stevescholz
12-30-2007, 06:30 AM
Way to go, guys!
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/718278,CST-FTR-sonic29.article
Chicago's Sonic Guys do their pitching from a car
December 29, 2007
BY MIKE THOMAS mthomas@suntimes.com
Chicago-trained improvisers Peter Grosz and T.J. Jagodowski have thriving careers in acting, writing and directing. But to much of America, they're known simply as the Sonic Guys.
Since January 2002, they've starred in more than 100 ads for the Oklahoma-based Sonic drive-through fast-food chain, which currently has no outposts in the Chicago area (the closest are in Champaign and Kokomo, Ind.) but plans to open some here in the spring. Sonic operates 3,300 restaurants in 35 states and is growing rapidly.
Thanks in part, no doubt, to the Sonic Guys and their silly shilling.
The ads are pulled from improvisation the two dudes do while sitting in a car at a Sonic drive-through and riffing on a variety of topics, including whatever they're supposed to be pushing. When dialogue reaches an especially goofy pinnacle, the shot is freeze-framed with an accompanying smacking sound and superimposed with large red lettering advertising the product of the moment.
It's the stylized equivalent of yelling "Scene!" onstage during improv.
"I don't think we're famous," says the formerly Chicago-based Grosz, 33, who now lives in New York and writes for Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" (although lately he's been picketing instead during the ongoing writers strike.) "I think we get recognized. We're fame-adjacent. We're nipping around the edges of the famous pie. And then we get swatted away by some matronly grandmother."
Says Jagodowski, 36, who's Chicago-based, "I'm always ready for people to dislike [the ads], but the people who've been nice enough to come up in person have always been at least neutral if not complimentary. Which is nice, 'cause I'm usually ready to hear, 'You guys are so dumb.' "
Imitators can be found on YouTube following a recent competition to see who could make the best amateur Sonic ad. (There's even an awards ceremony hosted by Grosz and Jagodowski from inside their car.)
Industry insiders are taken with the ads, too. The trade journal Advertising Age recently gushed: "For all our endless railing against the values of entertainment overshadowing the values of selling, what most excites us is when great dialogue and great acting [and direction and editing] combine with a great premise to produce a great commercial," the paper said. "Or, better yet, a great campaign. Doesn't happen very often. Unless you live in the Sun Belt, in which case it happens many times daily, every time a Sonic ad comes on."
But not everyone digs their dynamic.
"Pete and I went down to the main headquarters one time in Oklahoma City," Jagodowski remembers, "and we're just kind of meeting the folks there and this woman walked up. I believe her name was Mary. And we're like, 'Oh, hi, Mary.' She goes, 'Hello. I handle all your hate mail.' And, jokingly, we were like, 'Oh, well, that must keep you busy.'
" 'Oh, yeah. You wouldn't believe it. Nine to five every day. A lot of people hate you.' "
When told that vitriol doesn't abound in cyberspace, Grosz is quick to correct. "You'll be surprised. There's a couple of sponsored links if you [type] in 'death to Pete and T.J.' "
Adds Jagodowski, "Related products. 'This gun only shoots Pete and T.J.' "
Haters aside, viewers are apparently responding to Sonic's wacky spots. (Another series features Second City's Molly Erdman and actor Brian Huskey).
Sonic says sales at individual franchises have risen each year since the ads started running. More tellingly, the Grosz and Jagodowski recently inked a contract that keeps them locked in until April. After that, who knows?
"I would assume that at some point they'll start doing other commercials in tandem with us so that if we disappear, they'll have something else going," Grosz says. "But I don't do strategy for an ad agency. I just make up jokes about tater tots."
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/718278,CST-FTR-sonic29.article
Chicago's Sonic Guys do their pitching from a car
December 29, 2007
BY MIKE THOMAS mthomas@suntimes.com
Chicago-trained improvisers Peter Grosz and T.J. Jagodowski have thriving careers in acting, writing and directing. But to much of America, they're known simply as the Sonic Guys.
Since January 2002, they've starred in more than 100 ads for the Oklahoma-based Sonic drive-through fast-food chain, which currently has no outposts in the Chicago area (the closest are in Champaign and Kokomo, Ind.) but plans to open some here in the spring. Sonic operates 3,300 restaurants in 35 states and is growing rapidly.
Thanks in part, no doubt, to the Sonic Guys and their silly shilling.
The ads are pulled from improvisation the two dudes do while sitting in a car at a Sonic drive-through and riffing on a variety of topics, including whatever they're supposed to be pushing. When dialogue reaches an especially goofy pinnacle, the shot is freeze-framed with an accompanying smacking sound and superimposed with large red lettering advertising the product of the moment.
It's the stylized equivalent of yelling "Scene!" onstage during improv.
"I don't think we're famous," says the formerly Chicago-based Grosz, 33, who now lives in New York and writes for Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" (although lately he's been picketing instead during the ongoing writers strike.) "I think we get recognized. We're fame-adjacent. We're nipping around the edges of the famous pie. And then we get swatted away by some matronly grandmother."
Says Jagodowski, 36, who's Chicago-based, "I'm always ready for people to dislike [the ads], but the people who've been nice enough to come up in person have always been at least neutral if not complimentary. Which is nice, 'cause I'm usually ready to hear, 'You guys are so dumb.' "
Imitators can be found on YouTube following a recent competition to see who could make the best amateur Sonic ad. (There's even an awards ceremony hosted by Grosz and Jagodowski from inside their car.)
Industry insiders are taken with the ads, too. The trade journal Advertising Age recently gushed: "For all our endless railing against the values of entertainment overshadowing the values of selling, what most excites us is when great dialogue and great acting [and direction and editing] combine with a great premise to produce a great commercial," the paper said. "Or, better yet, a great campaign. Doesn't happen very often. Unless you live in the Sun Belt, in which case it happens many times daily, every time a Sonic ad comes on."
But not everyone digs their dynamic.
"Pete and I went down to the main headquarters one time in Oklahoma City," Jagodowski remembers, "and we're just kind of meeting the folks there and this woman walked up. I believe her name was Mary. And we're like, 'Oh, hi, Mary.' She goes, 'Hello. I handle all your hate mail.' And, jokingly, we were like, 'Oh, well, that must keep you busy.'
" 'Oh, yeah. You wouldn't believe it. Nine to five every day. A lot of people hate you.' "
When told that vitriol doesn't abound in cyberspace, Grosz is quick to correct. "You'll be surprised. There's a couple of sponsored links if you [type] in 'death to Pete and T.J.' "
Adds Jagodowski, "Related products. 'This gun only shoots Pete and T.J.' "
Haters aside, viewers are apparently responding to Sonic's wacky spots. (Another series features Second City's Molly Erdman and actor Brian Huskey).
Sonic says sales at individual franchises have risen each year since the ads started running. More tellingly, the Grosz and Jagodowski recently inked a contract that keeps them locked in until April. After that, who knows?
"I would assume that at some point they'll start doing other commercials in tandem with us so that if we disappear, they'll have something else going," Grosz says. "But I don't do strategy for an ad agency. I just make up jokes about tater tots."