WEBVTT - #33 Bobby 0:00:15.210 --> 0:00:23.690 Pushkin. I'm looking out out my window. I'm looking at 0:00:23.689 --> 0:00:27.130 the clouds, and I could tell you about the things 0:00:27.170 --> 0:00:28.729 that I see, and you could tell me about the 0:00:28.770 --> 0:00:32.050 things that you see I see. 0:00:32.690 --> 0:00:33.450 Whispered to me. 0:00:33.530 --> 0:00:37.450 She doesn't know where this is going. This is going? 0:00:37.489 --> 0:00:37.930 Wait? What? 0:00:37.930 --> 0:00:38.170 What? 0:00:39.010 --> 0:00:39.090 No? 0:00:39.210 --> 0:00:41.729 This is two friends sharing their you know, what they 0:00:41.730 --> 0:00:43.609 see in the clouds. Nothing wrong with that. Why does 0:00:43.650 --> 0:00:46.090 it have to go somewhere? Okay? Now what I see 0:00:46.250 --> 0:00:50.770 is a wheelbarrow full of what looks like Teddy Bears. 0:00:51.489 --> 0:00:53.010 What do you see? 0:00:53.890 --> 0:00:54.290 Cloud? 0:00:54.890 --> 0:00:57.890 Oh that's that's not good at all, very bad. Sign. 0:00:58.530 --> 0:01:03.090 I come. I come from Lithuanian stock and we're cloud readers. 0:01:03.170 --> 0:01:05.929 We see prophetic visions in the clouds. Did you know that? 0:01:05.930 --> 0:01:08.730 That's why I wanted to trick you into looking at 0:01:08.730 --> 0:01:12.730 the cloud so that I could tell you your future. Yeah, 0:01:12.770 --> 0:01:22.170 I should have seen that. Coming from Gimblet Media, I'm 0:01:22.210 --> 0:01:34.490 Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight Today's episode. Bobby, right 0:01:34.530 --> 0:01:46.770 after the break, I have it, Thanks Bobby. Bobby Lord 0:01:46.890 --> 0:01:50.570 is my music composer and sound engineer. Each word I 0:01:50.650 --> 0:01:54.850 lay down goes through Bobby's complex network of accelerometers and 0:01:54.930 --> 0:01:55.970 acorn tubes. 0:01:56.730 --> 0:01:57.010 Jovin. 0:01:57.050 --> 0:01:58.770 I don't think a cord tubes have been use of. 0:01:59.490 --> 0:02:00.090 Four War two? 0:02:02.250 --> 0:02:13.249 Can I get a schmear of music here? Bob As 0:02:13.250 --> 0:02:16.850 a sound engineer, Bobby normally has to keep his yap shut. 0:02:17.290 --> 0:02:20.530 Should he feel compelled to sneeze or say, have a 0:02:20.570 --> 0:02:23.450 heart attack, he cannot do so until the on air 0:02:23.570 --> 0:02:28.250 light is safely extinguished. But today we turn the microphone 0:02:28.250 --> 0:02:31.690 around and aim it back towards one two often shrouded 0:02:31.730 --> 0:02:37.130 in darkness and obscurity, today we tell Bobby's story, the 0:02:37.210 --> 0:02:42.570 story of the greatest public embarrassment of Bobby's entire musical career. 0:02:43.610 --> 0:02:46.130 I think that's a little traumatic. 0:02:46.250 --> 0:02:49.130 I would say not dramatic enough. Don't be stingy with 0:02:49.210 --> 0:02:52.570 the music, Bob more acorns a little bit of trouble, 0:02:52.970 --> 0:03:04.450 give me a full bank. Bobby joins me in the 0:03:04.450 --> 0:03:07.169 studio and tells me how his love of music first 0:03:07.250 --> 0:03:10.450 blossomed back in middle school, around the time he met 0:03:10.450 --> 0:03:11.330 a boy named Jake. 0:03:12.010 --> 0:03:13.970 He sat in the back of the bus where the 0:03:14.010 --> 0:03:15.970 cool kids sat, and I think he was wearing like 0:03:16.410 --> 0:03:19.210 the leather jacket, a punk band T shirt, and he 0:03:19.250 --> 0:03:19.930 had blue hair. 0:03:20.690 --> 0:03:24.210 Bobby's hair was a nerdy brown he played nerdy sacks 0:03:24.290 --> 0:03:27.489 in the nerdy school band, and here was Jake, who 0:03:27.490 --> 0:03:32.329 played punk rock electric guitar. Bobby was starstruck. He started 0:03:32.370 --> 0:03:35.370 dressing like Jake in band t shirts and tight punky 0:03:35.450 --> 0:03:38.690 jeans he found in the girls section at Coole's. He 0:03:38.770 --> 0:03:41.290 even begged his parents for a drum kit so he 0:03:41.330 --> 0:03:42.610 and Jake could form a band. 0:03:43.170 --> 0:03:47.370 That credit Jake with teaching me everything about like being 0:03:47.410 --> 0:03:50.970 in a band and punk music, and then he taught 0:03:51.010 --> 0:03:51.690 me everything. 