“Surprise Dinner,” an Ameriquest Mortgage ad directed by Craig Gillespie of bicoastal/international MJZ for DDB Los Angeles, has won the ninth annual primetime Emmy Award for best commercial. The honor was announced and Emmy statuettes were presented to DDB and MJZ during the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) Creative Arts Awards ceremony, held on Sept. 11 in Los Angeles.
The Emmy gala at the Shrine Auditorium wasn’t the first time “Surprise Dinner” had been on a big stage–the spot debuted during the advertising industry’s biggest stage earlier this year, the Super Bowl telecast. Shortly thereafter in post-game ad analysis, Monday morning industry quarterbacks generally deemed “Surprise Dinner” one of the 2005 Super Bowl’s top commercials, primarily for its darkly comedic creative risk taking.
“Surprise Dinner” topped a field of five Emmy-nominated spots, the others being: another ad that debuted on the Super Bowl, Budweiser’s “Applause” helmed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA for DDB Chicago; Starbucks’ “Glen” directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles, for Fallon, New York; Aquafina’s “Drink Up” directed by the Traktor collective of bicoastal/international Partizan and Santa Monica-based shop Traktor for BBDO New York; and The ONE Campaign’s “One by One,” a client-direct job helmed by Marcus Tomlinson of bicoastal/international @radical.media.
In “Surprise Dinner,” a man prepares dinner with the intention of surprising his sweetheart. As he’s cooking, the woman’s white cat knocks a pot of tomato sauce off of the stove and gets splattered in red. The innocent man, chopping vegetables with a large knife, quickly picks up the feline–just as the woman walks into the apartment. Her immediate assumption is that he’s killing the cat, the lesson being that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions, much like Ameriquest won’t jump to conclusions when reviewing a mortgage application.
John Leverence, ATAS’ VP, awards, discussed the appeal of “Surprise Dinner.” He observed, “My initial reaction in watching the commercial unfold was ‘what the hell is going on here?’ The combination of the sweet intent on the part of the guy fixing dinner for his significant other–and then the horrible, darkly comic sight of the cat looking as if it’s being slaughtered. The kicker is don’t jump to conclusions, which ties in directly to the advertiser, a mortgage company. The non sequitur makes sense at the end. It’s comedy that makes you think.”
The creative team for DDB Los Angeles consisted of executive creative director Mark Monteiro, creative director Helene Cote, senior copywriter Pat McKay, senior art director Feh Tarty and senior producer Vanessa MacAdam.
Gillespie’s support ensemble at MJZ included executive producers David Zander and Lisa Rich, with Deb Tietjen serving as producer. The DP was Rodrigo Prieto. Editor was Haines Hall of Spot Welders, Venice, Calif.
The DDB Los Angeles and MJZ contingents weren’t the only ad industry honorees at this year’s primetime Emmy competition. Also scoring an Emmy during the Creative Arts ceremony was editor John Smith for the HBO film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which topped the category of outstanding single-camera picture editing for a miniseries or a movie. Smith is a founder and partner at bicoastal/international The Whitehouse. Two years ago, Smith cut the PBS promo “Fish” which earned the primetime commercial Emmy in 2003. “Fish” was directed by Alfonso Cuaron of Santa Monica-based Independent Media for Fallon Minneapolis.
