Local teacher in nationwide commercial

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Seeing back-to-school commercials this time of year is nothing new, but this year there's a familiar face in a national Wal-Mart commercial. |ret||ret||tab|

The familiar face in the commercial is Wendy Russell of Springfield, a kindergarten teacher at Bingham Elementary School.|ret||ret||tab|

Russell said the events leading to her appearing in the commercial began in April 1999, when she was shopping in the Wal-Mart Supercenter in south Springfield. She said there was a camera set up in the store by the candy aisle, and workers were asking shoppers to offer their opinions on school supplies and Christmas shopping and try out for a national commercial.|ret||ret||tab|

"I was going by and I had this huge cart full of stuff for my classroom that I was buying at the time ... I sat down and they started asking me, What do you think of school supplies?' and I said, Well, I'm a teacher. Are you kidding? I love school supplies!'" Russell said.|ret||ret||tab|

She said the main reason she offered her opinion, initially, was that she wanted to let people know how many school supplies teachers pay for themselves.|ret||ret||tab|

"I started telling them how I go to Wal-Mart every week, and there's not a time that I'm not buying something for my classroom. Whether we're doing a letter of the week and I buy some type of snack item to give the kids that starts with that letter, or I buy candy for incentives, or stuff for art projects or whatever," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

But Russell said she didn't really think she'd end up in the commercial.|ret||ret||tab|

"There were people, one right after the other, that they were shooting, so I thought my chances were really slim," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

A few weeks later, though, Russell got a call from Bernstein-Rein, an advertising agency in Kansas City. Someone from the agency left Russell a message telling her they wanted to return to Springfield and interview her again.|ret||ret||tab|

She said they told her that six people from across the country had been chosen for second interviews, and in June 1999, she met representatives from the ad agency at the south-side Wal-Mart Supercenter.|ret||ret||tab|

"They had me stand in the school supply aisle, and this lady came down, and this man with a huge camera, and they stood there and asked me the same kind of questions," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

After that second interview, Russell didn't hear anything from the ad agency until two weeks before Christmas in December 1999, when the agency called and told her they wanted to come back and film her for the national back-to-school ad.|ret||ret||tab|

Janel Naaf, a writer with Bernstein-Rein, said interviews like Russell's were conducted in Wal-Mart stores all over the country.|ret||ret||tab|

"We probably interviewed, I would say, maybe 200 people in Wal-Mart stores around the country, and we came across Wendy, and presented her to the client, and said, We think this would be a good person for your back-to-school commercial,' and they agreed," Naaf said.|ret||ret||tab|

Russell said that before the filming took place in June she began to learn a lot about making commercials.|ret||ret||tab|

"From Christmas on, they called me a few times about different details, and they said the Wal-Mart people were wanting to include something about clothes and shoes in the ad, and so they wanted to use someone else, and they wanted to use kids," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Russell said that "someone else" is her good friend, Judy Fick, and her daughter, Madison, both of Springfield.|ret||ret||tab|

"There's a scene in there where I go up and say, You can even buy your clothes and your new shoes at Wal-Mart,' and that's my friend and her daughter," Russell said.|ret||ret||tab|

Russell said her own children, her husband and Fick's husband are also in the commercial they appear as extras in the background.|ret||ret||tab|

"What they do is that when they're filming an ad and it's at a place, the extras in the background are specific. They pick those people in advance and they don't use anyone else that they haven't picked and given a contract to," Russell said.|ret||ret||tab|

Russell said she was paid for the filming and also receives residuals for the number of times the ad airs, as does Fick and her daughter. |ret||ret||tab|

She said the background extras, whose faces don't actually show, were compensated with Wal-Mart gift cards.|ret||ret||tab|

But Russell said the pay wasn't the only benefit she got from being in the commercial. She said when a crew came down to scope out her classroom prior to filming some of the filming was actually done in the classroom she mentioned how Wal-Mart was always so good about donating things, and how some donated school supplies would be nice for the school to have.|ret||ret||tab|

"The day they came to film at my classroom, there were all these Wal-Mart bags sitting there, full of supplies. They used those in the background, and then they gave them to me afterwards," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Russell said when the commercial was filmed at the store, she was instructed to push her cart down the aisle and fill it with things she'd buy for back-to-school shopping, and afterward, they bought everything in the cart for her.|ret||ret||tab|

Russell said since she didn't know Wal-Mart was going to buy her everything she put in the cart, she'd put things she wouldn't have bought, so the store manager let her trade those for things she really needed.|ret||ret||tab|

Naaf, who was also in the commercial asking Russell questions, said Russell did not use a script for her answers. She said Wal-Mart uses real people and no scripts in its commercials, so viewers get their real opinions.|ret||ret||tab|

"That's all in her own words, because we don't write a script for her and tell her what to say. We just ask her questions and she tells us what she really thinks about shopping at Wal-Mart, or (going) back to school, or being a teacher, or whatever," Naaf said. "That way, everything you hear is the truth, it's honest, and hopefully, it will mean more to people when they see the commercial, because it's someone's actual opinion."|ret||ret||tab|

Naaf said filming of the commercial took two days.[[In-content Ad]]