Client: Bernie & Phyl’s
Agency: DeVito/Verdi
Creative Director/Copywriter: Rob Slosberg
Art Director: Matt Songer
Producer: Barbara Michelson
Editorial Company: TwoPointO
Editor: Anthony Marinelli
Executive Producer: Wendy Rosen
Voice-Over Talents: Rob Slosberg, Matt Songer, Anthony Marinelli
Stock Footage: Getty Images
Published: May 2018
Synopsis:
TwoPoint0 Partner/Editor Anthony Marinelli and Partner/EP Wendy Rosen have continued their successful collaboration with the creative team at DeVito/Verdi on a new round of spots for client Bernie & Phyl’s. The voices don’t sync and the aspect ratio is 4:3, but these predominantly black-and-white spots for Bernie & Phyl’s have been going strong for almost four years. The hilarious campaign has contributed to the success and growth of the family-run furniture store in and around the Massachusetts area since they first started airing.
With earlier spots in the campaign, we’ve seen a vintage ‘70s clip of a drunk woman tottering into the living room complaining about how her husband doesn’t let her shop at Bernie & Phyl’s, but she needs a new lamp, a new couch and an end table for her popcorn, right before stumbling and violently knocking over a table containing a bowl of popcorn. We’ve seen two guys from a 1950’s “B” moving fighting over a need for new furniture (“Look at that chair, it’s hideous!”), and in the latest campaign, a single shot panning across a row of telephone operators singing about how you should call Bernie & Phyl’s for “a table or a couch” but not because “our mouths are not in sync, it’s just a joke.” This is in response to phone calls that both the client and agency have received from people who don’t necessarily get “the joke.”
The sheer fun of creating these spots is not lost on Editor Anthony Marinelli. Along with Creative Director/Copywriter Rob Slosberg and Art Director Matt Songer, they not only collaborate closely, but also contribute all of the voices, both men and women (and sometimes animals), calling to mind the classic collaborations of Monty Python.