Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Ah, the difference in the sexes. This :30 for Mendocino Brewing Company’s Red Tail Ale goes to tongue-in-cheek extremes–which some might regard as disturbing–to show us what happens when these two worlds collide.
We open in an art gallery where a man and a woman are standing in front of a sculpture. The woman pontificates about the piece: “The way the Cambodians display their sculptures as bulbous, coiled and in torture is so haunting,” she relates.
The man is silent. His facial expression seems distant.
The spot continues to follow the couple as they walk together outside. Even though the setting has changed, not much else has. The woman is still talking about the art, while the man doesn’t say a word.
“They seem to be deriding the notion of global beauty yet portraying life’s circle as colorless,” she says.
Next, our “happy” twosome is seated on a living room couch. The woman talks about the sculpture representing “human incompleteness and yearning for wholeness.” The man has a glazed look on his face, as if he’s being subjected to torture.
Suddenly, his head literally explodes, and its innards splatter all over the woman and the furniture. The decapitated man remains seated on the couch, next to his distraught female companion.
A supered explanatory slogan then appears against a dark backdrop: “Men are brewed differently.”
This is followed by a second message, “So are we,” accompanied by a bottle of Red Tail Ale.
“Art” was directed and shot by Timothy Kendall of Effigy Films, Santa Monica, for Colby & Partners, Santa Monica. (The director has since linked with HKM Productions, Hollywood). Kendall also served as editor, visual effects artist and sound designer on the job. Kevin DeSouza served as executive producer and producer for Effigy.
The creative team at Colby & Partners consisted of president/executive creative director Rick Colby, associate creative director Jason Sperling, art director Niraj Zaveri and producer Amburr Dilday.
Online editor was Ernie Smith of Crush, Santa Monica. Rob Sciarratta of Company 3, Santa Monica, was the colorist.
Principal actors were Ben Koldyke and Lana Parilla.