What you will see if you click
this link is a wickedly funny, beautifully made send-up of both a
brand-name product and corporate America. Anybody who works in an office will recognize the
milieu as well as the mindless credo of rah-rah teamwork that soars beyond absurdity. Enjoy the
satire. You’re never likely to see it actually broadcast.
Here’s another and another. They’re directed by Justin Reardon of
Turnpike Films, a year-old Los Angeles production company that put them on its Website to
demonstrate its skill for potential advertising clients. “They’re just meant to be examples of the
director’s work,” says Turnpike associate producer Melissa Dean. “We put these spots on a demo
reel and send it out to ad agencies. It’s standard industry practice.”
Dean, 25, says she was suddenly bombarded with hundreds of e-mails beginning three weeks
ago, when the Turnpike site was discovered by Web surfers not from the ad industry. Site traffic
has gone “well into the many thousands,” she added in a telephone interview from Santa Monica.
“People are going crazy. It’s just the neatest thing. We never intended it. It’s the first time anybody
but industry clients came to us and commented on our work.”
To Dean’s
knowledge, Geeklife.com was the first surfer to come across the
demo reel. Since then “it’s been everywhere,” she says. The reason for the “frenzy,” as she called
it, is obvious: Watch this, or this. In all, Reardon made seven ad demos, spoofing
such brands as Budweiser, Nintendo, Starbuck’s, Raisin Bran Crunch and Nutrigrain.
For the complete reel of Rearden’s seven spots, go
here. My favorite? Nutrigrain.
