David Kolbusz and Tim Godsall on the "Yin-Yang Thing" of Comedic Commercial Storytelling

US hot sauce enthusiasts were given an almighty post-covid treat this week as Firehouse Subs, a sub chain founded by former firefighters, announced the return of its cult favourite ‘Hot Sauce Bar’.

Its revival is being celebrated in a far-reaching and amusing campaign devised by the minds at New York indie agency Orchard Creative. On top of out of home and digital placements, the campaign includes three new national TV spots, directed by Anonymous Content’s Tim Godsall. 

Each one features a different situation in which a vehement hot sauce fan is outraged at the lack of a well-stocked bar of bottles of spicy liquids. In one, a man is outraged that a white tablecloth, high class restaurant offers nothing to spruce up his intricately prepared dinner. The other two see a couple view a seemingly nice new home, only to scrap it once they discover its lack of spicy sauce, and a wedding clear out once guests discover that their dinner was set to be bland.

Speaking exclusively to Little Black Book, David Kolbusz, chief creative officer at Orchard, says that Conor Dooley, creative director, and the rest of the team had a number of different ways in to tackle the brief, but all were centred around customers’ enthusiasm for hot sauce. “The fan community around these spicy little bottles is intense, so it felt like the fandom needed paying lip service.” The conundrum for the team was, to quote David, how ‘inside baseball’ they could go. “As we're still trying to grow awareness around the Firehouse Subs brand,” he says, “it felt important to appeal to as broad a church as possible. Not just hot sauce enthusiasts. So it made sense to depict the strange relationship between hot sauce obsessives and the people who love them.”

David adds that the iterative nature of the campaign meant that it was only natural that some scenarios he and the team loved didn’t make the cut. But he stresses that it was also important to give non-fans an entry point to understand what a ‘hot sauce bar’ even is and why they should care. “So we didn't extend the campaign to some of the surreal/bizarre places it could've gone,” says David. “Personally, I love what we've made so I'm not sad. But if you asked me if I'd like unlimited resources to make the other 10 executions that Patrick and Kevin scripted up (including one where a castaway refuses rescue because the boat doesn't have a hot sauce bar) that's a big yes.”

One of the reasons that Firehouse Subs chief marketing officer Dena vonWerssowetz was particularly excited to work with Tim to direct the campaign was because of his mastery of the casting process. “It's one of his super powers,” says David, who has worked with Tim many times before. “Dena and her team had zero pushback on any of his recommendations. A big part of working with Tim is trusting his instincts. It's rare he ever misses the mark. He always finds the best people who give the most nuanced performances.”

Also speaking exclusively to LBB, Tim adds, “Each of these scripts has such a simple premise, with a specific charge to it. We needed to find actors who’d be able to bring the situations to life in ways that seem real and witnessed, rather than scripted and staged.  We were looking for people who could distil the tiny beats of humanity, the little realisations of ‘wait — you don’t have hot sauce?' into cornerstone moments. The more believable their flicker of indignation, within that absurd context each time… the funnier.”

To find the right talent, Tim and the team cast out of London and Toronto. They looked for people who could deliver the actual scripted lines in a ‘non-default way’, but also be able to go off-script and play with the situations in new and unpredictable ways. In fact, Tim always had each of them do it exactly as scripted, and then afterwards got them to do the same situation, but winging it. 

“Tim has a specific vision, but is also very collaborative,” adds David. “There's a nice push-pull that happens on set. He's also very accommodating of great ideas irrespective of who they come from. Our clients happen to have impeccable taste and great comedic instincts too, so even they were chucking in great ideas that made the work better.”

“I’ve worked with David a bunch in the past, on some of my favourite projects,” adds Tim. “His mind’s always churning, seeking different ways to make something more original and entertaining. He genuinely cares deeply about making something he can be proud of, and he has no ‘off switch’, so during pre-production and production the ideas keep tumbling out. I think we have a good symbiotic relationship in that we trust each other to try various experiments from a writing / performance standpoint while we’re shooting.” 

Tim believes that trust allows for a very productive process. “Plus, I lost a bet to him years ago at a lizard fight in Galicia and as a result must work for him, with no fees charged, any time he summons,” he jokes.

Each spot features lovely, small details that delicately lift the humour, which already is quite pronounced. And on LinkedIn this week, David pronounced that the estate agent spot features the “best performance by a pair of eyes I’ve seen in a long time.”

“There's such subtlety and nuance to all the performances,” he adds. “It's such an awkward moment, loaded with subtext and painful interpersonal history. It's not the showiest of the spots but it's the most Bergmanesque. And for that reason I love it.”

For Tim, it all comes to do a ‘kind of yin-yang thing’.

“Build each story around microscopic shifts of expression,” he says. “The way the woman looking at the house does her little look back and forth and then encroaches on her deeply uncomfortable husband’s space…the way the waiter has to restrain himself and maintain his professional polish in deflecting the crackpot who’s requested hot sauce in the sanctity of his high-end culinary temple…the way the mother-in-law’s abiding disapproval surfaces and the way the bride’s happiness shifts to quietly stunned heartbreak.

“And then pair those tiny observed moments with the bigger visceral shifts: the rash throwing of the real estate brochures into the air…the band suddenly striking up a whole new tune…the aggrieved restaurant patron launching into an impetuous chant.

“The combination works pretty well for a 30-second movie.”