Doritos: Larger Than Life
It’s been about a week now since the submission period for the 2012 Crash the Super Bowl contest closed and in total it looks like Doritos recived 4,829 entries. That’s an all time record. Sure, some of those submissions are duplicates but not many. This year the Doritos team did a great job of keeping the repeat submissions out of the contest gallery. In fact, I’d estimate that only 1% of this year’s ads are duplicates. If we ignore the fact that a few of the entries are repeats, a little math tells us that your odds of making the Top Five are 1 in 965. That makes this year’s Crash the Super Bowl the most difficult video contest to win, EVER. So if you entered this year and if you have friends that are really psyched about your chances, you might want to mention the “1 in 965″ odds to them so they won’t be too crushed if you don’t make the finals.
As I explained in my previous post, this year I’m trying to watch (at least a few seconds of) every, single CTSB entry. My goal is to compile a list of all the best submissions. (If you made an awesome entry and want to be considered for the list, leave your link in a comment to my last post.) While scrolling through the contest gallery, every once in a while I’ll come across a commercial that has a recognizable face or two in it. Over the years, a few “celebrities” have appeared in Crash the Super Bowl entries but using known actors seems to be a big trend this year.
But personally, I think using celebrities in a CTSB entry is a really awful idea for everyone involved. Before I get into “why” it’s a bad idea, take a minute and check out this Crash the SuperBowl entry featuring Jenny McCarthy. I can’t embed CTSB videos so you’ll have to click on the image to view it on the contest site:
click to view.
That was seriously a pretty good entry. The production values where top notch, the premise was funny, the women all looked very nice and it ended with a strong punchline. I actually think it would be a major contender if it did NOT feature a celebrity. As it is, there’s just something off-putting about this submission. It causes the viewer to wonder, “Why the hell is Jenny McCarthy in a Crash the Super Bowl entry?” And that question leads to more questions like “Is she broke?” “Does she really need the $25,000 finalist prize that badly? “Or does she just want the attention of being in a Super Bowl ad?” But here’s the most relevant question; if Jenny McCarthy wants to do commercials, why doesn’t she just do some? Is she un-castable or something these days? (NOTE: The answers to all these questions have been answered by one of the directors of this spot! Scroll down for the full story.)
So you see, if you’re a recognizable actor, doing a Crash the Super Bowl entry is is a huge gamble. Like I said, there’s only a 1 in 965 chance of making the finals. But there’s a 100% chance that people will wonder why the heck you would stoop to entering a video contest. Ok…maybe some celebrities enter the contest just for the fun of it. But if a famous person wanted to make a goofy video for fun, they could just do a FunnyorDie sketch for free. So most of them enter for the obvious reason; the prizes for winning are money and exposure. But looking desperate for either of those things is not good for an actor’s image.
And I also think it’s a mistake for filmmakers to feature major or minor celebrities in their Doritos ads. In a way, it goes against the entire point and premise of the Crash the Super Bowl contest. Doritos runs The Crash every year because they want to find something they can’t get from Hollywood or from a big, Madison Avenue ad firm. They want quirky, crazy, outside-of-the-box ideas. In short, they want “User Generated Content.”
The description for Jenny McCarthy’s ad lists two directors. I googled them and it turns out one of them is her ex-husband. And he’s also an known actor. He’s done a lot of TV directing too. So this entry is the exact OPPOSITE of user-generated content. Actually, it’s hollywood’s take on user-generated content. And that is the thing that bothers me most about these “celebrity” entries. They have an air of hubris to them. It’s like an NBA player walking onto a basketball court in a big city, public park thinking he’s going to blow everyone’s minds just because he’s a pro. But no one likes it when a pro chooses to compete against amateurs simply because they’ll be easier to beat. Before I make another weird analogy, check out this other CTSB entry that features boy-banders Lance Bass and AJ Mclean:
Again, click to view.
Now that ad wasn’t so great. The only thing it has going for it is that it has two famous people in it. But right now, the people that produced this ad are probably patting themselves on the back for being smart enough/rich enough/well connected enough to cast Lance Bass and AJ Mclean. They didn’t have to waste time writing a stronger script because two celebrities trump great writing any day…right?
