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Filming Ads Got a Bit Rocky

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Sometimes, when an ad agency is stuck advertising a not-so-interesting product, it will go just about anywhere to present that product in an intriguing light.

Even to a jail cell on Alcatraz Island.

That’s where Ruud & Partners, a Los Angeles advertising agency, went to put up a set of window blinds made by its client, Del Mar Window Coverings. The point? “If Del Mar blinds can help a room look like this in a place like this,” says an announcer in the ad, “imagine what they’ll do for your home.”

Because the former federal penitentiary is now a popular tourist attraction, the firm was forced to shoot the ad late in the evening. And in the late hours, things did get spooky out on Alcatraz.

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“Two of the three generators we brought on the island broke down,” said Bob Wilkinson, senior vice president and creative director. “I wouldn’t want to do it again.”

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