0:03:52.850 --> 0:03:53.090 You know. 0:03:53.130 --> 0:03:54.970 There were a lot of times would be sitting together 0:03:55.330 --> 0:03:58.490 and both with our own CD players and headphones on, 0:03:59.330 --> 0:04:01.970 like in different worlds and listening to different records, but 0:04:02.130 --> 0:04:02.890 just together, you. 0:04:02.810 --> 0:04:07.050 Know, Bobby listening to Jimmy Eat World, Jake to No Effects, 0:04:07.490 --> 0:04:10.370 both of them eating gummy sharks and dreaming about the 0:04:10.450 --> 0:04:14.010 music they wanted to make. With a couple more friends, 0:04:14.050 --> 0:04:16.650 they formed a band, and even though they were so young, 0:04:17.010 --> 0:04:20.249 it wasn't long before they were booking shows. Their first 0:04:20.289 --> 0:04:22.169 gig was at a local record store. 0:04:22.729 --> 0:04:25.010 I was super, super nervous and I was kind of 0:04:25.050 --> 0:04:28.369 just trying to hide behind my drums. But Jake just 0:04:28.450 --> 0:04:32.690 kind of has this like British punk rock sneered singing 0:04:32.729 --> 0:04:35.210 in this snotty little kind of punk singing voice and 0:04:35.250 --> 0:04:36.690 like looking very cool with a bass. 0:04:39.690 --> 0:04:42.569 This is a song of theirs called None Divided. Bobby, 0:04:42.729 --> 0:04:47.249 age thirteen, is on drums and Jake, age twelve, is singing. 0:04:48.890 --> 0:04:52.609 As well. 0:04:54.169 --> 0:04:56.289 Now I don't know how old the guys in Green 0:04:56.369 --> 0:04:59.449 Day are, and I don't particularly like Green Day, but 0:04:59.529 --> 0:05:02.529 if you told me this was Green Day, I'd say, hey, 0:05:02.969 --> 0:05:04.969 Green Day is not as bad as I thought they were. 0:05:05.810 --> 0:05:08.849 That's how good Bobby and Jake were even as children 0:05:09.770 --> 0:05:12.969 and through their teens, Bobby and Jake continued booking gigs. 0:05:13.570 --> 0:05:16.689 The dream was to live off their music, but after 0:05:16.729 --> 0:05:20.489 college it became clear they need day jobs, so Bobby 0:05:20.529 --> 0:05:24.489 found one as an audio engineer at a Chicago advertising agency. 0:05:25.210 --> 0:05:29.809 Bobby was company man by day, punk by night until 0:05:29.810 --> 0:05:32.969 one morning in the spring of twenty fourteen, when his 0:05:33.049 --> 0:05:34.009 worlds collided. 0:05:34.570 --> 0:05:36.650 I came into work and my boss said, we have 0:05:37.089 --> 0:05:38.690 an ad that I need you to sing. 0:05:39.409 --> 0:05:44.610 And I said, sing, sing, but not like Sid Vicious 0:05:44.729 --> 0:05:47.729 or Joey Ramone or that guy who screams in that 0:05:47.849 --> 0:05:51.650 song at the beginning of CSI Miami, because those guys 0:05:51.690 --> 0:05:56.449 never sang advertising jingles for McDonald's, which was exactly what 0:05:56.529 --> 0:06:00.249 Bobby was being asked to do. The creative in charge, 0:06:00.289 --> 0:06:03.089 a guy named Tim knew that Bobby was a musician, 0:06:03.570 --> 0:06:05.929 so he asked Bobby to record the demo track for 0:06:06.010 --> 0:06:07.210 an ad he was working on. 0:06:07.810 --> 0:06:12.050 He wrote a song called random Red Couch, and they 0:06:12.089 --> 0:06:15.570 had shot all this footage of hipstery looking models holding 0:06:15.690 --> 0:06:19.049 like McDonald's bags of food and kind of like dancing 0:06:19.089 --> 0:06:27.129 on this couch, this red couch. Tim was in his 0:06:27.330 --> 0:06:30.330 like fifties and is trying to write like a comedy 0:06:30.330 --> 0:06:34.529 thing for younger people, and he I think he thought 0:06:34.609 --> 0:06:37.650 that at the time, like a comedic sensibility amongst young 0:06:37.690 --> 0:06:42.290 people was like randomness, like absurd randomness. 