PRODUCTION NEWS
Product: It's a Date, with Chuck Woolery
Objective: To develop a series of spots featuring TV host Chuck Woolery (Love Connection, Dating Game) for
this telephone dating service. As Woolery says in the spots, this club is "where people meet by choice not
by chance."
For a monthly membership fee billed to their telephone bills, members can browse through as many member profiles
as they like, find people with their same interests, and leave and receive messages for dates. The first match
is free to new members.
Production Challenge: Our task was to capitalize on having celebrity Chuck Woolery, put him in
the proper setting, and let him be himself. We custom built an
updated, hip set reminiscent of Woolery's Love Connection show - but geared to the club's MTV-age demographics.
We cast different couples who appeared as guests. Their dialogue presents the club's features and benefits, and
Woolery sells the club strongly as well. To create a relaxed atmosphere, the spots use the same humorous banter
with guests that has become Woolery's trademark.
We shot a series of four spots for test purposes, each with different dating scenarios. To add variety and production
v
alue to
the spots (without adding a lot of production cost), we used "lifestyle" still photos of couples enjoying
various social activities. Available as part of a photo CD library, the stills were arranged in a montage and then
shown on a TV monitor built into the set behind Woolery. This maximized the budget and allowed us to show more
couples interacting.