I checked our web stats this morning and I was surprised to see that we got a big spike in traffic yesterday. It only took me a second to realize why; yesterday was October 18th. And “on or around October 18th” was supposed to be day that Godaddy.com announced the winners of their gigantic “summer” commercial contest. But the 18th came and went with no announcement. We don’t have any scoops for you about who won but I just checked the Godaddy website and the contest page has been changed. It now says:
WINNERS ANNOUNCED: On or around October 27, 2010 at GoDaddy.com
So if you entered this contest and figured you’d lost because you hadn’t been contacted yet it seems you’ve still got a shot. The odds are still really stacked against you though! I just did a quick count and it looks like Godaddy recived 215 entries this time around. Sure, last time Godaddy ran a video contest they got over 500 entries but keep in mind, that first contest was only for 30 second commercials. For this one, filmmakers had to create up to 120 seconds worth of content. I’m kind of amazed that so many people would be willing to do so much work for free. 215 two-minute entries equal 860 thirty-second entries!
We’ll post and review all the winning ads as soon as they’re announced so be sure to check back here on (or around) October 27th.
If you had asked me last week whether or not I would enter this year’s installment of Doritos’ annual Crash the Super Bowl contest I would have said, no…probably not. The contest had just gotten too big and to me it felt like the whole concept had kind of run its course. Plus statistically, it’s the worst video contest you could ever enter. Last year, more than 4,000 videos were submitted. Of those 4,000 ads, Doritos picked 6 finalists and gave them $25,000 each. That means that every contestant had a mere .0015% chance of winning $25,000. And while a total of $5 Million was at stake, none of that money was guaranteed. The only way you could win one of the big cash prizes was to get enough votes to air during the game and then get ranked as one of the Top 3 ads of the entire game.
So I kind of had my mind set on skipping this year’s Crash. But yesterday afternoon, the details of the 2010/2011 contest were announced and I am very, very impressed by some of the major changes that have been made this time around. Here’s how the contest is going to be different from years past.
Essentially there will be two Crash the Superbowl commercial contests; one for Doritos and one for Pepsi Max. (Pepsi owns Frito-lay)
Judges will pick 5 Doritos finalists and 5 Pepsi Max finalists. That means 10 people will win at least $25,000 each.
A total of 6 of these finalists will air during the superbowl; 3 for each product.
Four of the ads that air during the game will be picked by voters but judges will also pick one Pepsi Max ad and one Doritos ad to air.
That last point sealed the deal for me. The fact that voters pick all the commercials that air during the super bowl was an even bigger turn off for me than the odds of making it to the finals. Good for them for finally making that change. And letting contestants pick between Doritos or Pepsi Max is also an awesome idea. People who enter this contest every year are probably tapped out of ideas for Doritos ads. I’ll probably be entering the Pepsi Max category just because it’s uncharted territory.
In addition to the new rules, Doritos/Pepsi Max are again paying out big cash prizes to any videos that land in the top 3 on the Super Bowl ad meter. First place gets you One Million bucks, second gets you $600K and third gets $400K. And if Crash ads take all three top spots each winning filmmaker gets a million dollar bonus. Last year that seemed nearly impossible but now that 6 CTSB ads are going to air, it seems a little more-do-able.
Doritos and Pepsi Max announced all the details of this year’s contest at a big event that was broadcast live on Ustream. The announcement was recorded and I’ll post the video below. If you plan on entering the Crash this year WATCH THIS VIDEO! It features discussions with reps from Pepsi Max and Doritos plus the two big-time ad execs who help pick the winners. Plus there’s a second discussion with the Herbert Brothers who are the guys who scored a million dollars and first place on the ad meter with their CTSB entry “Free Doritos” in 2009.
10/2 UPDATE. The video has been removed from the Ustream but you can see the entire thing here:
I recommend you skip right to the 20:27 mark for the second question asked during the Q&A. Doritos must have invited past CTSB contestants to the event because the people who get up to ask questions seem to be filmmakers familiar with the contest. The 2nd question asked was excellent and the response is something everyone entering this year’s Crash the Superbowl contest should hear. To paraphrase, the guy in the audience asked:
“One of things we low-budget filmmakers struggle with is budget and camera quality…I know that in theory, low-budget is ok but I’ve noticed that a lot of the winners have a very polished, professional look and they use the RED camera or they shoot on film…do you think getting a RED or shooting on film (both very expensive things to do) could create a better image and help a video be a winner?”
The response from Rudy Wilson, the head of the contest was almost shocking. In fact, what he said was so major that I’m going to transcribe his answer word for word:
“I can tell you from a judging standpoint…obviously we have the agency come in (an ad firm helps narrow down the list of finalists) and the brand people evaluate it as well (but) we’ve never even had that conversation…around whether or not something looks…what do you call it, the RED camera? I couldn’t even tell you what that is. You could walk up here with 5 cameras and I couldn’t (tell you which one was a RED.) But what I can tell you is if it makes us laugh, you’ve got a chance. We’re really, truly opening this up for people that don’t have the opportunity, and we understand that when we say you don’t have the opportunity you might not have all the tools. So we’re very open to looking at the gamut of quality. So do your thing…we’ll support it.”
