I’ve been wanting to write about Apple’s iPhone commercials here at Voice Overs of the World for a long time, not just because I love the iPhone, but because they’ve always been great commercials with really terrific voice overs. I’ve never been able to settle on exactly which ad to write about, though, but now Apple has thrown something new at us in terms of the voice overs, so I knew the time was right.

First off, above is one of the traditional iPhone ads. These have been airing since 2007, and they’re largely known for their catchphrase, “There’s an app for that.” I’ve always really enjoyed the voice overs in these commercials; I appreciate the kind of laid-back, casual approach that the voice actor delivers. You know, it’s not that long ago that this type of ad would have featured a deep voiced male announcer proclaiming, “THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!”

Apple and the commercial’s producers, however, picked a voice that represented the generation that buys the iPhone, and he just sort of tells you about what makes the phone neat instead of commanding you to buy it. So these are great ads, but up until now they’ve been dominated solely by a male voice.

Well, that’s all changed now due to two new commercials from Apple for the iPhone that feature female VO talent. In the first one, we learn about how the iPhone has helped a mom make family vacations so much better. She has a similar delivery style to the “traditional” iPhone ad: laid-back, casual, interesting. She sounds like a bright-eyed, cheerful mom and I find her voice over to be easy to listen to and engaging.

She even gets a little sarcasm in there when she says, “So WE turned out the lights.” Fun!

In the second new ad, we have a slightly different approach. This voice over is slightly less carefree and a little bit more impressed. The woman who’s talking about the iPhone is obviously amazed by its abilities and is sharing with us how bowled over she is by the ways she was able to share her baby taking his first steps.

I love how much you can hear the smile in her voice throughout the entire piece; it’s really top-notch work. What’s also interesting about this spot is the two additional voices that come in just at the the end of the commercial, including a male voice who has just one word to say: “Oops!”

Probably not the hardest voice over gig that guy’s ever had!

Olympic fever has gripped the world, and we here at Voice Coaches are just as excited about the games as anyone. Every day since the Olympics started, there’s been water cooler talk about the previous night’s events, and there hasn’t been an unexciting evening yet. I thought it would be fun to take a look at a few really terrific commercials from the Olympics that feature some truly outstanding voice overs.

The first commercial above is a terrific piece from Molson Canadian, and boy, does it ever evoke a sense of national pride. Sure, the nation represented in the commercial is Canada, but since we love our neighbors to the north, I just had to share this great spot with you. I really, really love the voice over in this ad. The voice actor behind this commercial delivers a perfectly rugged, slightly bombastic (yet with a sense of humor) “rah rah, Canada!” high energy rant about why Canadians are “the way they are.”

I think my favorite line from this brilliantly written piece is “We have more square feet of awesomeness per person than any other nation on earth.” And the way the voice actor delivers that line, you believe him 100%. By the end of the piece, between the sweeping music and the cheerleading voice over, you feel proud as heck to be a Canadian.

Even if you aren’t one.

Normally I don’t spotlight celebrity voice overs here in Voice Overs of the World, but, come on, this is Morgan Freeman we’re talking about. For this year’s Olympics, he’s voiced a whole ad campaign made up of numerous commercials for Visa, all of which feature that deep, rich, memorable voice. But this is the one that stands out the most for me. Sure, Dan Jansen’s story is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, but Freeman delivers it just perfectly. While most of the other commercials are upbeat, even humorous spots, this one requires some subtlety and real emotion.

By the end of this 30-second spot, due to the combination of the story, the music, and — of course — the voice over, I’m about ready to well up with tears. That’s a pretty impressive feat for a credit card commercial to accomplish.

Finally, this commercial for Hudson’s Bay Clothing is another terrific example of a more dramatic voice over. Unlike the Morgan Freeman narration above, which tugs at your heart strings, this spot really goes for a sense of history and pride. The voice actor is pitch perfect throughout; he’s got an incredible voice, and he really conveys a sense of having been there for the past 340 years’ worth of history.

What’s interesting is if you compare this ad to the Molson Canadian ad above, they’re similar in terms of the sweeping, dramatic background music used. So isn’t it amazing how utterly unlike each other the two ads feel thanks to two very talented but very different voice actors?

When it comes to your voice over career, simply use the same mentality as the world’s olympians: go for the gold!

Without a doubt, the Super Bowl is responsible for some of the most innovative and talked-about advertising on television every year. But it’s also a hot spot for some really terrific voice over work. While an overwhelming majority of the commercials in last night’s game featured voice overs in some capacity, I’ve selected a few to look at here in Voice Overs of the World that really feature extensive VO as an integral part of the ad.