Let’s be honest; the vast majority of Crash the Super Bowl entries are awful. It’s very hard for an “average joe” to make a tight, professional looking 30 second commercial for no money. And that’s why I think celebrities agree to be in CTSB ads. Some friend or nephew or ex-husband finds the contest and thinks, “wow, these commercials all suck! If I spent a few grand and hired a real crew and got my pal, insert-celebrity’s name here to be in my video I would win easy!” But these folks don’t “get” the contest. Presumably they think that their celebrity entry will be much more desirable than the thousands of entries that just feature regular jerk-offs from Nowheresville, USA. If Doritos has to choose between a commercial that features Jenny McCarthy and a commercial that features a bunch of nobodies, Doritos will obviously pick the Jenny McCarthy ad…right?
Wrong. Because if Doritos wanted to air a commercial featuring Jenny McCarthy in a bikini, they would just hire Jenny McCarthy and stick he in a bikini. They wouldn’t bother to run a 10 million dollar “consumer generated” commercial contest if they wanted a typical, “hollywood” ad. So I don’t think we’ll ever see a “celebrity” entry make the CTSB finals. If we did, it would probably mark the end of the entire contest. Because if Doritos tells us that to win, an entry should have a celebrity in it, why would us regular jerk-offs from Nowheresville even bother to compete?
The entries that have recognizable actors in them are pretty interesting though. Some of them are pretty good and some of them are a little lame. Some where clearly made by pros with deep pockets who were able to hire known actors, while other entries seem like maybe they were made by the celebrity’s nephew and the actor is appearing as a favor. Here are the 2011 celebrity ads I’ve been able to find so far. If you see any other ones, leave a link in the comments.
The Eric Roberts Show: Featuring Eric Roberts:
I always liked Eric Roberts. And he's actually pretty funny in this.
Tasty as Charged: Featuring Jerry Adler:
You might not recognize the name but this guy has been in a billion TV shows and movies
Eyes Teeth: Featuring Sam Lloyd:
It's Ted from Scrubs! And he's in a weirdly hilarious CTSB entry!
Party Time: Featuring Blake Clark and Peter Dante:
Wait a second...both of these guys have been in a ton of Adam Sandler movies. I wonder who made this spot.
Despite my bitching, some of those were pretty good. But nothing can top the epicness of this celebrity Pepsi Max entry from Last year’s Crash the Super Bowl contest:
Pretty damn crazy, right? But that spot did not make the finals last year. So If an entry that features a rampaging Ernest Borgnine couldn’t win this contest, I don’t think this year’s crop of celebrity entries stand much chance either.
11/29/2011 UPDATE: The mystery of the Jenny McCarthy ad has been solved! One of the directors actually found this article and he was good enough to explain how the ad came to be. Here’s his full comment:
Hey Beardy
Jenny McCarthy is doing this in the hopes to help http://www.generationrescue.org/. When we got the news from your site ( “The Lonely Island guys are kind of IN the Crash the Super Bowl contest. By that I mean that they will be competing for the 1st place spot on the ad meter and if they get it, they will win the million dollar bonus!” ) We thought we would give it a shot too. Fair is fair..
Thanks for checking out the spot!
John A.
p.s. your site rocks!
Well now, do I feel like an asshole or what?? Not only did Jenny McCarthy and her team shoot an entry as a way to raise money to combat autism, they found out about the details of the Doritos contest from this website! Though to be fair, the lonely Island guys were hired by doritos to shoot a super bowl ad this year. They’re not actually competing against the little guys for a slot in the finals. Their commercial is guaranteed to air. But still, it’s nice to hear that this was for a not for profit endeavor. So, good for them!
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Enjoyed the article. I am film student and this is the first year I have attempted the Crash the Superbowl challenge. You can check it out at /#/gallery/?video=16611 or .
