On a Monday morning, up in the Leo Burnett building, they looked like a couple of young advertising execs taking advantage of a corporate policy pushing on-the-job fitness. Casually dressed, they carried bulky gym bags into the elevator.
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There are other Vince and Larry clones on tour around the state, visiting public schools and county fairs. The actual number and gender of these Vinces and Larrys is a low-level state secret kept by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Leo Burnett–the corporation, not the guy (he’s dead now)–said that 66 percent of Americans were “aware of” Vince and Larry. Bartles & James, another couple of advertising beings, don’t rate that high. Nor does McGruff the Crime Dog, nor Morris the cat-food pusher. Better yet, 78 percent “like Vince and Larry very much.” That beats even Smokey the Bear. Born in 1985 as public-service creatures, Vince and Larry have starred in 27 TV spots preaching “Buckle Up, Don’t Be Dummies.”
In a new TV ad aimed at a different segment of the culture, Vince and Larry tour an art gallery. Inside an ornate frame, a pained “Moaning Lisa” stares aghast at her own severed hand. Buckle up, or else. Clever and macabre, the Vince and Larry spots employ humor very effectively, but according to Skipp Calvert, public affairs director for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, that approach goes nowhere in ads against drunk driving. Those spots have to be humorless to work.