If you’re a fan of the Crash the Super Bowl contest you might be having a hard time believing what you just read. It just doesn’t line up with Doritos’ previous choices for finalists. All but one of the 2008/2009 finalist ads were shot with RED cameras (they cost about 18 grand) And several of the 2006/2007 finalists were shot on actual film. And last year, some of the finalist videos were shot with RED cameras but all of them looked very, very slick. (I’ll admit, some of them had minor technical issues though) No Crash the Super Bowl finalist video has ever looked rough or homemade.
This is what a RED camera looks like, by the way
The guy who said that the judges have never “had that conversation” is a very important guy at Doritos and he actually created the idea for the whole CTSB contest. And I believe him when he says that if your video can make the judges laugh, you have a shot and production values aren’t discussed. But last year, Doritos received more than 4,000 submissions for the contest. I don’t think it’s likely that the top-ranking decision-makers are viewing all of those videos. They probably have an entire team of people that work to create a large list of potential finalists and then those videos are show to the primary judges. So I suspect the folks at the top don’t have to talk about quality because few amateur-level submissions actually get to them. It can’t just be a coincidence that the all of the finalist videos Doritos have ever picked were tv-quality. If Doritos really will consider ads of all quality levels I think by now, one of the 16 or so videos that made the finals in previous years would have been shot with a Flip camera or an Iphone (one of the marketing guys in the video even mentions shooting ideas with Iphones at his company.)
So while the official word is that the doritos/pepsi will consider videos of all quality levels, the reality is that with maybe one exception, of all previous Crash the Super Bowl finalists have been shot with HD or better cameras. Even the 2007 winning ad that the filmmakers stated cost $12 to make was shot using a $6,000 camera and a 35mm lens adapter. History tells us that to make it to the finals your entry needs to be tv-quality. But if Doritos/Pepsi actually came out and said that, a whole lot fewer people would enter. So if you’re planning on entering this contests, I recommend you try and make your production as professional as possible. I’m not saying to make your video super-slick….just try and make it as technically perfect as you can if you want a shot at making it to the top 10.
There’s a ton of other interesting stuff in that video and it will really help you understand what the judges will be looking for. So like I said, watch it.
You can start submitting entries on September 27th and the deadline is November 15th. Oh…another nice change to the contest this year? Doritos got rid of that annoying rock music that would play in a loop whenever you visited CrashtheSuperbowl.com. It will not be missed.
If video contests have an off-season, I guess it would be the summer time. There hasn’t been much news for me to report so for the last few months contests and this website have taken a back seat to other projects. For example…if you look to the right of the screen you’ll see an ad for the documentary I directed. It finally just got released on DVD so if you feel like seeing a crazy movie about self-professed nerds rapping about comic books and video games, check it out.
Anyways like I said, my focus has been elsewhere lately so a few days ago a reader had to clue me it to an especially big piece of news that I had somehow managed to totally miss. Godaddy is holding ANOTHER video contest and it’s already up and running! That’s kind of shocking when you consider that their first video contest ever just ended about 2 ½ months ago. (winners were announced on May 31st) Well Godaddy must have been really pleased with the results of their consumer-generated experiment because not only are they running a “summer” installment of the contest it will officially be the BIGGEST video contest in history with a guaranteed payout of $600,000 in prizes! First place gets you $250,000, second gets 150,000 and third place is good for 75,000. And if that wasn’t enough, FIVE runners-up will receive $25,000 each. That is seriously amazing. Plus, Godaddy won’t commit to airing the winning ads on TV but they imply on the contest website that they probably will do just that.
But extraordinary prizes require and extraordinary effort. Last time, all you needed to do was submit a 30 second commercial for the contest. This time, here’s what you need to do to enter:
Create a 30 second commercial for godaddy.com. The last 5 seconds of the ad though must be a video supplied by godaddy that says “See more now at Godaddy.com.”
Create a 60-90 second follow-up to your commercial (featuring the same characters) that will be featured on Godaddy.com
This one is optional: If you are really feeling ambitious you can attempt to make THREE commercials and THREE web-only shorts. If you win, and if godaddy wants to use your “campaign” you will receive an additional $100,000.
Even if you skip the “campaign” stuff you’re looking at creating about TWO MINUTES of content with zero guarantee it will pay off. Wow. That is a huge gamble and I don’t think a ton of filmmakers have the nerve to try and pull it off.
Once you get past the basics, the requirements get even more interesting. Check out this instructional video godaddy posted about entering the contest. I can’t embed it so click the image to watch it on the godaddy site.
If you didn’t watch the video and just continued reading, let me recap what that hot blonde girl had to say. Right off the bat, godaddy wants to make it clear that this contest is for “aspiring or actual TV commercial makers.” Later in the video, they say something that I have never, ever seen a video contest sponsor say before. They explain that your video must be TV quality and if you are planning on shooting your ad with your cell phone or your dad’s old camera, you need to come up with a new game plan.