0:06:42.729 --> 0:06:46.210 By twenty fourteen, the word random had served the youth 0:06:46.250 --> 0:06:49.369 of America well and was ready for the retirement home 0:06:49.570 --> 0:06:52.569 where it could play shuffle board with chill pill and 0:06:52.810 --> 0:06:55.730 boo yeah. But this didn't stop Tim. 0:06:56.169 --> 0:06:58.529 I remember, I remember it by heart. How it goes. 0:06:58.810 --> 0:07:01.210 It starts like we got a random red couch. Don't 0:07:01.210 --> 0:07:03.570 ask me why people eating burgers with a girl or 0:07:03.609 --> 0:07:05.569 a guy. 0:07:04.650 --> 0:07:08.690 On the weekends. Bobby was a mother freaking antichrist, hanging 0:07:08.690 --> 0:07:12.009 with punk rockers who'd sooner sell the nose rings infecting 0:07:12.010 --> 0:07:16.490 their noses than sell out. And here he was crooning 0:07:16.530 --> 0:07:20.210 about ninety nine cent chicken cutlets sold by a clown. 0:07:21.050 --> 0:07:23.410 But lucky for Bobby, no one would ever hear it. 0:07:23.970 --> 0:07:26.930 Random Red Couch was just a demo, one of many 0:07:27.010 --> 0:07:30.449 ideas circulated internally that never got green lit. 0:07:30.970 --> 0:07:34.970 Things got killed all the time, so I never thought 0:07:34.970 --> 0:07:38.530 that the thing would get made. But every step of 0:07:38.530 --> 0:07:40.610 the way, we just kept hearing that it's not getting killed, 0:07:40.650 --> 0:07:42.330 it's not getting killed, it's still going. 0:07:42.530 --> 0:07:47.249 And going and going. Random Red Couch was like this unstoppable, 0:07:47.410 --> 0:07:52.410 unkillable monster. For whatever reason, Bobby's bosses were butt up 0:07:52.450 --> 0:07:57.730 ba ba ba loving it, and so Random Red Couch 0:07:58.130 --> 0:08:05.450 was suddenly green lit. Bobby Lord was now the voice 0:08:05.489 --> 0:08:10.730 of a national advertising campaign for McDonald's. 0:08:11.050 --> 0:08:15.050 And this is where it became not fun because it 0:08:15.130 --> 0:08:18.650 starts to air and like it played a lot. 0:08:21.450 --> 0:08:24.929 McDonald's bought so much airtime that during the twenty fourteen 0:08:25.130 --> 0:08:28.210 NHL Playoffs, Bobby says he couldn't walk into a bar 0:08:28.410 --> 0:08:31.930 without seeing the ad. It was everywhere, and from the 0:08:31.929 --> 0:08:35.810 moment it started airing, Random Red Couch was immediately and 0:08:35.929 --> 0:08:39.490 universally and passionately reviled. 0:08:40.850 --> 0:08:43.290 A good illustration of how hated this ad was is 0:08:43.330 --> 0:08:45.970 that it was on McDonald's official YouTube channel and it 0:08:46.010 --> 0:08:50.770 got so extremely ratioed with thumbs downs and negative comments 0:08:50.810 --> 0:08:54.650 that they took it off their own page. Like the 0:08:54.770 --> 0:08:57.490 hatred and the vitriol on Twitter about this ad was, 0:08:57.530 --> 0:08:59.610 I've never seen anything quite like it, Like. 0:08:59.930 --> 0:09:02.450 Can can you read some of those tweets? 