It's been my experience when a client voices their own ad, breaking it into short bursts interspersed with an announcer (in this campaign, one who's kind of a chowder head) tends to be more friendly to the ears of a casual listener. But occasionally it's good to let said client voice the whole thing. The caveat is making sure there's a fly in the ointment to keep the unpredictable campaign scenario going. In this sample I just had one voice part, which was minor. But, when you give the client palatable direction, they can pull it off and hopefully leave some members of the audience with a "sheepish" grin.

Promo from Kurt's archives... Kurt adds these notes: "As I continue going through the archives, I forgot about a series of popular promos (19 in all) I did for our weather provider (yes, you don't have to always be serious with weather promos). It helped personalize these folks based out of State College, Pennsylvania -- but also made 'em a little paranoid after one of our staffers at the time sent them samples of what I was doing."

Another option with this whole "making the client sound relatable" campaign I've been submitting has been to make said client the voice of reason in the midst of dealing with his dopey announcer. Nothing like bursting one's bubble to keep things from going totally off the rails...

This is a great idea submitted by Al Peterson. Al adds these notes: A consultant at the recent Talkers conference is telling station managers to create an on-air voice drop that says, "Hey Alexa ...(pause) ... play the [morning show podcast]!", complete with the mandatory pause that activates the data assistant. Alexa is already doing too much for lazy fat-assed Americans and she's fighting back! Fun to splice into some rotating fake "Hey Alexa!" promos on a rocker. FWIW, the voice came off this website: https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ -- with a little filtering and speaker distortion provided by a vintage copy of Cool Edit.

This entry won BEST IMAGING in the 27th RAP Awards this past year. Will Gary be back for his second Imaging trophy in the 28th Awards?

Excellent example of using the power of a jingle without having to spend thousands on a pro jingle production house. Find some good voices in your station and get creative!

Great spot from Kurt Kaniewski! Kurt adds these notes: I've been asked on numerous occasions, out of all the commercials I've ever perpetrated (quite a few over 30+ years) which was my favorite. Wow! Talk about a tough question. It's like asking a parent which kid is their favorite.Although it never aired, I'd have to go with this one. (Some clients have no sense of humor :o) Timing was a challenge and it HAD to be done in one take.