To most copywriters and art directors at the time, working on a Yellow Pages account meant creative oblivion. A product with all the sex appeal of cheap newsprint and plain type, the Nynex Yellow Pages provoked yawns from consumers who couldn't care less about a commodity category for which they didn't even have to make a purchase decision. So it was all the more stunning when Chiat/Day's "Human Cartoons" appeared in 1987.

From the start, the spots caught the imagination of consumers. Uniformed Marines moonwalked and danced the funky chicken ("Rock Drills"). An overstuffed armchair peeled off its upholstery--tassels flying--as cat calls ensued ("Furniture Stripping"). Prim train conductors sat on chintz sofas drinking tea ("Civil Engineers").

"We were totally unprepared for how well-received this campaign was," says Susan DeFlora, now senior specialist, market communications at Bell Atlantic. "The first 22 seconds were sheer silliness followed by a simple product message. People loved them as visual puns."

Virtually overnight the campaign forged a distinctive profile for the new regional operator created through deregulation of Ma Bell. More importantly, the pitch--and all the buzz it generated--sent a signal to outsiders such as Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, which were eyeing the lucrative Northeastern market, and offered a vote of support for Nynex Yellow Pages advertisers.

Implicit in the campaign's whimsy was a considerable product benefit. "By finding such arcane listings, we showed that nobody could ever publish more information than we could," says Mary Maroun, managing director of what is now TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York.

Bill Hamilton's fondness for the pitch is evident--"It's one of the best, most interesting things I've worked on"--as he remembers the evolution of the idea. Chiat/Day first created spots that offered rational reasons for why consumers should prefer Nynex's Yellow Pages. "But people didn't care about them until they needed a plumber or a pizza," says Hamilton, now senior creative director, J. Walter Thompson, New York. "There was no loyalty factor."

So the C/D team took inspiration from some of the agency's Nynex radio spots, which played with the book's listings. A critical element in that creative collaboration was the participation of madcap British directors Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. "Going through the scripts with them was more like working with two writers for David Letterman," says Hamilton.

Outdoor ads played off the TV work. At the onset, images of a floppy-eared blue bunny multiplied across the streets of Manhattan for two weeks. Then came identical posters answering the riddle ("Hair Tinting") and using the campaign's familiar tagline, "If it's out there, it's in here."

DeFlora says she realized how much impact the ads were having when she saw "a parking lot attendant with a blue bunny in his little kiosk. The last spot ran in 1991, but people are still talking about it."

--Noreen O'Leary