I have come past a few really great commercials, one of which I think is a sure winner but I made the mistake of not taking down the name of the commercial. It’s been hell trying to find it again out of all the entries. Overall this was fun and I look forward to going at it every year until I can pull one in.
Having a celebrity in your ad wont help you. like you said if you cant win with Ernest Borgnine, celebs wont help.
And they don’t pick the best ads anyway. I think we have seen it the past two years in a row. the best scripts don’t win. I surprised people still enter this. When there are so many more options out there now.
i didn’t think any of these ads were that great anyway, they weren’t that well cut and never had any “laugh out loud” moments
I just started getting serious about filmmaking this year and this is my first Doritos contest. My video is called White Rabbit, a take on Alice in Wonderland.
your posts are always enjoyable; thank you for creating this site.
yes, i concur, incorporating celebrity doesn’t guarantee a favorable result.
evidenced by the borgnine spot, it’s possible celebrity was counter-productive.
QUESTION FOR BEARDY:
given your familiarity with past CTSB submissions, how do you suppose the judges feel about those spots that are overtly sexually-driven? from my point of view, there appears to be a wealth of pieces that are unabashedly sensual. does this approach work to the advantage or disadvantage of the submission?
David,
Personally I enter the CTSB kind of just because I run this site. How can I do a bunch of posts about a contest a contest I didn’t even enter.
But you’re right. It blows my mind that 5,000 people will enter a contest where the odds of winning $25K are about 1 in 1,000. But only 60 people will submit to a poptent assignment where the chances of winning $7,500 are 1 in 30.
Heather,
I think making a “sexy” CTSB entry is a very bad idea. I think Doritos has picked 20 finalists over the last 4 years and only 1 ad (that I can think of) had a “sexy” moment. It’s this entry from the 2nd CTSB contest:
The wind magically blows a woman’s dress off. It was kind of actually in bad taste (you gotta feel bad for the woman) but that 2nd year doritos didn’t get too many TV quality ads. I remember reading that that video cost thousands of dollars to produce. So I don’t think an ad like that will win again.
The contest judges’ goal is to pick videos that can win on the ad meter. 50% of the ad meter audience is women. So while some guys might like a commercial more because it’s got a scantily clad woman, a lot of women will score an ad lower if they think an ad is sexist. Actually, I’m a dude and I’d even rate an ad lower if it was blatantly sexist.
So doritos wants comedy, not sex. In fact, they have to be especially careful when they pick their finalists because they have to submit all their ads to the network ahead of time. The super bowl is PG rated these days and if the network rejects a sexy ad, Doritos would be screwed if that ad happened to win the public vote.
Great post and have to agree with you on the inclusion of a celebrity will definitely not help you in this contest, as you said, it seems like the revolt if Doritos picks one that has a celeb in it would be too great. Did find it funny though that Jenny did a spot for her ex-husband and in that outfit, that must have been torture for him:)
I do want to say that I don’t agree this contest is a 1 in 1000 as you have said it many times, there are maybe and do mean MAYBE 200 good submissions and from there maybe 50 that will even be considered by Doritos or their ad firm. Just like any contest, most submissions are crap, i.e. home videos.
So if you turned in a spot with high production value and a solid idea that has not been done before, I would say your odds are more like 1 in 50 or maybe 1 in 100. That’s why Poptent is so popular, those chances are more like 1 in 10 on most of those contests plus as one of your readers said above, Doritos is a tough one to crack on their selections…
You asked for it, so here it is. Hope you like it!
/#/gallery/?video=17186
Hey Beardy, check these submissions out.
/#/gallery?video=15069
/#/gallery?video=13520
Mark,
It’s true that most CTSB entries aren’t very professional. So 1 in 1000 are just the literal odds of winning. But I think the likely odds are higher than 1 in 50. You never know what doritos will like. Just look at the pepsi max contest. Several videos made the pepsi finals last year that had awful production values. So I think doritos gives serious consideration to amateur ads. The head of the contest once said in an interview that as long as the ad is funny, they don’t care what it looks like.
Hi Beardy!