Traditionally, this Hyundai Sonata ad isn’t one I would spotlight here as it uses a celebrity voice, but since Hyundai ran three or four ads last night, I knew some of you out there would be wracking your brains trying to figure out who it was. Yes, folks, that is indeed Oscar-nominated actor Jeff Bridges providing the voice for the Hyundai commercials. Give the man credit, though; he does deliver a terrific VO. (I guess that’s why he gets nominated for all those awards!)

Another ad with a celebrity voice, I’m highlighting this Skechers ad for a different reason. Sure, Joe Montana lends his voice to the ad as a celebrity endorsee (and as a lifelong 49ers fan, of course a part of me was very excited to hear from Joe M.), but boy, he really doesn’t have a lot of talent in the voice over arena, does he? Listen to how flat and lifeless his delivery is. This is a clear case of the celebrity name being much more important than the talent said celebrity brings to the piece. (In fact, there’s a Wheaties Fuel commercial that debuted last week with an equally weak VO by Peyton Manning.)

But right next to big Joe’s terrible performance, we have two non-celebrity voice overs at work, “Lisa” and “Nina.” Both of these voice actors do a lot in the very short time they’re given, delivering their testimonials with energy and believability, while sounding like real people instead of paid voice actors. On top of all that, there’s a Skechers-style announcer thrown into the mix. Not bad; four voice overs in a 15-second spot.

Cars.com’s “Timothy Richmond” ad is the third in a series of commercials that they’ve done over the past three Super Bowls, each one introducing us to a somewhat extraordinary (yet ordinary) person. While I think the payoff of the commercial doesn’t live up to humor and cleverness of the first 3/4ths of it, I do really enjoy the voice over in the spot. It’s got a neat vibe to it; a cross between documentary narration and a heartfelt, personal piece, as if the narrator personally knows Timothy Richmond. It’s a well-done commercial for the most part, and at a minute long versus the traditional 30-second Super Bowl commercial, that’s a pretty significant VO credit for that actor to add to his demo.

I have to admit, I got a really big kick out of this Dodge “Man’s Last Stand” commercial, in which various men stare off into the distance, slack-jawed, while their “inner voice” extols all the sacrifices they make on a daily basis (”I will watch your vampire TV shows” is my favorite line!) so that they can drive the car they want to drive. I think it’s an interesting choice to use just one voice actor for the spot, rather than trying to give each guy on screen a unique voice, but I think it’s effective as it gets across that sort of shared experience that many men have. Sure, your job, relationship, and daily chores might not be perfect, but at the end of the day, you get to drive this cool truck.

The actor’s delivery reminded me a lot of Michael C. Hall’s voice overs in Showtime’s hit show Dexter, and it turns out there’s a good reason for that: it is Micheel C. Hall. I can see why the commercial’s producers chose him for this spot; he has this fascinating style of delivery that is somehow both completely monotone and extremely expressive, and this commercial manages to tap into that perfectly. Again, another one-minute ad that’s very effective and relies heavily on its voice over to get its point across.

Ahh… E-Trade. I’ve resisted writing about these talking baby commercials for a long time, mostly because there’s so many of them that I didn’t know where to start. But since they did advertise in the Super Bowl and they do rely extensively on voice over, I felt like this was a good chance to bring them up. There were a couple of E-Trade commercials during the game, but this was the one I liked the best.

There’s no denying that these talking baby e-trade ads do have some great voice over work in them. The “main baby” that’s in most of their ads is always terrific, and I do like the way he manages to sound like a bit of a player here, the titular “wolf” of the ad. He always manages to have that cocky, self-sure attitude that resonates solely through the voice actor’s delivery, since it’s not like the baby himself is giving much of a performance (not that isn’t computer-enhanced, anyway.) But the female voice actor in the piece is equally as funny in my book, portraying a nice sense of baby jealousy over, “That milk-aholic, Wendy.” Then you get a third voice actor coming in at the end with, “Milka-what?!?” I would have love to have seen that actor’s face when she got her script… and the one word on it!

Finally, we have the ad for Universal Studios’ new Harry Potter theme park, which features a wonderfully wizardly voice over. With a British accent that’s not too strong but clearly captures the feel of the Harry Potter world, the actor clearly conveys that sense of wonder that I like so much (and that I wrote a whole column about a few weeks ago.) This was pretty different than most Super Bowl ads this year (or any year, for that matter), and so it stood out to me quite a bit, especially considering that VO drives the whole spot.

