One of the tougher projects we worked on over the winter was this Valent radio campaign. The casting call was for :
female with a neutral accent; tough—not necessarily Kathleen-Turner gruff—but mature
Our client sent over mockups of their print campaign to help us get the idea.
Literally tough.
But what was really fierce about this campaign (and what we are really excited about sharing) is that this casting call was a first for us. In all the years we’ve worked in agricultural marketing, this was the first time we were casting a female announcer to carry the spot. Crazy, I know. This is 2019. But for years, the assumption about agricultural radio was that its target market was old men listening to talk radio in their tractors. Our production notes for these types of projects usually was no sound design, no music, just record an authoritative announcer reading the script. And by “authoritative” announcer, the implication was “male” announcer. Considering the wide variety of casting calls we engage here, these agricultural productions were still the dinosaurs. Old school male announcers only. Boys club. No girls allowed.
Not anymore.
The times aren’t changing. They’ve changed. Just check this recent article in Bloomberg . The title says it all:
The Changing Face of Farms: Women Step In as U.S. Growers Age
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-11/new-u-s-agriculture-census-shows-farmer-age-keeps-rising
So here’s what we produced! Even though there’s no sound design in this spot you can hear the glass ceiling break. Props to Tracy Lindley for bringing the “tough” and to agency Archer Malmo for being ahead of the curve.