In most contests (Crash the Superbowl being the most obvious example) tons of people enter who have no chance in hell of winning because they don’t understand that the sponsor will only pick winners that look like real TV commercials. So godaddy seems to be intentionally discouraging novices from entering. I think that’s very big of them. Most contest sponsors are happy to let people waste time and money making entries that could never win because of technical reasons. I guess they do this because later they can boast about how many entries they got.
Last time, Godaddy received a little more than 500 submissions for their commercial contest. I’m really interested to see how many they get this time around. I’m thinking maybe 100? But of that 100, most of them will be pretty damn good. So the big question remains: Should you enter? It’s a tough call. To help you decide, try taking this little questionnaire:
1. Do you have access to an HD camera that can shot TV-quality video?
2. Are you willing to spend at least a few hundred dollars shooting your submission?
3. Do you have the talent, time and energy to create 2 minutes of video content between now and September 30th.
4. Do have access to pro-level lighting and audio gear?
5. Do you know people who can use pro-level lighting and audio gear?
6. Do you have a really, really, REALLY good idea for an ad?
7. Are you crazy?
If you answered NO to any of the above questions you should probably sit this one out. Me, I think I’m going to go for it. I have what I think is a very good idea and in fact, I might even go for the “campaign.” If I do though, it’ll probably be the only video contest entry I’ll be working on for the next 2 months. In fact, if I do godaddy I’ll probably have to skip the Crash the Superbowl contest.
Speaking of…the timing of this contest and the prizes offered really make it seem like Godaddy has decided to make their contest THE user-generated video contest of the year. Doritos usually announces the start of the Crash the Superbowl contest in September so Godddy has managed to beat them to the punch. And last year, Doritos gave each finalist $25,000. Isn’t that money going to look like chump change now that Godaddy has raised the states so astronomically high?
Oh, one more important thing to note. ALL winners in the Godaddy contests will be picked by judges. Last time, Goddy let the “community” pick some of the winners and of course, most of the videos that won the “popular vote” weren’t great. You’ll be able to rate videos on the contest site but votes and ratings have zero effect on the final outcome. Nice.
This morning, Taxslayer.com sent out an e-mail to everyone who submitted videos for this year’s Taxslayer commercial contest and announced that the 2010 competition was being CANCELED due to lack of submissions. This announcement comes almost 3 weeks after the April 15th cut off for submissions.
I have been following and entering online video contests since 2007 and I have NEVER seen this kind of thing happen before. I have seen one or two small contests disappear before any entries were recived but I think canceling a video contest after the deadline might be totally unprecedented. It’s a huge shock and major disappointment that one of the most established and best known contests would do this to all the people who spent precious time, money and resources making videos for them. A few weeks ago, I posted every 2010 Taxslayer entry I could find right here. I found 18 entries…and two of them were mine. Among those 18 entries I saw several that I thought would make great winners. I guess taxslayer didn’t feel the same way. Here’s the e-mail I got this morning:
Dear Contest Participant,
First we would like to thank you for your entry into the 2010 TaxSlayer.com Commercial Contest. We received some great submissions and are very thankful for your efforts. Regrettably we did not receive the required number of entries for the contest. Pursuant to section four of the Official Contest Rules, “If a minimum (number of)… entries are not received by the end of the contest period…the contest will be void and no prizes will be awarded.” With this in mind, the contest will be voided effective immediately. Once again we would like to thank you for your participation. Please know that as a result of this, you are released of all of your duties and obligations pursuant to the official rules.
Sincerely,
The TaxSlayer Team
What really bothers me about this message is that the “Taxslayer Team” implies that they had no choice but to cancel the contest if a minimum number of entries were not received. This however, is not true. This is the statement from this morning’s e-mail:
“Pursuant to section four of the Official Contest Rules, “If a minimum (number of)… entries are not received by the end of the contest period…the contest will be void and no prizes will be awarded.” With this in mind, the contest will be voided effective immediately.”
And this is what “section four of the official contest rules” actually say:
“If a minimum twenty five (25) (submitted by separate individuals) entries are not received by the end of the contest period, at the sole discretion of the sponsor, the contest will be void and no prizes will be awarded.”
As you can see, those ellipses replaced some crucial details. Taxslayer.com was not legally required to cancel their contest if they didn’t get more than 25 entries. The contest could be voided AT THE DISCRETION OF THE SPONSOR. Translation; we don’t have to cancel it if we don’t want to.
I’m guessing that Taxslayer got a lot of angry e-mails today. Sadly, they don’t even respect contestants enough to answer these messages individually. I contacted Taxslayer and asked a number of questions. They ignored my questions and e-mailed me the same form-letter response they apparently sent to everyone. Here it is:
Dear —,
First let me apologize on a personal note for the cancellation of the contest. I apologize if there was any confusion as to whether or not the contest would be canceled. We understand that everyone who participated committed valuable time and resources and for that we are grateful. Please note that this is our third video contest and we have never had to cancel before. In years past we have received well over the required number of submissions. Please know that we never anticipated coming up short this year. In many cases we have worked with more contestants than just the winner. That being said the number of submissions wasn’t enough to work with this year. All of the videos will remain on our radar as we plan our marketing for next tax season. If there is a video or idea that we feel would work well with our plans we will be sure to contact that contestant on an individual basis and they will in turn be compensated accordingly. Please be assured that your submissions will not be disregarded just because the contest has been cancelled.
