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Make Your Own: The Most Popular Crash the Super Bowl ad of 2012

Posted by Beardy on January 30th, 2012

A funny thing happened the week that Doritos announced their five picks for the Crash the Super Bowl finals. As usual, a lot of media outlets and bloggers covered the contest and announced the start of the voting. But instead of featuring one of the winning commercials in their stories, a lot of writers chose to embed a video that didn’t actually make the final five. The ad is called “Make Your Own” and it is weirdly hilarious. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:

The reason why all these news outlets decided to feature the same, non-winning video is kind of a mystery. I remember that the official Crash the Super Bowl winners were already on youtube the day the results were announced so all those journalists could have just posted one of the official ads. At first I thought maybe someone, somewhere had falsely reported that Make Your Own had made the top five and other writers had picked up the false lead. But many of the articles I read actually lamented the fact that this spot didn’t make the finals. A piece on the Huffington Post went so that Make Your Own “snubbed” despite being “brilliant.”

The entry went on to be featured on the front page of Yahoo, CBS This Morning, NBCsports.com, Mashable and a ton of other websites. But things really got crazy when Make Your Own appeared on the front page of Reddit. After that the video just went fully viral. Today, Make Your Own has recived 2,378,000 views on youtube. Here are the current stats for the five videos that actually did win the contest this year:

Man’s Best Friend: 199,903 views

Hot Wild Girls: 199,966 views

Bird of Prey: 200,486 views

Dog Park: 128,736 views

Sling Baby: 112,536 views

Combined total views: 841,627

So Make Your Own has a view count almost three times larger than all the finalist ads combined! That is simply an amazing accomplishment and it’s certainly no fluke. This is an awesome submission and I think it would have made a kick-ass finalist. The hilarious dude playing the host is named Byron Brown. The concept is great but I think it’s the Brown’s performance that added just a bit of insane magic to this ad. The guys who actually made this entry are three friends from Austin TX; David Ward, Jack Dreesen and John Ramsey. This is their third year entering the Crash the Super Bowl contest and this time around they shot 3 (very good) submissions. You can seen all their various entries on Ward’s youtube channel. Oh wait a second….as I’m writing this I just noticed these guys created one of my favorite Doritos submissions of last year’s contest!

Back to Make Your Own; because the ad has become so popular, the producers have been asking fans to tweet at Doritos and ask them to “reconsider” their entry. Obviously it’s way too late for this ad to become a finalist but Doritos does love to pull surprises on Super Bowl night. I think it would be freaking amazing if they actually decided to run this spot; if not during the superbowl then maybe at some later date. After all, I think Doritos really owes these guys. Look at all the free advertising they got out of this one entry that didn’t win a dime! If Fritolay were paying one cent per view, they would owe the producers of Make Your Own more than $23,500! if you’d like to join the campaign to get Doritos to air this ad, click here: http://clicktotweet.com/dlO2L

Interview with Jon Friedman, Crash the Super Bowl finalist and creator of “Man’s Best Friend”

Posted by Beardy on January 26th, 2012

Crash the Super Bowl finalist, Man's Best Friend

Though I’m not totally crazy about some of Doritos’ picks in this year’s Crash the Super Bowl contest, I will admit that all of the 2012 finalists are….ok. In fact, I think they all range from decent to awesome. Last week I posted an interview I did with one of the creators of the CTSB finalist ad, Hot Wild Girls. I mentioned that I thought his entry was one of the “awesome” ones and that I personally would be voting for it every day. But this year, Fritolay has made it so you can vote a bunch of times in a bunch of different ways! So I’ve been splitting my votes up between my two favorite ads; Hot Wild Girls and Man’s Best Friend.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that “Man’s Best Friend” made the final five; not because it was bad but because it was….I don’t know…pleasant. It doesn’t assault your senses or your intelligence like some of the other finalists do. Sure, it has a gigantic dog in it but it’s smart and subtle and even a tiny bit dark. And the most amazing thing of all is that Man’s Best Friend was produced for only about 20 bucks! So it’s really exciting to learn that that low budget, “homemade” ads still have a shot in this contest.

