We DON'T apologise for getting this ad stuck in your head!

When The Blockage Doctor approached us to produce a TV commercial with the brief that they needed something memorable, we put our creative hats on and got to thinking. Our resulting pitch, a rap style music video parody with a tune you just won't be able to get out of your head.

It was important to the client that when their customers are in desperate need for a plumber, The Blockage Doctor would be top of mind. We looked at what competitor companies were doing and decided comedy was the creative vehicle we needed to embrace along with a catchy tune that would ensure no one would forget who to call.

Produced and directed by Ben Kumanovski, our process started with brainstorming how the ad might look. We knew we wanted to do a rap parody and it had to be something that wouldn't take itself too seriously, leaving viewers with a smile. Our thought process led us to the blinged up rapping plumber - an Ali-G type looking character, that was clearly created for comedy and a rap song that was funny, was able to deliver a message within 30 seconds and enabled 15 second and 7 second cutdowns for both broadcast and online media.

Working closely with music composer Phillip J Faddoul, once a demo track was created we arranged for the music to be produced with actor Chad Richards and chorus singer Sarah Issacs in the sound studio. During the session, the actors sung along to the playback while sound engineer John Hresc recorded their vocals and mixed it with the music. Meanwhile art director Melissa Kumanovski sourced all the wardrobe pieces (including the rappers eye watering bling) and we scheduled a 8hr shoot with just a small crew of just 6.

The team conducted the shoot at a studio in Marrickville where we put together the bathroom set. The French ballroom set with timber walls, timber floor and chandelier are fixed features of the set, so to make it look like a bathroom we brought in checkered lino, a toilet and a bath. We also utilised the existing retro lounge room set for the breakaway scenes where the happy customer and plumber are dancing.

Following the shoot, the ad was edited and passed through to Commercials Advice for rating in preparation for free-to-air TV broadcast.

That's a wrap

We hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at our TVC production. If you have a production you'd like to discuss, we'd love to hear from you. You can get in touch here.