Sincerely,
Daniel Eubanks
I have a lot more I want to say about this but I’m going to cut things off here, for now. I have some interesting information that I’m not ready to share yet but I’ll probably get into it later this week. In the meantime, if you entered this year’s taxslayer contest, we want to hear from you. Please leave a comment or e-mail us at Videocontestnews@gmail.com.
In the Doritos Skybox. From left to right: Kyle Gerardi, Nick Dimondi, Joshua Svoboda, Barrett Phillips. Not Pictured (others involved in the commercials) Wes Phillips, Dale Backus (Producers) Brian Oliver and Rosie the dog (Actors in Underdog) and Wayne Phillips (the old man Kids These Days).
Though four consumer-made Doritos commercials aired during the Superbowl back in February, the big winner of this year’s Crash the Superbowl contest were a group of friends from North Carolina who operate under the banner, 5 Point Productions. Last December, that small team of independent filmmakers learned that both entries they shot for the 2009/2010 installment of the contest made it to the finals. When you consider that Doritos received more than 4,000 submissions this year and only picked 6 finalist videos, getting 2 of the 6 top spots is really an incredible achievement.
And if you aren’t impressed enough yet, here’s another amazing fact; The 5 Point Productions team also WON the Crash the Superbowl contest the first year it ran in 2006/2007.
When I first heard that one team had gotten two commercials into Doritos’ “Top 6” I was stunned. And when I realized that these guys were the same filmmakers that won the first CTSB contest I was almost ready to start screaming “shenanigans!” But before I could even develop a decent conspiracy theory, I got a message from one of the producers of the two 5 Point entries (entitled “Kids These Days” and “Underdog”) and he explained that Doritos had no idea that the two entries were made by the same team. It‘s easy to believe it was all just a coincidence because both of the team’s entries are just that good! “Underdog” was actually my favorite entry even before the finalists were announced and I thought it would have a very good chance of scoring big on the USA Today ad meter. Turns out I was right. “Underdog” went on to be one of the four finalist videos to air during the superbowl and was ranked the #2 best commercial of the game on the USA Today Ad Meter. That feat earned the team a bonus of $600,000 from Doritos.
When you ball all that good news together you know what you get? The greatest set of accomplishments in video contest history, that’s what. Sure, the Herbert Brothers landed the #1 spot on the USA Today ad meter and earned a million dollar bonus last year for their CTSB entry, “Free Doritos” but I think the combined achievements of the 5 Point Productions team top that easily. For God’s sake, they won 2 out of the 3 years the contest has been run! That’s amazing. I was really interested in hearing some behind the scenes details about this whole thing and one of the producers of “Underdog” and “Kids these Days,” Kyle Girardi offered to answer a few questions. Before we get into his answers, here are his team’s Crash the Superbowl spots:
The above is the 5 Point Team’s entry for the 2006/2007 Crash the Superbowl contest, “Live the Flavor.” This commercial went on to be the CTSB winner and aired during the game in ’07. This was for the first installment of the contest and back then, the prize for making it to the finals was $10,000 and there were no bonuses to be won if your ad made it to air.
Here’s the team’s 2009/2010 entry “Kids These Days.” This spot was selected by Doritos as one of this year’s 6 finalists. The prize for being a finalist is $25,000.
Finally, here’s the team’s other 2009/2010 entry, “Underdog.” This commercial ALSO made it to the finals and so they recived an additional $25,000 finalist prize. On top of that of course, they also recived a $600,000 bonus for scoring so well on the ad meter. “Underdog” was the only Doritos commercial to crack the Top 10 on the ad meter on Superbowl sunday.
Now that you’re caught up, let’s get on with the interview!
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VCN: So who and what is 5 Point Productions?
KYLE: That’s kind of a tough one. 5 Point was started in 2007 when they made the first Doritos ad. Josh Svoboda and I weren’t part of the team at that time, but we were good friends with most of them from middle school. Its only been about a year that he and I have really been an active part of the 5 Point team. As for 5 Point’s future: “Underdog” and “Kids These Days” might be the last you see of 5 Point, we’re gonna try and take a few jobs if we need them, but right now the main focus is on a short film.
VCN: What kind of gear did you use to shoot “Underdog” and “Kids These Days?” Do you own your gear?
KYLE: We used the Canon 5D Mark II to shoot both commercials. It’s a pretty inexpensive camera that shoots incredible HD footage, so we had to get one.
VCN: I was amazed when I found out that one team of filmmakers had gotten two entries in the finals this year and I was totally blown away when I found out that you guys were the winners of the 2007 contest. Did Doritos know “Underdog” and “Kids These Days” were by you guys? If not, how did they react when they found out?
