Consumer-Generated Ad: Oreo Global Moments Finalist?

oreo naltsI usually don’t make a lot of noise about a contest I’m entering, and I’ve been entering fewer lately. The competition is high, and I rarely win (although often I’m a finalist). The Oreo contest intrigued me because certain YouTube creators were asked to enter, and I figured that would improve my odds. There’s going to be an open amateur contest too, but those will be judged separately. Here’s the clip because if I embed it, it kills the entire blog template.

In truth, the “behind the scenes” may be funnier than the video itself. What child says to his father, “are we going to get arrested again?” Let the record show we’ve never been arrested for making a video. We’ve been hollered at a few times maybe.

oreo I thought the deadline was next week, and then received an e-mail last evening before leaving work. Thanks to a vigilant babysitter, we conceptualized, shot, edited and sent it all last night. My wife was teaching, and we had to an attend an animal-shelter event. So everything was quite rushed. The concept emerged when Jo suggested making “Oreo Man” out of one of the kids. Jen, our sitter, then said she had an Oreo costume from her childhood. She took all four kids to her parents’ house and found the costume in the 100-degree attic. When she returned, we did the kitchen shot, and decided to get some cow footage (Charlie was going to be our cookie, but he wasn’t in the mood). Jen asked if I wanted to take along the cow suit, which ended up inspiring a nice resolution to the 2-minute spot. If I may be so bold, here’s what I like about the video (which is posted on my “responseofnalts” YouTube account).

  • The camera shots are amateurish, but the editing was a labor. It took about 3-4 hours to edit if you include the score. I finished it just in time for the midnight deadline.
  • Grant (the orange shirt Oreo dude) was priceless. He’s 5 and reminds me of Charlie Brown sometimes, and I gave him the “good grief” line to pay homage to Charles Schulz. Can’t you just feel his pain when his brothers laugh at him? And when he whispers in my ear, I melt.
  • The video — by sheer fortune, the sitter’s innovation, the kids patience, and careful editing — actually has a story arch (conflict, resolution, etc.). This, of course, was accomplished without a pesky script or storyboard. If I go there I almost always lose energy before I turn on the camera.

Typically consumers entering brand contests try to emulate what they believe should be a television ad. I think that’s where many miss the mark of consumer-generated ads, because they end up looking like lame cable-television advertisements instead of a crafty amateur spots. The only thing commercial about this video is the music, product shots and frequent messages of Oreo. I stayed faithful to the brief by telling a story about Oreos and milk. But I was careful not to sell Oreos… it’s more about creating an affinity moment than hocking some product attribute.

I think my chances are good, but I don’t know who else entered. And if all else fails, the good folks at Kraft did send me a giant box of Oreos. They’re really good frozen.

18 thoughts on “Consumer-Generated Ad: Oreo Global Moments Finalist?”

  1. It’s great when a video just comes together and works without those pesky scripts and story boards. I think the scene where Grant whispers in your ear works well – your expression makes that scene.

    Is it just me that gets a giggle out of your word placement in this post:

    “Thanks to a vigilant babysitter, we conceived…”

    There’s something that sounds just a little bit wrong about that 😉

  2. Jan- uploading “behind the scenes.” I realized that I needed the cow payoff to be Grant’s idea, but you couldn’t know about it until you saw it. So I asked him to whisper. Of course, you can’t tell a child to fake whisper. So I asked him to say something about being late to the show.

    When I was about Grant’s age, my dad was on television for being one of the first married deacons. While on camera for the first time with my family on a church bench, I whispered to my mom “are we really going to be on TV?” For weeks after that everyone asked me what I had whispered.

    TET- fixed that one!

  3. I think you should rename the backstory, “got bail?”

    I hope the case from Kraft wasn’t one of these [click]

    Good Luck!

  4. Just watched the back story video and that is hilarious but I don’t think it would quite be as funny without having seen the finished production first. It helps knowing how some of the set ups fit into the the final piece. Good insight on how to direct young children too.

    The line ‘are we gonna get arrested again?’ proves that no matter how funny you try to be young children can always be funnier with no effort at all 😉

    … I miss ‘conceived’

  5. I especially liked how the cows were backing away from your kids in terror, your kids were standing there like deer in the headlights, and you’re in the background yelling “MILK THE COWS!!! MILK THE COWS!!”

  6. sukatra I was certain that mother cow was thinking about charging the kids and the kids picked up on that quick. really was a perfect set up, because I know Kevin has more sense than to actually expect some strange kids to walk up to a mother cow and some calves in an open field to milk them, right?

  7. ROFL on comment 10 and 12. I kinda figured they would be smart enough not to get close, and they sense a protective parent (whether a cow or goose) better than their moron dad. Worst case scenario one of them would have chased the kids, at which point I’d have been torn between comforting and protecting them or getting it on tape. Hmmm…

  8. jishinger, I agree that momma cow had set herself in a protective stance and was telling the kids to stay away. Unfortunately Kevin, I found myself worrying about the kids safety rather than enjoying the joke.

    I thought the video concept was good, over all.

  9. Oh man, Kevin, you just gave a HUGE boost to my creativity! Back to making videos for me! Come on Hank, let’s head out to the Beltway and stand in the middle of the highway. You dodge the cars, and I’ll be rolling video on the side. I smell a feature!

  10. Great video…

    I, for one, am glad you don’t enter as many contests… quite frankly, I could do without the excess competition…

    To address your point about contestants emulating what’s currently on TV: While it may miss the point of CGA, you can still make an entertaining commercial… And what’s more, I believe that many contestants may end up creating “commercial-y” videos because that’s what seems to win, due to the fact that many Brands who are soliciting and judging these contests may also be missing the point of CGA…

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