The proverbial thin line between comedy and tragedy is deftly straddled in this spec spot simply titled “The Attempt.” The piece opens on a shot of a closed garage door. The camera takes us inside the garage where a car’s motor is presumably running. A garden hose runs from the exhaust pipe to the slightly open driver’s side window. A man is asleep behind the wheel, the nozzle of the hose dangling alongside him inside the car.
Immediately we think the worst. What we are clearly witnessing is a pre-meditated suicide. But a moment later, it becomes just as clear that there wasn’t quite enough careful pre-meditation. The man, who’s facing forward, opens his eyes. He then turns toward the driver’s side window to sniff in the direction of the hose nozzle, from which no toxic emissions are emanating. How can this be? It turns out the car is a hybrid Toyota Prius.
Mildly disappointed, the guy picks up a magazine on camping from the front passenger seat and starts reading. This instant acceptance of his failed attempt adds to the dark comedy. It’s almost as if this poor schlub expected to botch his own suicide. Maybe deep down he’s even glad he did. Indeed in this case there’s a reward for incompetence.
We then see a shot of the side of the car in the garage, the motor still running–or more accurately, humming quietly as hybrids are known to do. A closing voiceover relates in a deadpan monotone, “The Toyota Hybrid Prius. Good for the environment. Good for you.” A Toyota logo then appears briefly and inconspicuously off to the side of the scene, along the bottom of the screen.
This offbeat spec ad was conceived by a creative team consisting of copywriter Craig Lederman and art director Brian Morgan. They turned out the ad independent of their agency roost, Young & Rubicam (Y&R), Irvine, Calif. Lederman is a writer and Morgan is an art director at Y&R.
“The Attempt” was directed by Ted Melfi of Area 51 Films, Santa Monica. Lederman said he first met Melfi a couple of years ago, back when the director was going through the Group101Spots program, honing his helming skills. The creative noted that he felt comfortable with Melfi taking on this latest spec piece. Lederman said the director approached him to see if he had any interesting spec concepts–indeed he did. In fact, Lederman said that he usually comes up with a couple of spec spots annually to keep his creative juices flowing.
Phyllis Koenig and Preston Lee executive produced for Area 51, with Jolie Chitwood serving as line producer. The DP was Josh Medak.
Editor was Frank Effron of Cut + Run, Santa Monica. Online editor was Mitch Gardiner, also from Cut+Run. Colorist was P.J. Marsiglia of Company 3, Santa Monica. Graphics artist was Chris Homel of Red Car, Santa Monica. Audio post mixer was Mark Meyuhas of Santa Monica-based Lime.
Principal actor was Jared Gee.
