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Interview with Pepsi Max Crash the Super Bowl finalist, Kyle Stafford

Posted by Dan L. on December 11th, 2011

Kyle battles a Doritos-loving kid in his 2012 Crash the Super Bowl entry, Switcheroo

When it was announced the Pepsi Max wasn’t going to be a part of this year’s Crash the Superbowl contest I was both disappointed and relived; disappointed because that meant there would be only 5 finalist slots instead of 10 and relived because the folks at Pepsi simply did not seem to get this contest. The people at Doritos who created and run “The Crash” have spent years building up the reputation of this mega-contest and in one season, the Pepsi Max team came in and did serious damage to the CTSB “brand.”

Pepsi Max hurt the contest in a few ways but it all comes down to which videos they picked for the Top 5. When the 2010/2011 contest was announced, the Pepsi team kept pushing the idea that Pepsi Max was a “manly” diet drink. And so, hundreds of filmmakers shot ads that were aimed at selling Pepsi Max to men. But somewhere along the way, Pepsi must have changed their marketing strategy for Pepsi Max. Because when they announced their finalists, 4 of the top 5 videos were clearly aimed at selling Pepsi Max to women. That upset quite a few people. But that was nothing compared to the backlash when fans actually watched Pepsi Max’s finalist choices. Two of them were embarrassingly bad and a third ad was very-expensive looking but it wasn’t especially funny. It aired during the big game and scored 24th on the USA Today Ad Meter…which I believe makes it the worst performing CTSB ad ever.

So Pepsi’s Top 5 were just not on par with the kind of ads that Doritos always picked. There were only two 2011 Pepsi Max Crash the Super Bowl finalists that I personally liked. One was “” and the other was this ad entitled, First Date:

One thing the Pepsi Judges did that kind of impressed me was that they weren’t afraid to pick ads that didn’t have high-end production values. (Of course, I think this strategy backfired in one or two cases) First Date doesn’t look super slick and it wasn’t shot with a $18,000 Red Camera. The thing it has going for it is great writing. It’s clever and interesting and it’s aimed at both women AND men. And best of all, it’s TRUE. People connect with this idea because they have probably been in situations like the one depicted in the video. First Date wound up airing during the Super Bowl and despite the fact that this ad only cost about $25 to make, it was ranked the #7 best ad of the night on the USA Today ad meter poll. It just goes to show you that good writing conquers all.

The man behind First Date is named Kyle Stafford and he plays “the guy” in the commercial. It turns out that Kyle is a fan of VCN and he graciously agreed to answer some questions about his Crash the Super Bowl experiences. And now, on with the interview:

VCN: So Kyle, tell us about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do for a living?

KYLE: I am from Northern California. A place called Rohnert Park, north of San Francisco. I graduated from UC Santa Barbara and came straight to LA to become a world famous writer/producer. Ten years later and I am now an Editor over at Warner Brothers. It’s actually not a bad gig, but I still write/produce on nights and weekends.. I am married and we have 2 sons. And they are actually all in this years CTSB commercial.

VCN:  Do you enter a lot of video contests?

KYLE: This year will be out 4th year entering the Crash contest. Last year we actually made 3 commercials, 2 for Pepsi Max and 1 for Doritos. But besides this contest, we don’t really enter other contests.

VCN:  Do you remember why you entered the contest last year?

KYLE: We actually were not going to enter last year, because we had entered the 2 previous years and thought we had pretty good entries and never got in, so we were all stubborn, like “screw it” we don’t need them. Then we came to our senses and realized we did need them and we ended up making 3 spots. We actually thought a different entry was going to be the finalist. A spot called Pepsi Wedding, which you had in your Top 30 list. So when they called and said it was for First Date we were all kind of shocked.

VCN:  Tell us about how you created First Date.

KYLE: A couple of friends and I have a comedy/skit website called GoodLookingLiars.com, so we had been making content on and off together for about 2 years when we decided to enter the contest again. We hadn’t really put any thought into the commercials since we were not going to enter anything, but then when we decided to enter, we had almost no time, so we had to act quick. I got the idea in LA traffic, during an especially awful stretch on the 405. I just remember it making me laugh, so I called Nick Simotas and Robby Wells right away and told them the idea and they both laughed. Then I called my wife and she said there was no way we could say that during the Super Bowl. That’s when I knew we were going to make it. The ad cost about 25 dollars to make. We got the restaurant for free, got friends to be extras and shot the whole thing in about an hour. It isn’t the most complex commercial in the world, with no production audio and really only 3 camera angles. The 25 dollars was just to buy frozen dinners to put food on the plates as well as a pack of gum so the whole cast and crew could partake in a good chew. The actress opposite me is Julia Bellows, she is a super funny friend of ours that we have used in a bunch of our stuff.

VCN:  How and when did you find out that you made the 2011 finals?

KYLE: The people at Pepsi called us about 3 or 4 days before they posted the results…. The only reason they tell you in advance is to make sure you have all the correct actor/location releases and paperwork before they go through the process of making you a finalist. I was actually at work when they called, and we were not allowed to tell anyone until they posted, so I had to sit at work the rest of the day with this huge dopey grin on my face and I couldn’t tell anyone why.

VCN:  Did Pepsi Max ask you to keep the news to yourself?  How did your friends and family react when they heard the news?

KYLE: Yeah, we were asked to keep the news under wraps until they posted the finalists. I think my friends and family thought I was kidding, most probably did until the second they saw it actually air during the game. Good thing my face was on it or nobody would have ever believed me.

VCN:  How was your trip to the Super Bowl?

