Bill Heater had written a John Hancock spot featuring his daughter and his young son. Unfortunately the little boy was uncooperative, refusing to stay on the set, crawling away each time he was placed on his marks. With the restrictions of Child Labor Laws we were running (had run) out of time. The idea for the spot was that Bill’s daughter was singing to her brother to stop him from crying, ‘Skinnamarink- a- dinky- doo…’ What were we to do?
My wife was visiting the set with my infant daughter, Sacha. Sacha was less than a year old and used to cry at the sound of a coffee grinder. The studio nurse/teacher understood our plight and allowed us to use Sacha. We found a coffee grinder, Sacha cried on cue, and we had our spot.
When I see the spot, I feel terrible when I see my little baby cry, even tough everyone laughs at the spot and the story.