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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

 
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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

 
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Mofilm announces the winner of Chevy’s “Route 66″ Super Bowl commercial contest!

Posted by Beardy on January 23rd, 2012

I love it when a great video wins a huge video contest!  Last week, Mofilm announced the winner of Chevy’s international “Route 66″ Super Bowl commercial contest.  The lucky filmmaker is Zack Borst of the god old USA.  His commercial, “Happy Grad” has won him $25,000 and a trip to one of Mofilm’s Super Bowl parties. (They’re hosting parties in NY, LA, London and Mumbai!)  The ad premiered last night during the Giants game but Happy Grad is also slated to air during SuperBowl 46.
 
WINNER:  Prize: $25,000 + ad will air during the Super Bowl:
 

 
The more times I watch that ad the more I like it.  I watched every finalist in this contest and I think the judges made the absolutely right choice. The actors in this spot really nailed their roles but the guy who really deserves the credit here is the writer.  60 seconds is a long time and the writer did an awesome job of topping each “gag” with an even funnier scenario.  But he was also smart enough not to get too crazy.  So to Zack and his crew I tip my beard and say “job well done.”  And a job well done also goes out to the folks at Chevy and Mofilm.  They ran a great contest and they picked a great winner. They easily could have blown this whole thing by letting “the public” pick the winner via an online vote but instead they decided to reward quality rather than popularity.

Now that I think about it, this commercial might actually have a decent shot of scoring well on the USA Today ad meter.  It’s very likable and the comedy keeps building and building so I bet it will get a really high score.  Wouldn’t it be funny if this consumer-made spot beat out all of Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl ads??

Besides the top winner, Chevy gave out a ton of prizes to finalists in different regions of the globe.  Actually, they wound up awarding even more prizes than promised.  You can see the full list of winners on Mofilm’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MOFILM

 
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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!

 
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Chevy and Mofilm announce the finalists in the Route 66 Super Bowl commercial contest

Posted by Beardy on December 27th, 2011

There's more than one way to crash the Super Bowl

Just before Christmas, Mofilm revealed the finalists in Chevy’s Route 66 Super Bowl commercial contest.  This mega-competition was open to filmmakers from all over the world and the winning ad will play during the 2012 SuperBowl.  The top filmmaker will also receive $25,000 Actually, there are a bunch of cash prizes at stake and there will be different winners from different regions of the globe.

So how are the winners determined?  A public vote…right?  Wrong!  Though the video gallery is full of ways you can “like” or share the finalists, views and votes will have no impact on which videos will win.  Judges have the final say in all stages of this contest which is the only way a contest like this should be run.  The only reason that companies bother with public votes is because it’s a free and easy form of publicity.  But Mofilm came up with a very clever way to get that cheap social media coverage without diluting the integrity of their contest.  They are running a side competition where the “Top Sharer” of the chosen commercials will win $10,000.  Basically whoever directs the most viewers to the contest site wins.  If you want to try and get in on that action, head here.

I’ve watched all 32 finalist commercials and they range from pretty bad to pretty awesome.  There are a few ads that seem like they only made it this far because they were the only decent entries that came out of a particular region.  But I’d say at least 80% of the finalist spots are very strong.  Here are two of my favorites.  Click the images to view:

Keys by Charles Hayes, USA:  From Mofilm:  Every key has a purpose…and every production has its challenges. Fim Fact: On day one our producer had her car broken into and all the props stolen. But, from the moment we came up with this we knew we had something touching, so through torrential rain, home made jibs and lots of favours, we pushed through and produced something we all love!

Keys

Cindy, I Love You by Jude Chun, Korea:  From Mofilm:  A man goes above and beyond, determined to finish one last item on a bucket list.

Cindy, I Love You

Keys is so professional that it could start airing on TV today and no one would ever suspect it was shot for a video contest.  Cindy, I Love You is pretty weird and the twist at the end is a little grim and heavy-handed but for some reason I just really like it.  Like I said, there are a bunch of good submissions and you should take a few minutes to scroll through Mofilm’s beautiful video gallery.  (Seriously, its classy and clean design puts Doritos obnoxious and loud Crash the Super Bowl gallery to shame.)  But if you only have time to watch one of these ads, watch this one:

Chevy Driving Academy by Kenneth Wales & Jason Lansing, USA:  From Mofilm:  A man is put to the test to see if he has what it takes to become a Chevy driver. Film Fact: The shoot was as intense as the Driving Academy – the actor almost threw up after multiple takes from flipping upside-down, it took 4 hours to hit the mark when shooting the Corvette and the Dealer was never meant to be bald…until they met Amazon!

Chevy Driving Academy

Pretty damn good, huh?  I’ll be amazed if that one doesn’t win the top prize.  To view all of the Chevy finalists, head here:  http://chevroletroute66.msn.com

 
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When will the Crash the Super Bowl finalists be notified?

Posted by Beardy on December 26th, 2011

In the last few weeks I’ve gotten a bajillion e-mails and comments from readers all asking the same thing:  When will Doritos notify the winners of the Crash the Super Bowl contest?  So I thought I’d do a quick post and try and answer the question.  Doritos doesn’t like to talk about when and how the CTSB finalists are contacted but here are a few facts to consider:

1.  The rules of the 2012 CTSB contest say that winners will be notified within 6 weeks of the submission deadline.  Since the deadline was November 21st, that means that Fritolay must contact the finalists by January 2nd.  But voting begins on January 4th so there’s no way they can wait that long.

2.  I’ve talked to a lot of past finalists and it seems like Doritos called all of them just a few days before Christmas; usually around December 23rd.

