One-Minute Jesters Court Laughs and Listeners

This Los Angeles Radio Guide article about funny radio commercials from 1994 describes how Paul & Walt Worldwide and others are “eliciting guffaws” for radio listeners and “inspiring them not to change the station.”

Article transcribed from Los Angeles Radio Guide, 1994

BY COLLEEN GIBBS

Unlike most professionals in the broadcast business, radio ad writers hope that their listeners have a short attention span. They’re not after the patient symphony aficionado, the opera buff or the die hard fan of “In-A-Gadda-da-Vidda.” Ad creators crave a different type of audience.

“Just give me 60 seconds, and I will try to make you laugh,” says Paul Fey of Paul & Walt Worldwide.

Fey wants more than anything to surprise and delight listeners, eliciting a guffaw, a mirthful nod of recognition, and most significantly, inspiring them not to change the station during the commercial break.

Fey is one of the wits behind those clever radio ads.

“For 60 seconds at a time, I want to bring radio into the foreground of listeners; consciousness. In fact, I want people to laugh out loud and say, ‘Hey, did you hear that?'”

Fey’s elaborate ads are certainly the attention-getting type. As one half of the production company Paul & Walt Worldwide, which he operates with partner Walt Jaschek, Fey is one of the guilty pranksters behind memorable spots for Miller Genuine Draft, Southwestern Bell Mobile System, GM Parts and Bud Light.

In a spot for Bud, the listener is sucked into the mind of a narrator who describes his eerie, Twlight-Zone-type surroundings.

“I was in a room with curved walls and only a dim light at the top,” the ad begins, accompanied by cavernous sound effects. After 55 seconds of dramatic depiction, the listener realizes the narrator is a Bud Light beer.

In addition to grabbing attention, Paul & Walt’s ad earned a lion’s share of industry awards – nearly 400 of them, including five Ollies (the Oscars of the ad world.) Fey calls this success “world-class advertising” and defines it as commercials on par with the very best radio comedy or drama.

Fey’s criteria for great radio is high. He grew up with his ear glued to the stereo, devouring and digesting thousands of hours of Monty Python skits. This influence is apparent in the hyperbolically silly but highly polished spots that evoke preposterous visual tableaux.

“Like really great radio, a great ad succeeds despite the fact that you can’t fall back on a visual, as with TV,” he said. “In fact, really great ads are great because your mind is able to fill in and make a mental picture many times more vivid than an actual one.”

For Paul & Walt, world-class radio ads consist of equal measures of timing and talent, liberally sprinkled with a daredevil willingness to boldly go where no ad has gone before.

For their radio promotional spots for Fox’s “Star Trek: the Next Generation,” the team regularly poked reckless, wicked fun at Captain Jean-Luc Picards’s stalwart, dignified character. One ad called “We’re Shaving Our Heads” features zesty testimonials from “Star Trek” fans who are happily shaving their heads in a fit of zeal over the show’s syndicated run.

Fey embraces self-deprecating humor in his projects, as well. Some of the ads even ridicule the business of advertising.

For 20th Television, a spot for “Doogie Howser, M.D.” launches straight into a rousing, big-band number, with Andrews Sisters wannabes sining about the new dance craze, the Doogie Boogie Woogie. An earnest voice-over apologizes for the elaborate musical ruse, but there is really no new dance craze, only desperate writers who couldn’t find anything else to rhyme with Doogie.

“It’s hip to be able to laugh at yourself,” Fey said. “It demonstrates that you are confident enough to point out weaknesses. If I have the freedom to allow the consumer to have foibles, so much the better.”

Sometimes, Fey admits, world-class raw material is quite literally written all over the product.

“The Simpsons” provided Paul & Walt with one of their most memorable spots, fashioned after a classical poetry reading. It featured the resonant, velvet voice of Robert Goulet reciting the blackboard writing of young Bart Simpson.

“I will not trade pants with others,” Goulet intones. “I will not eat things for money. I will not Xerox my butt.”

The list goes on, over a background of chamber music, finishing with, “I will not call the principal Spud-Head.”

Los Angeles Radio Guide, December, 1994

“Former Current Editors Inducted Into St. Louis Hall of Fame” – UMSL Current Article

The Current, the student newspaper at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, did its own take on the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame thing. Paul Fey and Walt Jaschek met there, and were back-to-back editors-in-chief of the Current in the 1970s. Take a look at the fun article by Kat Riddler:

Former Current Editors Inducted Into St. Louis Hall of Fame.

Paul Fey & Walt Jaschek Inducted into St. Louis Media Hall of Fame

Paul Fey (left) and Walt Jaschek of Paul & Walt Worldwide at agency launch in 1991.

Paul Fey and Walt Jaschek, writers and producers of creative, award-winning national radio campaigns, were inducted into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame on March 17, 2018.

The St. Louis Media History Foundation inducted 20 other individuals into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame that night, as well. More than 200 people attended a downtown gala at which the honors were bestowed. 