KYLE: Trip to the Super Bowl was amazing, we got to sit in a luxury box at the 40 yard line with catering and free booze. Dallas was freezing though, Pepsi had actually planned a bunch of cool events and parties to go to, but we had to cancel a good amount because it was really hard to get around, but we got to go to the Pepsi Jam concert thing with Kid Rock and Duran Duran. So the whole trip was pretty surreal, being whisked away to events and having VIP passes. Usually I am working catering at those things, so it was cool to sit back and enjoy it all.

VCN:  Your commercial wound up playing very late in the game.  How did it feel when it finally ran?

KYLE: Yeah, they don’t tell you if you’re going to air until you see it on the TV, so every commercial break is pretty intense. They aired 5 of the 6 ads in the first quarter, so only one ad was going to air the rest of the game, so then we had to sit through every commercial break until about the middle of the 4th quarter. They actually ended up airing our ad on the Dallas Stadium jumbo-tron, which is the biggest jumbo-tron in the world I think, so my already giant head was spread out over a 60 yard TV. We actually thought at that point our ad was not going to air on TV, thinking the Jumbo-tron was a consolation prize or something. But then the time came and it aired and Nick and I freaked out and hugged, it was a pretty cool moment. I think Nick had a roll of quarters in his pocket.

VCN:  First Date did amazingly well on the ad meter.  In came in 7^th.  Did you expect to rank so high?  Even though you didn’t “land in the money” were you happy with how your commercial performed?

KYLE: The ad did a lot better then we thought it would. We didn’t expect it to rank so high, but I think in the sea of slick over-produced ads, I think we were kind of novel in that our ad was so insanely simple and true. The biggest thing we kept hearing was how true our ad was and I think people were laughing at the truth of the guy/girl thing. It’s funny, landing in the money was never even a thought for us, we just wanted it to air, then when we saw we came so close, you start thinking “Damn! We almost got like 400 grand.” and you start to get bummed, but then we shook ourselves and remembered we were at the Superbowl and had an ad that we created that just aired in front of 110 million people and we perked up. And Nick said he had a roll of dimes now.

VCN:  Were you surprised that Pepsi Max wasn’t part of the Crash the Super Bowl contest this year?

KYLE: Yeah I was surprised, if you look back at last year, Pepsi had 2 of the top 7 ads on the Ad Meter. If you were a real ad agency and you could point to those kind of results they would be getting bonuses, but I am sure the people at Pepsi Max know a little more than I do about soda marketing, so I am sure they have their reasons. But it sucks having the finalists basically cut into half. Makes it that much harder to win.

VCN:  How did making the CTSB finals change your life?

KYLE: Being a finalist in CTSB was a super cool experience, but I wouldn’t say it has changed my life. It is a really nice story to tell and legitimizes us a little with Hollywood producer types, but nobody is knocking down our door for all our content. I got recognized a little right afterward, a few people asked me if I was that guy on TV or I would be at the store and you would see someone staring at me like they knew me from somewhere but couldn’t quite figure out from where. I had a kid want a picture with me at the game. I told him “When you go back through these pictures you are gonna be like ‘Who the hell is this guy in my photo album?”

VCN: Did you enter the contest again this year?

Yeah, we entered in again this year. I included my whole family in this year’s ad. You can tell we broke the bank again on this ad. This one actually didn’t cost anything:

http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery?video=13134

Thanks for your site and good luck to all the entrants. Keep making stuff!!!!

VCN: And thank you for your time. Good Luck this year!

The five most over-done Crash the Super Bowl ideas

Posted by Dan L. on November 9th, 2011

Never use the Crash the Super Bowl contest as a chance to see your buddy's girlfriend topless

Man, time really files when you’re trying to come up with a great idea for a Doritos commercial! There’s now less than two weeks left until the deadline for the Crash the Super Bowl contest. So it’s Crunch Time, folks! (pun intended). But before you rush out and start filming, the first step in making a great Doritos commercial is research. Obviously, you should watch all the entries that won the previous installments of the Crash. But you should also try and figure out which concepts have already been done to death. While running this site, I’ve had the opportunity to watch literally thousands of Crash the SuperBowl entries. And there are a few common, played-out gimmicks that I see used over and over and over again. So I am going to do you a gigantic favor and list the Top 5 most over-used Crash the Super Bowl ideas! Every year, Dortios gets tons of videos that have almost identical plots and gags. The ideas might be new to the person who wrote the script but to the judges they are tired and totally unoriginal. So if you want to stand out from the crowd, here are the five concepts that you need to avoid. For each concept I’ll include an example and I’ll try to only post high-quality entries so you can see that even good production values won’t make these ideas seem fresh:

1. Doritos as “paper” footballs

Hey, have you ever noticed that a Dorito kind of looks like a paper football? If so, you’re not alone because apparently a lot of people have noticed that! Over the last five years, I bet fritolay has received hundreds of CTSB entries that featured Doritos being used as “paper footballs.” I’m guessing this idea is so popular because a paper football is about the only small, triangular object most people can think of. What’s crazy about this particular idea is that pretty much every Paper Football entry has the same plot. There is a tense and dramatic stand off between two competitors. The chip is “kicked” in slow motion but at the last second, there’s a twist! Someone jumps into frame and blocks the kick by catching the chip in their mouth.

I’ve been watching the new batch of submissions and already I have seen more than one version of this idea. But this concept is just too obvious. If a Paper Football-themed ad did make the finals, you’d have a hundred people coming forward claiming that the winners stole their idea!