0:09:03.050 --> 0:09:09.530 Yeah? One second? Okay, that McDonald's random red couch commercial 0:09:09.570 --> 0:09:11.929 is annoying as hell. There better not be a random 0:09:11.930 --> 0:09:13.930 red couch in jail after I stab the writers of 0:09:13.970 --> 0:09:17.050 that horrendous commercial. Hey, McDonald's, if I see the random 0:09:17.090 --> 0:09:18.929 red couch commercial one more time, I'm going to kill 0:09:18.930 --> 0:09:21.130 someone and the blood will be on your hands. I 0:09:21.170 --> 0:09:23.570 want to kill the random red couch. Fuck your random 0:09:23.650 --> 0:09:27.050 red couch. Everyone involved with the writing, performing, and recording 0:09:27.090 --> 0:09:29.530 of this random red couch McDonald's jingle should be rounded 0:09:29.610 --> 0:09:30.490 up and executed. 0:09:31.570 --> 0:09:35.690 Wow, that's really harsh. People on the internet are mean. 0:09:36.130 --> 0:09:36.450 I know. 0:09:36.850 --> 0:09:37.130 I know. 0:09:38.170 --> 0:09:40.450 At this point, I'm so amped up on all the 0:09:40.490 --> 0:09:44.090 reviews slash death threats. I can't wait to experience the 0:09:44.130 --> 0:09:47.490 ad for myself. I don't think I've ever wanted to 0:09:47.810 --> 0:09:49.810 click on a link more in my entire life. 0:09:51.530 --> 0:09:56.370 Oh man, I'm so excited. 0:09:57.130 --> 0:09:58.570 Okay, here we go. 0:09:58.850 --> 0:10:03.290 Shit, Okay, we got a random red couch. 0:10:03.450 --> 0:10:07.650 Don't ask me why keep your favorites with your good art. 0:10:07.690 --> 0:10:12.210 Guy, gotta random med couch. Pull up a seed. You 0:10:12.370 --> 0:10:14.810 don't want to be the one with nothing to eat. 0:10:14.930 --> 0:10:18.730 We got a band of cows, ast you friends with them. 0:10:18.850 --> 0:10:22.410 McDonald's bag, never hands ic. 0:10:22.450 --> 0:10:27.290 Chu gate, McDonald beef and cheese, helone that's the flavor. 0:10:26.930 --> 0:10:30.090 Of dyla menu and more on a random read couch. 0:10:40.210 --> 0:10:43.050 The ad features a group of young actors, each of 0:10:43.090 --> 0:10:45.090 them looking like one of those kids who would have 0:10:45.170 --> 0:10:48.890 smoked a pipe in college. They dance about with the 0:10:48.930 --> 0:10:53.370 desperate energy of hostages in a hostage video, who, instead 0:10:53.370 --> 0:10:56.130 of being forced to recite from que cards, are being 0:10:56.210 --> 0:11:01.490 forced to eat, laugh, and gaze flirtatiously at cheeseburgers. It 0:11:01.530 --> 0:11:04.410 looks like something a spambot would generate if you typed 0:11:04.450 --> 0:11:13.210 in keywords like mustache, bacon, and KAMBOUCHA pandering, yet clueless, 0:11:13.530 --> 0:11:17.250 chummy yet dead eyed random red couch is a paradox 0:11:17.290 --> 0:11:21.090 wrapped in a sofa point of fact, I hate it, 0:11:22.090 --> 0:11:24.330 and yet can I listen to it again? 0:11:24.650 --> 0:11:24.890 Yeah? 0:11:25.130 --> 0:11:28.850 Sure, we gotta random red couch. 0:11:29.050 --> 0:11:30.490 You don't ask me why. 0:11:33.330 --> 0:11:36.610 Guy gotta random red couch pulled up. 0:11:36.530 --> 0:11:39.170 A seat, which, by the way, a couch is a seat. 0:11:39.770 --> 0:11:44.170 You don't need to pull up a seatuch. 0:11:43.330 --> 0:11:44.850 And this guy's wearing a pork pie. 0:11:44.650 --> 0:11:50.050 Hat never ends, chicken mcdouble, beef and cheese. 0:11:50.090 --> 0:11:56.490 Oh, this is like my personal health, A random red couch. Like, 0:11:56.650 --> 0:11:57.370 what is it? 0:11:57.530 --> 0:11:58.370 What is it? 0:11:59.210 --> 0:12:03.370 There's nothing random about this couch, Like it's I know. 0:12:03.690 --> 0:12:05.970 There's nothing random. It's the only set piece. There's nothing. 0:12:06.090 --> 0:12:12.130 It's very pointed. Despite years of practice, years of playing 0:12:12.170 --> 0:12:15.850 gigs and paying his dues, Bobby's most widely played song 0:12:16.530 --> 0:12:19.250 was his worst. Bobby was mortified. 