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!

In this week’s Voice Overs of the World, I want to take a look at Pop Secret’s new ad campaign. I have to admit that I really do love these commercials. Not only are they clever and funny, but they’re well-animated and feature some terrific voice overs. And the best part is, each commercial uses multiple characters, meaning that each one also provided work to multiple voice actors.

In the first commercial, a family of popcorn kernels are watching, of all things, The Dark Knight. There are four different voices at work here, and what I like is that the Mom and Dad characters are both normal, average, everyday voices. They could be you or me. These voice actors happened to fit the casting director’s idea of what a middle-aged mom and dad should sound like, but there’s really nothing unique or unusual about their voices. It goes to show that, more often than not, animation doesn’t require over-the-top character voices. Sure, some animated characters have crazy voices, but a lot of the supporting roles and such in animation are done by people with regular, everyday voices.

Then you have the grandmother and young Bobby getting into what basically amounts to a voice-over contest, as each one tries to out-impersonate the other as Batman. Obviously, these two voices were cast a little differently, as they needed to sound like a grandmother and a young child trying to impersonate Christian Bale as Batman. It’s very probable that the voice actors portraying those characters weren’t a grandmother or a young child, but they both do a terrific job.

The second commercial sees an oafish roommate completely obliviously muscling in on his friend’s date night. Again, the character of “Herb” (the kernel with the glasses) is a pretty average, everyday voice with just a hint of nerd-iness (or should that be ‘nerd-osity’?) thrown in for good measure. Meanwhile, the character of “Simon” is a definite character voice, with the actor in the role playing it big and over the top, which is just how it should be. Any roommate who would smash a bouquet of flowers with an umbrella just to re-enact a scene from a movie is clearly meant to be portrayed as a big, dumb oaf, and that’s exactly how he comes across.

Additionally, notice the tagline for the commercial, “For a great movie night, make it pop.” It’s just a single line, but the female voice actor has a nice, smooth tone of voice, and a delivery that conveys a touch of excitement and energy without being loud and booming. It’s actually a pretty sharp delivery.

Word has it that a third commercial from this ad campaign will pop up (pardon the pun) during this year’s Super Bowl. I can’t wait to see what creativity the voice actors bring to the table in that one. Keep your eyes peeled during the big game!

For this week’s edition of Voice Overs of the World, I wanted to look at a few examples from Geico’s new series of commercials. Geico has long used notable voice over work in their commercials, with their talking gecko campaign a huge hit that ran for several years. In their newest series of ads, various items that cause damage to cars such as tree branches, potholes, and even other cars are brought to life via some clever and well-acted voice overs.

What’s most interesting about the Geico commercial above is that it garnered some national attention in the pages of Parade Magazine just a couple of days ago. Included in most newspapers’ Sunday editions, Parade is one of the most widely read magazines in America. In the Personality Parade section appearing in the January 3rd issue, there was a question and answer about the voice behind the pothole. Here’s what Parade had to say:

“Q: Who is the voice of the pothole in the GEICO commercials?—M.W., Smyrna, Del.

A: We’ve heard a lot of wild guesses: Reese Witherspoon, Annie Potts, Emily Procter—even Britney Spears. Wrong! It’s voice-over actress Dayci Brookshire, 27, whose youthful, enthusiastic tones have landed her a lot of jobs: ‘I’ve played everything from a 5-year-old boy to the talking pothole to a British character, to whatever,’ the native North Carolinian says. Adaptability pays.”

Just goes to show you that all kinds of people are providing voices for commercials these days. Here we have a working voice actor from North Carolina (not New York or Los Angeles) providing the VO for a national commercial, and getting her name exposed to an entire nation of readers thanks to a question in Parade Magazine. Not too shabby.

In the second ad, we have a tree limb brought to life. This is a perfect example of good casting. Who knows what a tree limb might sound like? There were probably a number of delivery styles and voices that would have fit this piece, but I think this one’s a winner. With a somewhat shrill voice and a nondescript New York-type accent, the image of an obnoxious jerk is conjured pretty quickly. That’s only confirmed when the tree limb says, “What, you lookin’ for an apology? Well toss another coin in the wishin’ well, pal.”

Finally, in the third commercial, we get a talking bumper. Like the tree limb above, the bumper is another less-than-upstanding-citizen type character, who quickly tries to cover up how bad the damage from a fender bender is with some disingenuous compliments. This voice seems a little less like the maliciously obnoxious jerk that the tree limb is, and rather more like a simple, not-too bright slob. Rather than the voice giving the impression of a mean personality, the fender comes across more like a drunken sports fan.

What’s interesting about these ads is that they seem to be quite effective. I’ve had more than few conversations lately with people that have started with something like, “Hey, have you seen those Geico ads with the talking cars and stuff?” People seem to be remembering the ads (which is, of course, one of the admakers’ primary goals), and I think most of the credit for that goes right to the voice overs. Visually speaking, the ads don’t offer up a lot; what makes them memorable are the characters created for these inanimate objects thanks to some terrific voice acting.

As a side note, I’m also pretty sure that the voice that comes in at the end of each of the commercials that says, “Accidents are bad,” is Peter Cullen (best known as the voice of Optimus Prime in the Transformers movies and animated series) but I haven’t been able to confirm that yet. To my ears, though, the announcer in these commercials sounds exactly like Cullen, so I’m sticking with that.

