Men Should Be the Ones Buying Scented Candles.

So, Tom wants to try copy writing. Copy writing can take a few forms but most commonly its a position in advertising where you're tasked with coming up with the ideas for ad campaigns. I could be good at that, or at least I could learn to be good at that. I figure the best way I can get myself onto that path is by writing up a few samples so I am going to choose a product that I use personally and try to come up with an ad campaign for. I'll sell it to you and write a short commercial for the product, something I can use in a beginners portfolio.

The product I've chosen is: SCENTED CANDLES

If I am asked to come up with a campaign for scented candles I focus on selling these things to men. Selling scented candles the male audience has to be a candle maker's dream, if they could make their product feel essential to men the way it does with women then they've got to be doubling their customer base. I don't think it's that hard a sell either. Scented candles mask stinky smells, men account for 98% of all stinky smells. It follows. I myself buy scented candles, as you can see by that Dollarama sticker I pay $3 for them. I don't like paying $3 at the dollar store, that's usually the store's highest price point. When I see something for $3 I really ask myself if I need it, and y'know what? In this case I did. I am a guy who does guy things and makes guy smells in my modest Toronto apartment that I share with my little roommate Gizzy McStinks. My place can get smelly.

Pictured: Gizzy McStinks

Yet even if a girl wanted to do an unannounced pop by I still had it covered, I kept a Scented Candle on my coffee table at all times. Five minutes after lighting one of those and my apartment would smell like a fruit orchard and the dancing flames provided me with some mood lighting. A mood that the horrible, screaming neighbor children and sometimes even Gizzy McStinks herself would spend the rest of the night trying to kill, but they don't make a candle to help with that. I honestly think if marketed properly scented candles can become a staple of the single man's grocery list and since the idea of a man buying a scented candle conjures up associations of femininity; that's rich comedy territory. I propose this online ad campaign:

Glade Scented Candle 30 Second Internet/TV Commercial

VIDEO	AUDIO
INTERIOR/A MAN’S APARTMENT: A Caucasian man (Mike) in his late 20’s is sitting in his small apartment with his dog, he has a messy apartment with dirty laundry all over the place and old food sitting in dirty plates. His phone lights up, showing that he got a text from a pretty girl. “Hey, I am in the area, I am going to pop by”. Mike jumps up and looks around his nasty apartment, he takes a sniff of the air and recoils from how bad the air smells.	Sound of the TV in the foreground, music. Cell phone sound, tense/up tempo music
Mike springs up and throws all his laundry into a bag, he takes all his gross plates and hides them in a drawer below the sink. He notices that he hasn’t taken his garbage out yet; it stinks. He races out to the incinerator with the bags of garbage. He gets another text. “Hey, I am coming up to your building now”	The music quickens in pace Cell phone text sound
Mike runs back into his apartment, it still smells. He looks down at his dog, realizing that he’s a strong source of the stink. He sprays the dog with cologne but it still smells, he tries spraying the air but it doesn’t work. Another text. “Here. I’ll be up in a minute”	Tense music continues to build Cell phone text sound
Frantically he goes through his drawers and finds a jasmine scented candle. He’s not convinced that this will help but he’s out of options. He fumbles to find a lighter and lights it in a hurry.	Sound of things being shuffled around.
ELEVATOR: Shots of a beautiful women coming up in an elevator.	Elevator chime

APARTMENT: Mike is flapping his arms wildly, trying to fan the scented smoke throughout the apartment.	The music builds
ELEVATOR: The woman reaches her floor and heads out.	The music build to a stop.
APARTMENT: The women knocks on the door and opens it, Mike and her make eye contact. The woman steps inside and stops. She sniffs. Mike, starts to feel mortified; thinking she smells all the gross smells he’s hiding. Mike is dumbfounded, he can’t believe the candle worked. He looks at it with a face full of shock and discovery, like he’s just found the Holy Grail.	Sound of knocking. MIKE: Hi Woman: Hi Woman: Mmmmm, it smells good in here. Is that jasmine? Mike: Yeah…it does.?.
INTERIOR/APARTMENT: Mike is having a get together with his guy friends at his bachelor pad. As the men pass by Mike’s washroom one of them remarks on the large scented candle Mike has displayed proudly by the toilet.	FRIEND 1: Did your mom buy you that? Laughter
Mike and his friends watch the game, the whole time they’re all pigging out of junk food. Mike heads to the washroom but it’s occupied, He knocks on the door. One of his friends comes out, he’s a large man and he’s holding his gut like he just did something awful in that washroom. He did. It smells appalling; the whole room can smell it and they all react.	Sound of the TV Cheering, high fiving, eating Knocking Everyone in the room erupts into noise once the washroom door is open and the cloud of toxic gas is let out.
INTERIOR/WASHROOM Mike lights his scented candle to cover the smell
INTERIOR/APARTMENT The men on the couch smell something, they’re sniffing the air with intrigue. Whereas moments ago the air around them made them gag; now some magic has filled the air with the smell of a flowery meadow. What is this?	Sniffing sounds

 

INTERIOR/WASHROOM Mike is finishing up, he flushes the toilet and leaves. When he opens the  door he finds a hallway full of his curious friends, they’re following a captivating smell. It’s the scented candle. Mike walks past them. The men look in on the candle with expressions of awe and discovery, like they’ve just seen the Holy Grail.	Toilet flushing
INTERIOR/APARTMENT/EVENING: Mike and the woman are cuddled up on the couch, the soft flicker of a scented candle lights the room romantically.	“Fellas, let me introduce you to the Scented Candle by Glade. You could use one of these”