A freelance copywriter sneaks in the front door.

I approached Kelly-Moore directly because they were based in my home town and I thought I could create and produce better radio ad scripts than they were airing.

They had a little jingle tag:
“Kelly-Moore! We help you do it right. We’re the painter’s paint store!”

This was their thrilling conclusion to radio spots in which an announcer simply read off the week’s sale items and their prices. They ran the same list in newspapers. That pretty much tells you how much use they were making of radio as a medium.

They agreed to a meeting, liked me and my samples, and asked me to come up with something better.

There was a benefit or two suggested in their jingle tag, so I questioned them about that and it did turn out their store employees are quite knowledgeable and helpful and many professional painters buy Kelly-Moore.

Their jingle jangled my imagination.

So I kicked around several ideas that might communicate how helpful the folks at K-M are and how good their paint is. But I thought it would be fresher and more attention-getting to not just brag about their staff and products. I wanted to dramatize it.

And this led me to my first campaign based on an ongoing character, Tim Dauber.

Tim Dauber gets to acknowledge K-M’s benefits without being a shill or spokesman.

How?

Tim Dauber’s secret to getting his way in life is to avoid K-M paint stores with their great advice and top quality paints.

When his wife wants her parents to come for a visit, he just keeps on miss-painting the guestroom with his lack of know-how and poor quality paint.

‘Oops, I’m so not sorry.’

He’s got an aptitude for using his painting ineptitude to get out of family vacations, selling the house, and anything else he wants to manipulate.

All he’s got to do is stay away from Kelly-Moore, or he’d have no excuse for the way things always go his way.

Here’s the first radio spot I scripted to set up the premise…

Tim Dauber’s Radio Debut:

“Guestroom”

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You can start to see how this is going to play out as Tim tries his worst to escape an impending family vacation…

Tim Dauber Lays It on Thick:

“A Dauber Family Vacation” 

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So now the campaign got rolling and I had to keep cooking up situations for Tim to cook up a way out of…All while pushing Kelly-Moore’s sound advice and great paint.  BTW, a 5-sceond tag at the end of each spot gave live announcers a chance to plug the paints on sale that week.

Wonder what would happen if Claire wanted to sell the house and Tim didn’t…