The March 3rd episode of NBC's the Late Show with Conan O'Brien harnesses the creative talents of Foote, Cone & Belding, New York to soup up the TV ad of one of O'Brien's Houston sponsors, Hilton Furniture.

The original ad features Hilton, a chainsaw wielding furniture vendor chopping up furniture as an indelicate metaphor for his slashed prices. O'Brien contacted FCB and in a hilarious sketch had a creative team redesign Hilton's ads.

The creative team was senior copywriter Liza Powel and senior art director Jennifer MacFarlane, along with senior creative director Robbie Austin, junior copywriter Shameka Brown, group creative director John Colquhoun, creative director Wayne Winfield and account director Alan Brown.

O'Brien held court with the agency types and showed them Hilton's ad, nonchalantly asking them what they thought of the ad. The FCB ad hipsters didn't approve. O'Brien then brought Hilton in and soon enough he was chopping up chairs in the pristine FCB lobby, with all of the agency people and the late night host looking on with an apparent mix of amusement and fear.

Four days later, the creatives were able to improve on Hilton's original concept, splicing his chainsaw footage together with shots of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, incorporating some of Hilton's original slogans into the ad.

The FCB creative seem to know good, free PR when they see it.

Contacts:

http://www.fcb.com

http://www.nbc.com/conan