These new commercials for Blue Cross and Blue Shield are quite good. Sweet and moving, they`re graced by delightful piano music in the background and a wistful voiceover. The tiny verbs and nouns underscore the tiny visual moments, adding up to something almost profound. But for those wondering what would follow the Reagan era`s ”morning-again-in-America” ad style, here`s the answer. This is a ”kinder, gentler” Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
Of course, this is the work of Hal Riney & Partners. Riney is Mr. Morning himself, and his voice is what identifies both styles. With meaningful gravel embedded in his tones, he`s able to clip short, single-syllable words into staccato bits of poetry. Combine that voice with simple, beautiful images, and the spots hit the eye and ear and cut to the gut.
That`s a quick, foolproof way to deliver emotion, and it works in promoting a president, Perrier or private health care.
These are 60-second spots that cover such basics as ”Kids,” ”Wedding” and ”Dawn.” The first is a veritable child-fest. The last starts with Riney saying, ”Another day dawns, and with it come faces to be scrubbed, pets to be let out. It`s a time of quiet, when our dreams seem a little more within our reach.”
The direction and cinematography, by Leslie Dektor, is first-rate. Just when some shots seem to be veering into the baldly generic, we get an interesting detail, a genuinely spontaneous moment or a composition that`s quirkily off balance.
”Kids” is great looking, with a particularly compelling shot of a toddler looking into a pair of work boots. The weakest is ”Wedding.”
Interesting casting, lighting and composition aside, we`ve seen brides and grooms used to sell presidents, wine, beer, perfume and recently men`s disposable razors. Weddings always tug at the emotions, but it`s becoming a mechanical tug.
Yet underneath the sweet imagery and lulling voice and piano music, that is just the point here. The tagline for each spot is: ”It`s well worth having the piece of mind only this card brings. The one from Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Those who have it feel better than those who don`t.”
An underside of ”Morning Again in America” was that the funding for healthcare was slashed during the Reagan administration, leaving many people without it. Here the tagline turns the ”kinder, gentler” Blue Cross into a have-and-have-not message.
Certainly, these images are compelling and familiar. They speak of Bush family values, and they make us feel secure. But I would think the point would be to come up with a way of making it available to more employees and more people, or at least giving us that feeling, rather than reinforcing, through advertising, a separate class system for people who get superior care. Everyone can benefit from a ”kinder, gentler” spirit, if there is one out there.
