Doritos Advert Shoot
This week I had the opportunity to attend an ad shoot for Doritos and meet the creatives and account execs managing the whole shabang at AMVBBDO. It was a fairly early start and I jumped onto the Bakerloo line to meet with Benedict Pringle, account exec at AMV in Marylebone. I grabbed a cab with Ben to the set, an ex-MOD base in Bushey, North London. The set had the advantage of being multipurpose and I was able to view both indoor and outdoor filming and all the intricacies connected to the production.
Being on set was fun, but I got the feeling from the professionals that the novelty of working with one of the world’s best directors soon wears off. Everyone knew exactly what to do, all the time, almost like they had done the same shot before, being a mere formality to do it again. I can’t divulge many details about the new advert but it has been thought up by an extremely funny creative at AMVBBDO and involves a guy called ‘Alan’ mixed with being a Guitar Hero star. The storyboards and shots certainly seem promising.
I was with the ad-execs from AMV all day, all inspirational people, finishing the G2 crossword in lighting time. Apparently Doritos give AMVBBDO a lot of creative license which really shows in the attitude of those creating the production, paying painstaking attention to detail and making sure, above all, that a bit of humour is injected into the ad- something which is almost a pre-requisite for a Doritos.
Being a big budget ad ~500k, Doritos are riding a lot on the success of the Ad, but with share-bag crisp sales going through the roof and the success of their user-generated content campaign ‘You Make It, We Play It’ they hardly seem to need the publicity. The enthusiasm of all involved, from the gripper to the director, is contagious but when you combine this with the deep pockets of Walkers, you have a recipe for something epic. Speaking with the main creative, he said that his hopes for the ‘Alan’ ad are sky-high and rightly so, given all the months of planning, I can see the ad being a big hit.
On reflection, it was a fantastic day, showing the fun part of the ad exec’s job. It was stimulating to see professionals so passionate about their work, really believing in a concept and just going for it. If anything, my goal to work in advertising has now become an obsession.