Bus Lust?! How Pete Henderson and Kobo Found their ‘Main Character Energy’ on a Steamy Transit Tryst

With their worn-down seats, proximity to strangers and faint smell of disappointment, a public bus might not seem like the most ideal setting for a romantic encounter. And yet, somehow, they are. Locking eyes with a mysterious stranger for a fleeting moment amidst a moving crowd is a powerful thing, and sometimes there’s just no stopping the smitten sparks from flying. 

It’s those rarefied moments which Kobo Plus, in a new spot from The Garden Agency and directed by Someplace Nice’s Pete Henderson, wanted to celebrate. The ebook and audiobook subscription service, which offers an unmatched variety of guilty-pleasure reads, is all about rejecting the idea of book shame. And there’s no better example than the tale of Sebastian Steele and Gretchen, two star-crossed transit lovers. 

The new ad follows on from a similarly playful effort last year, in which one mother struggled to get the words out in describing her latest literary addiction. To find out more about how it all came together - and why the occasional indulgence in smut is worth celebrating - LBB’s Adam Bennett spoke to Pete, alongside creative director Lindsay Eady, copywriter Nuala Murray, and art director Mriga Suchdeva… 

LBB> Pete, congratulations on another rib-tickling ad for Kobo! How closely does the finished ad align with your initial vision? 

Pete> Pretty much not at all! And thank Christ for that. The very first image that popped into my mind was to make this a rainy commute.  We’d amp up the style and generate a sultry tone.  Then, when the team presented a very good reason why to make it a sunny, bright and definitively unsexy scenario on the bus, I pulled my head out of my ass, saw the light, and now can’t imagine it any other way.

LBB> And Lindsay, how does the ad fit into your overall creative strategy for the brand? 

Lindsay> Last year we launched our “Be a reader, not a follower” campaign, and it was received so well that Rakuten Kobo has elevated it to their new brand platform. So, we were really excited to keep creating work under this new positioning that encourages readers to read whatever, whenever, however they like without being judged by their cover. 

LBB> What makes this kind of brisk & playful comedy such a natural fit for Kobo? 

Lindsay> Kobo Plus is a monthly subscription service of unlimited eBooks and (now) audiobooks, but it doesn’t have every bestseller or celeb book club title. Their catalogue is more focused towards paperback and genre readers that love to binge “guilty-pleasure” reading. So we lean into that self-indulgent and shameless comedy to make our readers feel seen, heard, and empowered to keep reading whatever the hell they’re into. This year, our campaign “Unleash Your Main Character Energy”, urges readers to indulge their book-induced fantasies. Because If you’re gonna live in your own world, you might as well be at the centre of it. 

LBB> What is “Main Character Energy” and how did this concept play a role in your briefing call? 

Nuala> Main Character Energy (we call it “MCE”) is a trending social term, or a mentality, really, that describes people who live life like they’re the protagonist of some grand plot. On our briefing call, we pretty much just had to tell Pete that he himself has Main Character Energy – then he understood the assignment. 

Mriga> You can see how we worked with Pete to bring out the “MCE” in our lead, and he nailed it. Gretchen (our lead) is always front and centre, framed perfectly, with the camera following her every move to make it seem like the world revolves around her. The rest of the passengers wore muted tones, but her lighting and vibrant colours make her impossible to miss. It wasn't just technical stuff either, Pete got her performance to pure main character vibes and she completely owned it.

LBB> On which note, the cast is great - not least Gretchen and particularly Sebastian Steele who absolutely nails the look. What was the casting process like, and how did you know when you landed on the right choices?

Pete> I liked the idea of someone stylish, young and sexy being our Gretchen (Natalie Hochoy). It would be too easy to make this heroine introverted and shy. She’s the star of her own show, and you need that gravitas to pluck out prey on the bus and drag them along your story. Sebastian (Connor Munro) was a genius in auditioning, wearing a Space Invaders t-shirt and placing a SpiderMan poster over his head. The director’s mantra, “Please be good, please be good, please be good,” kicked in, and boy oh boy he was good. He never broke character until wrap when he revealed a comic genius and razor awareness.