Man’s Best Friend was created by a very nice dude from Virginia named Jon Friedman. Let’s get to know him, shall we?

VCN: So Jon, tell me about yourself. Who are you, where are you from?

JON: I am a freelance graphic designer, filmmaker, photographer, and musician from Virginia Beach, VA. Filmmaking has always been a passion of mine, as is music (I play piano, guitar, and drums.) In the graphics world, I am best known for my design of the “Conversations with God” books, which have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. I was also fortunate enough to design Richard Bach’s last two books–he is the author of the classic books, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” and “Illusions.”

VCN: Have you entered many video contests in the past?

JON: This is the first video contest I’ve entered.

VCN: What made you want to enter the CTSB contest?

JON: Well, I can think of a “million” reasons . . . But seriously, I’ve always thought it would be fun to make commercials. I’ve had a lot of ideas for them over the years, and while I was watching the commercials during last year’s Super Bowl I thought “why haven’t I entered this contest? This is something I’ve always wanted to do.” So I made a decision right then and there to enter CTSB the following year.

VCN: Where did the idea for Man’s Best Friend come from?

JON: The inspiration for “Man’s Best Friend” was triggered by a thought I had one night. It just occurred to me that in most ads involving an animal, the animal is always trying to acquire the product. So I thought to myself, “What if there was a twist on that, or it was the opposite of that?” After having that thought, the idea for “Man’s Best Friend” popped into my head. I think that’s how inspiration works in general. Something usually triggers it–a thought, a memory, a feeling. It can be anything.

VCN: How was the ad produced? What kind of camera did you use? Mind if I ask what your budget was?

JON: I shot the commercial for about $20 using a Canon 7D (which I already own). I had to buy some Doritos, a few props, and some dog treats. I originally thought the commercial would only cost $13 to produce, so I went way over budget. The most difficult part about the production was getting “Huff the Great Dane” to cooperate. He’s really just a gigantic 120+ pound baby who wants to run around, sit in people’s laps, and eat treats (he was also fond of shaking hands/paws with everyone). Huff knew the word “sit” but that’s about as far as his training went. It took some patience and cleverness to get what we needed.

Jon Friedman in Fritolay's secret underground PR bunker

VCN: How and when did you find out you made the finals?

JON: I don’t remember the exact date, but I received a phone call between the second and third week in December. I was told to keep quiet about it of course, so that was very difficult. It’s tough to walk around acting like everything’s normal when you get news like that!

VCN: This is kind of an insider question but I think some readers will really like to hear the answer. I’ve heard that actors in CTSB ads actually get paid SAG “scale” by Fritolay. Is that true?

JON: Yes, that’s true. I only had one on-screen actor in my commercial and he had to fill out a SAG contract.

VCN: So who are you taking to the Super Bowl?

JON: I’m taking my brother (and assistant director.) We often collaborate on creative projects and his help has been invaluable.

VCN: What are you doing to promote your entry?

JON: I don’t know that I’m doing anything too special–Facebook, local media, friends and family. I’m hoping that will be enough!

VCN: What has been the reaction of your family and friends to all this?

JON: They’ve been incredibly supportive and I think many of them are more excited than I am! I’m still in shock by the whole thing.

VCN: Here on VCN we’ve talked a lot about finalists who are able to win the CTSB more than once. Are you already planning your entry for 2013?

JON: I have so many ideas, and I’ll admit, I have thought about what I might do next year. If I don’t win the big prize this year (which I believe automatically disqualifies you from entering the contest again), I will probably enter it again next year. I had a lot of fun making this commercial, and even if I don’t win again, I know I’ll enjoy creating another one.

VCN: Any final thoughts you’d care to share?

