An Exception to the Rule
Lextran's "real people" the key to a successful campaign

In show business, there's a category called "Real People." These are the average Joes you see on TV who are the satisfied customers, surprised winners of sweepstakes and all those people in blindfold tests who prove that this product tastes better than that one.

According to law, the claims made in those commercials must be true. But according to the Screen Actors Guild, the people who play real people can be professional actors.

It's really better that way. Real real people simply aren't up to the task of appearing on camera. Nine times out of ten they'll be too nervous, too regional, or too wooden. The bottom line is that they can't be real on cue. And most often, that means that real real people are just not believable.

Professional actors fare much better. They can do endless re-takes without losing freshness, they stand where you tell them to stand, and when they smile, they don't show a crying need for emergency dental surgery.

Let's hear it for Central Casting

Probably the best reason to use actors is that you can choose actors. You can cast the ones who really look the part. And casting is very, very important. After all, would you trust your liver transplant to a man who looked like Freddie Krueger? Would you buy an exercise bike from a woman built like Roseanne Barr?

That's why they hire actors to play all the real people who are Italian mamas, teenagers, airline pilots, cheerful phone operators and cool-hand cowboys. The actors not only look better than most real people, they're much more convincing.

And then, there's the rare exception. The once-in-a-blue-moon, magical miracle. And in this time and place, it's the LEXTRAN singing bus drivers.

They sing, they dance, they drive up sales

The idea for putting the drivers on camera began two years ago. Jenny Williams, the marketing director of LEXTRAN, had the inspiration and passed it on to her agency, AD-SUCCESS. The first spot featured the drivers singing "We'll Be Around", and it was an immediate smash. The campaign took off like a rocket and had better results than Taco Bell's talking dog. Ridership of the bus line was up by 30 percent in the first year.

Not about to let a good thing go, the agency's co-owner, Paul Scanlon, decided to pool the idea out with a few new twists. Agency creative director John Campbell added the topspin -- choreography! John called on the talents of Peggy Stamps to give the singing drivers some new moves that really work.

This time the message is about evening service. The song is "LEXTRAN After Dark". The scenes include the singers on stage, the city at night, features like wheelchair access, bike racks and even a marquee shot of the Kentucky Theater that displays another copy point. The film is slick, the mood is cool and the result is another real treat.

But great spots like this don"t just happen. They take planning, craftsmanship and careful editing. This is the kind of magic that can only be created when fresh amateur talent is guided by knowing, tasteful professional hands. Of all those things, maybe taste is most important.

Dennis Altman is an advertising consultant and a professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Kentucky.

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