KYLE: No, they didn’t know at first. We put different names and addresses on the commercials just in case they liked them both. We couldn’t believe for the longest time that both were finalist, we thought some sorry son of a bitch was playing a joke on us.
VCN: Did anyone ever worry that it might look kind of suspicious that the 2007 winners did so well again this year? Do you think Doritos would have picked both your videos if they knew who made them?
KYLE: I think so. Josh’s name was on Underdog and he had no connection with the competition in 2007 whatsoever. However, “Kids These Days” had the name of one the people involved in the 2007 commercial, but I like to think they just picked it because they thought it was a great spot.
The 5 Points team filming “Kids these Days”
VCN: A few days before the Superbowl, CBS aired a TV special about Superbowl commercials and they aired “Kids these Days” and said it was one of the ads that were going to play on Sunday. It of course didn’t air though. Did you guys get a ton of calls from people telling you your ad was going to air? Do you know how or why that happened?
KYLE: I don’t know what that was about, but our phones were ringing off the hook. I tried not to pay much attention to it, but I figured if CBS was airing the Super Bowl they knew what commercials that were going to play… It kind of killed my buzz. I always had a lot more faith in Underdog, truth be told.
VCN: “Underdog” was the first CTSB winner of the night to air. Was there a special reason for that?
KYLE: Probably because I was being a little weirdo during the Super Bowl. I think they just called CBS and told them to play it first so I would calm the hell down. It’s torture not knowing if your commercial is gonna air or not, and I had no idea I’d handle pressure so terribly. My heart was about to pound out of my chest during every commercial break. If it weren’t for the 2 Xanax I took before the game I most likely would have had a heart attack.
VCN: Do you guys know how your videos did in the online voting? Do you know if you made the top three or do you think that “Underdog” might have been Dortio’s choice as the bonus ad?
KYLE: I’m not going to say how I know, but I know for a fact we had enough votes to make top 3.
VCN: How did you guys find out you won 2nd place on the ad meter? How’d you celebrate?
KYLE: It was actually Dave Herbert who told us at first, he had his cell phone on him and was surfing the web. It wasn’t really set in stone until Rudy Wilson (CEO Doritos) got up in front of everyone on the bus ride back to the hotel and said “I’m out $600 grand, because Underdog got 2nd place.”
I remember the feeling that came over me, the first thing that popped in my head was “I can finally make a movie.” I can’t think of a happier moment in my life. That night we didn’t really celebrate that much. We had a few beers and got to say goodbye to everyone… It was really sad leaving those guys, all the other finalists are amazing people. Believe it or not I was hoping to see Snack Attack or Smackout play in the 4th spot over “Kids These Days.”
On the set of Underdog. The small camera in the shot is the Canon 5D used to film both finalist videos.
VCN: You obviously spent a lot of time with the Crash the Superbowl folks. Did you get the impression that they will bring the contest back this fall?
KYLE: I think they will. It looked like they got just as big a rush out of it as we did.
VCN: What do you guys plan to do now?
KYLE: We got some attention from the commercials, so we’re gonna try and make some extra dough. Within the next month or so I’d also like to get rolling on a short film.
VCN: If the CTSB contest comes back, would you guys be up for replacing the Herbert Brothers as the “Kings of the Crash” and being the contest’s spokesmen? (I think that’d be great and I hope that’s what happens)
KYLE: Certainly not me personally. I’m way to ugly to be in front of the camera.
VCN: You guys certainly seem to have figured out the recipe for success in this particular contest. Have any advise for aspiring Crash the Superbowl contestants?
KYLE: I guess just don’t be too hard on yourself. Before I knew we were finalists I was convinced that “Underdog” and “Kids These Days” were the two biggest piles of shit on the planet. I couldn’t believe Doritos picked them. Sorry, I know “believe in yourself” sounds lame.
VCN: Thanks a ton to Kyle for taking the time to answer our questions and congratulations to all of his teammates!
Image from one of Doritos' Crash the Super Bowl winners; Casket
Back in October, I wrote, directed and edited an entry for Doritos’ annual Crash the Superbowl contest entitled, “Rest in Chips.” My commercial was about a dead guy who’s last wish was to be buried in a casket full of Doritos but to the surprise of everyone at his funeral, it turns out he faked his death and is alive inside the casket of chips that eventually gets knocked over. Sound familiar? It might if you watched the Super Bowl last night. Because during the first quarter of the big game, Doritos aired the three winners of the Crash the Super Bowl contest and the third winning ad they showed just happened to be about a dead guy who’s last wish was to be buried in a casket full of Doritos but to the surprise of everyone at his funeral, it turns out he faked his death and is alive inside the casket of chips that eventually gets knocked over!