Individually and together, Paul and Walt have reputations for creating high-impact, industry-admired advertising campaigns. They teamed up in 1991 to create Paul & Walt Worldwide, the radio commercial boutique agency and production company, and their work quickly won CLIOS, ADDYs and many other awards for national brands. Paul served as Paul & Walt Worldwide President; Walt served as Executive Creative Director. The agency had offices in Hollywood, California and St. Louis. Here they are in front of just a few of their industry awards.

Paul is now President and Chief Creative Officer of World Wide Wadio in Hollywood.  Walt is now writing comedy and comics at Walt Now Entertainment. Both men are St. Louis natives and continue to collaborate frequently.

See Paul Fey’s profile in the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame.

See Walt Jaschek’s profile in the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame.

Paul & Walt home | About Paul & Walt | Paul & Walt Radio Playlist

 

Paul & Walt ad agency lands slew of awards for “Simpsons” commercials: article in the Los Angeles Business Journal

This article by Dan Turner originally appeared in the Los Angeles Business Journal on July 3, 1995.

Paul & Walt ad agency lands slew of awards for “Simpsons” commercials

Warning: Do not drink coffee in your car while listening to the radio in the morning. If Paul & Walt Worldwide ad for “The Simpsons” comes on, you might spit steaming java all over the dashboard.

The Hollywood-based advertising agency has won a suitcase full of awards for its radio campaign promoting the Fox-TV animated series “The Simpsons,” including the $20,000 Gold Award for Huor at the recent Radio Mercury Awards held in New York City.

In case you haven’t heard it, the ad features Robert Goulet reading from “The Writings of Bart,” which are the blackboard writings by Bart Simpson seen in the opening sequence of each episode. Over a background of classical music, Goulet’s dulcet voice recites such Bartisms as, “I will not Xerox my butt” and “I will not eat things for money.”

Paul & Walt was founded by Paul Fey, who added Walt Jaschek as a partner in 1991. Fey says he went into the niche of radio ads because most ad agencies were ignoring it, and the business was being controlled by a handful of old-fashioned firms.

“We kind of bill ourselves as the next generation of great radio,” says Fey, 39. “We give it a perspective that’s 20 years younger.”

The word about Paul & Walt is apparently getting out: the company has doubled in size in the last two years and is moving out of its old downtown L.A. office into a larger facility that includes two-state-of-the-art recording studios, Fey says.

– Dan Turner

2019 update: Paul Fey now runs World Wide Wadio in Hollywood, California. Walt Jaschek now runs Walt Now Entertainment in St. Louis. The two continue to collaborate on… radio.

Paul & Walt Worldwide Converting Ears to Eyes: Article by Southern California Broadcasters Association

This article first appeared in Call Letters, the member newsletter of the Southern California Broadcaster Association, in Fall, 1991.

Paul & Walt Worldwide just completed a Fall Sweeps radio campaign promoting CBS-TV, including hit show “Murphy Brown.” Candice Bergen and cast, above.

Paul & Walt Worldwide Converting Ears to Eyes

A Southern California ad agency with the unlikely name of Paul & Walt Worldwide created a “huge radio extravaganza” recently, included appearances by the Temptations, Candice Bergen, Connie Chung and the stars of Designing Women to help client CBS-TV score a major upset, winning its first Fall Sweeps ratings victory in Southern California in six years.

The radio “theatre of the mind” – which recently won a SUNNY for best television promotion – featured a cast of thousands and two CBS-TV sportscasters describing the action with Connie Chung playing the saxophone and the Temptations executing simultaneous backflips. The spots also featured the stars of Designing Women in a dazzling exhibition of synchronized swimming.

“This was a perfect opportunity,” says partner Paul Fey, “to make a major effort on radio and use the medium for what it does so well: utilize the listeners’ imaginations.

CBS-TV made a major commitment to win the Fall premiere week and sweeps battle with new programming and promotion after finishing poorly for several years. The company made the biggest radio campaign in history as part of the massive, multi-media drive.

To tie in with the television campaign, CBS-Tv saturated Southern California radio over Labor Day weekend. Paul & Walt produced eight related radio spots built around a fictional event: the “CBS Get Ready Weekend.”

The agency’s two principals, Paul Fey and Walt Jaschek, had separate, successful ad careers prior to joining forces as Paul & Walt Worldwide. Fey began his career at CBS-owned KMOX-TV, St, Louis, creating radio for the station’s audience promotion efforts. Jaschek was simultaneously working as Creative Director for a Colorado ad agency. By 1982 they were each winning national awards. Since then, they’ve won more than 300.

“Walt and I met in 1974 in college when we were both journalism majors and worked on the college newspaper together,: says Walt Jaschek. “Paul used to collect Dick Orkin and Alan Barzman radio spots, and I would ask him, ‘When are we going to great stuff like that?'”

When Paul Fey was writing and producing alone, he was getting job offers from CBS stations who were aware of his work for KMOX. “I didn’t really want to do the same thing in L.A. or New York,” he says. “I really wanted to hold out just enough, to go into business for myself and work for all them. I did that in 1985, and within a few months I was a one-man shop, writing and producing and doing most of my work in Los Angeles. The business was growing fast and needed some help.”

