UB’s Bernstein Teams with Comedian Jon Lovitz in "Yellow Pages" Ad Campaign

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Yes, yes, it's him. It's Charles Bernstein, the University at Buffalo's David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters in those famous "Yellow Pages" commercials featuring comedian Jon Lovitz -- and for a scholar of esoterica, he's turned out to be very popular with the public.

The humorous ads, touting the "Yellow Pages" as an epic written by Lovitz, hit the airwaves during the January bowl games. In them, Bernstein plays himself, a literary critic who assesses the directory as a reference site for the shifting scene of language reproduction.

Hang on, it all becomes clear.

The story began when director Jeff Preiss attended a literary reading in which Bernstein read a poem devised from telephone listings -- his "Bob's" poem.

"I use a lot of lists, forms, indexes and compendiums in my writing to express such things as changing cultural focus or interest," explained Bernstein, also professor of English and comparative literature in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

"That particular poem is an alphabetical listing of businesses in a telephone directory, businesses that presumably belong to a guy named 'Bob' -- Bob's Body Shop, Bob's this, Bob's that -- a lot of Bobs. That's the poem Jeff heard."

When the Yellow Pages Publishers' Association launched its first ad campaign in 10 years, Preiss was commissioned by Richmond's Martin Agency to direct radio and television spots advertising the "Yellow Pages" as a traditional reference volume and a sourcebook for ideas.

Lovitz, as the "author," was audiotaped and filmed "touring the country" asking his audiences to look to the "Yellow Pages" for new and exciting ideas about such things as home-improvement jobs. He also tells consumers how he arrived at the idea of writing the book.

"The hardest thing to do is to come up with a simple idea that is also great," says Lovitz in the ads, "And I just thought, 'Oh, the alphabet!'"

The agency decided to incorporate a bit of extemporaneous "critical commentary" on Lovitz' 'work.' Recalling the 'Bob's' poem, Preiss suggested that the creative team enlist Bernstein in the project since the subject matter was clearly up his scholarly alley.

The role of the "critic" was originally expected to be peripheral, but the producers were enchanted by Bernstein's improvisational reflections on post-literate cultural expression.

"We wanted the commentaries to have spontaneity, weight and authenticity," said agency representative Laura Sutherland. "We auditioned a lot of different writers, but Charles Bernstein was the best. He's just great."

Tom Poe, who also represents the agency, said, "We had no idea Charles was going to be so popular. He's terrific, but we didn't know what we had until we started to roll the film." (In Buffalo's second-degree-of-separation tradition, Poe's wife is from Williamsville and his two brothers graduated from UB).

Although his critiques are in one sense, delivered tongue-in-cheek, Bernstein is unique in the way he blends humor with pointed commentary about language.

"It works," said Bernstein, because the "Yellow Pages" are a source of ideas. They've been a source of ideas for my poetry, for instance. The listings are a material artifact of our culture and can be discussed in those terms.

"The telephone represents the beginning of the revolutionary age of electronic language reproduction. Like the telephone itself, the telephone book when it first came out represented new ideas about communication. Like the culture that produces it, it shifts its form and content over time as it marks the changing values we place on certain ideas, practices and services. It illustrates new ways in which we categorize our world."

Although the commercials are wry and satirical, Bernstein said, "by talking about the 'Yellow Pages,' not only as 'phone book' but as culture-carrier, I think we've been able to convey important points about language itself and maybe broaden the popular notion about what literature it is and can be."

Bernstein is the author of 25 books of poetry, two books of essays, opera librettos and three poetic translations from the French. He has edited a number of pioneering journals and anthologies, as well as a CD, "Live at the Ear," featuring literary readings and performances at the Ear Inn, New York City, and a series of interviews on LINEbreak, a nationally distributed public radio program produced by WBFO 88.7 FM, UB's National Public Radio station.