It’s not often that flatulence is used to sell, well, anything in advertising–let alone a hotel chain. But a new spot for Extended Stay Hotels titled “So Relaxed” finds a parade of guests feeling so at home at the hotel that they break wind at will.
Created by New York’s Toy, the commercial was directed by Noam Murro of Biscuit Filmworks, Los Angeles.
As you might imagine, “So Relaxed” has garnered mixed reaction. Some people think it’s a gas. Others have made a big stink about it. We think the spot is funny.
That said, we’re relieved Smell-O-Vision never caught on.
“We know the spot isn’t going to be universally loved,” Toy executive creative director/copywriter Ari Merkin told SHOOT.
“It will get criticized. It will get its fair share of negative press,” he continued. “At the same time, the people we are trying to reach, we’ll get a laugh out of them, and they’ll appreciate it for what it actually does have to say, which is that the place makes you feel more comfortable.”
Toy aimed to reach “middle-class working men who are–from what we found–extremely resistant to advertising in general,” Merkin said. “They are just not paying attention.”
The hope was that they would pay attention to this unusual spot, which had a limited television run, airing during such programs as Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and ESPN’s SportsCenter.
The commercial was also distributed via YouTube and other Internet venues. “It was important to kick it off as an actual TV commercial. We thought if we just stuck it on YouTube, it would be dismissed as just another viral video,” Merkin noted. “But the client has been such a big fan of the spot that they wanted to do whatever it takes to get as much attention as we can.”
Risky business Asked whether the executives from Extended Stay Hotels initially turned up their noses at the passing gas concept, Merkin said the client had no qualms about taking a risk.
“They were asking for outrageous work, something that would go viral, something that would be massively attention-getting and cause a ruckus,” Merkin shared, noting, “It was the first time we found ourselves pulling a client back and saying, ‘Yes, but we also want to make a statement about the brand, something relevant, something that also focuses on the features of the hotel and what it has to offer.’ So we ended up kind of meeting somewhere in the middle with this.”
Certainly, the commercial has gotten people talking about a hotel chain that many of us hadn’t even heard of before. The brand is indeed making some strides towards becoming more of ahousehold name.
“The client was facing some serious challenges, including the most basic point of name recognition, just getting on the radar,” Merkin acknowledged. “These guys needed buzz.”
As for the making of the spot–actually, let’s back up a second to ask, “What exactly did director Noam Murro make of this brief?”
“I think what Noam was attracted to–and the point that he made when I talked to him about it–was that the spot delivers a point, that the spot delivers a message, and it’s flatulent for a reason,” Merkin said. (Incidentally, Murro was on a shoot and unavailable for an interview at press time.)
You have to imagine that the casting call for this commercial was interesting. “For a spot that was all about comfort, the casting call was probably one of the most uncomfortable castings I ever witnessed,” Merkin said with a laugh.
Surely, some of the actors must have thought they were being punk’d upon being asked to pretend they were passing gas.
What was required of the talent? “These folks had to be believable,” Merkin said. “Let’s put it that way.”
With a cast in tow made up of primary performers Gregory Downer, Sonora Chase, Mike Holley, Dion de Rizzo, Jonathan Oldham, Vincent Conrad, Truett Griffin and Skip Pipo, Murro and DP Toby Irwin shot “So Relaxed” on location at an Extended Stay Hotel in Arcadia, Calif.
A single day Murro and his team had just one day to capture several scenarios that included a man farting while asleep, causing the sheet over his body to billow in rather splendid fashion; a woman passing a burst of gas powerful enough to snuff out two candles; and a man using the power of his fart to shut the door to his room.
Murro’s regular collaborator Avi Oron of New York’s Bikini Edit edited “So Relaxed.”
The spot runs just a little more than a minute, piecing together a series of flatulent vignettes set to a recording of “Stride La Vampa” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore..
The recording was purchased from the New York office of the music production library Extreme Music.
As of press time, “So Relaxed” had gotten nearly 400,000 views on YouTube and a four-star rating (out of five) from viewers.
While a few of those who posted comments were disgusted, most of the posters expressed delight.
“This is freakin’ awesome,” MTR73 wrote, while ablsync commented, “A classy fart commercial! I can die happy!” “This is one of the best commercials since the Super Bowl,” denethorsteward praised.
“It’s like getting hit hy a football in the groin,” Toy’s Merkin said of the fart as a tool in comedy. “It never ceases to be funny.”