JON: This whole experience has been amazing, and I still feel honored that “Man’s Best Friend” was chosen as a finalist. If people have any questions or comments they’d like to share with me, I can be contacted at jonathan@frame25productions.com

To vote for Man’s Best Friend, head here: www.mansbestfriendcommercial.com

Interview with Eric Delgado, co-creator of “Hot Wild Girls!”

Posted by Beardy on January 17th, 2012

The hot, wild girls of "Hot Wild Girls"

When the Crash the Super Bowl finalists were announced on January 4th, I was pleasantly surprised to see that an ad entitled “Hot Wild Girls” had made the Top 5. Though the commercial was clever, topical and funny, it seemed like kind of an “outside the box” pick for doritos. It didn’t feature anyone getting brutalized and it wasn’t an over-produced, super-slick interpretation of “user generated content.” Instead it actually feels like real, authentic, UGC. It looks like it was shot by a few buddies in their living room because it was! And while it does feature dogs, at least they weren’t trying to trick a cruel human into dropping his Doritos on the ground. (I was positive we’d see another “dog gets his revenge” ad this year since there were so many copycats in the gallery)

So I was really glad to see this spot make the finals. And I was even more pleased when I found out “Hot Wild Girls” was made by a friend of VCN! The ad was written by a reader named Eric Delgado of San Antonio, TX. This is kind of insane but for the second time in about 8 months, Eric has a serious shot at winning a million dollars in a video contest. Over the summer, he and his friends made the finals in Gain’s “Smell Like a Million Bucks” competition. Ultimately his team didn’t win that contest but it seems like that brush with victory inspired them to “go big” when it came time to enter the biggest video contest of them all; Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest. And now, here’s out Q&A with Eric:

VCN: Tell me about the “Hot Wild Girls” team. Who are you guys?

ERIC: Nate Watkin, Brad Scott and Eric Delgado. We are ex-MMA fighters from Denver, CO and San Antonio, TX with a combined record of 1-27 (Brad got the W because the other dude tapped out upon entering the cage claiming that Brad was “too pretty to hit.”) Actually, Nate (my cousin) and Brad are the co-founders of their production company, Definite Productions, based in Denver. They’ve been working together for about four years producing commercials and videos. Last year, after Nate saw my Doritos entry for last year’s CTSB, we decided that we should work together on a future project since we all had a passion for comedic commercials.

The "Hot Wild Girls" team

VCN: Have you guys entered many video contests in the past?

ERIC: As a team, it’s our second contest.. We entered the Gain “Smell Like a Million Bucks” contest this past summer and we were actually a Top 25 finalist for the million dollar prize. Sadly, we didn’t win. That’s why we are pretty stoked about this Doritos opportunity. We realize that we’ve overcome some pretty ridiculous odds and we are extremely grateful to be in this position. Beardy’s Note: Here’s his team’s Gain entry. That’s Eric playing the role of the Repair Man:

VCN: What made you want to enter the CTSB contest?

ERIC: Honestly.. The opportunity to have our commercial/vision broadcasted to over 120 million people worldwide via the Super Bowl and the doors that’ll hopefully open as a result.. And of course the money. The money part should actually immediately follow the “Honestly..” mentioned above. What? Just sayin’.

VCN: Where did the idea for your entry come from?

ERIC: My cranium.. But knowing you Beardy, you probably want some details. I knew we needed something that was “trendy”. I also knew the power of animals in a commercial. I wrote and wrote for a few hours until finally I came up with dialogue that fulfilled the “twist” which, coincidentally, added the final ingredient… Gorgeous girls. I love those girls Beardy…I have no problem admitting that.

VCN: How was the ad produced? What kind of camera did you use? Mind if I ask what your budget was?

