Forty years later, Jeanie Bueller still has a problem with her brother. While Ferris is off enjoying himself, she’s left handling the responsibilities. For Chicago’s The Colonie, that familiar family dynamic opened up plenty of possibilities in the edit suite.
The Colonie reunited with BBDO Chicago and Home Instead for Save Jeanie, a holiday campaign starring Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen in their roles from John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Director Jody Hill also returned after helping Home Instead treat us to last year’s campaign featuring Macaulay Culkin in a tribute to Home Alone.
This time, the sibling rivalry has followed Jeanie into adulthood. She’s picking up prescriptions, doing the shopping and managing appointments for their parents. Ferris, predictably, is nowhere to be found.
For The Colonie owner and editor Bob Ackerman, the assignment came with a personal connection to the material:
“Telling a story rooted in such a beloved film is exciting as an editor but even more so as someone who grew up loving this and all John Hughes films. I’m incredibly grateful that the whole team at BBDO brought us on again this year.”
In the edit suite, that love for the movie was only a piece of the equation.
“That affection gave the work an added pleasure, but the campaign also needed to connect with viewers less familiar with the original film,” Ackerman said.
Produced by Caviar, the campaign follows Jeanie’s search for Ferris through familiar situations, including a visit to the art museum and another encounter with a mannequin occupying her brother’s bed. Cindy Pickett also returns as their mother, Katie Bueller.
The search eventually brings Jeanie to a neighborhood bar, where Sheen’s character hears what’s behind her frustration. When she explains that nothing gets done unless she does it herself, he asks: “Does it have to be you?”
The exchange connects the film’s enduring sibling friction to a responsibility many viewers now know firsthand: caring for aging parents.
In shaping that story, Ackerman had an abundance of material to explore, and collaborators willing to spend time exploring it with him.
“As was the case last year, Jody Hill and the team at BBDO provided a treasure trove of story beats and dialogue that let us experiment with all sorts of editorial options,” he said. “Having so much fantastic footage at our disposal made the process of crafting the tightest spot possible a joy.”
Members of the BBDO team joined him in the edit suite for multiple days, working through those choices together.
“With so many people working virtually these days it’s great to get back to basics and physically work on something together,” Ackerman said.
One of Hill’s shooting choices proved particularly useful in the final bar scene. A locked-down two-shot of Grey and Sheen allowed Ackerman to use a split screen to combine performances from different takes, finding the strongest exchange while preserving the appearance of a single shot.
“Old school, just like the movie,” he said.
Developed by BBDO Chicago, Save Jeanie launched this week across broadcast television, streaming, social media and Home Instead’s website. The campaign gives a familiar character a reason to reconsider an old grievance: after four decades of trying to catch Ferris taking a day off, Jeanie could use one herself.
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