NEW YORK --

Magic brownies aren’t what they used to be, and that difference is the humorous payoff to this fictional movie trailer starring Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong, better known as the stoner comedy duo Cheech and Chong, who were at their height of popularity in the 1970s and ’80s.

Fast forward to today and the twosome–seemingly reunited for another movie after so many years–still seem in fine cannabis form despite their senior citizen age demographic, hauling a van full of thousands of “magic brownies” cross country to Flaming Pole, a crazy desert festival that draws 45 million people. The fest is a celebration of freedom, love, respect, rock ‘n roll, and brownies.

The movie clips in the trailer depict assorted tongue-in-cheek obstacles and folks Cheech and Chong encounter during their sojourn, kind of what you might expect from a movie titled Cheech and Chong’s Magic Brownie Adventure. But not at all what you’d expect from a mainstream marketer like General Mills, until the trailer reveals that Cheech and Chong’s tastes and needs over the years have changed their nirvana brownies to 90 calories apiece and high in fiber–namely chocolatey, chewy, delicious Fiber One brownies.

Danny Leiner of Independent Media (iM) directed the inspired comedy trailer–already generating much viral buzz and found on MagicBrownieAdventure.com, and www.fiberone.com/magicbrownie, among other social media destinations with followings on Facebook and Twitter–for Publicis Modem, New York. Leiner, known for his humorous brand of work spanning features, TV (The Office, Arrested Development, Freeks And Geeks, The Sopranos) and commercials, is of course no stranger to a dash of pothead humor, with such movies to his credit as Dude, Where’s My Car? and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.

Leiner helmed the Fiber One short, prepping the shoot with Cheech and Chong like a long-form feature. The script from the agency was a springboard, with room for some ad-libbing and one-liners along the way.

The idea to feature Cheech and Chong was born out of a Fiber One brainstorm back in 2010.  A team from General Mills submitted an ambitious project in an internal marketing and innovation competition called Bold Experiment, laying the groundwork for what turned out to be a trailer promoting a supposed Cheech and Chong reunion movie.

Susanne Preissler, founder of iM, produced the fictitious movie trailer, with Omer Ganai serving as DP.

The Publicis Modem creative ensemble included creative director Patrick Clarke, copywriter Chris Stevenson, art director Jonathan Goldberg and producer Brad Powell.

Editors were Charlie Johnston and Chris Huth of Lost Planet.

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