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How do you create a heroic theme song for an Average Joe…or in this case a Plain Jane? Leave it to BUTTER. In our collaboration with Freedom Solar, we wrote an original vocal track for the protagonist Jane, who is a “Super Powerful Lady”--with the strength of saving money on her energy bill. Perhaps not the most exciting superhero trait, but it becomes a feast for the eyes and ears when you pair the vision of agency partner Callen with the musical comedy mastery of our CCO and founder Andrew Sherman.

In early conversations with Callen, it became evident that the vocal track would be the “hero” of this spot, and visuals would closely echo the lyrics. However, with only a rough copy to begin with, Andrew had a mountain of a task to shape everything into a coherent yet memorable track, with lyrics like: “A super-powerful lady, she’s cranking her AC to the lowest degree. And getting cozy, now the summer can’t melt your bones”. He rose to the occasion by creating a fully produced 80s-inspired power ballad, complete with live electric guitar and drums. It was a knockout success, giving the agency and the director the “freedom” to make the most over-the-top and hilarious depiction of our Superhero Jane come to fruition (with her very own soundtrack to boot).

The song in this case inspired the later creative and anchored the entire ad. Andrew’s vocal performance perfectly encapsulated the campy melodrama of the genre, so much so that the agency decided to keep him as the final singer AND voiceover artist on the project. It was a wall-to-wall Drew Sherman special. Our audio partner Mr. Bronx helped finalize the spot with sound design and mix.

Even after impressing in the early demo rounds, there was tons of work to be done after the film shoot. There were additional scenes shot on the fly that would need to be accompanied by the same “see it, sing it” style of the first demo. Therefore, several rounds of auditioning new lyrics, new vocal performances, and refining the timings of the overall track followed suit. After all, the final line in and of itself is a complete mouthful, but it still needed to be intelligible AND funny: “Jane you are the most powerful woman in the greater metropolitan area code”.

“We’re telling the world about the transformative power of solar through writing and recording unique ’80s power ballad songs,” says David Hughes, managing director of Callen. He adds, “There is nothing more powerful than an ’80s power ballad, that’s what homeowners are scream-singing to themselves in their living rooms anyway, right?”

The spot burst onto the scene as an early Ad Age Editor’s Pick upon airing. Its press managed to pull exposure in outlets exceeding 1M unique visitors per month, and the “Most Powerful Jane” upload exceeded 100K YouTube views, not including social media platform exposure.