Unfortunately, it wasn’t MY fake-funeral/Casket-full-of-Doritos-that-gets-knocked-over entry. It was another entry called “Casket” and it was created by a team of filmmakers from a “non-denominational megachurch” in LA called Mosaic that’s popular with aspiring filmmakers and actors. The church is headed by a well known author, producer and self-professed leader named Erwin Mcmanus and he funded the production of “Casket.” (you can read about Mosaic and their Crash the Superbowl aspirations here) Here’s their ad:
I’m sorry to say it but I suspect that the team that made “Casket” may have stolen several of their ideas from me. How can that be? Well first, here is the entry that I created for the Crash the Super Bowl contest, “Rest in Chips:”
Sure, they’re not on the same level technically, but there are so many similarities between the stories of “Casket” and “Rest in Chips” that I’ve had a hard time accepting that they’re just coincidences. If you ignore the aesthetic differences between the two entries (camera quality, location, music) you’ll see that they share many common key elements. (The kind of stuff you’d see in the scripts for each spot) Really, the only significant difference in the two stories is WHY the two “dead” guys each decide to fake their deaths. Other than that, in just 30 seconds, both ads manage to feature:
1. A dead man’s last wish to be buried in a casket full of Doritos
2. A “dead” man who turns out to actually be alive
3. A fake funeral orchestrated by the “dead” man as part of a nefarious scheme
4. A framed photo of the “dead” guy enjoying a bag of Doritos next to the casket
5. Shots of that guy in his casket buried up to his face in chips
6. Unsuspecting mourners who scream/gasp in surprise when the hoax is revealed
7. A climax in which the “dead” guy gets his comeuppance when the casket of chips is knocked over
That’s a lot for just 30 seconds, isn’t it!? Well, the coincidences don’t stop there. As it turns out, all of those elements can also be found in this crude animated storyboard that I made weeks before I went out and shot my entry:
Yeah…see where I’m going with this? I created that storyboard as a test to see if I could fit all the dialogue and action into 30 seconds. Then I posted it to youtube so that I could send the link to friends so they could give feedback on the idea. The above version was posted to youtube on October 12th, 2009. But that is actually the second version. I posted the first version of the storyboard video on October 6th and named it “Doritos Storyboard.” After about a week, a friend actually said to me, “aren’t you worried that another contestant could see that and steal your idea?” I realized he was right and that I had made a dumb mistake. Because the video was named “Doritos Storyboard,” any prospective Crash the Superbowl contestant who went to youtube to watch last year’s winning entries or other Doritos-related videos for inspiration could have seen my storyboard. In fact, it would have appeared at the top of the page if the results were “sorted by date.” So I pulled the original version and replaced it with the generically named “Dortest” version around October 12th.
The funeral photo used in "Casket"
A week or so after the submission period for the Crash the Superbowl contest closed, I saw “Casket” and I was flabbergasted. I remembered the storyboard on youtube and immediately suspected that I had been ripped off. I had to do something about it so I did what any self-respecting dork would do. I blogged about it. I first compared the two ads in this blog post from November 19th: A Tale of Two Caskets (full of Doritos.) Since “Casket” was so slickly produced, I was worried right from the start that it might make it to the finals. So while Doritos was still evaluating all 4,000+ entries they received, I e-mailed them my concerns on December 9th. They responded to my e-mail and said the company’s “legal team” would look into it.
Since the official rules said that Doritos judges were supposed to assign each entry a score, and since 40% of that score was supposed to be based on “originality and creativity,” I assumed that even if there wasn’t plagiarism, I uploaded my casket-full-of-doritos entry to the contest site first, so logically, that would impact “Casket’s” originality score. And in a competition with 4,000+ submissions, the Top 6 videos would probably be decided by just fractions of a point. So losing even a few originality points would end an entry’s chances of winning, right?
Boy was I wrong about that one. On January 5th, 2010, “Casket” was announced as one of Doritos’ 6 CTSB finalists. And man, let me tell you, I flipped the F%^& out. I wasn’t just mad because a team of filmmakers that may have ripped me off had just won $25,000 and a trip to the Super Bowl, though. In a way, I was much more upset with Doritos. They knew that somewhere out there a filmmaker suspected that the “Casket” team had plagiarized his entry/storyboard. There were tons and tons of awesome videos submitted to this year’s competition. Why did they have to pick the one video that they knew would drive some poor guy crazy and maybe even get them into legal trouble!?
The funeral photo used in "Rest in Chips"
A single question has been on my mind since I first saw “Casket” back in November. “When did they come up with that idea?” Obviously the entry was a very elaborate production. Maybe they had spent months working on the thing. If it turned out that the team came up with the concept for their entry prior to say, the start of October, then there was no chance they could have stolen the concept from me….unless they were mind readers.
I’m not insane and I’m not some jerk who likes ruining other people’s moments of glory. I absolutely, positively do not want to paint anyone as plagiarists if they’re totally innocent. I also really do not want to put my life on hold while I engage in a copyright battle with a megachurch and a multinational corporation if I don’t have to. In the last few weeks I have exchanged many e-mails with FritoLay and the lawyer for the “Casket” team (yes…they already got a lawyer and it seems like he was hired just to deal with this issue.) I have asked them over and over and over and over to PLEASE, send me some kind of documents, materials or other proof that “Casket” was an independent creation that wasn’t wrongfully derived from my works. My sincere hope has been that someone would want to provide me some kind of evidence that would put me, and my family and friends who support me, at ease. I would have been happy just to see some copies of some e-mails that showed that their idea pre-dated the creation of my script for “Rest in Chips.” If they could prove they were innocent, or even just offer a credible explanation, then I could apologize, drop the whole thing and move on with my life.
