The Briefing Room

Clever New Campaign Features Classic Sesame Street Characters In Famous Movies Scenes

NEW YORK, NY - A clever new campaign for PBS Kids’ Sesame Street and Behind the Lions, featuring original music and sound design from Ear Goo, Inc. (http://www.eargoo.com), depicts beloved Sesame Street characters like Grover, Ernie, and Cookie Monster in scenes from classic Hollywood films like Casablanca and Mission Impossible. The spots, which were produced by Digital Kitchen, Chicago, hilariously communicate how PBS Kids’ programming gets kids “ready for school and ready for life.”

“This was a wonderful project to work on,” says Paul Goldman, Founder/Sr. Creative Director. “Digital Kitchen and PBS came us to work on everything related to sound on these spots. We wrote original music, created sound design and mixed the final audio. We also recorded the voice talent behind all these great characters. That was pretty cool, especially for people of my generation.”

Each of the spots depicts the characters occupying roles in familiar cinema classics. “Casablanca” features a white tuxedoed Grover ‘playing it again’ for Behind the Lions’ Cleo - only instead of “As Time Goes By” she wants to play the rhyming game. In the Mission Impossible spoof “WI” (short for Written Impossible) Cookie Monster, like the classic scene with Tom Cruise descends, into a pristine laboratory on guy wires and accept the mission of writing his name, then messily devouring the cookie-shaped computer screen that delivered it. “We wrote the suspenseful, ‘big-budget’ score and created the sound design for the wires Cookie Monster dangles on,” says Goldman.

More songwriting was required for “Jets Side,” which begins with Theo’s snapping paws before proceeding to an exciting schoolyard dance number a la West Side Story featuring Ernie and five nimble children. In addition to composing the song and sound design, Ear Goo recorded the voices of all the characters and the children in their New York studios before the spot was actually shot.

“PBS provided us with the script and asked us to make it work,” says Goldman. “It was a tricky process recording the song first because it was up to us to decide which character sang which line. In order for the final spot to work, the song had to be locked. They wanted to be able to simply play the finished track on set and have the characters sing to it. That made it vital that our song be tightly constructed. If you change the timing with the picture edit, you change the song. In the end, everything worked out really well.”

About Ear Goo Inc:

Founded by Paul Goldman in 1994, Ear Goo (www.eargoo.com) has grown enormously the past 12 years; building a well-earned reputation for original music, sound design that challenges clients with musical concepts that go beyond the expected. It is that adventurous mindset that accounts for Ear Goo’s repeat business from the world’s leading television networks and advertising agencies, including MTV, VH1, TBWA/Chiat/ Day, McCann Erickson, Y&R, DDB and Leo Burnett. Their work on MTV’s campaign to inform people about the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region resulted in a special Emmy Award for the network. The company also won a 2006 BDA Gold for best original sound design for MTV’s spot “Dots”. Their current showreel includes spots for Xbox, Powerade, Footlocker, McDonald’s, USPS, Mercedes-Benz and Nintendo.

Web Resources:

Click here to watch the PBS Kids’ campaign:

http://www.eargoo.com/post/pbs_casablanca_30.mov

http://www.eargoo.com/post/pbs_jestside_30.mov

http://www.eargoo.com/post/pbs_wi_30.mov

Click here for Ear Goo’s website:

http://www.eargoo.com

Click here for more info on PBS’ Kids:

http://pbskids.org