2. Dressing up in a giant Doritos costume

This weekend, dozens of filmmakers across the country will go into their garages and apply the finishing touches to their homemade, giant Doritos costumes. Some of them will just be a single, orange sheet of poster board. Others will be meticulous, high quality suits that are made of foam and finished with an air-brushing of realistic orange and brown paint. But if Frito-lay hasn’t picked a CTSB finalist that featured a guy dressed as a Dorito by now, they are never going to. That’s because no matter how much work a person puts into their Dorito costume, the gag is just too easy. Think of it like this; if Bud Light made a Super Bowl commercial where the joke was that the characters were in homemade Bud Light suits, how do you think that commercial would do on the USA Today ad meter?

3. Zombies!

This idea has been totally done to death. (Pun intended again!) If you head to the Crash the Super Bowl gallery and watch 50 videos in a row, I bet you’d see at least one zombie-themed entry. In fact, I just searched the gallery for the word “zombie” and there are already five submissions with the word zombie in the title!

It’s easy to understand why Dortios gets so many zombie videos though. Zombies are super popular and the costumes are really easy to make. But it’s fascinating how similar all these zombie ads are. I’ll break down a typical story for you; a group of friends are running from hungry zombies. The friends get trapped and the zombies attack. But they don’t eat the people. It turns out one of them has Doritos and that’s what the zombies were after the whole time! Oh but once the Doritos run out, the zombies then turn on the people. The whole plot is so popular among video contest filmmakers that I did an entire blog post about the “Zombie Fake Out” trope. So even though zombie make up is probably 90% off right now at Walmart, resist the temptation to shoot a chip commercial about the undead.

4. Doritos as Mousetrap bait

Doritos are cheesy. So what do people do with cheese? Pretty much just two things; they either eat it or they catch mice with it. (seriously, try and think of something else you can do with cheese) A lot of CTSB filmmakers have made this connection over the years. In fact, one of them even made it to the super bowl thanks to this concept. Way back in 2006, Fritolay picked an ad named “” as one of the finalists in the very first installment of the Crash the Super Bowl contest. I’m sure you remember the commercial because it was so good that five years later, Doritos is still airing the spot on TV! In the ad, a man in a suit puts a piece of a dorito on a mousetrap. He then gets pummeled by a very angry guy in a mouse suit. The ad is so ubiquitous that it’s hard to believe that CTSB contestants keep doing gags about Doritos as mouse trap bait. Sometimes the mouse traps are and sometimes the mousetraps are . Sometimes the mouse traps are meant for mice but usually they are meant for people. But no matter what kind of spin a filmmaker puts on this idea, it simply has already been done perfectly by a previous Crash the Super Bowl winner. For example, the moustrap video I posted above is actually pretty awesome. It even won a prize in Poptent’s video contest “Second Chance” assignment. The way the giant robots lumber slowly in the distance is just perfect. If it hadn’t been for the previous “Mousetrap” ad I think this robot entry could have made the finals last year. But the Crash is all about getting new, off the wall ideas so Doritos isn’t going to pick a finalist that features a “device” that’s already been used.

5. A “Sexy” Doritos Seduction

Let’s end on an over-done idea that I don’t mind so much; the Sexy Doritos seduction. These entries always play out the same way. A husband gets home after a hard day at work to find a trail of Doritos on the floor. He follows the trail and it leads to the bedroom. He opens the door to find his wife laying naked in bed…with only Doritos covering up her girly bits! Of course, sometimes the concept is flipped around and it’s a laying in a bed full of Doritos. Either way, this gag is extremely common. Shoot an entry like this and all you’ll get for your troubles is a set of orange sheets.

If you’ve ever shot a Crash the Super Bowl entry about any of the ideas I just listed, I’m sorry if I offended you! I understand what it’s like to work hard on a video contest entry only to later realize that it was kind of unoriginal. But hopefully this post will help a few filmmakers avoid common, over-done ideas that simply don’t have much chance of winning.

When will the 2012 Crash the Super Bowl contest be announced?

Posted by Dan L. on August 9th, 2011

It might still be early August but it’s already starting to feel a little bit like Fall. Every year, as the summer starts to wind down I see a steady climb in traffic to this website and it can always be attributed to one thing; filmmakers looking for news about Doritos’ upcoming Crash the Super Bowl contest. I can even tell what search terms readers put into google to get here and already I’m seeing lots of “keyword phrases” like: will doritos do crash the superbowl 2012, doritos superbowl contest, super bowl commercial contest 2012 and crash the superbowl XLVI. And those are just from the last 12 hours!

So video contest filmmakers are certainly ready to “Crash” the Super Bowl. But is Fritolay? Will the contest even be brought back for 2012? The answer is YES. I have confirmation that the CTSB contest will be run again for the 2011/2012 season. In fact, Fritolay and Pepsico have been planning for this installment since before the last Crash was even finished. Here’s a little blurb about the 2012 contest from an article that ran in USA Today right after Super Bowl 35 in February. The story was about how some companies were trying to get extra mileage out of their Super Bowl ads by releasing them online before the big game:

The brands are “rethinking” the Crash the Super Bowl promo for the 2012 game in a way that will involve more social media, says Rudy Wilson, marketing vice president at Frito-Lay.

Really it’s no surprise that Doritos would bring the contest back for 2012 since the last installment was such a big hit. But the “social media” stuff worries me a bit. I hope to God it doesn’t mean people will be voting for entries on facebook!

So now that you know the Crash is on for sure, the new question is, when can you start filming? Well, not for a few more weeks. The full details of the contest should be announced in mid-September and the submission period will probably begin about 2 weeks later and run until early November Oh but there is one detail I can mention. From what I have read, it looks like once again the Crash will have two categories and you can shoot an ad for Doritos And/or an ad for a Pepsi product. (I suspect it will be Pepsi Max again.)

