What do grown men running in terror from squirrels—in the tradition of the honorable Spanish Running of the Bulls festival—have in common with a technology company? Probably as much as Texas ranchers herding cats, according to Fallon Minneapolis, which has created the humorous "Running with the Squirrels" for EDS. The :60 debuts during the 2001 Super Bowl.
The creative team behind the spot, which is the third in a series, includes Fallon president/creative director David Lubars, art director Dean Hanson and copywriter Greg Hahn, with John O’Hagan of bicoastal/ international hungry man as director, and special effects by Sight Effects, Santa Monica. The series’ first two ads were "Cat Herders" and "Airplane."
Opening on an aerial shot of a beautiful medieval Spanish village, the camera zones in on the village square. Two police officers meander by several men who are exercising. A Spaniard cautions in a heavily accented voice, "When you are running with these animals, the one thing you can never do is show fear." We see a group of men braced for a race to begin. The gate swings open on cue—releasing a bunch of squirrels. The men start running, in and around the furry rodents. Scores of villagers line the streets and yell encouragement from their balconies, throwing confetti and rose petals. A voiceover advises, "If you lose respect"—a man falls down in the crowd—"you will have problems during the running." The speaker is revealed as a man with scratches on his face and wearing a neck brace, waiting out the race in an emergency area.
More advice follows as we see a man, with a squirrel on his sleeve, scramble up a wall: "You have to have very good reflexes." A woman’s voice accompanies another shot of the running: "You think you can manage them. No!" she declares, "That’s not true. You can’t." The camera moves in on an older man and his comrade. The latter explains in Spanish, with English subtitles, "I have lost many friends to the squirrels." Such final sentiments as, "To beat the squirrel you need to think like the squirrel," and, "As long as I have legs, I will run with the squirrels," alternate with shots of the race.
As a jubilant crowd enters the courtyard, the viewer discovers the link between squirrel running and EDS. The supered text reads, "It’s not the big, lumbering competitors you need to worry about. We’ll help you compete with the quick, nimble ones," followed by the company logo.
Lubars noted that since "Running with the Squirrels" was the third spot in this campaign, the template was already in place. He explained, "The metaphor idea started with ‘Cat Herders,’ which talked about the importance of aligning a company’s scattered technologies and moving them in the right direction. It continued with ‘Airplane,’ which shows a crew building an airplane in the sky. This latest spot addressed the necessity of being able to operate as a fast, agile company."
Why squirrels? Lubars said that the agency team considered several small animals. The nimble squirrel won out because it was a combination of annoying and cute.
Most of the spot was filmed in Pedraza, a village just outside of Madrid—a location chosen for its architecture and cobblestone streets. The squirrels, however, were filmed separately in Los Angeles and added during the post process. When two or more squirrels are put together, they try to dominate one another and become aggressive. So each squirrel had to be filmed individually under carefully controlled circumstances.
Director O’Hagan strove for authenticity, casting Spanish actors, shooting in Spain. "We wanted people to really think it was going to be the Running of the Bulls—and then the squirrels come out…We wanted as much as possible to sell this as a real event," he related.
One scene boasts 600 people. The men running with the squirrels were dressed in the traditional bull-running costume: white pants, red sash and scarf. Extra details were added, such as angry red grazes on their faces. "We wanted this to be the most dangerous sport in the world. We wanted these guys to be survivors, but they don’t go without their cuts and bruises," stated O’Hagan.
Following the revelry of the Spanish shoot, it was time for the tedious task of filming the squirrels—one by one, against blue screen. The close-ups of the critters, and the opening three shots, used footage of the real squirrels. Additional squirrels were CG-generated for the wider shots. According to Melissa Davies, visual effects supervisor at Sight Effects, the CG models were created using proprietary software, with 3-D software Maya adding fur and movement. Inferno was used for compositing.
Additionally, an interactive version of the ad, called "Clicking with the Squirrels," will be posted on www.eds.com during the game.