0:12:19.890 --> 0:12:22.490 This horrible, annoying commercial will come on a lot all 0:12:22.530 --> 0:12:24.050 the time, and you didn't want to be like that's me. 0:12:24.170 --> 0:12:25.810 It was like really embarrassing. 0:12:25.970 --> 0:12:28.210 You just wouldn't say anything. You'd be with people. 0:12:28.410 --> 0:12:30.090 I tell anyone, I. 0:12:30.130 --> 0:12:32.610 Knew it was his voice instantaneously. 0:12:38.290 --> 0:12:43.570 This is Bobby's oldest, coolest, bluest haired friend Jake. As 0:12:43.570 --> 0:12:46.650 embarrassed as Bobby was about the ad, he was especially 0:12:46.690 --> 0:12:49.650 embarrassed that Jake might hear it. Then he not only 0:12:49.690 --> 0:12:52.650 loses punk Red, but also the respect of the person 0:12:52.690 --> 0:12:55.330 who taught him everything about music in the first place. 0:12:55.930 --> 0:12:58.610 So even though Jake and Bobby spoke every day, had 0:12:58.610 --> 0:13:01.890 practice each week, Bobby never said a thing about the ad. 0:13:02.570 --> 0:13:04.930 But then one day, Jake was hanging out with Billy, 0:13:05.330 --> 0:13:07.210 a third member of Jake and Bobby's band. 0:13:07.890 --> 0:13:10.570 We're watching The Black Hot and then all of a sudden, 0:13:10.610 --> 0:13:13.650 we hear this song come on and we started like 0:13:14.090 --> 0:13:17.570 kind of like giggling at the song and then and 0:13:17.610 --> 0:13:20.890 then I was like, holy shit. I was like, that's Bobby. 0:13:21.130 --> 0:13:23.850 And he goes, no, no, no, it's not and I go, dude, 0:13:23.850 --> 0:13:26.290 that is Bobby. I know Bobby's voice. There's no one 0:13:26.330 --> 0:13:27.810 else that sounds like that's Bobby. 0:13:28.290 --> 0:13:30.250 We had a TV that we had the access to 0:13:30.290 --> 0:13:33.170 rewind it, so we rewinded and rewatch, this is Billy 0:13:33.730 --> 0:13:37.210 and then the tagline at the very end he speaks 0:13:37.250 --> 0:13:41.690 it on a random redcouch, so it's clearly him, Billy, and. 0:13:41.690 --> 0:13:43.770 He's like, oh my god, it is Bobby, and we 0:13:43.810 --> 0:13:45.490 started laughing and freaking out. 0:13:46.250 --> 0:13:49.530 Later that day they saw Bobby Jake asked him about 0:13:49.530 --> 0:13:50.290 the ad. 0:13:50.250 --> 0:13:53.570 And his face just drops, just drops, and he's like, 0:13:53.610 --> 0:13:57.290 oh my god. He's like, don't tell anyone about this. 0:13:57.970 --> 0:14:01.210 And until this moment, have you kept the promise that 0:14:01.250 --> 0:14:03.810 you made to Bobby? Have you never told anybody? 0:14:04.450 --> 0:14:05.530 Oh? No, I told people. 0:14:10.610 --> 0:14:13.330 Of course, Bobby's best friend and bandmate was going to 0:14:13.370 --> 0:14:17.850 dine out on Bobby's humiliation, and so group text were sent, 0:14:18.290 --> 0:14:22.450 links were forwarded, and everyone laughed for Bobby. It was 0:14:22.450 --> 0:14:26.130 a huge embarrassment. But the thing that's outlived that embarrassment 0:14:26.490 --> 0:14:30.850 is a lingering question what the hell happened? 0:14:33.010 --> 0:14:34.610 If you were to see this on TV, you would 0:14:34.650 --> 0:14:36.610 just be like, how did this happen? How did this 0:14:36.690 --> 0:14:39.730 get into my TV? How did this get through? 