Quick. Get That Dog Some ALPO! Director John Zissimos Lets Dogs Be Dogs (Artists in Advertising)

If you've ever driven past the "D Hotel" on Highland Blvd in LA, you've probably done a double-take before realizing that it is not, in fact, a hotel for people. No, this Schrageresque monolith - with all its style and implied pampering - is a hotel for dogs...and it's only one of many stops on the "Quick. Get that Dog Some ALPO" tour, currently gracing YouTube.

Directed by John Zissimos of Fools and Horses, and appearing in :60 and 4:00 versions, "Quick. Get That Dog Some ALPO" follows a team of people armed with cans of ALPO and dedicated to letting dogs be dogs again, without the "doggie day cares and $50 chew toys."

Here, Zissimos offers some insights into his "dog-umentary" (or mock-dog-umentary?):

On his subjects: "These people love their dogs - they just pamper them so much," Zissmos reasons. "We wanted it to be funny, but this wasn't about making fun of people. I think all our subjects saw the humor in their own situations."

On his cast: "I wanted them to feel like real Alpo employees, as if they came up with this idea on their own and went off and made it," the director says. "Taking them to real places and allowing them to play those roles gave us the best chance for it to be fresh and not some scripted fake documentary. I wanted a sweet young girl, a dog-lover, someone who might work at a shelter on the weekends. For the guy, I wanted a big beef-eating kid from the Midwest running around with all these cases of Alpo. I always made our guy carry one more case than he could handle. It made for some great moments."

On the script: "I really didn't give the cast any info about what we were doing, so they discovered things as we went along," says Zissimos. "I wanted this to be about discovery, and inspired action." Zissimos himself had a plan of action, based on location scouting and script development with the agency. "We were never locked in, but we were strategic about our opportunities and that gave all of us the best chance to succeed at every location."

On the shoot: "John was full of surprises," says Fools and Horses Owner/EP Cyn Guzman. "We just had to have faith when he told us he would be operating the steadycam to avoid drawing too much attention to the camera the way handheld sometimes can. Though he had no prior experience, we knew he would pull it off to fulfill his vision. And he did."

On the ad biz: "When it comes to commercials," Zissimos says, "comedy and dialogue is what I love. I don't think there is any reason to interrupt your favorite show with drama - why depress people? You might as well make them laugh, and ultimately you want your audience to feel good about the company and the product." He cites his work on Mike's Hard Lemonade as a key moment for him. "I was trying to talk clients into that sort of thing for a long time, doing something that would look homemade and spur-of-the-moment. I love when someone can give me the freedom to just go off and make it happen. (CW) Dean Buckhorn was a model of the way I love to work on a shoot; he afforded me this wonderful room to be creative and to direct, and at the perfect moment he would come over with a gem of an idea that was hilarious - it was very inspiring."

On the ALPO song: "John was always prepared to wear many hats on this project, but I didn't even know he could sing or play the guitar," Fools and Horses Owner/EP, Shelly Townsend comments. "When he told me he had written a song over the weekend, I was blown away. When I first heard it...I was a little skeptical. It's more than a little quirky. But when we saw the piece cut to it, it just fit like a glove. This is really the kind of all-encompassing creative initiative that our business demands of a director these days, and it was a blast to see it in action."

Client: Purina's ALPO Brand Dog Food
Campaign Title: "Quick, get that dog some ALPO"

Agency: Fallon Minneapolis
Executive Creative Director: Al Kelly
Group Creative Director: Duane Johnson
Art Director: Dean Hanson Copywriter: Dean Buckhorn
Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo
Producer: Erin Glaus

Production Company: Fools and Horses
Director: John Zissimos
Director of Photography: John Zissimos
Executive Producer: Shelly Townsend/Cyn Guzman
Producer: Denny Kennedy
Editorial: Fallon Assembly Line/Fools and Horses
Editor: Jesse Thompson/John Zissimos

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