The Bold and the Diapered

This past week, we shot two new Cheerios commercials. It was my first experience with kids on set and it was every bit the adventure I anticipated:

- For one ad, we cast a real family (mom + 2 kids) so they would look authentic and have what the casting director called “chemistry.” In the spot, all three are supposed to be on the living room floor playing with blocks. The baby was being a bit unruly though. So, in front of a production crew (that numbered at least 50) and a rolling camera, she swooped the baby up, pulled up her shirt and began breastfeeding. Yikes.

- These babies have serious entourages. There was the nanny, the nurse, and the state-appointed baby handler. Somebody was slacking on the job however, because they didn’t keep one kid from face-planting in the driveway, one from being fed soda in his bottle, and another from hitting his baby brother for an hour with a balloon.

- All day, we watched the 4-year-old (Jack) shovel handful after handful of Cheerios into his mouth. Take after take you could see him getting greener and greener. I was certain that we were going to have a Cheerios fountain at any second. He was a trooper though and kept the cereal down and the set clean. I bet that kid doesn’t eat Cheerios for weeks.

- In addition to having an iron stomach, Jack was quite the star. He had two lines to deliver and he was determined to give editorial plenty of range to work with. He screamed his lines. He squealed his lines. He even went a straight 15 minutes singing his lines. Afterward, he walked off set, slipped on his robe and over-sized sunglasses and went to his trailer to watch Go Diego Go.