After a lot of hard work, and focusing exclusively on the Doritos contest (like I assume is happening for a lot of other contesters right now) I’ve got the entry finished, loaded onto the site and ready to share.
Lessons in Love (visit, watch, feel free to leave a nice comment.)
I’m extremely happy about this entry, not least of all because I like how my hair looks. But obviously, the selling point is Dan who did a phenomenal job of having his body slathered with orange and spending the day in a speedo.
I entered last years contest and I think learned a few things, as all of us who entered probably did, about what they are looking for and what would work, and I tried to pick an idea that would fit that. And while I’m not sure exactly what they are looking for, I came up with a list of things they definitely AREN’T looking for.
1) Shitty quality camera. Normally, I’m content to use a regular home video camera and throw something together. But, and this should have been obvious to me since it’s got to air on national TV, it’s got to have the production values. I didn’t get that last time, this time, working with my new found production friends in Hershey, PA, I think we nailed it.
2) Branding. They don’t want it peripherally about the product like a lot of Superbowl commercials (think the bud light commercial where the zebra is playing the referee to the horses playing football), they want the Doritos featured heavily, plenty of screen time, and for it to be mentioned. I think I did that this time.
3) Sound and lighting. Same as number 1. Good mics. Good lights. Didn’t have any lighting options in Antarctica, but these Hershey folks knew what they were doing.
4) They don’t want 30 seconds building up to a single punchline. They want multiple jokes for the millions they are going to spend to air it.
Now on to some conjectures:
I have no idea about the following, but these are some guesses I made about them.
1) They don’t want a video that just features some hot girl showing how hot she is.
2) They want something that stands on it’s idea, with solid production to support it. As opposed to something that stands on it’s special effects or production values. The winning entry from last year wasn’t one of the big crazy budget ones. It was a simple joke, effectively produced.
3) They want afros on white guys. I know this is a stretch, but I’ve been watching a lot of TV. Commercials love big hair on Jewish white guys, but none of them seem to have quite pulled off the full, white guy afro. I’m banking on that being the thing that puts it over the top.
