Aspiring filmmaker Nelson Talbot says he wouldn't normally even think about mounting a pretty young woman above a fireplace like a trophy fish in a TV commercial.
But this is the Super Bowl, where commercials target a large male demographic and often move the goalposts of social decorum and taste. So when Talbot and his twin brother, Graham, entered a TV commercial contest sponsored by Doritos – with the winner eligible for $1 million and an airing of their commercial at the Super Bowl – the Langley filmmakers decided to push the boundaries.
Their 30-second entry – one of only three Canadian commercials to make a semi-finalist list from thousands of submissions from around the world – shows two fishermen in a boat, one of whom sprinkles Doritos chips in the water as bait.
After a beautiful mermaid pops up, it cuts to a living room, where the mermaid is now mounted like a trophy fish. "Nice catch," says one of the fishermen.
"We knew we could get flak for being a little misogynistic or something like that, but the way we thought of it was, if there was one time to be more risqué, it would be during the Super Bowl because that's where you see the commercials with the most spunk," Talbot said.
Chips Before Chicks, by Vancouver's Bradley Friesen, is the only other B.C.-made commercial to make it onto a list of 24 semi-finalists, which will be shortlisted again to five in January.
It opens with Friesen in a helicopter with a buddy. When they spy a boat filled with beautiful, young bikini-clad women, Friesen asks to be dropped onto the boat. Met by a stunning young blonde woman, he pushes her aside so he can get to a bag of Doritos and is later shown being tackled by her.
This is the eighth year Doritos has run the Crash the Super Bowl contest but the first year the company has opened it to submissions from outside the U.S. Submissions have come from as far away as South Africa.
The contest's grand prize is $1 million and a chance for the winners to work with Marvel Studios on the set of The Avengers: Age of Ultron film. Second prize is $50,000. Both first- and second-prizewinning commercials will air during the Super Bowl February 2, 2014.
"Incredible content can come from anywhere, and that's really why we decided to open it up," said Susan Irving, director of marketing for PepsiCo Canada.
While opening the competition outside of the U.S. extends the Doritos brand reach, it also benefits aspiring filmmakers by giving their work a global showcase.
Irving pointed out that the winner's ad will be in both U.S. and Canada Super Bowl broadcasts.
"The Super Bowl in Canada is the highest viewership, followed by the Oscars. It's close to seven million in terms of viewership in Canada."
Talbot, who studied film at Simon Fraser University, is hoping that participating in the contest will help further his ambitions to make a living in film.
Friesen has no such career aspirations and cites "jackass" as his only credentials for making his TV ad.
Friesen is a helicopter pilot, as are several of his friends. Three helicopters were used in shooting the commercial in October, and Friesen enlisted Vancouver's House of Smooch to bring in six models wearing the boutique's bikinis. •