If you’ve stumbled across this website while looking for details about this year’s CTSB contest, be sure to bookmark us and check back often for updates. VideoContestNews.com is the ONLY site on the web that actively covers the Crash as it unfolds. Also, if you’re too anxious to wait to get to work, maybe you should check out the details of Chevy’s new consumer-generated Super Bowl commercial contest:

9/7/2011 UPDATE: Yesterday the NFL announced the details of some of the long term deals they had struck with advertisers. And they confirmed that Fritolay will once again be running the crash the Super Bowl contest this year. So you can expect the contest to be officially announced very soon! Here’s the full (but brief) story: http://goo.gl/Jt3WM

Yet another Crash the Super Bowl controversy

Posted by Dan L. on February 10th, 2011

Ok, this is starting to get really dumb. I could see this happening once or twice, but three times in one season? In December the blogosphere was calling for a boycott of Doritos after some Christians saw a random Crash the Super Bowl entry called “Feed Your Flock” that seemed to mock communion and assumed it was the company’s official super bowl ad. Then about 2 weeks ago the Internet freaked out again after two random, non-winning, gay-themed Crash the Super Bowl entries were mistakenly reported to be Doritos’ official Super Bowl commercials. None of those ads ever had a chance in hell of airing on TV so people were pretty much getting worked up over nothing.

But now, according to MSNBC, one of the actual commercials that did win the Crash the Super Bowl contest has managed to set the internet “on fire with a growing backlash.” The ad at the center of the controversy is entitled Love Hurts and was directed by a 28 year-old filmmaker named Brad Bosley. (it was actually one of my favorite ads to make the finals.) You probably saw this when it aired during the first quarter of the Super Bowl on sunday but here it is again:

Now here are the different reasons why people are upset about this commercial:

1. The ad promotes negative stereotypes about black women. This is the big one. Some people feel that the ad portrays black women as being violent, controlling and jealous.

2. The ad promotes negative stereotypes about black men. Some feel that the commercial makes black men look like spineless wusses who let their wives push them around and who can’t resit the temptation of a pretty white girl.

3. The ad is an example of reverse racism. This is a less popular argument but some people think the the ad is anti-white because a black character hits a white character possibly because she was white.

As I said, complaint #1 is the big one that’s going around. Here’s the MSNBC story about the controversy.

I gotta wonder, is that woman in that clip actually offended or did she just use this “controversy” as an opportunity to repeatedly plug her book? Anyways, the story is all over the place; The LA Times blog, NPR, Essence Magazine’s site….even Rush Limbaugh stopped shoving pills and pie into his mouth long enough to talk about the ad. (except Rush said the “Love Hurts” was successful because black women really do hate blonds) But this morning this story plunged even deeper into the crazy-zone when Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) took the floor of the congress to criticize this ad as racist. Let me repeat that in bold, red font:

Today, a United States congresswoman denounced a video contest entry from the floor of the House of Representatives.

And man…I thought making it to the Super Bowl was the big time! Now if you think that’s insane, wait ’till you hear the kicker. No one in the media seems to realize that Love Hurts was a consumer-made ad! I guess a lot of Super Bowl viewers didn’t catch that Pepsi Max was part of the Crash the Super Bowl contest this year. So all the people who are pissed about this are criticizing Pepsi Max for intentionally making a “racist” commercial. I mean, I even saw one blogger who said that Pepsi intentionally cast an unattractive African American because the character was supposed to be the bad guy. For God’s sake, I’ve seen a number of people who are upset that “pepsi” cast a dark-skinned African American because they assume that Pepsi must think that darker-skinned black women are meaner and more controlling than lighter-skinned black women!

Anyone who took the time to figure out who made “Love Hurts” would realize that those accusations are totally baseless. I’m not sure where Love Hurts was filmed but apparently the director is from Kansas. Would some dude in Kansas with no budget actually sit and conspire to cast certain types of people to get across some secret and offensive narrative? Or is it more likely he just cast whoever he could get? Hell, I bet the hot blond will turn out to be his cousin or something.

For the third time this winter, Fritolay had to put out a statement explaining that one of their “commercials” was actually made by a consumer as part of a video contest. However, it does sound like Pepsi was aware that the ad might stir up some trouble. Here’s part of what they said.

“We vetted this ad with our external ethnic advisory board as well as nationally recognized community activists and leaders all of whom believed the ad highlights the key product attributes in a humorous way.”

Interesting. Anyways, I hope this is the last Crash the Super Bowl “controversy’ post I do this season. What’s ironic is that I thought Love Hurts was kind of a progressive ad because the director seemed to engage in color-blind casting. This will sound kind of goofy but I thought it was cool that two characters of different races could engage in slapstick without everybody freaking out. Yeah…guess I was wrong about that one. I also thought the ad had kind of a sweet message to it; the woman isn’t messing with the guy because she’s mean. She’s messing with him because she loves him and wants him to not die. Watch the ad again. That dude was trying to eat a whole pie by himself. If anyone could benefit from some tough love, it’s him!

2/10 Update: Ok, this is funny. Check the comments to this post for an anecdote about the filming of Love Hurts. One of our readers was actually filming his CTSB entry in the same park in LA at the same time as the Love Hurts crew. And Love Hurts was definitely no amateur production. I checked and the budget of the ad was only $800 though. So why the director cast the actors he did is a mystery. Thinking about it, if he had cast a really old couple I bet the ad would have landed in the Top 3 on the ad meter. Old people hurting young people is always a crowd-pleaser.

