The SLOG.
The Longest 3-Hour Drive In American History.

What a great bit of advertising, i'd think TV and/or Radio spot's should start shortly and you can view it online at:
http://www.i-5slog.com/
Very creative and well done!

I love it. Trying to put my finger on who the voice talent is. I know I know that voice.

It does sound kind of familiar doesn't it. I know i've heard it somewhere before also.
I think they used Beano for the voice of "Last Meal Gorge"!

Darktemper, thanks for turning me onto that site!
Impressive piece of work. Speaking as someone who drives large portions of that road, this advertising has a ring of truth in it.

On the web, I found a picture of the Littlerock/Maytown exit taken a year or so before I was born. Three cars headed southbound, two northbound! I grew up in that area, and when we went to town, we'd be lucky to see 10-20 cars, and that's both directions!

No Problem, glad you liked it. Very well done piece of advertising. Has lots of built-in's for print, radio, and television spot's, very well made and catchy advertisement! I cross the "Bridge of Sighs" every morning to and from work and the sigh each way has a different meaning for sure!

I love the "first person" style of some of the made up diaries of the travellers. Kind of reminds me of a Ken Burns documentary(obviously what they were aiming for) My favourite was "Last Meal Gorge"...

"I ate something...brownish...and evil..." while displaying an image of a pile of corn dogs! Great ad.

The Voice Talent on this sounds like the guy who did some Henry Weinhard/Blitz or Ranier Beer spots back in the late 60s or 70s ( or was it Olympia, its the water..and all that ). I get visions of this guy's voice on some TV spots with mountains, snow and glaciers and trees...I have played this Horizon spot over and over again and I cant quite collect all my gray storage voice pattern recognition cells together to identify him. I cant quite pin him down, but I will probably wake up at 4 some morning and have the spot/client figured out.

He is an older guy, in his early 70s ill bet...and pronounces again ..agin'

That's what I was thinking.

Thanks for sharing this!

Had a chance to look it over, and it's so well done!

Genius.

It sounded like an old beer commercial to me as well. Listen to this from a while back and see if you think it sounds close:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eqnGXTh1fM&mode=related&search=

Thats the one right there ! I got the best country in the country..and the country's best beer ! Blitz Weinhardt. Now, whether its the same guy????

I compared the spots and it could be the same person. That particular commercial was, despite the note in the right margin, not from the 60s. This because the First Bank ( Bank America now? ) Tower shot was in the Portland Skyline, so it was early 70s...72 or 73 ill bet.

If you factor in 34 years difference in age. Pronunciation differences due to having dentures now and not in 1973, maturation of the vocal cords etc..It could be the same person. On the current spot I can hear some denture slure on the S and C sounds. The timber of the voice is the same but the earlier spot was tighter and more highly produced which makes sense because when you are younger most people are able to reproduce that physically and also more willing to do it psychologically as well. You get older and expression and content are more important than 'tight and bright'.

Very Ken Burns-ish and extremely well executed. It's not often you see creativity in advertising like that. Whoever came up with that concept in Horizon's advertising dept. should get a raise.

This is brand new stuff, I think you'll be seeing lot's from this in all of the different media types in the near future!

SO, anyone got odd's on which radio station lands the first spot from this ad?

I can't quite nail-down the narrator, BUT for everything else you'd ever want to know about the spot, try this link:

http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=714e1cb3

It's a shame they almost tell you who swept the floors, but they can't quite see fit to credit the voice work...

I just googled wongdoody who is the agency that is producing the spots. Wongdoody.com is nuthin' brother ! just music and a logo no links, no interactive programs to ask questions...when you google them on other listings they seem to have a large client list and thier gross billing is about 57 million so far for 2007, or so they claim. Thats not peanuts.

On the google search there is an ad agency reviewer guy in Seattle who has an article about how wongdoody needs lots of help developing thier webpage ! They are also based out of Seattle. Tracy Wong CEO.

Isn't the former First National/First Interstate now the Wells Fargo Bank Tower?

In a word: Yes.
Here's a Portland Tribune article from 2005 about someone lambasting it and several other buildings:
http://portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=30852
It also mentions the Bank of America Building, located just South of the Morrison Bridge.

"It also mentions the Bank of America Building, located just South of the Morrison Bridge."

Well, let's see now. The Morrison Bridge runs east and west so just south of the Morrison Bridge would be, I believe, in the middle of the Willamette River.

I don't recall seeing a building in the Willamette River.

the bank of america building is the tallest in portland imho

the bank of america building is the tallest in portland imho

Ok, first of all, something like "tallest building in Portland" can not possibly be a matter of opinion, since that is something that can be measured and proven.
Secondly, the tallest building in Portland is the Wells Fargo Center (546 ft.). It also happens to be the tallest building in the state.

This info is from Wikipedia, and we all know that everything on Wikipedia is accurate.

That Horizon campaign is brilliant and funny. Sound done by Vince Werner's "Clatter & Din" out of Seattle. An old school mate from many years ago. Thanks for the cackles.

It's just south of the Western approach, which sorta does put it south of the Morrison Bridge. I realize people are probably just being silly. Either that or the spelling and grammar police are bored.

"Either that or the spelling and grammar police are bored."
No!
The mentioned article did not say it was south of the Morrison Bridge, it said Southwest of the Morrison Bridge, which is correct.

S and SW are two distinctly different places when referenced to a given point.

If we were to use your reference "It's just south of the Western approach, which sorta does put it south of the Morrison Bridge.", one could then also assume it might be on the east side of the river if you did not say "It's just south of the Western approach,"

The statement makes sense to you because you know where it is and can make the reference you did. However, if someone were new to the area and did not know where it was, saying south of the bridge makes no sense, if they know direction.

And now the rest of the story.

I got in contact with the folks at WONGDODDY and the guy they use most of the time is Bob Peterson, who is actually a photographer in the Seattle area.

Well I don't know if they were the first but I started hearing this add on KGON yesterday!!!!! What a great spot that works well in all of the different types of media!