Behind the Scenes With Tioga’s “2043″ Videos

In August, 1989, my girlfriend at the time was having her 20th birthday. The supermarket I stopped at to buy a card and a quick bouquet of something did not really have any good cards (at least none that would rise to my degree of late-80s hip). They did, however, have a few really funny “Happy 40th Birthday” cards. So, I picked one out, and wrote on it “Do not open til 2009.” She dumped me soon after for a guy with a Camaro, but I couldn’t help but think that she read my 20-year-ago birthday message last August.

When I first saw the Tioga 65th Anniversary videos, I was reminded of the above story, and got a chuckle out of this innovative campaign. The idea is “why wait for 2043…let’s have our 65th anniversary TODAY!” The series was made up of three clips with current Tioga stars Randy Stumpfhauser, Donny Robinson and Sam Willoughby, and one as a “behind the makeup” which shows how the Hollywood makeup pros aged our young stars 33 years.

BMXNEWS wanted some more scoop on how the campaign, and the vids came about…and some behind the scenes stories. Tioga marketing wiz, Kai Cheng, was happy to oblige:

NEWS: Who was the makeup supervisor/team? Do they have Hollywood credits?

Kai: I won’t reveal too many details about the SFX guys, except to say Jason and his team are part of a full service effects studio catering to film and television. They have worked with Brad Pitt, Vin Diesel, and many other high profile actors/actresses; worked on movies such as Assassination of Jesse James, No Country for Old Men and television productions such as Prison Break, Nip/Tuck, and many, many more – these are true pros at their craft.

NEWS: How long did it take to apply the makeup? I presume you did the shoot
in one day, so it was not necessary to reapply, correct?

Kai: We had 4 make-up artists working on the three athletes – it took about 3
hours to apply each of their make-up. We did do the shoot in one day and
the SFX team were on stand-by the entire session to do touch-ups and such
through out the day. There was so much laughing and clowning by the
athletes that touch-ups were absolutely crucial!

NEWS: Can you share approximately what it cost to do it?

Kai: It’s up there, as you can imagine. Just the SFX team, photographer and
videographer for the day was well over $10,000! Then there’s the post
production costs involved… We’re glad that people enjoyed them.

NEWS: How did the concept for the “65 year anniversary” come about?

Kai: Good question. We always intended the “Faces of Power” campaign initiated
in 2009 to be a multi-year campaign. But more specifically, we felt the 65th Anniversary concept was a humorous way of not only progressing the “Faces of Power” campaign but also to convey a couple messages. Firsly, though Tioga has been around since ‘78, we are as active as ever; being “old” doesn’t mean one withers and dies! Secondly, celebrating the future and underscoring the fact that Tioga will continue to support the sport that launched the brand for a long, long time.

NEWS: Any funny stories to share about the guys?

Kai:Stumpy, dR and Sam are great guys. You’ve been around the sport long
enough to know how down to earth and funny these guys are – especially
when they’re hanging out with each other. The shoot was a fun filled day with many outtakes and pictures. Some that may never see the light of day ever again

News also caught up with Donny Robinson to get some commentary on his part in the campaign:

NEWS: What it was like doing the make up…how long it took them to get you
finished.

dR: The makeup of course, was the most painful part about the whole day. We had to sit in a barber’s chair for 3 hours while they applied all the makeup and wigs and such. Actually, I take that first statement back, I’m still trying to get the gunk out of my hair that they used while applying the caps and wigs. They used some mighty tough glue on us and cleaning all that off might have been worse than putting it on. However, for Tioga to put that much effort and money into a campaign like this, I would do it every day for them. Not too often comapanies go against the grain to pull of some great marketing but I think Tioga did an excellent job with this idea.

NEWS: Did it cause you to think much about how your life might be in 33 years?

dR: Yeah, Stumpy, Sam and I sure had some man-to-man chats that day about how we thought things would turn out. I came to the conclusion that if my hairline would end up like mine was, that I would call my whole life a success. In all honesty, I’ve had some great memories in my life already, but as we stood there that day, old and decrepit, I imagined how rad it would be to make it to that age and be able to look back at the relationships and accomplishments we had accumulated.

NEWS: If you actually looked like you do in the video in 2043, would you be sad or stoked?

dR: If I looked like I did in the video I would probably just run around naked all the time. I would get away with it too because I would be old and people would just think I’m senile (heck, by 2043 public nudity might be allowed anyway). I would be one extra sexy old man just livin’ it up!

Thanks to Kai and Donny for the responses. I think my biggest LOL of the series was when Stumpy called dR “That Lil Gremlin.” But Sam’s clip is funny to watch, because he is constantly on the verge of losing it, which is contagious. “ILLINOIS, ROCKFORD!.” indeed (ironically, Sam won there on Sunday this year as well). That one causes a chuckle just thinking about it. No word on when/if an “outtakes” reel is coming. Keep an eye on BMXNEWS for future updates on the 2043 campaign.

—Mike Carruth

Here are the four clips again, in case you missed one: