Big Furry Creature Helps You Plan Your 'Pretirement'

Don’t sweat planning your financial future and prepping for retirement. The huge hairy creature that just popped into your house—looking like an escapee from Where the Wild Things Are—can help ease your anxiety.

Unlike most Ad Council campaigns—which can be overly earnest sometimes—this “Pretirement” pitch from the AARP and Adam&eveDDB New York uses an unexpectedly goofy touch to explore serious topics.

Sweet deal. As long as your beastly bestie doesn’t gobble you up.

He seems friendly. And so well informed!

Conor Byrne directed, with Emmy-winning Legacy Effects handling visuals.

The :45 effectively makes a simple point—that planning ahead shouldn’t feel monstrous—in a fairly novel way. (Of late, big benign brutes are enjoying a moment, with other examples including Trainline and Ikea.)

Peep the tech below. We want one!

“To cut through the clutter, we’re leaning into new terminology,” Jason Ashlock and Paulo Junger, executive creative directors at adam&eveDDB, tell Muse. “‘Pretirement’ is something we think will resonate with people aging into their 40s and 50s. We also know that big furry creatures aren’t the norm in the financial service and retirement saving categories.”

The team used practical means to bring its hirsute helper to the screen.

“It needed to be equal parts soulful, scary and sweet,” the ECDs say. “But controlling the creature was a beast. The performer inside the suit brought it to life while wearing pounds of hair and molded latex. The suit took about six-and-a-half weeks to create and weighed approximately 40 pounds, while the head weighed about 25 pounds. It was very hot, but the performer wore a cool suit beneath it, like race car drivers wear, that cycled cold water through the vest.”

Puppeteers remotely controlled eye, nose and tail movements.

“We saved time pre-programming the mouth articulations to match the dialogue before arriving on set,” Ashlock and Junger recall. “Of course, we always improvise when we’re shooting, but the crew was able to keep up with the pace in real time.”

As for that freaky fab handset thingy…
 
“The first step in taking charge of your financial security is to take action using the free online tools and resources at ThisIsPretirement.org. So naturally, the creature needed a way to share this information. What better way than to use the creature’s phone? We called it an eyeball-phone and made sure it looked like it came from the same world as the creature.”