Topless TV Commercial Outtake

Cafe Society
1

I guess I will put this here since it deals with a television commercial.

I ran across something unusual the other day. First, a bit of background.

There was a commercial many years ago (probably the 1980’s) for Johnson & Johnsons Baby Powder. It featured two women in a bathroom, looking at themselves in the mirror, which was the cameras perspective. They both had bath towels wrapped around themselves. One woman was rather frantic (and will be refered to as frantic woman) because she was going for a job interview and was very nervous. The other woman suggested she use some J&J powder to help keep herself cool and dry. The frantic woman seemed to be ignoring her friend and stared into the mirror in dismay. She then primped her hair a bit, and uttered the line I remember to this day, “Why did I cut my hair? I look like a squirrel!”.

This goes on a bit more and the frantic woman ignores her friend who is holding the baby powder bottle. At this point, frantic woman walks to the back of the bathroom looking for something and you see the other woman applying the powder to her underarms as a narrator estols the virtue of Johnson & Johnsons Baby Powder for keeping you dry and cool. Then the frantic woman comes back up to the camera, says “There’s my Johnson & Johnsons Baby Powder! I going to need this!”, takes the powder from her friend and then walks off camera. Her friend looks at her in disbelief.

However, I have run across a slightly different version of this commercial. While perusing a video clip (of which there may have been some celebrity nudity thereabouts), I found this commercial tacked onto it.

Same commercial, same women, same lines and voice inflections. But in this version, when the frantic woman looks around in the background, and the narrator speaks while the other woman applys the powder, she drops her bathtowel and is standing there completely topless, roughly splashing on baby powder to her underarms and upper chest. The frantic woman comes up front, says, “THERE’S my Johnson & Johnsons Baby Powder!”, drops her towel and is also topless. The other woman sprinkles some powder on the frantic womans chest, frantic woman makes a quick rub of the powder on her chest, then embraces the other woman. They embrace together, start necking, and then sink out of sight behind the counter while making a few passionate sounds.

Now, it has been many years since the network commercial aired, but I remember it well because of the “squirrel hair” line and it was funny. I am certain that these are the same women at the same time and this is an outtake of sorts.

My question is, why was this outtake done and why did the women do it? It couldn’t be aired anyplace because of the nudity, and I doubt J&J would have appreciated having this nude parody of their commercial be shown anywhere? Was it just done as a goof or did the director want a little something extra for his own personal blooper reel?

2

A friend of mine is a creative director at an ad agency in LA. A lot of commercial shoots have a prank version, with the same lighting and premise, but the actors say or do something really inappropriate. I’ve seen a few, and I think they’re intended for internal viewing at the agency or among the creative team.

3

Where is this commercial located? I must see this evidence for myself. Yes, I am bored at work.

Btw, I remember seeing a commercial blooper tv special on NBC in the 80’s and they showed a bunch of commercials “outtakes,” i.e. nudity, swearing, and other goofs. But, I think they were all intended, like the Coast soap one that strikes a chord in my mind.

4

I remember that clip. I must have seen it sometime around the early 90s on some commercially available VHS tape of “Uncensored” bloopers and outtakes. There were a ton of these of kind of tapes around at the time and the title of it escapes me. It definitely seems to be from a gag reel that escaped into the wild. I can’t imagine Johnson & Johnson was very happy about it.

5

I need a cite, dagnabbit.

6

I have a copy of that uncensored commercial. It’s on a tape called “Blushing Bloopers.” Have no idea as to the answer to the original question, though.

7

I vaguely remember having seen that commercial.

8

I saw this clip at a screening of odd films – mostly things that couldn’t be shown elsewhere for either nudity/racial offense/suggestivity and/or for copyright reasons. Many of them were hilatrious. The J&J commercial was one of these.

This one was made because it was a mistake. If you watch closely, one of the actresses flubbed her line. At first, the other didn’t notice it, and kept on going. But then they both realized that the whole thing was screwed up, and they hammed it up. Of course, the footage was priceless, and copies were saved. But they no more “set out to make this” than actors seek to make entries in Blooper reels – they inevitably happen, and get saved.

9

Is it this?

The review says the video quality is bad though. I guess it’s copied form a VHS or something. Netflix also seems to have it, with the year listed as 2002/

10

I’ve seen a few commercials that appear to have been intentional “bloopers” created just for shits 'n giggles by the team.

One that I found amusing was for some kind of bug spray. The end of the ad shows someone spraying the bug spray in the air right in front of a Basset hound, who sniffs it but otherwise looks on indifferently, while the voiceover says “[product name], kills bugs, kind to animals” or words to that effect.

The alternate joke reel followed along the same way, but in the end someone sprays the bug spray in front of the Basset hound, who sniffs it and promptly falls over stone dead, while the voiceover says, “Kills animals, kind to bugs.” (Again, or words to that effect.)

I found it quite amusing at the time, especially since the Basset played the part with perfectly deadpan comedic timing. He was trained well. :wink:

11

Yep. . . and they ain’t lyin’.

ETA: FWIW, my copy is a 15-year-old VHS, not a DVD.

12

Yea, the copy I have is obviously from a bad VHS tape with a tracking problem.

I didn’t notice the line flub, but if that is what set them off, it is interesting if they just suddenly both decided to go topless and embrace just to ham the flubbed scene up. Not that I don’t appreciate the effort, but I guess two actresses who probably did a lot of commercials are up for anything.

Maybe they had been snorting a little powder before the shoot …

13

So you were searching for a video clip that “of which there may have been some celebrity nudity thereabouts” and apparently one of the search terms was “Johnson”…hmmm…

14

I don’t suppose Johnson & Johnson minded in the least.

The main point of advertising (from Johnson & Johnson’s point of view) is to maintain name recognition of the Johnson & Johnson brand. If people are seeking out a commercial for a Johnson & Johnson product, and showing that Johnson & Johnson ad to their friends, mentioning Johnson & Johnson on message boards etc, then so long as that ad (despite being one that Johnson & Johnson wouldn’t want to air on TV) doesn’t say anything detrimental to Johnson & Johnson or any Johnson & Johnson product, then I’m quite sure that Johnson & Johnson would see it as a bonus.

Besides, who doesn’t like boobies? :smiley:

15

Um, the advertisers that subsidized Janet Jackson’s tit during the SuperBowl?