Back in 1991, BBDO New York launched "Done That," for Diet Mountain Dew—and introduced TV audiences to four new cultural icons, the Dew Dudes.
In the groundbreaking spot, directed by David Kellogg, then of now defunct Propaganda Films (he’s now with bicoastal Anonymous Content), the deadpan Dudes watch potentially thrilling events—a man base-jumping off a high cliff, a boogie boarder navigating a 20-foot waterfall, athletes roller-blading off the Sphinx in Egypt—only to comment, "Been there. Done that. Tried that." When they finally find something that excites them—Diet Mountain Dew—they exclaim, "Tried it. Liked it. Loved it."
Not only did BBDO’s Dudes coin a new catch phrase ("Been there, done that," was said for the first time on that spot), they proved immensely popular with viewers. In ’93, they became spokesmen for the entire brand, and Mountain Dew’s "Do the Dew" campaign was born.
"We were, in a way, poking fun at alternative sports, but embracing [them] at the same time," says Bill Bruce, executive VP/executive creative director, who has handled the Mountain Dew account for the past 16 years. "We wanted to show stuff that would hopefully take people’s breath away."
Though the Dudes no longer appear in every commercial, "Do the Dew" has been taking people’s breath away for more than a decade and shows no signs of slowing down. In the latest installment, "Whale," directed by Jason Smith of bicoastal Bob Industries, a whale is attracted by the bright green reflection of a kayaker’s bottle of Mountain Dew, and proceeds to swallow him, kayak and all. When the devoured man lights a flare in the whale’s belly, he discovers that he’s in the company of many other Mountain Dew drinkers who have met similar fates. The spot ends with a greenish-looking fluid—presumably the soda—shooting out of the whale’s blowhole.
According to Bruce, BBDO creatives came up with the idea for "Whale" more than three years ago, "but it sat on the back burner. We didn’t really know what to do with it, but we liked the idea of having another object—an animal in this case—who is just as interested in the product [as people are]," he explains.
Over the past couple of years, BBDO has launched several animal-centered Dew ads, including "Cheetah," and "Ram," both directed by Kinka Usher of House of Usher, Santa Monica, before ultimately deciding to revisit the "Whale" idea.
"The ‘Ram’ spot was more about a guy confronting a ram that comes between him and his Dew—it wasn’t really focused on the ram, and the same with ‘Cheetah,’ " says Bruce ("Cheetah" depicts a man chasing down a cheetah and pulling a can of Mountain Dew out of its gullet). "But with [‘Whale’] we liked the idea that it wasn’t just the guys who are intrigued by the drink."
Whale of a drink
In order for the idea to work, the spot needed to look as realistic as possible. "We poured through stock footage of whales to see if we could really pull this off," Bruce recalls. "Not to do it in a way where it was a simple wipe as the whale came up, but where you’d actually see [the whale swallowing the man]."
Bruce, who wrote and co-art directed "Whale" with art director Doris Cassar, consulted editor John Murray, of Nomad Editing Co., Santa Monica. "We’ve worked with John on almost all the [Mountain Dew] stuff over the past ten years," says Bruce. "I talked to him all the time, and showed him the footage we were getting. He was cutting stuff together before we even shot any new film."
The stock footage, much of which was obtained by researcher Susan Nickerson of Nickerson Research, Los Angeles, came from everywhere—"from BBC to the Discovery Channel," Bruce relates. They got hours of footage, including an astonishing shot of a breaching whale opening its mouth and swallowing something.
The creatives then spoke with visual effects supervisor Alex Frisch of visual effects studio Method, Santa Monica, who had worked on several Mountain Dew spots, including "Cheetah" and "Ram." "We sent him the footage as we were talking to directors and said, ‘What are you thinking?’ " recalls Bruce. "Alex said, ‘Well, this swallowing shot is amazing. We should really incorporate that.’ So we tried to build a sequence around it."
When it came time to choose a director for the live-action portion of the ad, the BBDO team went with Smith, a Dew newcomer. "He brought an enthusiasm to the project that I always appreciate," says Bruce, who had previously worked with Dayton/Faris—Jonathan and Valerie, respectively—also of Bob Industries, on Mountain Dew spots. "He turned out to be a good choice. We wound up working as a team, and it was really nice to have the special effects supervisor, the editor, the director, the producers and myself all involved in trying to make this thing."
While Bruce has chosen both new and established directors to helm the Dew spots, he consistently seeks out team players. "We always go into the project knowing exactly what we need and hoping for more, so choosing a director is an interesting endeavor," he relates. "You want to find somebody who is excited about [the particular spot], but who also understands what we want. We also need somebody who is going to roll with it as we go through the process because nine times out of ten, I’m on the set and I find something new that I think would be cool to shoot. I don’t want to be questioned on it like, ‘Where is that going to fit?’ I’ve been doing this for a while, so I’d rather just sit down, talk about it and, if everyone thinks it’s a good idea, shoot it. It’s nice to work with [directors] who are excited about continually evolving the spot."
Red Alert
Bruce chose an old favorite, Kinka Usher, to direct "Mascot"—the latest spot for Mountain Dew extension Code Red, which first hit the market in ’01. "When we first started working on Code Red, the [client] said, ‘If Mountain Dew was born in the hills of Tennessee, Code Red was born in the streets of America,’ " Bruce recalls. "The product had more of an urban feel, and we needed to appeal to a different kind of a youth mindset, one that doesn’t necessarily embrace green trees and water."
Like "Do the Dew," Code Red commercials embrace rebellious, daring behavior—but in city locales, rather than the great outdoors. "They’re like cousins as opposed to distant relatives," Bruce notes. "The idea was to have a similar feel, but reflected in a different way."
Written by Brian Donovan and art directed by Mike Boulla, "Mascot" kicks off a new Code Red campaign, focusing on, as Bruce puts it, "Truths, or codes, of the street." In the spot, a group of Code Red-drinking young men watch a basketball team’s mascot clowning around on the court. When the mascot attempts a basket, one of the guys leaps up and blocks the shot. The end title illustrates the code: "No easy buckets."
"We wanted to make it feel like a spontaneous event, and Kinka understood that from the beginning," Bruce says. "It was shot with multiple hand-held 16mm cameras, and everything was kept very loose. It’s a vocabulary of film that you see on television, where you feel like you’re really watching the game. It’s meant to take your guard down a bit, so when the guy comes out, it feels like that much more of a surprise."
Clever editing adds to the surprise element—the spectator seems to appear out of nowhere. "I have a lot of heart for editors," says Bruce, who notes that the cutter on "Mascot" was Tom Muldoon of Nomad.
In the not-too-distant future, another Usher-directed Code Red spot will make its debut. "It was shot at the same time as ‘Mascot,’ and it will be a one-two punch kind of thing," Bruce reports.
As for Mountain Dew’s long-running campaign, "Do the Dew" is far from done. "The four guys may show up again, they may not," Bruce says. "We’re not locked into any kind of signature visual piece or component. That freedom allows us to go anywhere and try anything, and that’s why we’ve lasted so long with it."
