If Boards was to pitch an idea for the next FedEx Super Bowl spot, it'd be called "Flamenco" - about an agency producer who surprises a hapless crew by appearing on set decked out in a red dress and matching heels. Of course Elise Greiche would star. The 36-year-old BBDO producer laughs when asked if she'd consider substituting her after-work hobby, flamenco dancing, for yoga to help her chill out during a high-stress shoot.

"Perhaps if we go into overtime," she speculates over the phone from BBDO's New York office. "I have a red dress and red heels for my flamenco days."

Greiche is partially responsible for a lot of FedEx's comedic hijinks. She has worked as the agency producer on at least 23 spots for the courier company, including the Super Bowl favorites "Jenkins," "Stick" and "Castaway."

Clearly, she isn't easily offended. After all, Greiche was complicit in knocking former Miss USA Ali Landry unconscious with an airborne nacho chip in a Doritos spot, and works regularly with BBDO's creative director Eric Silver, whom she met at a party three years ago. A few weeks after meeting, she and Silver worked on "Jenkins", in which an indignant alien refuses to concede his true identity to a pair of skeptical FedEx employees.

Through this hilarity, she's earned a reputation as a fair, organized and affable producer who sticks up for her creatives.

"Elise is easily one of the best producers I have ever worked with," says Silver. "Put quite simply - she gets it. I never have to 'double check' on things. I just know they're getting done."

After graduating with a degree in communications from the University of Delaware in 1991, Greiche left her native New Jersey and crossed the Hudson River for a job at a small firm called The Ad Group. She started out assisting the creative director, president and executive producer and soon realized she wanted to produce for an agency. She eventually worked her way to BBDO by way of Grey Worldwide and Deutsch.

If the agency producer sets the tone on set, Greiche strives to be a calming force. She's hands-on, champions the agency's vision and her on-set rapport with creatives and clients inspires confidence through her even-handed resolve, says Smuggler co-founder Patrick Milling Smith. "She's very fair and straight with you," he says. "Even if you don't get the job, you understand and respect the decision they've all made, which is a talent in itself."

Smuggler has worked with Greiche on a Visa spot and has bid on several of her projects over the years. It doesn't hurt that she works with some of BBDO's top Super Bowl creative teams. BBDO rules the Bowl and Greiche has produced spots - mostly for FedEx - for four of the last five broadcasts.

"When I call a production company and tell them I have a Super Bowl commercial, there's a lot more excitement around it before the script is even seen," says Greiche.

But the Super Bowl can be a double-edged sword now that so much hype, money and expectation surround the ads, which she usually watches with friends at a party thrown by post-house Mackenzie Cutler.

Her first Super Bowl work was the Doritos ad with Landry in 2001. It didn't go over so well with the pundits.

"The first time I did a Super Bowl commercial, it was surreal," she says, admitting that when the game broke for commercials, she felt slight fear and even envy as the competing ads she'd heard rumors about weeks prior to airing. Paranoid thoughts swirled through her brain: What if the audio cut out during her spot?

In 2002, she watched the game at the Superdome in New Orleans and found herself missing the commercials. In 2003, her FedEx spoof of the Tom Hanks film Castaway ranked third in Copernicus Marketing Consultant's annual impact assessment. "Jenkins" in 2004 and "Stick" earlier this year also won over the critics.

"Stick" is about a caveman who wishes someone would hurry up and invent FedEx after the pterodactyl he entrusts with an urgent package is eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The spot required a lot of post-production research to get the dinosaurs just right. As agency producer, Greiche insisted on intensive research to keep the integrity and quality of the spot as high as possible.

"I didn't realize then as much as I do now the influence that an agency producer can have on a project," she says. "There's a time and a place to influence the process and I think a good agency producer guides the production in a positive way."

AGENCY BRIEFS
Who's your dream director? Michel Gondry.
What's the world's most underrated invention? Post-Its.
Which could you go longer without: your Blackberry or toothpaste? Blackberry.
In five words or less, describe the perfect conference call. Laughter.
Strangest moment on the job. Breaking my nose during a shoot in Times Square.
The commercial you remember the most from your youth. MEOW. MEOW. MEOW. MEOW.
Without naming names, describe the best hissy fit from a director you've ever experienced. A director had the talent smoke a cigarette on camera to test our sense of humor.
The buzz word or term you are sick to death of hearing. Branded content.
What's your nickname? E.

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