0:14:40.690 --> 0:14:43.410 At the time, Bobby was a kid in his early twenties, 0:14:43.690 --> 0:14:46.330 the lowest on the ladder, with no visibility into how 0:14:46.370 --> 0:14:49.810 the ad got greenlit. But now, as an adult, he 0:14:49.890 --> 0:14:53.930 wonders who ultimately greenlit the ad and at what cost? 0:14:55.370 --> 0:14:58.490 Like I heard a rumor that like Tim, the maker 0:14:58.530 --> 0:15:01.370 of the ad, had been seen like in the office 0:15:01.370 --> 0:15:03.450 of the Big Guy. Then he was like all red 0:15:03.490 --> 0:15:06.730 faced and like screaming, and like maybe like I started 0:15:06.730 --> 0:15:08.290 to feel like if you had worked on this commercial, 0:15:08.370 --> 0:15:11.090 like you were like a rayah that started to become 0:15:11.130 --> 0:15:13.730 like a thing, like you would hear people like you 0:15:13.770 --> 0:15:15.090 guys worked on random red couch. 0:15:15.890 --> 0:15:17.090 How's Tim's career doing. 0:15:17.410 --> 0:15:19.730 I don't know. I don't know. I would like to 0:15:19.770 --> 0:15:23.090 know who's a super super nice guy. He would always 0:15:23.090 --> 0:15:26.050 wear like a low baseball hat in classes, and he 0:15:26.210 --> 0:15:30.210 talked like this, like real quiet, kind of like a stoner. 0:15:31.010 --> 0:15:32.410 Random red couch. 0:15:32.690 --> 0:15:34.610 Right, this is Tim. 0:15:34.970 --> 0:15:36.650 It's all coming back to me now. 0:15:38.650 --> 0:15:43.370 Unfortunately Tim's now retired, but he was in advertising for 0:15:43.410 --> 0:15:47.650 over two decades, from Office Max to Budweiser. Tim's worked 0:15:47.690 --> 0:15:51.130 on tons of successful campaigns, but I'm calling to talk 0:15:51.170 --> 0:15:54.730 about his least successful one. I asked if he would 0:15:54.730 --> 0:15:58.290 rewatch the ad with me while offering a running director's commentary, 0:15:58.810 --> 0:16:04.090 and Tim says, yes, he is a super super nice guy. 0:16:04.650 --> 0:16:06.610 We got a random red cows. 0:16:06.850 --> 0:16:12.010 Don't ask me why people favorites with dark got a 0:16:12.170 --> 0:16:13.450 random red couch. 0:16:13.810 --> 0:16:16.730 Pull up a seat. You don't want to be the 0:16:16.850 --> 0:16:20.210 one with nothing to eat. We got a random red couch. 0:16:20.730 --> 0:16:21.850 Cat friend. 0:16:24.010 --> 0:16:27.970 Never had mc chicken, McDougall beef and cheese. 0:16:28.010 --> 0:16:31.770 Hello now, that's the flavor of Dalla menu and more 0:16:32.210 --> 0:16:33.490 on a random red couch. 0:16:35.090 --> 0:16:38.450 It is the worst commercial ever made. Like Joe Cocker 0:16:38.530 --> 0:16:40.090 wouldn't have made that good. 0:16:41.770 --> 0:16:44.490 Random red Couch is pretty bad? But is it The 0:16:44.530 --> 0:16:48.690 worst McDonald's commercial ever made? Is that McDonald's burger Delicia? 0:16:49.370 --> 0:16:52.050 Is it worse than this McDonald's add from the nineteen 0:16:52.130 --> 0:16:55.690 sixties in which Ronald McDonald leaps out from behind a 0:16:55.730 --> 0:16:58.010 bush to accost a child on the street. 0:16:58.490 --> 0:17:00.010 Mom told me never to talk. 0:16:59.930 --> 0:17:04.490 To strangers, But I'm Ronald, you're all proven. 0:17:04.730 --> 0:17:08.210 I'll give you three more hamburgers. I'm not even sure 0:17:08.330 --> 0:17:11.050 Random red couch, which is the worst McDonald's jingle ever? 0:17:11.410 --> 0:17:14.170 Can it be worse than this one for chicken McNuggets? 0:17:14.409 --> 0:17:17.570 I'm into nuggets, y'all. I'm into nuggets, y'all. 0:17:17.929 --> 0:17:21.330 I'm into nuggets, y'all. Can it be worse than a 0:17:21.369 --> 0:17:25.409 pre George Costanza Jason Alexander prancing down the street in 0:17:25.490 --> 0:17:29.410 pastel colors singing about the virtues of the McDLT. 0:17:31.010 --> 0:17:31.650 What about the. 0:17:31.609 --> 0:17:38.969 People on the hot side ho DLT the McDLT. No 0:17:39.129 --> 0:17:42.369 more would beef and lettuce have to commingle through the 0:17:42.409 --> 0:17:48.609 miracle of a double styrofoam clamshelltris put it together? 