The spot “Drink Up” features scenes of typical drinking scenarios–complete with a drinking song extolling the virtues of imbibing. There’s a pub full of people drinking from bottles, while cheerily breaking out in song, which cuts to a celebration in an Octoberfest beer garden complete with a waitress in costume and people clinking beer steins. A rugby team is shown, presumably toasting a victory. Two friends, arms around each other, head down a street, loudly singing. What makes these drinkers stand out is that instead of slinging back spirits and ale, they’re drinking bottles of Aquafina water.
The spot, which is backed by a boisterous tune that exhorts viewers to “drink, drink, drink,” ends with the voiceover: “Drink to you health, because the more water you drink, the better you feel,” followed by the super, “Make Your Body Happy.”
The ad, out of BBDO New York and directed by Traktor, of Traktor, Santa Monica, and bicoastal/international Partizan, is a nominee for this year’s Emmy Award for best primetime commercial, and was edited by John Murray of Nomad Editing Company, Santa Monica. (The other nominated spots are: Anheuser-Busch’s “Applause,” out of DDB Chicago, and directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA; Starbucks’ “Glen” via Fallon, New York, and directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles; Ameriquest Mortgage’s “Surprise Dinner,” out of DDB Los Angeles, and directed by Craig Gillespie of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander; and the ONE Group’s anti-poverty PSA “One by One,” directed by Marcus Tomlinson of bicoastal/international @radical.media directly for the client.)
Murray, who partnered with editor Tom Muldoon and company VP Scott Carleton to open Nomad in 1994, began cutting “Drink Up” as it was being shot. “Because of the tight finishing schedule, we edited in Prague [where the spot was shot],” explains Murray. “We would work all day, and the agency and the [Traktor team] would come in at night to give us comments. We continued cutting in airports, and on the flight back to the U.S., and finished in New York.”
The breakneck pace was well worth it–the infectious oom-pah-pah style seems effortless, as scenes of merriment move smoothly into one another. Murray frequently works with Traktor and BBDO–he cut “Change” for Mountain Dew as well as Sierra Mist’s “Who Knew.” Murray has a long history with Bill Bruce, the BBDO executive creative director who oversees creative for Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist, and Aquafina. “It all started twelve years ago when I met Bill Bruce on a Mountain Dew job,” relates Murray, who is in the midst of a large Aquafina package, once again directed by Traktor. “A couple of hundred spots later, we are still a team.”
The editor, who also frequently works with directors Samuel Bayer of bicoastal RSA USA, and the team of Dayton/Faris–Valerie and Jonathon–of Bob Industries, Santa Monica, recently worked on action and montage sequences for The Island, the latest feature from director Michael Bay. Murray has also cut several Bay-helmed spots–the director maintains The Institute for the Development of Enhanced Perceptual Awareness, Santa Monica, for his commercial work. One of Murray and Bay’s most recent collaborations was on Chevrolet’s “Car Carrier,” out of Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich.