NYNEX | Human Cartoons | 1988
Making a boring free product fun with a visual riddle / NYNEX "FURNITURE STRIPPING"
In 1988, how do you make a "boring free product" like the phone book interesting? TBWA CHIAT/DAY's answer was a visual riddle.
The problem
With the breakup of AT&T in 1984, NYNEX was born as the regional company handling phone service for the New York and New England area. As deregulation let other companies enter the Yellow Pages market, the New York metro area, with its 11 million people, became a prime target. How do you grab people's attention and keep their loyalty for a product that's given away for free, like a phone book? That was NYNEX's challenge.
The insight
Starting from the question "How do you get people to pay attention to a boring product that's handed out for free?", TBWA CHIAT/DAY arrived at the answer: a "visual charade" (like a game of gestures). It made people think "what is this?" and made them want to watch again even after they knew the answer. As Adweek put it, this was "probably the first truly interactive television ad in history" — the core of it was a device that pulled viewers in. Before the word FOMO even existed, the campaign turned the worry that "other Yellow Pages might list a business category this one doesn't" into something fun.
The idea
The business category "FURNITURE STRIPPING" was represented visually by an actual person stripping off their clothes like furniture being stripped of its finish. At first it seems to make no sense, but once you figure it out, it clicks. This "Human Cartoons" series used a different visual pun or play on words for a different business category each time, turning each ad into a puzzle for viewers to solve. The director was Godley & Creme — also known as members of 10cc, and innovators in music video — whose craft brought this playfulness to the screen perfectly.
What happened
The campaign became a huge talking point, loved not just within the ad industry but by ordinary people as well. It won a Gold Lion at Cannes Lions, and a Grand Prix and Gold at the Effie Awards, which evaluate advertising effectiveness. And above all, it succeeded in driving Southwestern Bell's competing Yellow Pages out of the market. It was a perfect win, both in business terms and creative terms.
Afterthought
People who saw this back in 1988 must have been surprised: "A phone book ad can actually be this fun?" It's amazing what the power of advertising can do, making a boring free product feel this appealing. And what really gets me is that the kind of experience design that makes people think and makes them want to watch again and again was already perfected back when the word "interactive" didn't even exist yet. Watching it today, it's still just as fun.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 1988
