Tecovas Western Gear Makes Them Feel Like Dancing

Remember that time you went grocery shopping and wound up strutting the night away, swaying through the produce and frozen food aisles as country music moved your soul?

That never happened? Maybe dressing in Tecovas cowboy boots and western apparel would set your hips swinging and toes tapping. It sure gets folks moving in these ads from agency Preacher and director Katie Hollowell:

These boots are made for dancin’ … but she’ll scuff the lane’s pine finish!

Clarence Nelson’s “You Make Me Feel So Good” and Dane Sturgeon’s “Queen Bee” provide the soundtracks, respectively. The spots debuted on Sunday’s CMT Music Awards and introduce the tagline “Don’t Go Gently.” They represent Preacher’s first work for the brand.

“We’re on a mission to be the most welcoming brand in western, welcoming the next generation of trailblazers to help us all connect with the good stuff in life,” Tecovas CMO Gillian Kennedy tells Muse. “Our hope with our new campaign is that more people are inspired to step out and stomp often. And that they can connect with the true spirit of the west—a mindset that helps each of us explore new ways forward while being our most authentic selves.”

So, it’s an effort to redefine the cowboy spirit for the digital age. That’s similar to Wrangler’s work in recent years, though Tecovas emphasizes everyday style in a less sweeping, more relatable appeal. The ads set the mood and show some merch. That’s enough.

“Both of these films just had to start with a great cast,” says Preacher creative director Zach Watkins. “We had to believe and adore our protagonists. And as we spent time with them, all day long in a bowling alley, and all night long in a freezing grocery store.”

The most memorable moment in the latter was unscripted. 

“[The dancer is] a fairly compact fella, so we were all pretty surprised when he started swinging the mop boy around like a rag doll,” Watkins recalls. “We hadn’t written that level of superhuman strength into the script. It’s just one of those happy accidents you stumble across sometimes. Apparently, he was a break dancer in the early ’90s. And he showed us about every move in his arsenal, still going for broke come 5:30 a.m.”

The bowler turned out to be terrible, but that played into the storyline.

“I believe she threw nothing but gutter balls,” Watkins says. “And we actually loved that. Having her hit a strike seemed like the expected commercial ending, so we tried to leave it to the viewer’s imagination.”

CREDITS

Client: Tecovas
Chief Marketing Officer: Gillian Kennedy
Executive Creative Director: Brian Jordan
Senior Design Director: Craig Denham
Senior Creative Producer: Mary Beth Pellegrino

Agency: Preacher
Chief Creative Officer: Rob Baird
Chief Executive Officer: Krystle Loyland
Chief Strategy Officer: Seth Gaffney
Creative Director: Marcus Brown
Creative Director: Zach Watkins
Group Brand Director: Kristen Meade
Junior Brand Manager: Grant Howard
Copywriter: India Allen
Art Director: Caroline Jinks
Associate Strategy Director: Madelyn Wigle
Executive Producer: Stacey Higgins
Senior Producer: Kasia Olczak
Production Coordinator: Aggie Ryan
Business Affairs: Miiko Martin 

Production Company: Mrs. Wright
Executive Producer: Jacki Calleiro
Director: Kate Hollowell
Line Producer: Jona Ward
DP: Jordan Black
Choreographer: Kat Burns
Stylist: Donna Lisa
Production Designer: Gina Caravan

Casting: Good People Casting

Edit House: Cabin
Head of Production: Lisa Barnable
Senior Post Producer: Zack Herpy
Editor: Scott Butzer
Assistant Editor: Lawrence Ng

Music: Good Ear Music Supervision (GEMS)

Mix: Dusty Albertz
Finish House: SHAPE + LIGHT
Executive Producer: Scott Boyajan
Senior VFX/Finishing Producer: Arielle Weir 

Color House: Company3
Colorist: Sofie Friis Borup