Retro spots use footage from the '70s series to promote current cars and trucks
1 Jan 2000

May 10, 1999 - Strategy Magazine
Special Report

Marketing in Vancouver

by David Todd

In her heyday, she battled Soviet spies, African dictators, androids, lady wrestlers and Bigfoot. So selling cars isn't a real stretch.

From 1976 to 1978, Jaime Sommers did her bit for the security of the free world, on the Universal Studios television series The Bionic Woman. More recently, she has made a return to the small screen, in a series of three 30-second spots for the British Columbia Ford & Mercury Dealers Association.

For those who may not recall, The Bionic Woman was a spin-off of that enduring '70s chestnut, The Six Million Dollar Man. Lindsay Wagner played Jaime, a professional tennis player and all-round great gal, who was equipped with an assortment of cybernetic body parts after a near-fatal skydiving accident. As one generally does in these circumstances, she put her bionic talents at the disposal of the U.S. government, taking part in all manner of covert assignments while wearing an unfortunate succession of flared slacks and peasant blouses.

Wagner has been a spokesperson for the B.C. Ford & Mercury Dealers since 1993, says Flick Hatcher, general manager of Young & Rubicam Vancouver. None of the previous television campaigns in which she appeared, however, made any reference to the role for which she is best known.

"Lindsay was chosen in the first place because she's very likable and believable, and because she fits the whole West Coast lifestyle," Hatcher says. "What we've done now is tap the rich well of her bionic heritage, and used that to tell a compelling story about the vehicles. With the resurgence of '70s retro, the time seemed right."

The Y&R team constructed the spots using footage from the original series. Scenes were edited together to form "mini-episodes" of The Bionic Woman, in which Jaime is briefed on various missions - all of which, naturally, involve Ford and Mercury vehicles. (The missions require her to be sent forward in time, since the vehicles in question haven't been invented in 1976.)

At the end of each spot, the camera reveals Wagner circa 1999, watching her 1970s self on television and offering a wry commentary on the action.

When the story required a shot that couldn't be found in any of the existing shows, Y&R created the footage itself, reproducing as closely as possible the look of the old episodes - right down to the unflattering, Kmart-style lighting and faded film stock.

"In one case, we had to do a close-up of Lindsay's hands opening a safe," Hatcher says. "So we used a hand model and copied Lindsay's manicure from the original episode, we replicated the lighting technique - and it's impossible to tell the difference."

Hatcher says the ads capitalize on the kitsch appeal of clunky '70s action-drama series, but without adopting a disparaging tone. Wagner, he adds, was "a great sport about the whole thing," and did some inspired ad-libbing on the set.

"She has a talent for self-deprecating humour, and can chuckle at herself without being cloying," Hatcher says. "Viewers enjoy that about her. Her humour makes her more accessible and more real."

The first of the ads began airing in December, to promote the '98-model year-end closeout. Subsequent spots featured the Ford Explorer and Ford F-Series Trucks.

(The B.C. Ford & Mercury Dealers are also in print and radio, but these ads don't feature Wagner.)

Plans for the dealer association's next flight of television spots are still in development, so it remains to be seen whether more Bionic Woman mini-episodes are in the offing. While there's no hard data yet about the impact of the ads, Hatcher's feeling is that they worked well.

"We've done a lot of 'grandma' research," he says, "and our friends and relatives are all telling us that they love it."