For this week’s Voice Overs Of The World, I wanted to look at a few different ads that all do one thing considerably well: convey a sense of wonder. Each of these three advertisements would have been portrayed in a more traditional announcer-style voice just 20 years ago, but as we’ve moved to the conversational style of delivery in voice overs, each of these pieces’ delivery has evolved as well. In each commercial, the voice over at work doesn’t try to just convey hard, cold facts. Instead, they try to fill you with a sense of wonder at the technology or product involved, even though they’re for such simple products as carpeting, bird food, and heating/cooling systems.

In the first ad above, a visually stylish piece for SmartStrand Carpets, the female narrator evokes a sense of wonder form the very first words, “Something extraordinary is happening.” With a breathy tone and a slow pace, she heightens the “suspense” of the piece, as you wonder how all these various living room disasters are going to end. Notice the music that underscores the voice over is also very ethereal and atmospheric, heightening the mood of the piece. Even when she switches gears at the end of the commercial to pitch the product in a more traditional way (”Get a lifetime of built-in protection from Smartstrand with Dupont Sorona, only from Mohawk”), the delivery remains soft, slow, and breathy, rather than switching to a more announcer-type style, even though it culd have been done using the same voice.

Also notice that, although a non-slow-motion mom appears at the end of the commercial, chances are extremely low that the actress that appears on camera is the same actress performing the voice over.

In the Scott’s Songbird bird food commercial above, we find a very similar approach. The male voice actor shares how Scott’s food “attracted twice as many colorful birds as ordinary blends.” And much like in the SmartStrand commercial above, the dialogue in this piece lets you know right off the bat that Scott’s has “discovered something amazing.” But it’s the narrator’s slow, soft and pleasant delivery that really tells the tale. What I like about his approach is how he sounds almost a little surprised by the results, as if to convey that even Scott’s themselves didn’t realize how good their bird food was until they tested it. I’m sure the company strongly believes in its product, but by keeping the voice over sounding just a little bit surprised, it makes the company come across as humble and unassuming, something which seems to me would appeal to many bird watchers.

In the final commercial, for Mitsubishi Electric Heating and Cooling, the company takes an interesting approach to something that could easily be considered mundane: HVAC systems. But the company wants to liken their product to traveling the world and going to exotic locales where the air quality is pure, crisp and clean. The visual imagery is clearly paramount in the spot, but the voice over is like liquid wonder. In fact, it’s used sparingly, but it is extremely effective. Once again, atmospheric and ethereal music contributes to the overall mood of the piece. Interestingly, in this spot, the producers chose a voice with a vaguely European accent, and I think the vagary of the accent is 100% on purpose. This is a spot meant to make you feel as if you are journeying far across the globe to places untouched by man. With an accent that’s not clearly defined, the voice over adds to the entire commercial’s worldly feel, completing the effectiveness and exoticness of the piece.

I find all three of these ads to be extremely effective in their own right, but the expertly-cast and perfectly delivered voice overs in each one really cement each commercial’s sense of wonder.

In this installment of Voice Overs of the World, I thought we’d get into the spirit of the holidays and look at a classic Christmas Voice Over and a new one inspired by the original. In the above video, from Rankin-Bass’s classic stop-motion animated special The Island of Misfit Toys, the main characters are the well-known and well-loved Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Yukon Cornelius, Hermey the Elf, and Charlie-in-the-Box.

The voice cast was made up not of celebrities, but rather talented voice actors who made a living with their voices. Rudolph was voiced by Billie Mae Richards, while Yukon Cornelius was voiced by Paul D. Mann. Meanwhile, Paul Soles provided the voice of Hermey the Elf and Carl Banas brought Charlie-in-the-Box to life. Billie Mae Richards played Rudolph in several Rankin-Bass specials and is known worldwide for her portrayal of the character. She was also a starring voice in the Care Bears television cartoon and movies. Larry D. Mann had a prolific career that spanned from the 1950s to the early 1990s, starring in such shows and movies as Scooby-Doo, Howdy Doody, The Pink Panther, and Return to Oz. Paul Soles had a shorter career but is fondly remembered for voicing Spider-Man/Peter Parker in the 1960s animated series Spider-Man. Carl Banas, a former radio DJ, has continued to act in voice overs through present day. He voiced characters in shows such as The Busy World of Richard Scarry, Babar, Hello Kitty, and Spider-Man, as well as numerous commercials throughout the years.

I don’t think I have to say too much about the voices behind these characters. The Rudolph specials have been on the air since 1965, and they get repeated every single year without fail. Millions of children across the world have grown up to the sounds of the characters created by an incredibly talented stable of voice actors. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does.

The next video is a Verizon commercial that’s been airing for the past month or so, in which the iPhone ends up on The Island of Misfit Toys due to its supposedly limited coverage area. I’m not sure if that’s Carl Banas doing the voice of Charlie-in-the-Box or not, but as he is still alive and active in voice overs it certainly could be him. If it’s not him, it’s definitely an uncanny mimicking of his voice. What I like about this ad is the fact that Verizon didn’t go halfway with it. In addition to recreating the world of the Misfit Toys in stop-motion like the original specials (and with a pretty uncanny attention to detail), the voices and music are all perfect recreations of the style of the originals. While this is a clever ad that takes pot shots at Verizon’s main competitor, it was obviously created with a sense of appreciation for the original source material.

It just goes to show how enduring the original Rudolph specials (and the voice talents behind them) are when 40+ years after they originally aired, they’re being used as inspiration for advertisements.

From all of us here at Voice Coaches, we hope you all have a wonder-filled and wonderful holiday!