2/11 Update: The actor from Love Hurts left a great comment to this post last night. He gave some insight into the the production, the director’s intentions and the controversy. If you’ve read this far, please click the comments button to check it out!

2011 Crash the Super Bowl Ad Meter results!

Posted by Dan L. on February 7th, 2011

Million Dollar Winner: Pug Attack

In the last six weeks I don’t think I’ve talked to a single filmmaker that entered the 2010/2011 Crash the Super Bowl contest that thought Doritos and Pepsi Max did a good job of picking their Top 10 finalists. But the Super Bowl is over, the six winning commercials have aired and the Ad Meter results are in. And it looks like the last laugh goes to Fritolay. I totally did not see this coming but this was the most successful Crash the Super Bowl contest ever! It was so successful that two filmmakers won bonus prizes and Fritolay came closer than ever before to taking all three top spots on the USA Today Ad Meter. The two big winning commercials were Pug Attack which tied for first place on the Ad Meter with the Bud Light Dog Party ad and House Sitting which (sort of) came in third. House Sitting was technically the 4th most-liked ad of the night but because of the first place tie you could argue that House Sitting scored the #3 spot on the ad meter. And I guess someone did argue that because Doritos has decided to pay the director of House sitting the #3 spot’s bonus. So Pug Attack wins an extra Million Dollars and House Sitting wins $400,000 making this year’s Crash the biggest video contest ever! Oh and let’s not forget that the director of Pug Attack also wins the chance to film a big budget commercial for Pepsi Max and Doritos later this year.

$400K winner: House Sitting

In total, Fritolay aired 3 Doritos commercials and 3 Pepsi Max commercials as promised. But I was really surprised to see that 5 of the 6 CTSB winners aired during the first quarter. The earlier an ad airs, the better chance it has of scoring well on the ad meter. I’ve heard a lot of conspiracy theories this year from non-winning contestants and one was that Fritolay didn’t really want to have to pay out all that bonus money. Well, I think we can put that theory to rest. By placing the 5 strongest ads in the first quarter, Fritolay proved that they REALLY wanted to take all three spots on the Ad Meter. And if they didn’t want to pay out too much in bonuses there’s no way they would have given the director of House Sitting the third place prize. It’s awesome that they did but to be fair, House Sitting was not actually the the 3rd highest rated commercial of the game. But like I said, good for doritos for being generous when they didn’t have to. To recap, here’s a list of all of the ads that aired last night. They are in the order they ran in and their “rank” is where they landed on the ad meter. To see the winning and non-winning ads, head here.

2011 CRASH THE SUPER BOWL WINNERS and AD METER SCORES

1. Pug Attack. SCORE: 8.35. RANK: Tie for #1

2. The Best Part. SCORE: 7.27. RANK: #14

3. Love Hurts. SCORE: 7.56. RANK: #5

4. House Sitting. SCORE: 7.68. RANK: #4

5. Torpedo Cooler. SCORE: 6.68. RANK: #24

6. First Date. SCORE: 7.52. RANK: #7

You can see all the Ad Meter results here. Last week I posted my predictions for which 6 ads would air during the big game and I managed to get 5 out of 6 right. ( The only one I missed was “First Date.”) I gotta admit though, I was way off on most of my other predictions. I never in a million years expected 4 CTSB finalist ads to air in the To 10. And I really thought a few ads were totally going to tank on the ad meter. I mean, First Date took 7th place! Who could have seen that coming!? I’m totally amazed at how well that spot did. I always thought it was amusing and well written but I assumed its low production values would hurt it’s score.

So why did this year’s crop of CTSB winners do SO WELL in the Ad Meter polling? There are a couple reasons I think:

1. Timing. Focus groups are excited during the 1st quarter and jaded and tired by the 3rd. So Fritolay was able to “buy” some success by cramming the first quarter full of ads. That forced other companies to air their big ads later on and that hurt their scores. For example, if an ad like the Rosanne/Snickers commercial had aired in the first quarter instead of late in the 2nd, I bet it would have made the Top 5.

2. Crappy Bud Light Ads. Prior to the Crash the Super Bowl contest, Bud Light scored the #1 spot on the ad meter for like 10 years in a row. They tied for first this year but most of their 2011 commercials were pretty lame. (that one with the cowboys singing “Tiny Dancer” was the suckiest of the bunch) So one reason Pepsi Max and Doritos ads scored well is because Bud Light really tanked it this year.

3. Few “funny” commercials. When you think of Super Bowl commercials, you think comedy. But there were very few simple, funny 30 second ads this year. There were tons of cool car commercials and movie trailers and two-minute long documentaries about the re-birth of Detroit but only funny commercials do well on the ad meter.

4. Most companies don’t seem to care about the ad meter anymore. Doritos, Pepsi, Budweiser, careerbuilder and Snickers are some of the only companies that seem to actually try to make “the #1 Super Bowl commercial.” I think other ad firms may have ceded ad meter victory to fritolay and focused on making ads with “viral” appeal. In a way, viral views the week after the Super Bowl is the new “contest” for advertisers.

5. The best CTSB ads wound up airing. Luckily for Fritolay, none of the ads that wouldn’t have done well on the ad meter made it to air. Plus, the spots that did run held up really well on TV. I really didn’t like some of the finalist choices but I gotta admit, when you see them play of TV it’s a totally different experience. For example, I thought “The Best Part” might be too gross for the Super Bowl. But when the ad actually aired yesterday it came off as being pretty awesome. So ahem…maybe fritolay did a better job than a lot of us thought.