ERIC: Pre-production consisted of a week of casting talent, securing a location, and locating 3 Rottweiler’s (thank you Camp Bow Wow!) that could work together. We had a $2,000.00 budget that was used to pay the talent and makeup artist. A friend loaned us the RED One camera to shoot this ad. Nate and Brad chose this camera for it’s amazing picture quality and control of the final image. Since our intention was hopefully to have this ad broadcasted, we felt it was best fit to shoot at a higher resolution. We shot on-location during a 5-hour period and had to work around the shifting daylight. All footage was logged within an hour of completing the shoot, and then edited the next day with a final that night due to the deadline of the contest.

Whoa, nice camera!

VCN: So who gets to go to the Super Bowl?

ERIC: Nate and Brad. However, if the Cowboys we’re still in the playoffs, this would be a little different. Stupid Cowboys.

VCN: What are you doing to promote Hot Wild Girls?

ERIC: Media (News/newspaper/radio interviews).. Social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, buzzfeed.com, etc.).. Website (hotwildgirls.tv).. Guerrilla marketing (fliers, posters, word of mouth, etc.)

VCN: What has been the reaction of your family and friends to all this?

ERIC: They have been AMAZINGLY supportive! They are extremely proud and happy for us.. And we couldn’t be happier to have them along for the ride. We love ya’ll!!! All that time spent in the past voting for a friend’s “Cutest Baby”, “Best Restaurant”, or “Prettiest Puppy” is finally paying off.

VCN: Here on VCN we’ve talked a lot about finalists who are able to win the CTSB more than once. Are you already planning your entry for 2013?

ERIC: Absolutely. However, I hope they just announce the winner(s) before December 21, 2012. If I’m going down, I’d at least like to know that our commercial WOULD have aired during Super Bowl XLVII.

VCN: Any final thoughts you’d care to share?

ERIC: Yes.. And this is for your frequent visitors (like us.. fellow “Joe Handycams”) Beardy. There will always be people out there that criticize your work. They’ll try and blast your creation on websites, forums, or maybe even the “comments” section under that YouTube video that you were proud to post even after a contest you didn’t win. Who cares.. Let them criticize while you continue to create. We are by no means experts in this art.. It simply makes us happy.

VCN: Well said!

I’ve been voting for “Hot Wild Girls” every day and I think you should be doing the same. It’s a cool, funny ad I’m hoping that if it airs during the Super Bowl and scores well on the ad meter, maybe next year Doritos will be inspired to make “outside of the box” picks when it comes time to choose their 2013 Crash the Super Bowl finalists. To vote for Hot Wild Girls, just click here!

A brief history of the Crash the Super Bowl contest

Posted by Beardy on January 7th, 2012

Flashback: Logo from the first installment of the CTSB contest

Did you know that there’s no wikipedia entry for Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest? Is that weird or what? Everything has a Wikipedia entry. For God’s Sake, the Nickelodeon show “Hey Dude” which ran from 1989 to 1991 has a massive Wikipedia page complete with episode guides. (I clicked the “Random Article” button on Wikipedia and the Hey Dude entry was the first one to pop up) Over the last two and half year’s I’ve written dozens of articles about “The Crash” and I’ve had to spend a lot of time searching the web for information. It would be really helpful if some nerd out there would just compile a bunch of facts about the contest and post them online.

Oh wait….I guess if anyone is nerdy enough to do something like that it’s me. It took me a lot of googling but I’ve found a ton of data about The Crash and I will list it all in this single post. This is going to be just basic stuff like who made the finals, who won, how many entries where received, etc. Please be aware that if you are actually interested in this type of data that pretty much means you are as big of a nerd as I am.

Let’s start with the number of entries the contest has received over the years. Most of these numbers come from old articles or press releases that were put out by Fritolay:

NUMBER OF TOTAL CTSB ENTRIES BY YEAR:

2006/2007 Installment: 1,065 Doritos entries.

2007/2008: No commercial contest that season.

2008/2009 Installment: 1961 Doritos Entries.

