Audio / Radio
Howard SternTrojan Radio Spot
I wrote a :60 live-read radio spot for Trojan BareSkin condoms on The Howard Stern Show. The script captured his humor so precisely that he couldn’t help but laugh and riff on it live.
Role
Writer
Client
Trojan
Discipline
Audio / Radio
The hardest format in advertising: a live read on Howard Stern
A live read on Stern is a high-wire act. Howard reads it in his own voice, in real time, and if it’s phony or unfunny, he says so on air or gives it a terrible read and the spot dies in front of millions. The brief was simple and brutal: respect the environment, respect the listeners, and connect Trojan and Howard in a way that feels completely organic.
Written for the room it would live in: Howard, Robin, and the whole Stern Show world.
Don’t write an ad for Howard. Write Howard.
So I didn’t write a condom commercial. I wrote the Stern Show, the crew, the chaos, the brutally honest sex talk, and threaded the real BareSkin message through it (40% thinner, triple quality tested). The product had a reason to be in the conversation, because on this show, that conversation was already happening.
An excerpt
HOWARD: Steve, you’re one of our Stern Show studs. Single, looking to mingle. So here’s a question… do you typically cage your one-eyed monster?
STEVE: Uhh…
HOWARD: Lately there are all these stories about people passing on condoms. Trojan BareSkin lets you have awesome sex while staying protected. They’re 40% thinner, so you feel more. And they’re triple quality tested.
RONNIE: Niiiice.
He couldn’t help but laugh, and riffed on it live.
3 × :60
live-read spots written in the voice of the show
Earned media
a paid read that Howard riffed on live, on air
On-brand
the real product story, told the Stern Show way
Writer
I wrote three :60 live reads in the voice of the show, tuned to the cast, the chaos, and the way Howard actually talks.
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