6. The Snowglobe Effect. There’s not really an appropriate name for this theory so let’s call it “The SnowGlobe Effect” in honor of The Herbert Brother’s SnowGlobe-themed 2008 CTSB entry that wound up being the first consumer-created commercial to take the #1 spot on the ad meter. I think one of the primary reasons this year’s crop of Crash the Super Bowl spots scored so well is BECAUSE they were part of the Crash the Super Bowl Contest. The USA Today Ad Meter has become a huge part of the Crash. Any person who actually gets into one of the USA Today’s focus groups has got to know what is at stake for the “average Joes” who made Doritos and Pepsi Max ads. So, I think the focus groups were kinder to the CTSB entries because they wanted to see the “little guys” do well and maybe win a million bucks.

So…Fritolay came super close to nailing the Top 3 spots in the Ad Meter and if the contest happens again next year, they might actually be able to pull it off. I’ve been thinking that this might be the last year the company ran the Crash. But after last night’s amazing results I can’t see how they wouldn’t bring it back. In fact, I think they’ll probably go balls to the wall next year and REALLY try to “take the top 3.” You’ve only got 9 months until the traditional early November deadline so you better start planning for 2012.

Live Crash the Super Bowl results

Posted by Dan L. on February 6th, 2011

The second quarter of the Super Bowl is just starting but surprisingly, 5 Crash the Super Bowl finalist ads have already aired! So I guess there’s just one spot left to go. I really expected Fritolay to spread them out a little more. But these early airings must mean that Pepsi and Doritos genuinely and really want these commercials to land in the top 3 on the USA Today Ad Meter. If you missed a commercial break making a chicken wing run, here are the results so far. These are the ads that aired tonight in the order they ran. Titles in Red are Doritos ads and titles in Blue are for Pepsi Max. Remember, you can see all of this year’s CTSB finalists .

2011 CRASH THE SUPER BOWL WINNERS and AD METER SCORES

1. Pug Attack. SCORE: 8.35. RANK: Tie for #1

2. The Best Part. SCORE: 7.27. RANK: #14

3. Love Hurts. SCORE: 7.56. RANK: #5

4. House Sitting. SCORE: 7.68. RANK: #4

5. Torpedo Cooler. SCORE: 6.68. RANK: #24

6. First Date. SCORE: 7.52. RANK: #7

UPDATE: The ad meter scores are in and the results are unbelievable! I did not see this coming but the Crash the Super Bowl winners came closer than ever before to winning the 5 million dollar bonus. Pug Attack tied with the Bud Light Dog Party ad for first place. House Sitting was the #4 ad of the night and Love Hurts was ranked #5. Even though he won on a tie, the director of Pug Attack will receive a One Million Dollar bonus. Check back with us tomorrow and we’ll go over the results in more detail.

Which Crash the Super Bowl ads will air on sunday?

Posted by Dan L. on February 4th, 2011

The last day to cast your vote in the Crash the Super Bowl contest was January 30^th and by now all 10 finalists should be enjoying their week-long trip to sunny Dallas, TX. (current conditions: 20°F and “snowy”) It’s gotta be nerve-racking to wait a full week before learning whether or not your ad is going to air during the big game. But hopefully all the selected filmmakers will be able to chill out and enjoy themselves…in Dallas. I just checked and in the previous three years that the CTSB happened (2007, 2009 and 2010) the Super Bowl always took place in Miami or Tampa. But don’t feel too bad for the 2011 winners. At least they have good BBQ in Texas. If the contest comes back next year and you make it to the finals you’ll get to spend a week in fabulous Indianapolis, Indiana!

But 2012 is a long way off. So let’s focus on the immediate future and talk about how this year’s contest might finish up. I didn’t follow this year’s competition as closely as I did last year but I do think I have a decent idea as to which ads are going to make it to air. I’m basing my predictions on several factors:

1. News and Social Media Coverage, 2. Finalist’s “vote for us” campaigns, 3. Youtube views, 4. Entry Quality and finally 5. My Ass (Frankly, that’s where one or two of these picks got pulled from)

So here are the ads that I think are going to make it to air on Sunday. I’ll list them in the order I think they will run. Keep in mind that the earlier an ad airs, the better it will probably do on the ad meter. And Fritolay gets to pick when an ad plays regardless of how many votes it got. So that means the first two ads to play are the ones that Fritolay thinks have the best shot of landing in the Top 3 on the ad meter. Click the thumbnails to watch the ads.

1. Pug Attack: If this isn’t the first Doritos ad to air on Sunday I’ll eat a giant, foam Cheese Hat. Pug Attack has absolutely crushed all of its competition on youtube. Right now it’s at 125,000 views. The next most viewed 2011 finalist is “The Best Part” with 61,000 views. Pug Attack has also gotten a lot of press and social media coverage so I think it’s a safe bet that it got enough votes to make Doritos’ Top 2. And if it didn’t, it’s proven popular enough that the Doritos judges would chose to run it. And one more thing; as I’ve mentioned I was disappointed that Doritos picked this ad since it seems like a blatant rip-off of last year’s CTSB winner, Underdog. The similarities between the two spots are undeniable so Doritos must have picked this ad because it reminded them of Underdog. So their goal may be to create a symmetry between last year’s winner and this one (which they hope will be the big winner of the night.) If that’s the case they’ll be running Pug Attack first since last year they ran Underdog first.