The beautifully drawn funeral photo from the storyboard video for "Rest in Chips"
But even though the filmmakers behind “Casket” have known for weeks, and probably even months that some crackpot out in the suburbs of Chicago was accusing them of plagiarism they have not done one thing to counter my claims. I have asked repeatedly for some shred of proof that they weren’t guilty of ripping me off. But according to their lawyer, they don’t want to give me ammunition in case I sue them.
Let’s cut the BS here. If there was some A%&hole running around the Internet, endangering my commercial’s chances of airing during the Superbowl and telling Doritos and the rest of the world that I might have stolen some of their ideas, you know what I’d do? I’d shut that guy down immediately with a big facefull of proof. I’d e-mail the guy and tell him he was full of s%^&. I’d write my own blog posts and fill them with proof that my works were independent creations. For God’s sakes, I’d offer to take a lie detector test if the guy wanted me to! I would immediately do whatever it took to shut down a false accusation of plagiarism against me.
Now what I wouldn’t do is hire a lawyer if I had nothing to hide and I certainly wouldn’t keep my “proof” hidden from the world. I think the thing that most makes me believe that I was ripped off is the fact that none of these people have ever contacted me to simply say “You’re wrong, and here’s why….”
The other thing that makes me think I was ripped off are the cold, hard, dirty facts.
Alive in a casket full of Doritos. From "Casket"
Here are my facts: I wrote my script for “Rest in Chips” around October 1st. I created an awesome-looking animated storyboard based on my script and first uploaded it to youtube on October 6th. That video could have been seen by anyone searching for Doritos-related videos up until about October 12th. I shot my entry on October 25th, I posted my first rough cut to the web on October 28th and I uploaded my final entry to the Crash the Super Bowl contest site around November 5th.
Because Doritos and the Mosaic team would not even tell me WHEN the idea for “Casket” was born, I decided to do some digging myself. And by “digging” I mean I just read the articles that showed up in my google alert notices. The information below all comes from interview quotes from members of the “Casket” team. These are my sources (1) (2) (3) (4) Here’s what I’ve learned in the last few weeks:
1. The idea for “Casket” was first suggested in a Mosaic pitch meeting that seems to have taken place in early October, probably around October 9th.
2. The idea for “Casket” was pitched by one member of the group. The group decided to shoot the idea and the person who suggested the idea then “wrote the original script.”
3. At least 4 other people are credited as having co-written or contributed to the script for “Casket.”
4. “Casket” was shot in one day on November 1st and the entry was uploaded just before the deadline on November 9th.
Alive in a Casket full of Doritos. "Rest in Chips"
As I said, members of the “Casket” team shared all of this information during interviews so unless they all lied to several reporters, the above points are facts. And these facts line up perfectly with my theory of how I may have been plagiarized. FritoLay has had a timeline of when I created the various incarnations of my Crash the Superbowl entry since mid-December. I explained weeks ago that I wrote my script shortly after the Crash the Superbowl contest began and then created an animated storyboard version of my script and uploaded it to youtube on October 6th.
For roughly a week, the storyboard was on youtube and could be seen by anyone doing a search for videos tagged “Doritos.” The “Casket” team has gone on record stating that from the day they decided to shoot an entry for this contest to the day they uploaded their video, only a month had gone by. That means that their pitch meting seems to have happened right at the time my storyboard was visible on youtube.
Alive in a casket full of Doritos. From the video storyboard for "Rest in Chips"
I find it very hard to believe that not one member of a large, well-organized team of professional filmmakers went to youtube before their pitch session to research last year’s winning entries and watch other Doritos related videos. I have known about the Mosaic pitch meeting for a while and my theory has been that one member of the team prepared for that pitch meeting by doing some Doritos research on youtube beforehand. While there, they saw my storyboard, realized the idea would work great in one of Mosaic’s churches (I think they have 7 total) and probably figured that the concept was fair game and took it. Now that I know when that pitch meeting took place, I suspect that my theory accurately describes how things happened. And since it seems that as many as 5 people contributed to the story of “Casket,” that explains the differences between my works and the final version of the other team’s entry.
The goal of Doritos’ Crash the Superbowl contest was for the winners to score a spot in the “Top 3” on the USA Today ad meter. If one of the Doritos finalists were to be ranked the best spot of the game, the creators would get a million bucks. Second best would get the filmmakers $600K and 3rd would get them $400K. The ad meter results are in and one Doritos ad actually scored the #2 spot. But “Casket” wound up being ranked #14. (click here for the full ad meter results)
I mention this because I want everyone reading this to understand that there is no big jackpot that I am trying to grab a piece of here. All the makers of “Casket” got was $25,000 and I’m sure that money is already divided up and gone. So my concerns aren’t part of some crass sue-a-church-and-get-rich-quick scheme. For me, this is about principle and as I’ve told the lawyers at Doritos many times, my number one goal is simply to find out the truth about what the heck happened here.
