“Gitofyurass” Spoof Medicine Ad
For my humor project, I chose to make an ad for a fake pharmaceutical product called “Gitofyurass” (a play on “get off your ass”). The ad is short, witty, and makes frequent use of satire and absurdity.
Gitofyurass® official logo. Designed by me in Illustrator.
How It Came To Be
I was inspired to create Gitofyurass by a spoof ad I saw for a product called “AphukenbrakE”– a drug that helps with adults suffering from the woes of parenting.
Following that idea of a drug that cures first-world problems, I made my fictional drug a remedy for laziness/procrastination. I was somewhat inspired by my own experience with ADHD, but turned up to eleven. Using the framework of AphukenbrakE, I also chose a pun name, gave it a logo and a fake scientific name (procrastinozone), and set off making my script.
The Script
In order to put together the best and most ridiculous script for my ad, I came up with a framework of what I wanted the ad to look like in my head (see: bracketed scene descriptors), and then tailored my jokes to said framework.
Then, while doing my voiceover, I read through the script several times in different voices– the goal was to nail that “condescending therapy-speak” voice. The kind that makes you roll your eyes, you know the one. My best representation of that voice eventually landed on a mildly androgynous and breathy tone.
Lastly, I took my voiceover into FL Studio to do some basic vocal enhancement, like gain staging, compression, EQ, peak reduction, and de-essing.
Presentation
To finish, I presented my video in front of the class. I was happy to get some chuckles, smiles, and giggles from the crowd, as I felt quite proud of my final work.
I did develop a newfound hatred for stock footage websites. Due to time constraints, I didn’t have the time to be able to film all the scenes myself, so I needed to use stock footage. Lemme just say, so many stock footage sites are absolute scams. You’re telling me I have to pay $50 a month to download like 5 videos, and they only charge annually (meaning $600 upfront)?! No thanks. After an hour or so of searching, I managed to find a somewhat affordable library of footage. Never doing that again.