2. Torpedo Cooler: For some reason, the filmmaker who made Torpedo Cooler has done almost no campaigning for his ad…at least as far as I can see. I haven’t seen a “vote for torpedo cooler” website or facebook page and I’ve only seen a few, random “vote for torpedo cooler” blog posts and tweets. This is weird when you consider the fact that Torpedo Cooler was directed by a filmmaker (and friend of VCN) named Brendan Hayword. And last year, Brendon made the CTSB finals with a commercial called “The Smackout.” Brendan campaigned like crazy in 2010 but in the end, he was the only person who’s ad DIDN’T air during the Super Bowl. From what I’ve read and been told, the Fritolay team and the other finalists felt pretty bad for the guy since he was basically the only non-winner in the group. So why would this filmmaker work so hard and spend so much money (According to this press release, Torpedo Cooler’s budget was $4,500) to try and get back to the Crash the Super Bowl finals and then exert almost no effort to get enough votes to make it to air? I think it’s because he was already informed weeks ago that Torpedo Cooler will be the ad that the Pepsi Max judges choose to air. And you know what? I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. If Pepsi knew right from the start which ad they wanted to air I actually think it was pretty cool of them to let the filmmaker know so he wouldn’t waste a month busting his ass, hustling for votes he didn’t need to get.

3. The Best Part: As I’ve said, this spot really grew on me. Yeah it’s kinda gross but if it airs during the big game a lot of people will probably be quoting this ad on Monday. (mmm, cheese!) The team that made this spot did a lot of campaigning and they have a robust following on . So I think they’re going to get enough votes to make the Top 2. And this is going to sound like kind of a weird theory but if you go to the official Crash The Super Bowl youtube channel, The Best Part is their “featured video” and it’s set to Auto-Play whenever you visit the page. That’s a little trick to boost a video’s view count if you have a popular channel. Fritolay is proud of the viral success of the their CTSB finalists. So I think they might be trying to jack up this ads’ view count because they don’t think many people will rush to their computers after the Super Bowl to re-watch a commercial where one guy licks another guy’s cheesy fingers.

4. Zero Calories, Psshh: This spot makes my list because it’s gotten a considerable amount of press coverage. But it also has a big advantage because the video was essentially the combined effort of a bunch of employees at a florida Ad agency. That means that every employee at the company and all of their friends and family members were probably voting for “Zero Calories, Psshh,” religiously all month long. Plus hey, they’re an ad agency. So they better know how to promote their own work! As for its placement during the Super Bowl, I think Fritolay will try and bury it during the middle of the game since it’s not as strong as most of the other videos in the Top 10. Last year, the last Crash the Super Bowl ad that aired during the 4th quarter wound up being the most watched commercial OF ALL TIME. So I think Doritos and Pepsi will want to try and finish strong and air some of their best ads, last.

5. House Sitting: I don’t think “House Sitting” will get enough votes to make it to air but I do think this will be the spot that the Doritos judges pick. I’m personally not crazy about this ad but a lot of people seem to really like it and it would probably do ok on the ad meter. It also goes very quickly which means that a lot of people would want to watch it again later on line. Predicting which ad Doritos will want to run is a tough call. If not “House Sitting” the slot will probably go to Birthday Wish. But House Sitting has several things going for it that “Birthday Wish” doesn’t. For one, Doritos appear all throughout House Sitting but they only get about 3 seconds of good screen time in Birthday Wish. House Sitting is also one of the only finalist ads to feature a non-white actor and it’s the first CTSB finalist ad ever to be created by and African American female director. Diversity is important to fritolay (as it should be) and so if the judges have to pick between House Sitting and Birthday Wish I think they’ll give it to House Sitting.

6. Love Hurts: This is one of my personal favorites and I think it would go over really well during the Super Bowl. The big, shocking slapstick surprise at the end should really help it score well on the ad meter. The video has gotten a decent amount of social media coverage and it’s actually the most viewed Pepsi Max finalist ad on Fritolay’s youtube channel (41,000 views.) Because three of the five Pepsi Max finalist ads are….well, not so great, that should really help Love Hurts get enough votes to make it to air. If a random person who had no connection to any of the finalists watched all five Pepsi Max ads I don’t seem many people voting for anything other than Torpedo Cooler or Love Hurts. And if Torpedo Cooler DOES get enough votes to air, Pepsi’s only other logical pick would be Love Hurts.

7. ??????: For the last two years, Doritos has surprised contestants by running an extra Crash the Super Bowl finalist spot during the game. A few weeks ago it was announced that Fritolay/Pepsi had bought a 7th Super Bowl slot. The company can use it for any of their products and I’ve read that they might run an ad for Brisk Ice Tea. But, they may also decide to run one extra CTSB commercial. I don’t think that’s gonna happen though. 6 CTSB ads is enough for one night.

Just for the record, the ads that I don’t think are going to air are Elevator Girl, Adam & Eve, Birthday Wish and First Date. You can watch all 10 of this year’s finalists .

And now, a few quick predictions about the USA Today Ad Meter:

1. Fritolay’s 5 million bucks is safe. There is just no way in the world that 3 of this year’s finalists will be ranked the #1, #2 and #3 commercials of the game.

2. Actually, all of Fritolay’s bonus money is probably safe. I don’t think any of the Pepsi Max or Doritos commercials will land in the Top 3. (other companies have some really big ads planned for this year)

3. The winner of the “Professional Commercial” gig will be the director of Pug Attack since that ad will be the highest scoring CTSB commercial of the night.

4. The only spots that have a shot at making the Top 10 are Pug Attack, Love Hurts and House Sitting.

5. AT LEAST one Crash the Super Bowl ad will score BELOW #30 on the Ad Meter. And if some of the weaker ads air I think they have a chance of landing in the bottom 10.

Alright well, the time for predictions is finally over. Check back here after the Super Bowl for all the final ad meter results!