3.  But…this installment of the Crash the Superbowl contest was launched much later than normal.  So there’s a chance that the contest timeline is a little off this year.

4.  Recently, I interviewed one of last year’s Pepsi Max CTSB finalists and he said he was contacted by Pepsi just 3 or 4 days before the results were made public.  But the pepsi contest was run by a different set of judges.  However, thanks to social networking sites like facebook, twitter etc, these days it would be very easy for the news about who won to leak out.  So maybe doritos will adopt Pepsi’s tactic and contact finalists at the last minute to minimize leaks.

5.  Of course, literally notifying the winners at the last minute isn’t really possible.  Fritolay will have a lot of paper work for the winners (and their actors) to fill out like tax Forms, release forms, location releases and SAG paperwork.  The rules say that all that paperwork must be “received by Sponsor no later than three (3) days after notification of being a Finalist.”

6.  But I don’t think they’ll wait just 3 days before the deadline.  The rules actually state that potential finalists may be required to submit to a background check if Fritolay requests one.  (Guess it would be pretty embarrassing if a sex offender created Doritos’ Super Bowl commercial.)  Doritos will probably need at least a week to vet the potential finalists if they decide to do a basic background check on any or all of them.

So if I had to take a guess I would say that the finalists were probably contacted TODAY.  If they weren’t then I would say that tomorrow has got to be Doritos’ last chance.  If they wait any longer they’re just cutting it too close.  So if you don’t get a call by wednesday. December 28th I think it’s safe to say that you didn’t make the cut.

But whatever happens, we’ll all know the results on the morning on January 4th.  Be sure to visit VCN that day to read reviews of all the finalists and to let us know what you think about Doritos’ picks.  Good luck, everybody!

 
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2012 Celebrity Crash the Super Bowl entries

Posted by Beardy on November 28th, 2011

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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Sample Crash the Super Bowl release form

Posted by Beardy on November 16th, 2011

Just 6 days until the deadline, BTW

Here’s a nightmare scenario for you:  Imagine that you’ve spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours writing, shooting and editing the ultimate Doritos commercial.  Then after weeks of waiting and hoping you get the big call; you’re a finalist in the Crash the Super Bowl contest!  You’re going to receive $25,000 and a free trip to the Super Bowl!  But before the win is official, you have to get a big stack of paperwork taken care of.  You have to fill out tax forms and transfer your copyrights and of course, you need to get all of your actors to sign Fritolay’s official release forms.  But when you go to your actors and tell them the good news, they aren’t excited that the ad they were in might play on TV.   They just want to know how much of your prize money they’re going to be getting.  Suddenly the stranger you hired off of craigslist to say one line in your CTSB entry has your entire future in the palm of his hand.  If he doesn’t sign the releases, you don’t get to be a finalist.  Of course, there’s no way he won’t sign….but that signature is going to cost you.

That type of scenario is exactly why you need to get your actors and your crew members to sign agreements with you before you submit an entry to a big video contest.  Of course, the sponsor’s official releases will trump any release forms you concoct on your own.  But your goal should be to get your cast and crew to commit to a few key terms before you shoot.  So really, you should put the term “release form” out of your head.  Instead, what you need is a “Actor/Producer Agreement.”  (Or a Crew Member/Producer Agreement.)  This type of agreement is signed by both you and your actor.  It’s like a mini-contract that lays out what both of you are going to do.  Here are three crucial points the agreement needs to include:

  1. The actor must agree to sign all future releases and paperwork related to the project:
  2. You are the owner of the entry and all the audio and video created during the shoot.
  3. How much compensation an actor or crew member will receive if you win any prizes.

I’m shooting a Crash the Super Bowl entry of my own this week and in my actor/producer agreements, the actors will each be getting 5% of any “Cash Prizes” I might win.  It’s very important that you include a stipulation like that in your agreements because Fritolay gives the Crash the Super Bowl finalists a bunch of non-cash prizes.  But you can’t split a ticket to the Super Bowl so be careful about how you phrase things.  Also, 5% might not seem like a lot but it’s a pretty good payday for someone who only spent one afternoon working on your entry.  And 5% per crew member and actor can add up fast!  If anyone balks at the number, just be sure to mention that the top prize in this contest is a million bucks.  5% of a million dollars is 50 grand.  So like I said, 5% is pretty fair.

Unfortunately, Doritos doesn’t provide any release forms that you could have your actors sign before the shoot.  So you’re going to have to create your own actor/producer agreement.  Or you could just use the one that I use!  Below is a SAMPLE Crash the Super Bowl Actor/Producer agreement that I may or may not have created.  I don’t want to say who wrote this thing since it seems to contain bits and pieces of other agreements that are floating around the web.  Also, for legal purposes I have to advice you not to just use some bogus-ass agreement that you found on  the Internet!  If you really want to be protected you need to hire a lawyer to draw up a legit agreement for you.

So now that I think about it, let’s say that this particular agreement is for “Novelty Purposes Only.”  It’s just a funny sample for a non-existent Crash the Super Bowl entry named “Doritos: They’re Toasted!”  Like I said, you shouldn’t use this form but if you were going to you’d have to do a replace the fake producer’s name with your own.  Same goes for the title of the ad.  (Find and Replace in Word would do the trick.)  But again, don’t use this form and if you do, come crying to me if it winds up biting you in the ass.

Click here to download the DOC file:  CTSB-sample-agreement

Remember agreements like this one are signed by both the producer and the actor and each person gets a copy.  That way no one can argue that they didn’t have time to study the document carefully.  If anyone has any questions, concerns or feedback about the agreement, e-mail Dan at VideoContestNews.com.

 
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