More often than not, the descriptor “Conversational “appears in the specs of about 80% of the scripts my agents and clients send to me.
Contrary to how it sounds, conversational voice acting is not two dads talking football over the backyard hedge or your typical man on the street. The delivery is entirely different. It’s about telling a story and opening a thought-provoking path of communication to the listener.
The opposite of a hard sell or a strong-arm announcer, sincerity and realness are what makes this style emergent. Content wise, it can still be authoritative and fact-based and all too often the scripts do not appear to be any sort of conversation that most of us would indulge in. It’s an extremely popular style right now, but that hasn’t always been the case.
The first time I can remember being aware of an ad that could be called “Conversational” was in 1984. Ronald Reagan was going for his second term of office and was fortunate enough to engage the services of the advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather, who in turn were fortunate enough to have on their staff one of the greatest Creative Directors of the 20th century: Hal Riney.
Hal was a hard drinking and hard living ad man. However, he wasn’t your typical “Mad Man.” What set him apart from most of his contemporaries was his unwillingness to do anything that he considered insincere or dishonest (to a degree…it is advertising after all). He created advertising that was well-written and well crafted—pieces that made people stop and listen. Pieces that reflected the way Americans thought of themselves.
When he was summoned to the White House to present his work to the President, it was Hal’s intention to have Reagan perform the voice over for the actual commercial. After hearing it with Hal’s rich and avuncular voice, the President insisted that Hal be the one to perform it.
Hal’s commercial was titled “It’s Morning in America Again.” Take a moment to watch this ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fy-uhxiXcE. No matter what your politics are, it’s undeniably effective and justifiably credited for Reagan’s re-election.
Hal went on to form his own agency and continued to voice his own campaigns, all centered around his trademark style.
Here’s an example of a commercial he created for Perrier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4vcE4qIFOg.
It’s quite beautiful, isn’t it? But what’s truly remarkable was Hal’s ability to sell bottled water to Americans. Something that was absolutely unheard of 30 years ago. This is the ad that first piqued my interest in advertising and sent me on a twenty-year career in the business.
It’s easy to take “Conversational” style for granted today, but it was Hal’s unassuming yet inspirational artistry that sparked a revolution in American advertising. But like all revolutions, it takes time to coalesce. To my recollection, it took ten years, a visionary guy from Cupertino California and one truly great actor to really hit it out of the park…more on that next time.