Fey’s school chum Walt, having moved back to St. Louis to become an advertising manager for Southwestern Bell, eventually realized his goal of free-lancing.

The two joined forces fives years ago when Paul got a huge assignment. Since that time Walt has become the full-time writer and Paul participates in concept work and takes care of the business and production end. 

In addition to CBS-TV, the agency does creative work for King Word (distributors of “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy”,) Warner Bros. and Anheuser-Busch.

“We love working in radio,” says partner Jaschek. “It lets us supply endless visuals and the listener completes the pictures we create.”

“The only downside to doing radio,” adds Fey, “is that you can’t convince the client that the radio spot has to be done on location in Hawaii like you can with a TV spot.”

2019 update: Paul Fey now runs World Wide Wadio in Hollywood, California. Walt Jaschek now runs Walt Now Creative  in St. Louis. The two continue to collaborate on… radio. In the 2018, Paul & Walt were inducted into the St. Louis Media Hall of Fame.

“Behind Radio’s Zany Commercials”: Article on Paul & Walt Worldwide From Radio World

This article by Dee McVicker appeared in Radio World®, Vol. 17, No. 23, December 8, 1993.

Behind Radio’s Zany Commercials

by Dee McVicker

LOS ANGELES  

It has been said that a radio station is only as good as its commercials. That axiom has served Paul Fey and Walt Jaschek well.

Widely acclaimed for their sharp sense of humor, the team is nationally recognized as the creative genius behind a number of radio spots promoting the seasonal lineup of shows for TV networks.

Their client list includes King World, Warner Brothers Television, 20th Century Television and CBS Television Network. 

“If a commercial is boring and doesn’t hold their attention, we can’t blame them if they reach up and hit the button on the car radio,” said Paul Fey, founding partner of Paul & Walt Worldwide. “We want to stop them in their tracks.”

Fey and Jaschek have been on the laugh track since high school, winning some 400 awards for excellence in commercial production, including three Clios and two regional Emmys. The team walked award with the five Ollies in one evening, setting a record for the most awards won by one company in the Hollywood Radio & Television Society’s annual presentation.

One Ollie was presented for a Paul & Walt commercial, “Auditions,” in which Patrick Stewart is among the voices trying out for the part of Jean Luc Picard in “Star Trek.”

Of all the awards (which stream in at a rate of 50 a year), Fey is most partial to the team’s first Clio. Fey aspired to win a Clio since his high school years, and recalls vividly the magic feeling of creating the spot.

It was a radio ad featuring a “catalog” of types of laughter. “The whole spot was kind of invented on Walt’s front porch. It just sort of came out… It wrote itself,” he said.

What keeps this team on the leading edge? “We never want to get satisfied with doing the same thing,” Fey said, pointing out that too many comedy teams rely on formulaic humor.

“Once upon a time, and it wasn’t that long ago, funny dialogue radio spots were what broke through the clutter. Now, I feel that funny dialogue spots are becoming the clutter, because there is so much of it out there,” Fey said.

Radio in particular lends itself to production-oriented spots, where a hybrid of audio effects, humor and dialogue work together. “It’s much easier to do a gigantic-scale production on radio because a lot of it is letting people’s minds fill it in,” he said.

A recent Paul & Walt commercial for a cellular telephone carrier, for example, camped up the Beach Boys’ “I Get Around” with a polka beat accompanied by amusing dialogue, delivered in a deadpan voice:

“I get around, so I signed up for voice mail. I used to leery about sending voice mail. I wasn’t sure if I was putting enough stamps on it.”

As the music cut in and out abruptly, the deadpan voice again speaks up:

“Voice mail is easy. Think of it as rolling up a yellow sticky-note, jamming it into your cellular phone, and having it pop out somewhere else.”

Life begins for a Paul & Walt spot with an idea, either dreamed up by Fey, the production genius of the team, or Jaschek, the primary writer. Fey works from the Paul & Walt Worldwide office in Los Angeles, while Jaschek works from his office in St. Louis, the city where they both grew up.

They communicate through faxes and computer modems to tighten ideas, copy and production of radio ads.

The spot takes life in the imagination long before it is committed to tape. “It’s no exaggeration for me to say that I know exactly what a spot sounds like before it’s recorded,” Fey said. “The key is trying to put on tape what’s in my head.”

Paul & Walt fleshes out the characters, relying on a pool of creative talent from an audio studio in the same building as its Los Angeles office.

“People get accustomed to thinking of radio in a certain way,” said Fey, who claims the company owes its success to breaking those conventions. The plan for the future is to continue carving out new niches in radio commercials.

Paul & Walt Worldwide is now working on a project that Fey hopes will set a new milestone in how people perceive radio. He was mum about who the client is and the product, saying only that he is not bound to the conventions of 30 or 60 seconds for the spots.

“We’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do with radio,” he said.

Update, 2019: Paul currently runs World Wide Wadio in Hollywood. Walt runs Walt Now Entertainment in St. Louis. They both continue to collaborate on… radio.