Came across your website a few months ago – love the advice and insight … wanted to let you know we have an entry that you in particular might take a special liking to … please check it out at /#/gallery?video=17410 … HIPSTER KIDS.
Best,
Michael
Ceck out this video entry
/#/gallery?video=15262
Hey Beardy
Jenny McCarthy is doing this in the hopes to help http://www.generationrescue.org/ . When we got the news from your site ( “The Lonely Island guys are kind of IN the Crash the Super Bowl contest. By that I mean that they will be competing for the 1st place spot on the ad meter and if they get it, they will win the million dollar bonus!” ) We thought we would give it a shot too. Fair is fair..
Thanks for checking out the spot!
John A.
p.s. your site rocks!
John,
Thanks for the comment and for being a fan of the site! This new info really clears things up. I added an update at the end of the article about this.
Good luck,
beardy
Thank you Beardy.
-John A.
Michael & Sheri,
I hope you guys don’t mind but I copied your comments and moved them to the previous post. I want to keep all the entry links in one place. I’ll also do reviews of your spots in the other discussion:
https://videocontestnews.com/2011/11/21/we-want-to-see-your-crash-the-super-bowl-entries/
thanks.
beardy
be sure to take a look at this one, one of my personal favorites.
thanks!
/#/gallery/?video=12684
There is one really good reason why celebs are a bad idea. Doritos wants user-generated content and the average non-professional actor or director would not be able to score these celebs. So they probably won’t choose these based on the simple fact that they won’t look user generated.
Do you think the Jenny McCarthy ad would be disqualified for the spear gag anyway? The rules specifically state that no weapons or firearms are to be used. The ad ends with a spear literally being thrown thrown into the guys stomach. The forum moderator even stated that,
“…objects which are potential weapons would depend on how they are used in the spot. For example, arrows may be fine in a back sling as a prop, but probably not okay if they are being shot through someone in the spot…”
Seems like some money and effort went into the spot – they should have thought about that.
I would have thought their submission would have been rejected and the filmmakers given a chance to come up with an alternate ending. I guess whomever was checking the submissions at the Doritos contest was distracted by Jenny’s other weapons. Ha!
There is also a really good submission where it is hinted that the lead character is killed by arrows. Arrows are shown flying across the screen but it’s not shown that the character is struck. However the next shot indicates that he was. I think it’s funny and OK but do you think it violates the letter of the law?
Treasure of Los Doritos: /#/gallery?video=16064
Human Dorito Pinata
/#/gallery?video=14271
You think we got a shot?
Weird, I double checked the official rules and it only states that “firearms” are prohibited. I wonder why the moderator objected to other weapons?
Mightymatt,
Those are great points. I asked the doritos contest moderator about weapons a few weeks ago. (my entry had a “weapon” in it) He said that weapons weren’t exactly prohibited but weapons couldn’t be shown hurting some one. So a spear to the gut is probably too violent after all.
Alex, I moved your comment to the previous post. I’ll post a review there too.
Yeah we hear you. We didn’t have a huge budget, but we have a pretty amazing cat who can wink, jump and turn off lights, and close doors on command. Even if we had money for celebrities the contest is more about creativity and a good laugh. Please check ours out. /#/gallery?video=16228
Thanks a lot for having this!
Good actors are a must but celebrities might distract from the ad I think.
heres my fav xo
/#/gallery/?video=11681
I think my ad is pretty good this year. The film club I’m in helped me film it, and I think it still has pretty solid production value. No celebrities unfortunately but I agree that having them kind of defeats the purpose of this contest.
Anyway here’s my entry, hope you all like it!
/#/gallery/?video=14064
We feel the same way about the celebrities its just not fair to amateur filmmakers I wish we had a film crew & a redone camera. Check out our two submissions /#/gallery?video=14911 & /#/gallery?video=14911 lets know what you think.
Hi Beardy,
We shot our entry titled, “Good as Gold” in the last few days before the deadline. Story by Lori E. Cunningham & Drue Pennella. Shot & produced by Drue & myself. Hope you’ll consider our entry for your top spots list.
/#/gallery?video=16006
Cheers,
Erik