Male ritual—it’s older than ancient gladiator tournaments, and more often than not, it’s a fairly loathsome entry in the register of sociological phenomena. Dr. Freud once pointed out that as long as man has known fire he’s known the ritual of competition. The primitive Bobs, Ralphs and Larrys of the world used to pass the time—Freud maintained—by attempting to douse naturally occurring flames using, shall we say, natural methods. According to Freud, civilized humanity got its start when one uniquely disciplined man was able to sublimate his competitive, natural desire to impress his buddies. By resisting his urges, this special man gave birth to modernity.
In doing so, I seriously doubt this ancient Prometheus anticipated the National Football League. Neither did the good Dr. Freud for that matter, which is too bad. Just imagine the sage of Vienna discoursing on Vince Lombardi, or Brian Bosworth, or Icky Woods perhaps.
"Interesting! Vhat is this thing zhey call the Icky Shuffle?"
Yes, as far as man has come, he hasn’t come too far. As surely as our dark-age forbearers gathered to drink primitive mead and watch tests of brute strength in the village center, so today, can a large remnant of American masculinity (and femininity, too, for that matter) be found gathered ’round the sofa on any given Sunday.
BBDO New York has tapped into this male ritual with its new :30 "Buffer Zone," created to promote Frito-Lay products (specifically Pepsi-Cola and Lays potato chips). This marks the first time the agency has promoted the two products simultaneously, says BBDO executive producer Bob Emerson.
We open on a shot of four very average-looking men on a couch. Each guy is dressed for extreme comfort (which is to say shabbily) and looks as if he might be recovering from a strenuous bout of dart-throwing the night before. One guy bares a striking resemblance to a young George Wendt. The game seems to be riveting. None of the four guys can keep their eyes away from the television.
There are, however, snacking priorities to be attended to during the game.
Sitting on a coffee table are two strategically placed Pepsi bottles. Several bags of Lays potato chips also lie within grabbing distance.
The spot’s first bit of action occurs when the guy seated on the left of the couch stretches his arm behind his sofa neighbor to procure a handful of chips. It appears as if the guy is trying to put the moves on his friend, who glances at him warily. Immediately realizing how things look, the reaching guy sheepishly withdraws his arm.
The next awkward moment comes when two of the guys reach for a Pepsi at the same time, and their hands fold over each other. Both men react as if they’ve just touched a hot stove, their hands retracting suddenly and simultaneously.
Finally, young Wendt and his sofa neighbor realize that their legs are touching. They jerk apart, and at this point, the four men decide to get up and move around so they can spread out and create a "buffer zone" for their personal space.
Suddenly, the game intensifies and we cut to footage of a touchdown pass. As the crowd goes wild, the four men do the same. They jump out of their seats and start hugging each other with reckless abandon. Young Wendt even indulges in some good-natured spanking with the buddy on his left. The guys’ "buffer zones" have become irrelevant—obliterated by love for their team, if not for each other.
The spot closes with the graphic end tag, "It’s How You Watch The Game."
Here then, is a spot that starts out as a play on the tired cliche that male football fans are homophobic slobs. The twist at the end, though, not only turns the cliche inside out, it’s laugh-out-loud funny in the process. Part of a four-spot package, "Buffer Zone" was helmed by the directing team of Speck/Gordon (Will Speck and Josh Gordon), working out of Omaha Pictures, Santa Monica. Jimmy Siegel was the creative director at BBDO; Jen Dehghan was the art director. Emerson served as producer, in addition to his executive producer capacity. Senior creative director Adam Goldstein was the copywriter. SHOOT spoke briefly with both Emerson and Goldstein about the spot.
"We tried to take the way people watch football games naturally, and then point out some of the absurdities about the way it changes our behavior," commented Goldstein on the logic behind the spot. "From the client’s perspective, Pepsi and Lays are part of the way you watch the game. Out of that, we found some interesting behavioral tics."
Emerson agreed, "To us, the products weren’t distracting in any way. We really tried to use them more like product placements in a movie."
For its first effort at promoting soda and chips in the same spot, BBDO’s strategy was well-executed in "Buffer Zone," which manages to convey the sort of clever, humorous social commentary we could stand to see more of in the snack and beverage advertising wars.