So there you have it, six of the most prominent uses of voice over in a Super Bowl that was filled with great examples. While on the whole I found this year’s advertisements a bit disappointing in terms of entertainment value, I was thrilled to see how much voice over work was generated by a single sporting event.

What were your favorite commercials and voice overs from this year’s game?

There’s an old Hollywood adage that states that actors should never work with children or animals. That may or may not be true, but playing an animal has gotten many a voice over actor a job in the past. In today’s Voice Overs of the World, I want to look at some really fun advertisements with some great voice overs that all showcase animals in one way or another.

The first video is a really clever series of commercials from the Minnesota State Lottery. There are actually seven commercials total, and they’re all included in the video above. These are really pretty brilliant in my opinion, and you’ve gotta love the amount of voice over talent utilized for these spots. (And presumably, they’re all from Minnesota, proving once again that there is lucrative VO work to be found just about anywhere!)

Now, if I went through each of these commercials voice by voice, we’d be here all day, but I do want to point out a few highlights. I really love the over-caffeinated hamsters in the third commercial. That ditzy, run-on sentence style of delivery really gets the point across. Obviously, there was probably a little bit of post-production help added to speed the voices up a little, but the delivery is still great. Especially the one hamster’s annoying laugh at the end. I can only imagine what the voice actor behind that role had to go through in the booth; she probably recorded different variations of that laugh a couple dozen times.

I also really enjoy the fourth commercial a lot. What’s interesting to me is that the female voice actor has to sound like she’s eating the whole time, and I’m trying to imagine if she actually had something in  her mouth while recording or if she just had to try to simulate the sound with her own voice. Either way, I’m sure it was a challenge to deliver a good read and sound like she was eating through the entire thing, but she pulled it off quite nicely here.

In the fifth commercial I really enjoy the frazzled office worker who can’t transfer a call. Besides the fact that I can relate because I can never transfer a call without hanging up on someone, the voice actor has a cool kind of Michael J. Fox/Dave Foley-sounding voice and he really brings to life that sense of panic that only a botched office situation can bring about.

In the final commercial, all of the voices are great, but I just wanted to point out the number of voices in a 30-second spot. I count no less than SEVEN different voice actors in just that one commercial! Eight, actually, if you count the narrator who comes in at the end, which is the one constant voice throughout the series of commercials. I like the narrator’s voice a lot, too. Combined with the upbeat, swinging music, it has a cool, jazzy vibe to it that really livens up the commercials in contrast to the boring everyday hamster life they portray.

Well done, Minnesota Lottery!

The second video above is a combination of two distinct voice overs: a narrator, and a different voice actor portraying a dog. The piece starts with a terrific upper-crust British-accented voice, describing the obviously-fake Doggie Dentures. The actor captures that perfect sort of BBC documentary approach that almost makes you think this piece is serious at first.

Then the music shifts subtly, and we get to hear things from the dog’s point of view: “You’re kidding… right?” I really like the voice the producer chose for the dog; it’s not a dopey, over-the-top voice, just a regular, everyday voice. (I think he actually sounds quite a bit like David Duchovny, personally, although I doubt that’s what the producers were going for.) Also, listen for that implied thought in his delivery (”Just… give me Dentastix.) that makes the piece sound so conversational, a nice contrast to the voice over that comes before it.

This last commercial doesn’t actually have any talking animals, but it does have lots of talking about animals. I’m can’t say for sure who the voice actor in this spot is, but I can tell you one thing: he sounds exactly like Mark Elliot. For those of you who don’t know, Mark Elliot has been the voice of Disney for many years now. Every time you hear a Disney commercial or trailer with that signature Disney sound (”Coming soon to Disney DVD and Blu-ray, all your favorite characters in an enchanting tale!”), that’s Mark Elliot. Now I’m not sure whether this is him or just a soundalike, but it’s clear that EA Games has made this trailer to emulate that Disney sound. From the dialogue (”Embrace all the adventure, fun, and mischief!”) to the delivery, it really captures the look, sound and feel of a classic Disney commercial, and I think the overall effect is both clever and effective.

So while it may remain true that as an actor, you may not want to work with kids or animals, working as a kid or an animal can clearly pay off quite nicely!

Recently, I’ve been seeing a great Dr. Pepper advertisement on TV that I wanted to spotlight here. Of course, that spurred me to do a little research to see if I could find any great voice overs from soda giants Coke and Pepsi as well. What I got was a little bit of a history lesson, as well as some great voice over examples!

