“A Techno Track, but with Prison Sirens”: The Sounds of Tango’s ‘Warden’ Campaign

When it comes to Tango’s advertising, there’s an element of iconicism that surrounds it. Not without contention, the brand rose to fame in the 90’s with a string of controversial campaigns that all attempted to ignite a chuckle. 

Last year, we saw the brand break their advertising silence with the ‘Bust’ campaign that playfully emulated a drug bust – but instead of methamphetamine being brewed in the lab, it was Tango’s ‘Dark Berry’ flavour. This month, they released their latest spot, following on from the crime-related theme set in ‘Bust’. The new ad named ‘Warden’ is set in a prison – any sound designer's dream – and chronicles a prison warden switching from strict enforcer, to Tango-induced crazed dancer. 

We owe the sound to the team at Jungle who went all-out creating the multitude of elements that amalgamate to form the reality of incarceration. In this interview, we speak to sound designers Ben Leeves and Luke Isom to find out how they brought this brief to life.

LBB> What can you tell me about the initial brief? Right away, what were the key elements that stood out to you?

Ben> As before with the brief, the sound design is there to really lift the ‘Tango’d’ feel. There is no music, it's all real sounds. But, these still need to build to a crescendo. One part of the brief was to use everyday sounds from prisons, like sirens, and make a rhythmical bed that you could conceivably dance to.

Luke> The main take away from the initial brief was all about the graduate crescendo of sound throughout the spot. Starting from a fairly crisp realistic tone and stepping up the intensity of what was going on until hitting the climax at the end. The director, Ben, really wanted to make a point of laying up different alarms towards the end to heighten this rise. 

LBB> How did you approach the creation of the sound design for the prison environment? 

Ben> Prisons are wonderful for sound designers! We’ve all seen prison scenes in movies, we know the sounds, doors, keys, footsteps, inmates, bells. Such a palette. So it was about getting that right – I wanted the prison to sound like Alcatraz from ‘The Rock’.

Luke> In order to create a totally realistic setting, you have to start with the bare bones – things like room tones, footsteps, clothes rustles, and so on. Then, you get to start having some fun with it – you can over-accentuate some things; like the amount of key’s you can hear jingling about throughout the spot is massively over the top, but helps sell the prison vibe in my eyes.

LBB> What tools and techniques were used to create the distinct effects? Any unique or unconventional methods?

Ben> The bottle opening to reveal the can at the start was a lot of trial and error. We had to ask ourselves, ‘do we go all Jurassic park and have a container that's pressurised, or much more homemade and simple?’ The end sound was actually scraping fingers inside an empty metal ice bucket.

Luke> The main things were a) characters and b) activity in the prison. Chris Southwell (Jungle sound designer) came and joined me to totally flesh out a load of the characters you see in the background of the prison, all voiced by him. As well as then walking round the office finding different bits of metal to hit against other bits of metal to represent prisons hitting on the metal bars in the prison. All of this together really created the feeling of this being a functioning prison, full to the brim with riot-hungry inmates.

LBB> The warden’s crazed dance is of course a pivotal moment in the ad. How did you design the sound to enhance the impact of the scene?

Ben> As mentioned earlier, if you listen closely you can hear a rhythm built into the sirens as they build. Like a techno track, but with prison sirens. Luke’s huge foley work on the dance really emphasises the size of the movements too. The performance from the actor gave us lots of chances to add great sounds.

Luke> The actors performance is impeccable but trying to make a silent dance come to life was the biggest challenge. Again, as mentioned above, I firstly laid down all the standard bits of foley of his actual movements and then, thing that really cemented it for me... shoe squeaks! Also, enhanced by Mr Southwell again delivering some spectacular humming and mumbling for the warden really bought the level of comedy up.

LBB> How did you balance the natural sounds of the prison setting with the exaggerated, comedic elements?

Ben> The comedy, for me, comes from not only using real sounds but building them so that they create comedy. The movements, foley and everything in between adds the final level of comedy to each moment or movement.

LBB> How much do you think the comedy of a scene relates to correctly executed timing of sounds?

Ben> I’m biassed, but I’m going to say everything! A great example of this, is the huge step the warden first takes when the Tango moment starts. Just the little squeak of sole on the floor and large echoey footstep really makes the moment even funnier.

Luke>  Massively! When I first did it, the dance scene was totally flooded with sound. Every shoe has a squeak, every movement had a mumble and it got a little tiresome as the piece went on. Eventually, pulling bits and pieces out, allowing moments for his clothes to flap without hearing anything else, followed by just a single squeak or two seemed a lot funnier over all.

LBB> Are there any hidden or subtle sound details in the ad that you’re particularly proud of?

Ben> It's subtle but I love the movement sound of the guard in the cell, just as he is about to grab the inmate. It really adds to the cellmate's shock as his head whips from warden to approaching guard. All of this was added in the mix.

Luke> It’s all in the character's delivery recorded with Chris. There’s so much going on it’s hard to pick them out, but on the shot where one of the prisoners shout’s ‘He’s completely Tango’d” all the characters around him have their own little voices going on, which when listened to in isolation, are absolute GOLD.

LBB> Tell me about some of the challenges you faced throughout.

Ben> Without doubt its the amount of sounds that ended up on the cutting room floor. Some of the inmates' performances from the team here were absolutely hilarious, but a little too risqué! We must have gone through tons of sounds between Luke and I just to create that very little part. 

Luke>  The dance scene really was the main challenge. It was just that trial and error or seeing what worked, what didn’t, redoing bit, re-recording bits, more layers, less layers back and forth. The biggest help was just walking away from it for a few days and coming back in with a fresh perspective of what would work best and bring the scene to life.

LBB> Ben how did this compare to other Tango ads you’ve worked on?

Ben> It was lovely – top team work with Luke which made the process very collaborative. The prison environment gives any sound designer a jump start, which then tends to be needed to be reigned in, so it doesn’t end up sounding like a Michael Bay movie. Mind you, I’m all for making everyday ads sound like a Michael Bay film… hmm, maybe there's a TikTok sensation in the making!