Hybrid Firm Helps Simplify Ad World by ‘Packaging’ Directors, Stars

Mariel Hemingway isn’t too keen on appearing in commercials. When she was a teen-ager, she flaunted her high cheekbones in a Noxema skin cream ad. And four years ago, she cooed over coffee in commercial for Maxwell House. But since then, the actress has been routinely turning down commercial offers.

Then, six months ago, she got a call from Chaos Ltd. Despite what its name might suggest, Chaos attempts to bring some order to the world of advertising. The 9-month-old Pasadena company links celebrities with top-name directors and “packages” commercials for major advertisers.

“I could go sponsor some product and look really silly doing it,” said Hemingway in a telephone interview from her home in Ketchum, Ida. “But here’s this company that comes along and looks out for the talent that’s behind the ad. I don’t know of anyone else doing that.”

Chaos placed Hemingway, granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway, in a celebrity-filled TV commercial for Revlon that aired during this year’s Academy Awards. Besides Hemingway, Chaos signed up 26 other celebrities--from Grace Jones to Joan Rivers--to appear in these Revlon ads. In one ad, which poses the question, “What makes a woman unforgettable?” Hemingway responds, “Great cheekbones.” Besides the celebrities in the Revlon ads, Chaos also brought in the director of the hit film “Big,” Penny Marshall, to direct the commercials.

What exactly is Chaos? Well, it is not an ad agency, a casting agency or a production company. But it combines elements of all three. Unlike agencies, however, which strictly represent the advertisers, Chaos is a middleman of sorts that represents--and brings together--directors and commercial stars.

Chaos is a division of the New York production company Independent Artists. The company is run by a husband-and-wife team, Elvier and Stephen Diehl, two former fashion models who met in Europe. “We can put anything together,” said Elvier Diehl, who began to establish contacts with top rock stars when she booked concert tours in London years ago and more recently helped produce music videos. “When ad agencies call us with requests,” she said, “they’ll know within 24 hours if the talent they want is available and how much it will cost.”

But besides matching celebrities with top directors, they must also constantly massage over-sized egos along the way. “Our main concern is that the talent and directors are happy,” said Stephen Diehl. “If they’re not happy, no one is.”

The company matched rock star George Michael with the director of the film “Dangerous Liaisons” for a recent Diet Coke commercial. But the ad, which intermixes scenes of Michael in concert along with flashes of a matador in a bullring, did not come together easily.

“George Michael had to be sold on the director,” said Stephen Diehl. So Stephen’s wife, Elvier--who had known the rock star since he was a singer in the group Wham!--flew to London to introduce him to director Stephen Frears. She even arranged a private screening for Michael of “Dangerous Liaisons.”

Most recently, Chaos brought together Bill Cosby and jazz singer Betty Carter in a yet-to-be aired TV commercial for Coke. And when Cosby requested a black director, Chaos brought in Mustapha Khan, best-known for directing several Levi’s 501 jeans ads.

For years, a number of companies in the film and television industry have linked stars with top directors and then “sold” these packages to production studios. But until very recently, this has been generally unheard of in the advertising business. Just as the style of many commercials tends to mimic what appears on the screen, the advertising industry is now beginning to copy the way the TV moguls and film makers do business.

Not that several other companies aren’t doing something similar. The New York company Rockbill, which matches singing stars with advertisers, played a role in bringing Michael Jackson together with Pepsi several years ago. And the Los Angeles production company Propaganda Films helped develop a package that placed singer Sheena Easton in both music videos and advertisements for Holiday Health Spas. But few companies specialize in digging up top celebrities and directors then handing them to advertisers on a silver platter.

“This may be the start of a trend,” said Gerald McGee, managing director of the Los Angeles office of the ad firm, Ogilvy & Mather. “They’re sort of agents with a twist--a twist of creativity.”

That creativity does come at a price. Some agencies have paid Chaos six-digit figures to pull together commercial packages that feature top name singers and big name directors. And that, of course, is separate from the multimillion-dollar fees commanded by superstars themselves.

“That’s probably the one big negative in this whole thing,” said Ogilvy’s McGee, whose agency has yet to work with any commercial matchmakers. “It could get very, very expensive.”

That didn’t stop New York ad agency BBDO and its client, Pepsi, from turning to Chaos earlier this year. Chaos put together a package for a commercial that not only included singer Robert Palmer but also the director of his music video, Terence Donovan.

“They are uncompromising in their dedication to get you top talent,” said Tony Frere, vice president and executive producer at BBDO. “It’s the only service of its kind that I know of. They’re sort of a directory to hipness.”

Ogilvy & Mather on a Roll With Hilton

Ogilvy & Mather has hit the jackpot--for the second time. The agency’s Los Angeles office last week won the estimated $2-million business for Reno’s Flamingo Hilton. Ogilvy already handles advertising for the Las Vegas Hilton.

At the same time, Ogilvy’s Los Angeles and Hawaii offices jointly won the estimated $4-million ad business for Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts, a chain of 18 Pacific Rim hotels that operates the Emerald of Anaheim.

With two of Hilton’s biggest hotels in its hip pocket, is Ogilvy hoping to eventually pick up even bigger chunks of the huge Hilton ad business? “I suppose you could look at it that way,” said Gerald McGee, managing director of Ogilvy’s Los Angeles office. “Any job done well runs the chance of being successful on a larger scale.”

Abert Newhoff & Burr Buys High-Tech Shop

What do you do when you’re an agency that creates ads for all kinds of consumer products but you also want to latch on to some high-tech clients?

Well, if you’re Abert Newhoff & Burr, you go out and buy the small, high-tech ad firm Brantley & Pawluk. With that purchase--for an undisclosed amount--the Los Angeles ad firm picked up, among other clients, the Seattle software publisher, Microrim Inc. The agency also named Hal Pawluk senior vice president. Pawluk helped create the first four years of ads for the software firm Ashton-Tate.

Mel Newhoff said his agency, which creates ads for Yamaha Motor Corp., plans to purchase yet another small ad firm soon. “We intend to continue the trend and maybe we’ll own Warner Bros., Paramount and Time Inc. by the year 2050,” he said. “We could call ourselves Omniglom, except that it sounds like an oil spill.”

In-N-Out Cooks Up Agency Review Plan

In-N-Out Burger is looking in-n-out for a new advertising agency. Last week, the Baldwin Park hamburger chain placed its estimated $4-million ad business up for review.

Incumbent Los Angeles agency Gumpertz/Bentley/Fried is still in the running, said Susan Grear, director of advertising at In-N-Out. She said the review is something the chain intends to do every three years--regardless of which agency wins its business.

And for those who are kind of stuck on the chain’s familiar theme song--”In-N-Out, that’s what hamburgers are all about”--fear not. Said Grear: “That’s not going to change.”