2009/2010 Installment: 4023 Doritos Entries

2010/2011 Installment: 4,260 Doritos Entries.

2011/2012 Installment: 6,100 Doritos Entries.

Note: In 2010, Pepsi Max was also part of the Crash the Super Bowl contest. Pepsi Max received 1,460 submissions. But the Pepsi Max “Crash” was pretty much a totally different contest run by a different company and a different set of judges. So for the rest of this article I’m just going to focus on the Doritos contest. And now, time for a graph:

Hey, those points look like doritos!

Pretty amazing, huh? This contest has just grown like crazy over the years. Bet you’re kicking yourself right now for not entering back in 2006. So it looks like the number of submissions doubled after the 2008/2009 Crash the Super Bowl contest. But why? Probably because the winner of the 2009 contest, Free Doritos scored the #1 spot on the USA Today ad meter poll and the guys who made the ad, Joe and Dave Herbert won a million bucks. After people saw that it was possible for an “average joe” to win the million dollar bonus the contest just blew up.

But this raw data doesn’t tell the whole story. If you’ve entered past installments of the CTSB contest you know that every year, Doritos gets HUNDREDS of duplicate entries. I think the rules say that you can submit up to 10 versions of your commercial. And some people just uploaded their video 10 times. Some probably did it because they were unsure if the initial upload worked. But I think others used to do it just because they thought maybe it would improve their chances.

The repeat entries used to be really annoying. It seemed like for every 100 submissions I watched, at least 20 would be repeats. But fortunately, this year Doritos finally took measures to keep the duplicates out of the video gallery. I’d estimate that only 5% of this season’s submissions were repeats. So just for the fun of it let’s adjust the numbers to account for all the duplicates. I’ll deduct 20% from each total except for 2011. For this year’s total I’ll only deduct 5%.

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF ORIGINAL CTSB ENTRIES:

2006/2007 Installment: 852 Unique Doritos entries.

2008/2009 Installment: 1569 Unique Doritos Entries.

2009/2010 Installment: 3,220 Unique Doritos Entries.

2010/2011 Installment: 3,408 Unique Doritos Entries.

2011/2012 Installment: 5,795 Unique Doritos Entries.

Now let’s do a little light math. Each year, Doritos picks 5 finalists. (Except in the 09-10 contest when they picked 6 finalists) So it’s easy to calculate a contestant’s chance of making the finals.

ESTIMATED CHANCES OF A VIDEO MAKING THE CTSB FINALS, BY YEAR:

2006/2007 Installment: 1 in 170.

2008/2009 Installment: 1 in 313.

2009/2010 Installment: 1 in 536.

2010/2011 Installment: 1 in 681.

2011/2012 Installment: 1 in 1,159.

Anyone who has watched a few random CTSB entries knows that most of the submissions Doritos receives every year just aren’t that great. But there’s no possible way to estimate what a filmmaker’s odds are if he makes a GOOD submission. So I won’t even try. Let’s move on to a list of who has won the contest over the years. I’ll include the Pepsi Max Crash the Super Bowl finalists just for the heck of it. You can find all of these commercials on the official Crash the Super Bowl channel on youtube.

2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 AND 2012 CRASH THE SUPER BOWL FINALISTS:

2006-2007 Finalists:

1. Live the Flavor by Five Points Productions of Cary, NC.
-WINNER: Aired during the Super Bowl.

2. Check Out Girl by Kristin C. Dehnert of Los Angeles, CA.
-Also aired during the 2007 Super Bowl.

3. Mouse Trap by Billy Federighi of Beverly Hills, CA.
-Aired during the 2008 Super Bowl.

4. Chip Lover’s Dream by Jared Cicon of Claremont, CA.

3. Duct Tape by Joe Herbert of Batesville, IN.

2007-2008: No Commercial contest

2008-2009 Finalists:

