Bad to the Bone Story and Video

Bad to the Bone Story and Video

The story behind the creation of the 1984 Buick Grand National TV ad.

by Dan Hughes

 

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Before the Grand National was announced to the public, a few of us creative guys from McCann-Erickson, Buick’s advertising agency, were invited to the GM proving grounds in Milford, Mich, for a preview. This historic test track has been the site of many new car announcements. We rode a van to the test area, and suddenly there it was…this blacked-out Buick Regal, looking like something we had never seen before, all black and no chrome. Not your normal Buick.

We were given all the specs from the engineer and exhausting mechanical details—I kept saying to myself—let me drive this beast.

My turn behind the wheel slammed me back into the seat—a shocking experience for a Buick.

We all were stunned—how did they produce something like that.

Well, I won’t rehash the video, but suffice to say everyone was kind of stunned.

Back in the McCann-Erickson office in Troy, Michigan, we couldn’t stop thinking how cool the car was…how badass it was.

One of our writer-art director teams—Rod Thompson and Mike Priebe—said it reminded them of the song, “Bad to the Bone.”

Eureka. It was a natural fit. So we had our talent office contact George Thorogood to see if we could use his hit song in a Buick TV commercial.

I was the creative director on Buick then, and we were delighted when we heard that George not only would let us use the song, but he was also OK with us providing new lyrics to relate the song to the car.

We sent him the lyrics, and in a short time we had a great Buick music track.

I had a friend, now deceased, Larry Carroll, who at the time was producing commercials at J. Walter Thompson for Ford. Larry was one of my best buddies, a very talented man, who aspired of becoming a commercial director. 

I had just finished a round-the-world commercial shoot for the introduction of the new Buick Electra, “C” platform for front wheel drive GM cars. Richard Moore was the cameraman/director for the television commercials. I also had a documentary crew filming the round-the-world shoot and a print photographer filming scenes for the national print ads. Quite a crew and a 30-day adventure. I have all that stuff (commercials, documentary, and print) if you are interested. 

Back to the story. When we got approval from Buick to produce a 60-second and 30-second commercial for the Regal Grand National, the filmmaking process began. I had thought of Larry, waiting and chomping at the bit to launch his directorial career. I called him in LA, where he was finishing up some commercials for Ford.

“Larry, Dan. You want to be a director, right?”

“Absolutely”

“Well, I have a great project for you, and I am going to award you this package. Can you finish your job, quit and do this shoot?”

“Absolutely…but I don’t have a commercial film production company.” (Contracts, staff, insurance, equipment…)

“No problem, I just finished up with Richard Moore (famous cameraman and director, co-inventor of Panavision) whom you have worked with in the past, and he said he would be your cameraman, and you can run the production through his company.”

Off we go. We shot on the streets of Santa Monica at midnight. A tidbit, the ice cream store in the background was Sonny and Cher’s daughter’s store…and no, they weren’t there.

What an opportunity. 

First, Buick making the car.

Second, Buick letting us tamper with their theme line “Wouldn’t You Ready Rather Have a Buick” by having George sing “Wouldn’t you really rather have a B-B-B-Buick” at the end.

OK, one more fun aside.

We go to Dallas to present the new advertising to the Buick dealers at their annual meeting. Prior to the show, we are upstairs in the luxury booth hobnobbing with the key dealers and Buick executives, and.…Ross Perot, is there. Mr. Perot happened to be a big GM investor, and his EDS company was about to merge with General Motors

We are introduced to him, and I casually mention: “Wait till you see the television commercials, especially the Buick Grand National.”

The show is over; people were ecstatic over the commercials, especially the Grand National spot. I mean, they had never seen anything like that!

I walk into the room and McCann’s head account executive says: “You better get your butt out of here fast; Mr. Perot hated the Grand National spot and was looking for you!”