Filming Ads Got a Bit Rocky

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.

“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.”