1. Free Doritos by Joe Herbert of Batesville, IN.
-Aired during the Super Bowl. WINNER: Million dollar bonus.

2. New Flavor Pitch by Oren Brimer of New York, NY.

3. Power of the Crunch by Eric Heimbold of Venice, CA.
-Also aired During the Super bowl.

4. The Chase by Chris Roberts of Burbank, CA.

5. Too Delicious by Michael Goubeaux of Los Angeles, CA.

2009-2010 Finalists:

1. Snack Attack Samurai by Ben Krueger of Minneapolis, MN.
-Aired during the Super Bowl.

2. The Smackout by Brendan Hayward of Santa Monica, CA.

3. Casket by Kevin Wilson of Whittier, CA.
-Aired during the Super Bowl.

4. House Rules by Joelle De Jesus of Los Angeles, CA.
-Aired during the Super Bowl.

5. Underdog by Five Points Productions of Cary, NC.
-Aired during the Super Bowl. WINNER: $600,000 Bonus.

6. Kids These Days by Nick Dimondi of Cary, NC

2010-2011 Doritos Finalists:

1. Adam and Eve by Stephen Schuster of Topanga, CA.

2. Best Part by Tyler Dixon of Lehi, Utah.
-Aired during the Super Bowl.

3. Birthday Wish by Heather Kasprzak of Los Angeles, CA.

4. House Sitting by Tynesha Williams of Santa Monica, CA.
-Aired during the Super Bowl.

5. Pug Attack by JR Burningham of Burbank, CA.
-Aired during the Super Bowl. WINNER: Million dollar Bonus.

2010-11 Pepsi Max Finalists:

1. Elevator Girl by Michael Doneger of Los Angeles, CA

2. First Date by Nick Simotas of Anaheim, CA.
-Aired during the Super Bowl.

3. Love Hurts by Brad Bosley of Los Angeles, CA.
-Aired during the Super Bowl. WINNER: $400,000 Bonus.

4. Torpedo Cooler by Brendan Hayward of Santa Monica, CA
-Aired during the Super Bowl.

5. Zero Calories? Psshh by Brandy Gill of Orlando, FL

2011-12 Doritos Finalists:

1. Bird of Prey by Joby Harris of Los Angeles, CA.

2. Dog Park by Tyler Dixon of Liegh, UT.

3. Hot Wild Girls by Brad Scott of Denver, CO.

4. Man’s Best Friend by Jonathan Friedman of Virginia Beach, VA.

5. Sling Baby by Kevin T. Willson of Los Angeles, CA.
And finally, since all the news articles and press releases I read always said where the finalists came from, let’s do a breakdown of the states that gave us Crash the Super Bowl finalists:

The 31 Crash the Superbowl commercials came from directors in the following states:

California: 19 commercials

North Carolina: 3 commercials

Utah: 2 commercial

Indiana: 2 commercials

Florida: 1 commercial

New York: 1 commercial

Minnesota: 1 commercial

Colorado: 1 commercial

Virginia: 1 commercial

It should be no surprise that a lot of the winning commercials came from California since so many filmmakers live in the LA area. But what is surprising is that a number of people have made the finals more than once. The 3 North Carolina ads all came from a team known as Five-Points Productions, the 2 commercials from Indiana were both made by the famous Herbert Brothers, the 2 ads from Utah were directed by a filmmaker named Tyler Dixon and 4 of the California commercials (plus 1 of the Utah commercials) were made by a group of friends that all attended the same Church in Los Angeles.

I know that a lot of Crash the Super Bowl finalists (past and present) read this site. So if anyone sees any errors in this post, please let me know!

Posts Tagged ‘Doritos’

Make Your Own: The Most Popular Crash the Super Bowl ad of 2012

Interview with Jon Friedman, Crash the Super Bowl finalist and creator of “Man’s Best Friend”

Interview with Eric Delgado, co-creator of “Hot Wild Girls!”

A brief history of the Crash the Super Bowl contest

VCN's Twitter Updates

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