shot, word for word, to promote their own network. I guess the highest form of flattery is being ripped off. Strangely, "Revolution" has become relevant in 2020s political climate. And "Metallica" is a conversation I overheard not long ago from a couple of seniors. Who knew I could predict the future so well! BTW - These are real ladies who frequented the real Thelma's Salon. I would tell them each a story to repeat in their own words and then make sure they ended the conversation with my punchline. These ladies were sweet, wonderful and could take direction!!
1994 Pastor Lawrence Fecalson (2 Promos)
What's the best way to make fun of Rock music? Have a preacher scream about it! Shane Caldwell offers a spot-on character with Pastor Lawrence Fecalson. There were only two of these made. I wish I had made more! I was told at the time that the Hard Rock Cafes in Japan would play the "Pagan Idol" promo as the last thing before they closed for the night. People would stop what they were doing to watch Shane yelling at the little Hard Rock Bear and then run over to the HRC gift shop and buy the HRC Bear! They were constantly selling out thanks to this wild little spot.
1995 Paranoid Guy (4 Promos)
Well before crazy conspiracy theories became mainstream, Shane Caldwell brought us the very intense Paranoid Guy. The concept is that he's a guy who is so self-sequestered and who talks to a camera, rather than dealing with real people. Who knew that 25 years later, Shane would predict what would be YouTube rants! Paranoid Guy's diatribes are funny, but these days, scarily on point. Note: Paranoid Guy was meant as a joke. Please don't quote him as fact.
1994-1995 Nosmo King (8 Promos)
Shane Caldwell brings us his overnight R&B DJ, Nosmo King. This character is based on the overnight DJ's from Nashville's 1950s R&B radio station, WLAC. DJ's John R, Hoss Allen and Gene Nobles were white guys playing and promoting black music way ahead of their time. Shane's character is a nod to those historic DJ's. Listen carefully to the names of the records and the local companies who sponsor Nosmo's fictional retro radio show.
1995 HRC Animated IDs
It's the best graphic animation we could make in the mid 1990s. They were fun to create and still fun to watch today. As for the music - I was a big fan of Bill Lloyd's Power Pop LPs. He used to add little music bits in-between songs, and so I hired him to deliver a bunch or mini tracks I could animate. All of the music you hear on these IDs are just one guy, the very talented Bill Lloyd.