I really love this Dr. Pepper commercial. Not only do they capture the style of the classic Rankin-Bass stop motion animation Christmas specials of the 1960s, but there are some great voice overs at work here as well. The concept of the commercial is terrific, with A Diet Dr. Pepper delivery man in an “I Exist” support group along with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, a leprechaun, a fairy, an alien, and the Abominable Snowman.

The voice actor behind the delivery guy’s voice is a pretty average, everyday voice but he gives a convincing delivery of being frustrated at people not believing him. The Easter Bunny is also terrific, portraying the character as zany and off the wall (mad as a hatter, perhaps?). It cracks me up the way he says, “THAT is good!” But my favorite delivery is that of Santa Claus. His slightly British accent and deep tone of voice really brings the character to life, and I think the talent behind him did a fantastic job. I especially like when he says, “What do you know about it, new guy?” Not the Santa we all know and love, that’s for sure!

Next up, we have an intriguing Coca-Cola commercial from a few years back. I don’t remember ever seeing this one on TV, but it’s pretty darn cool. Visually, this is an intriguing ad, but what caught my attention was the sheer number of voice over actors involved. I count no less than 10 different voices in the commercial; that’s a lot of VO work for a one-minute spot. Keep in mind that it’s not just the commentators and news people that are voice overs, either; everything down to the helicopter pilot’s semi-distorted transmission was created in a recording studio.

I think the talent involved did a great job of capturing that “news anchor” feel, while the main female scientist who discusses the cans and compares them to humpback whales captures a nice air of intelligencia, while still managing to sound like she’s being interviewed. It’s a visually striking commercial that is successful because you don’t even think about how many voice actors were involved in putting it all together until you stop to analyze it.

I do wish the commercial had a better ending, though. It seems like there was more to the story of these giant cans, but I digress, as that has nothing to do with voice overs!

Finally, I found a great throwback ad from Pepsi from back in the 1960s. What I like about this ad is that it’s a really great example of the announcer-style voice that used to be the norm back in the day. We talk about this pretty extensively here at Voice Coaches; this narration typifies the style of delivery that was used almost exclusively back in the ’50s and ’60s. Today, of course, as I’ve tried to show here at Voice Overs of the World, there is such a broad range of voices doing commercials and narratives that it’s truly amazing to think it all came from this once-omnipresent style of delivery. (Though I do love how credible he makes it sound when he says, “People who think young say, ‘Pepsi please!’”)

Oh, how far we’ve come!

For this week’s Voice Overs of the World, I want to look at the advertising for the EA Sports Active Game for the Nintendo Wii (hereafter called simply the Wii Active, as it’s commonly known). Below is the full-length commercial for the game, and I think it has some rather neat voice over aspects to it.

First off, I think it’s important to realize that not every woman you see on screen is the same woman who’s providing the voice. This commercial was probably cast in two separate sessions: an on-camera casting call for women who fit the “fitness profile” that EA Sports/Nintendo was looking for, and separate casting for the Voice Overs, in which they found the women who’s voices represented the physical versions on screen to their utmost potential and had the creative skills to deliver their line the way the producers wanted it. Just because a woman on screen is in shape and looks great while exercising doesn’t mean she can deliver well-read copy. Now, I’m not saying that maybe some of these women didn’t appear on camera and provide their own voice over, but chances are really good that who you’re hearing and who you’re seeing are not the same person.

I like the different deliveries each of the voices provide, too. From the playful tone of “I’m active… for date night” to the confidence of “I’m active… for me,” each voice actor brings a little something different to their single line. I was also impressed that the “narrator” voice that comes in at the end that says, “EA Sports’ Active: A personalized workout program for the Wii,” is a woman. While the video game in this ad is clearly being marketed to women, it’s a game that men can play, too.

Keep in mind that EA sports has one of the most famous voice overs on TV, with the “EA Sports: It’s in the Game” tagline that finishes every commercial they do (you can hear it above!). So to come in here and change that well known tagline to something more feminine is a strong strategy, and the talent behind that part of the commercial has a cool, slightly raspy kind of voice; she sounds sporty and confident, and that’s clearly what EA Sports & Nintendo are trying to appeal to here.

Finally, I should point out the voice acting in the game itself. I’ve been using this game at home with my wife to work out, and the entire game is filled with voice over.

From the instructional tutorials before each exercise to the voice of the fitness guru who leads you through each exercise (spouting such nuggets as “Way to go, player 2!”) there is a lot of VO in this game. We’ve personally only heard the female voice so far (probably because my wife is the main profile in the game), but I understand that with a man as the primary profile, the voice over and tutorial instruction is all provided by a male voice. All in all, it’s a pretty comprehensive project that probably involved quite an intensive recording session — or more likely, several sessions!