LBB> There are so many enjoyable half-second moments - the strange look from a passenger, and the moment where Gretchen moves closer to Sebastian's hand on the pole and he quickly moves his upwards. How do you think of those touches, and what's the key to bringing them to life in such a fun way?

Pete> Cutaways to other passengers were in the script, but the actors came up with the hand-touching moment while I was eating a breakfast burrito. I am blessed.

Lindsay> Pete is being modest. I overheard him telling the talent all the things he used to fantasise about on the bus and how he would “put the vibe out”, and I think they took some inspo from his lived experience. 

LBB> Where did the idea for a bus-trip encounter come from and why did it make sense in the context of the brand? 

Nuala> Have you ever projected a full-on fantasy on a stranger in public? I think that’s a pretty universal experience. (Or maybe I’m just very crush-prone). The bus fit perfectly as this mundane, cramped place to build the comedic tension in this one-sided moment of passion between Gretchen and her love interest. And of course, transit is just so public, which gave us that added layer of Gretchen being perceived by passengers, lusty audiobook cover and all – and going for it anyway. 

Lindsay> The commute is also just a time where people are listening to audiobooks and reading eBooks. And a bus gives us a great captive audience who all clock Gretchen’s MCE in her physicality, and at some points, even audible moans. We loved the juxtaposition of the warm, sunny morning commute against this woman listening to an “after-dark” risquè romance. It’s further proof of her unabashed freakiness. 

LBB> The ad plays out as a playful riff on the time-honoured meet-cute setup. Did you look to any external sources for inspiration when it came to getting the look and feel just right?

Pete> For whatever reason, the scene in “Beautiful Girls”, between twenty-something Timothy Hutton and teenage Natalie Portman, with her clarity, confidence and informed decisions. Knowing what she wanted and the lengths she was willing to go to make herself the star of the show was a tone I kept in mind throughout the production.

LBB> What was the biggest challenge you encountered whilst putting this ad together, and how did you overcome it? 

Mriga> One of the biggest challenges we faced was shooting on a bus. We had limited time available and had to fight the outside light, background scenes, and traffic. But thanks to the awesome crew, we were able to capture everything we needed and our colourist made the light look seamless.

Lindsay> In order for the earpods to fall out of Gretchen’s ears on cue, we tied some string to the base and had someone on the floor pull them when the bus jolted to a stop. We did the bus jolt about 20 times, with increasing joltiness. We almost lost a few cameras. And our lunch. 

Pete> Motion sickness on the bus. I ate a thousand mints that day. 

LBB> Would you do anything differently if you had your time again?

Pete> Yeah, bring more mints.

LBB> What were the highlights of the shoot? 

Nuala> The mic was ON on that bus. Meaning…all of the video village heard us laughing hysterically at our own jokes on set…and they definitely called us out on it. Now that’s #MCE.

Mriga> Shooting the spot felt so real that I felt like an actual side-eyer on the bus watching our Main Character falling in love with her Sebastian.

Lindsay> When the talent, Sebastian Steele, told me his safe word was “Plantain”. 

LBB> Finally, since we're on the topic - do you have a guilty pleasure ebook to recommend for Kobo Plus subscribers?

Nuala> To write the narration in the spot, I had to brush up on my smut lingo. I really didn’t mess around when I went with “Hard & Fast” out of the gate. I recently ran into our client on the streetcar with the cover of it up on my Kobo – life imitates art.

Lindsay> In the spirit of “research”, I read “Truly, Madly, Whiskey”, mostly because I really like whiskey. But Kobo Plus also has a lot of classics. So, I read “Little Birds” by Anaïs Nin, the Godmother of smut. I have no book shame. Or any shame for that matter. 

Pete> If arousal, fidgety anxiety and levity are guilty pleasures… why yes, yes I do.

Christina Ford’s “In Search of Mr Darcy: Lessons Learnt in the Pursuit of Happily Ever After” had me reading in my high school gym shorts, exclusively.  Her writing is a wild ride.  An extraordinary voice.