Gee, mom, if you really care about your kids try not to add to the waste of the planet.
To get the kids ready for the shoot, Bob Ebel sent the kids home with a children’s book on germs. He wanted them to read it with their parents so that when they arrived on the set, each one would imagine him- or her-self as a bona fide germ expert.
He then turned himself into the perfect foil. Ebel had a make-up person transform him into a veritable germ factory, covering his hands and face with grime. He then sat down with each kid and shared with them his unorthodox views on germs, claiming that he rarely washed and never brushed his teeth. The kids were horrified. The cameras rolled and a spot was born.
“They thought I was a nut case,” Ebel recalls, “and they began educating me.”
Some of the spot’s most precious shots are of the kids reacting to the dirt beneath Ebel’s fingernails. And they began peppering him with facts and advice, “You should not share your germs, just share your toys,” “Germs are really little!” “They want to get inside you and bite you.” “No one likes germs on your hands, no one.”