Fox News goes after a Crash the Super Bowl entry

Posted by Dan L. on January 24th, 2011

Fox news makes me want to puke. Seriously, there must be some really despicable people running that network. They seem to have one goal over there which is to stir up as much shit as possible. They work long and hard to create as many divisions in this world as they can and sometimes the on-air personalities almost seem to delight in the act of turning something stupid and small into a BIG, FUCKING DEAL.

Apparently Fox’s latest phony B.F.D is a lowly video contest entry. Remember a few weeks back I mentioned a Crash the Super Bowl submission called “Feed Your Flock” that had managed to offend some Catholics because it featured what appeared to be a Doritos and Pepsi Max communion? Well, when I first posted about the ad it was getting some coverage on the web thanks to bloggers who assumed it was Fritolay’s OFFICIAL 2011 Super Bowl commercial. These folks and their misinformed readers started contacting Doritos and Pepsi and threatened a boycott if the ad aired on Super Sunday. When Fritolay explained to these people that “Feed Your Flock” was NOT their commercial and was just one of 5,000+ entries in the Crash the Super Bowl contest the complainers then started demanding that the ad not win the contest and be removed from the CTSB website.

And guess what? Fritolay actually pulled the entry! So…controversy’s over, right? Ha…no. Because Fox News just found out about this like a week and a half ago and just because the ad has been pulled doesn’t mean they can’t squeeze some hatred out of this story. Fox’s “Feed Your Flock” coverage started with this short article on FoxNews.com: http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/01/04/doritos-ad-offends-christians

DORITOS AD OFFENDS CHRISTIANS:

In what may be another ad campaign gone awry, Doritos is featuring a new Super Bowl advertisement in which a priest, searching for ways to return to the church, has a supposedly brilliant idea: Replacing the host wafer with a Dorito. While the denomination of the church is unclear, what is clear is that most Christian denominations consider the host to be a big portion of communion and might find the commercial, titled “Feed your flock!”, insensitive. A spokesman for Frito-Lay told The Examiner that the commercial had been approved and would not be taken down from the website. [link to video omitted]

That’s the entire article. It feels like something is missing from that story though, doesn’t it? Oh! I know…they managed to leave out the fact that “Feed Your Flock” was just one of thousands of entries submitted to a user-generated ad contest! Not only that, they actually imply that “Feed Your Flock” was going to be Doritos’ official 2011 Super Bowl ad. Anyone who had done more than 30 seconds of research about this would know that “Feed Your Flock” was just a video contest entry and that it didn’t even make the Crash the Super Bowl finals. In fact, by the time that story appeared on Foxnews.com, “Feed Your Flock” had already been pulled from the CTSB website. So you gotta wonder, did Fox intentionally mislead their readers or did the person who wrote the article not even bother to Google “Feed Your Flock”?

The Foxnews.com story got a flood of angry comments and I guess someone at the network realized they had a potential B.F.D on their hands. So the story made it to air. Here’s a link to some awful, random Fox News show featuring some random, awful, blond, Fox News anchor where the topic up for debate is “Feed Your Flock.” If you’re familiar with how the Crash The Super Bowl contest is run and judged you’ll realize what little regard the folks at Fox have for the truth. Right off the bat they just make up their own facts and state that “Feed Your Flock” made it “pretty high up but it didn’t make the cut because of all the controversy.” The ad made it “pretty high up” in the judging? Really?? How the heck do they know that? Answer; they don’t. The anchor even very carefully avoids saying this was an entry for a video contest. She makes it sound like Doritos hired several “groups” (implying ad agencies) to create potential Super Bowl ads for them. Watch if you dare:

Not content to just debate the controversial aspects of this ad, Fox had to take things to the next, malicious level by trying to turn a freaking video contest entry into a MUSLIMS VS. CHRISTIANS thing. If you couldn’t stomach to watch the above clip, one guy on the panel goes off on a “Why is it ok to make fun of Christians but we can’t make fun of Muslims” rant. It’s a Goddamn video contest entry and these people are using it as an excuse to reinforce the Us Vs. Them/Muslim Vs. Christian/All or Nothing paranoia that keeps their creepy network in business.

If only there was someone good and decent wandering the media wasteland that could offer us salvation from the hate-mongers! Enter my TV hero, Stephen Colbert. The other night he gave the above “news” clip some of the context it was lacking. Skip to 2:24 for the “Feed Your Flock” stuff.

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That was awesome. The great irony of this whole controversy is that “Feed Your Flock” has gotten more and better media coverage than all 10 of the actual Crash the Super Bowl finalists combined! I mean, the entry made it on Stephen Colbert. That’s a hell of an accomplishment.

And “Feed Yoru Flock” did make it on to one more notable show; The O’Reilly Factor. Now, as much as I dislike Fox I gotta admit, Bill O’Reilly is a lot more “fair and balanced” than the rest of the anchors and hosts on his network. He’s able to get his opinions across without resorting to making up his own facts. Case in point; here’s his coverage of the “Feed Your Flock” kerfuffle.

You know that things have gotten out of hand when it’s up to Bill O’reiley to be the voice of reason. He and his guest basically say “hey, it’s not too offensive, Doritos didn’t make it or buy it and the ad didn’t even make the Crash the Super Bowl’s Top 10 so what’s the big deal?”

Let’s wrap this up by giving the final words to Dave Williams and Mike Lyons; the filmmakers who created the ad in question.

I have a google alert set for “Crash the Super Bowl” and I can tell you that “Feed Your Flock” has absolutely dominated the press coverage of the 2011 Crash the Super Bowl contest. But now that game day is almost here hopefully the media will turn their attention from one video out of thousands that didn’t win to the 10 ads that actually have a shot at airing during the big game.