0:17:48.850 --> 0:17:50.010 You can't. 0:17:52.649 --> 0:17:56.810 Is Random Red Couch really worse than all that we got? 0:17:56.810 --> 0:17:59.810 A random red Chiles, don't ask me why. 0:18:00.330 --> 0:18:04.529 Yes, yes it is. All those other ads might be 0:18:04.570 --> 0:18:07.930 forgiven due to their moment in cultural history, the pre 0:18:08.010 --> 0:18:12.130 stranger danger atmsphere of the sixties, the delight in styrofoam 0:18:12.209 --> 0:18:16.170 and sherbet colored blazers of the eighties. But Random Red 0:18:16.209 --> 0:18:20.129 Couch is free from cultural excuses, a monolith of bad 0:18:20.209 --> 0:18:22.610 taste that rejects any context. 0:18:23.369 --> 0:18:26.129 I didn't actually think what I had written was ever 0:18:26.209 --> 0:18:28.289 going to see the light of day, but I was 0:18:28.330 --> 0:18:31.010 trying to get an assignment off my plate. 0:18:32.090 --> 0:18:35.050 It turns out that just like Bobby Tim also thought 0:18:35.129 --> 0:18:38.010 Random Red Couch would be killed, He never written a 0:18:38.090 --> 0:18:41.169 jingle before and was confused about why he was asked 0:18:41.209 --> 0:18:41.690 to write one. 0:18:41.770 --> 0:18:42.050 Now. 0:18:42.929 --> 0:18:46.490 Nonetheless, I think I might have been let go because 0:18:46.490 --> 0:18:49.009 of that commercion. Are you kidding? 0:18:49.490 --> 0:18:53.010 It wasn't explicit like that, but it was a thing 0:18:53.169 --> 0:18:57.210 where I had just heard through a couple of friends 0:18:57.290 --> 0:19:01.970 there that it had to have some influence of the decision. 0:19:02.169 --> 0:19:05.850 How long after the Random Red Couch did where you 0:19:05.929 --> 0:19:06.810 let go? 0:19:06.929 --> 0:19:11.570 I would say, within lunths. Huh, yeah, that was the 0:19:11.730 --> 0:19:14.489 end of a chapter for sure. 0:19:15.810 --> 0:19:19.130 After twenty five years at the agency, Tim was fired, 0:19:19.570 --> 0:19:22.289 perhaps for something that wasn't even his idea in the 0:19:22.290 --> 0:19:27.529 first place. But if random Red Couch wasn't Tim's idea, 0:19:27.850 --> 0:19:31.449 whose was it who ultimately gave random red Couch the 0:19:31.490 --> 0:19:35.769 green light? Super super nice. To the end, Tim hesitates 0:19:35.810 --> 0:19:39.250 to name names, but it's not long before he's singing 0:19:39.369 --> 0:19:43.570 like a young Jason Alexander. Kathy Kathy. 0:19:44.689 --> 0:19:47.810 I had become good friends with Kathy, who I was 0:19:47.889 --> 0:19:51.889 working with on it, and she was the creative director, 0:19:51.929 --> 0:19:54.649 and there wasn't a lot of oversight, and she kind 0:19:54.649 --> 0:19:56.529 of pushed it through. 0:19:57.970 --> 0:20:02.489 While Tim was above Bobby, Kathy apparently was above Tim 0:20:02.889 --> 0:20:06.289 rung By Rung, I was climbing a ladder, a ladder 0:20:06.290 --> 0:20:09.729 of blame to find out who bore responsible ability for 0:20:09.810 --> 0:20:20.490 the abominable and random Red Couch boy. All this talk 0:20:20.530 --> 0:20:25.929 about ads sure is making me thirsty for ads, and 0:20:26.050 --> 0:20:29.410 lucky for me, here comes a big, fat, thirst quenching 0:20:29.490 --> 0:20:34.290 tub of them. 0:20:37.649 --> 0:20:40.449 I would say it was probably the biggest plunker that 0:20:40.490 --> 0:20:41.770 I had ever done in my career. 0:20:42.530 --> 0:20:46.009 This is Kathy, the creative director for Random Red Couch 0:20:46.209 --> 0:20:47.689 and the person Tim worked under. 