When our client, Pinch A Penny Pool Supply asked for 6 second preroll using one of the inflatable characters from our ongoing campaign, we jumped at the chance.

Enter Paulie, a wise-cracking Parrot who'll tell you all about how difficult pools were back in his day. His stinging one-liners were a perfect way to quickly dramatize all the different pool products and services available from the retailer. 

But we didn't stop there. Taking advantage of a new type of media buy, we ran "POD takeovers" during Fox Sports baseball games in the Florida market. A commercial break would begin with what appeared to be a straightforward :15 Pinch A Penny spot, only to be interrupted by the our cantankerous bird character. From that point he would appear in between all the other ads in the pod in quick :05 ads, turning a :30 single spot buy into the only thing you remembered from the break.   

This inventive collection of mini ads interrupting other ads represented a real first. Royal Caribbean had used a highly-stylized takeover, but this was the first time humor was used in this emerging TV format. Something Paulie himself would likely scoff at but that made us pretty proud at how it turned out.