The super bowl ad that almost wasn't

Rachael Micallef
By Rachael Micallef | 22 January 2015
 

The pride of a nation now rests in the Doritos covered hands of Australian film-maker Armand de Saint-Salvy and his pièce de résistance , 'Doritos Manchild'. And while it has been chosen out of a field of 29 semi-finalists to go into the top 10 of the annual Doritos 'Crash the Super Bowl' competition, de Saint-Salvy said the commercial is “an absolute fluke”.

The ad, which details what happens when you deprive a grown male of salty, crispy treats from the point of view of one man's clearly exhausted wife, nearly didn't happen.

“We made the commercial on Sunday, I edited it Sunday night and we submitted in on Monday,” de Saint-Salvy said.

“It was a very quick turnaround.”

De Saint-Salvy had originally hedged his bets on a different idea showing different stereotypes saying how much they love Doritos. The commercial had been filmed and submitted until a friend saw it and told him it “wasn't very good”.

In a last minute burst of inspiration, he remembered an idea he had for a Doritos man-child – inspired by his own inner man-child – and decided to film it.

“I didn't even have an actor on the Friday,” de Saint-Salvy said. “I was lucky enough to find Lydia, who is very pretty and then thought: oh shit, now I've got to find an actor that is kind of handsome enough to look like he'd be her husband but goofy enough to be a man-child.”

“She knew Mitch, he happened to be available on the Sunday, I happened to find an apartment I could shoot in and it all fell into place – it's an absolute fluke.”

A fluke maybe. But a fluke has won the popular vote of the globe. The advert is so convincing that de Saint-Salvy said the Doritos judges couldn't even tell that the American accents in the ad were fake.

“They're Australian actors,” he said. “Doritos asked 'oh where did you get your American actors from' and I said 'Mitch? He's from Port Macquarie.”

The contest, open to international entries for the past two years, lets Doritos fans and aspiring filmmakers make 30-second ads with the ultimate goal of having their ad played during the Super Bowl. There were 4900 entries for the competition.

The annual NFL showcase will be played on February 2 Australia time, and will give advertisers access to more than 100 million viewers.

Last year Australian entry, the “finger cleaner” made the final shortlist, but unfortunately didn't win the crown.
But de Saint-Salvy is hoping this year things might be different.

“Chet Faker is the only other Aussie to have been shown at the superbowl. He had a song in the background of a commercial a few years ago so he paved the way,” de Saint-Salvy said.

To vote for your favourite 'Crash the Super Bowl' ad, click here.

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