Acting in commercials

In the incredibly limited world of commercial casting, an actor’s instincts can lead one astray.  If you go into a commercial audition with any intent, method, or technique prepared, you’ve lost the part already.  Those producers, ad people and clients behind the table may tell you that they don’t want anything obvious and that they don’t want to typecast, they’re not consciously lying, but their instincts will always draw them back to the familiar.  They need to make a safe choice to satisfy the needs of the client.  It’s best not to consider any part of the commercial process an “art”.  It’s a business, and you will benefit by thinking of it as very lucrative whoring.  Your aim is to please the client.  The goal is to sell a product and you are a sellable object.   Keep in mind that those people behind the table determining your fate aren’t necessarily artists.  They are a mix of business people whose primary goal is to sell something.  And they aren’t particularly interested in the different or the daring.  The advertising business is, by nature, risk adverse, and while there may be creative elements involved, marketing and numbers always prevail.  The lone voice that wants something unfamiliar and “different” will always be drowned out by the numbers people.  When they tell you that they want something “subtle”, that is defined by commercial terms.  Subtle in advertising would be broad and caricature in any sort of “real” acting challenge.  It’s really about making readily recognizable faces and aping interest in a product.  If they tell you otherwise, they don’t mean it.