Now that the contest is all over, I really don’t know what I should do next. Should I get a lawyer? Should I seal myself up in a casket full of Doritos and pretend this never happened? What the heck is the little guy supposed to do in this country when he suspects that some giant megachurch with deep pockets and lawyers on retainer infringed on his copyrights?
Right now, the only thing I know for sure is that next year, I’m entering Careerbuilder’s Super Bowl commercial contest.
BTW: I normally post under the pseudonym “Beardy” but here’s info about the real me. Ironically, I do not actually have a beard. If anyone (even a member of the “Casket” team) wants to contact me I can be reached at Videocontestnews@gmail.com.
Super Bowl XLIV just ended and that means that the 2010 installment of Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest is finally over too. All three winning commercials aired in the first quarter but SURPRISE!…Doritos snuck one more Crash the Superbowl finalist in during the 4th quarter. And holy crap, the USA Today Ad Meter results have just come in and SURPRISE again! One of the Crash the Superbowl ads cracked the top 3! I’ll post all the numbers below but first here are the official winners in the order they ran. From what I’ve read, the order that the commercials aired reflect which entries got the most, second most and third most votes last month.
1. Underdog. Created by Nick Dimondi/Joshua Svoboda
2. House Rules. Created by Joelle de Jesus
3. Casket. Created by Kevin T. Willson
SURPRISE BONUS AD. Snack Attack Samurai. Created by Ben Krueger
A few days ago I explained here and here that it looked like Doritos had already revealed the names of the Crash the Super Bowl entries that were going to air tonight. The finalist entries that were publicly identified as destined for air last week were Snack Attack Samurai, Kids These Days and Casket. Looks like those predictions were off by one. But hey, way back in December, before the finalists were even announced, we predicted in this post that “Underdog” would go all the way this year. So hurray for us!
UPDATE: Oh snap!!!! The Ad Meter results are in and UNDERDOG was rated the second best commercial of the entire game right after the Betty White/Snickers spot! That means the makers of Underdog, 5 Points Productions will be receiving a $600,000 bonus from Doritos. As for the other three Crash the Super Bowl entries that aired tonight….well, they didn’t fare so well. None of them even cracked the top 10. Here are the numbers.
1. Underdog. Ad Meter Score: 8.27. Ad Meter Rank: #2
2. House Rules. Ad Meter Score: 7.12. Ad Meter Rank: #11
3. Casket. Ad Meter Score: 7.00. Ad Meter Rank: #14
4. Snack Attack Samurai. Ad Meter Score: 6.79. Rank: #17
Now even though none of the other ads made the top 3, the scores are still quite impressive. After all, there were 60 commercials ranked by the ad meter. Plus since Snack Attack Samurai aired so late in the game I bet its score suffered because the focus groups in the Ad Meter polling were probably a little burnt out by then. You can see the full list of ad meter results here: USA Today Ad Meter.
So what did we learn tonight? Well, we learned that Beardy is a genius! We totally called this one. Over the last few weeks we’ve repeatedly claimed that “Underdog” was going to make it to the top three and not only that, we predicted that it was the only one of the six finalists that had a chance of doing so.
Seriously though, now that the dust is settling it’s clear that the big winner of the 2010 installment of the CTSB contest is 5 Points Productions. Though the Crash the Super Bowl contest has only been run three times, that plucky team of filmmakers from North Carolina have now won the competition TWICE! The 5 Points entry “Live the Flavor” won the first installment of the CTSB contest and aired during the 2007 Super Bowl. Now their entry “Underdog” has also came out on top. Plus they were the first filmmakers ever to get TWO entries in the finals in one year!! (The other was Kids These Days) That’s three unbelievable achievements so it looks like Doritos should get ready to crown them as the new, “Kings of the Crash.” They’ve earned it.
Today marks the official start of the 2010 Dorito’s Crash the Superbowl commercial contest. Until today, the site was locked but it is now open for business. New this year is a really interesting feature. There is a multi-chapter commercial tutorial hosted by the winners of last year’s competition, the Herbert Brothers. The videos are pretty funny but they are also chock-full of good advice about stuff like writing, production and copyright. The brothers even explain how the USA Today AD meter works and what kind of videos do well in it. Spoiler Altert: The entire AD meter rankings are decided by 300 subjects in two locations. Crazy. I plan on shooting a Doritos entry myself and I’ve been focusing all my attention on one single idea. But watching the video about the AD meter made me realize my idea would be kinda dark and would turn off too many viewers. (It would have been hilarious though!)
The tutorial videos are actually helpful for anyone interested in shooting entries for any type of video contest. So you might want to check them out even if you’re too chicken to shoot a Crash the Superbowl ad. DEADLINE TO ENTER THE DORITOS SUPERBOWL CONTEST IS NOVEMBER 9TH!