0:20:48.169 --> 0:20:51.169 Tim's an excellent writer. Oh my god, he's an extremely 0:20:51.250 --> 0:20:51.970 talented guy. 0:20:52.770 --> 0:20:56.529 Like Tim. Kathy retired from advertising some years ago, but 0:20:56.609 --> 0:20:59.330 says Random Red Couch is stuck with her. I ask 0:20:59.409 --> 0:21:02.850 if she recalls any of the lyrics? Yeah, which ones 0:21:02.889 --> 0:21:03.490 do you remember? 0:21:04.330 --> 0:21:04.609 Well? 0:21:04.850 --> 0:21:05.209 What is it? 0:21:05.250 --> 0:21:07.009 I got a Random Red Couch. 0:21:11.330 --> 0:21:13.689 Maybe I have a bigger mental block against this spot 0:21:13.730 --> 0:21:14.369 than I thought. 0:21:19.850 --> 0:21:23.049 According to Tim, Kathy had approved the Random Red Couch. 0:21:23.530 --> 0:21:26.129 But according to Kathy, it wasn't as simple as that. 0:21:26.889 --> 0:21:30.010 As a creative director, you have a handful of bosses 0:21:30.010 --> 0:21:31.369 and people reviewing the work. 0:21:32.330 --> 0:21:34.409 Just when I think I've reached the top step of 0:21:34.449 --> 0:21:37.410 the blame ladder, Kathy tells me that she never had 0:21:37.449 --> 0:21:41.330 the authority to greenlight. That level of decision making came 0:21:41.369 --> 0:21:42.850 from her bosses, and. 0:21:42.770 --> 0:21:45.409 These guys like absolutely loved it. 0:21:46.609 --> 0:21:52.010 One boss in particular, So at that. 0:21:52.290 --> 0:21:55.369 Time, our group creative director, Tony Malcolm was a brit 0:21:56.010 --> 0:21:58.889 and he really wanted to use a song. You know, 0:21:59.010 --> 0:22:01.409 he had a lot of success with that in the 0:22:01.449 --> 0:22:03.729 London market and he wanted to do it. 0:22:04.330 --> 0:22:06.810 Like the ants come merching home, and I'm like, Tony, 0:22:06.889 --> 0:22:10.570 we can't do a song with ant for a McDonald's commercial. 0:22:10.609 --> 0:22:12.770 That's you know, they definitely have their list of nogos 0:22:12.850 --> 0:22:15.970 and insects of any kind as a nogo with McDonald's, right, 0:22:16.369 --> 0:22:19.090 he definitely wanted to shake things up. You know what, 0:22:19.129 --> 0:22:21.889 you should try reaching out to Tony and he's. 0:22:21.369 --> 0:22:23.570 A super nice guy, really super nice. 0:22:24.929 --> 0:22:27.609 I did a commercial that was called just passing By 0:22:27.730 --> 0:22:28.290 in the UK. 0:22:29.290 --> 0:22:33.409 This is Tony Kathy's boss and just passing by was 0:22:33.449 --> 0:22:37.249 a poem Tony wrote for McDonald's in England. After it aired, 0:22:37.490 --> 0:22:40.929 actual sales went up five hundred percent and so Tony 0:22:41.050 --> 0:22:42.530 was offered the job in Chicago. 0:22:43.369 --> 0:22:48.049 The whole poem started saying the laborers and cablers and 0:22:48.090 --> 0:22:51.929 council motion tablers were just passing by. Then the coffee 0:22:52.090 --> 0:22:55.530 type and coffee types and like their coffee swaffy types 0:22:55.570 --> 0:22:58.570 were just passing by. Those on their own whilst on 0:22:58.609 --> 0:23:01.009 the phone, douncan McNuggets and having a moan were just 0:23:01.050 --> 0:23:01.649 passing by it. 0:23:02.290 --> 0:23:04.130 They're driving through with hungry crew. 0:23:03.970 --> 0:23:05.730 Who just pulled off the A three to two were 0:23:05.810 --> 0:23:06.570 just passing by it. 0:23:07.609 --> 0:23:08.490 On the it Boary. 0:23:08.570 --> 0:23:11.730 So how did happen? How did Tony go from crafting 0:23:11.770 --> 0:23:13.969 odes to rival Wordsworth to. 0:23:15.369 --> 0:23:17.249 Wig Random Red Couch. 0:23:19.290 --> 0:23:23.050 Tony explains the genesis of Random Red Couch. He'd wanted 0:23:23.090 --> 0:23:25.850 a song that was funny, but funny in a uniquely 0:23:25.889 --> 0:23:26.689 American way. 0:23:27.530 --> 0:23:31.490 I think there's a brashness to American humor. There's there's 0:23:31.570 --> 0:23:35.329