Two guys are seated on a couch playing a videogame. One of the gents, though, feels a bit hot and bothered, which puts a crimp in his gaming enjoyment. “It’s funky in here,” he complains.
His buddy jumps off the sofa into action, exiting the apartment and making his way down a flight of stairs to the basement.
“Hey, ‘man conditioner,'” he says, at which point the camera reveals the building’s central air conditioning system–a heavyset man breathing heavily into an air duct.
“Can you turn it down a few degrees?” asks the young gamer.
The “man conditioner” hardly reacts, offering a deadpan facial expression before reaching for a peppermint Altoids.
Popping the mint into his mouth, the “man conditioner” exhales hard into the duct.
We next see an individual air conditioning unit come to life, pumping cool air into the livingroom–and presumably doing the same for units in other apartments throughout the building.
An end tag shows a tin of Altoids accompanied by the longstanding slogan, “Curiously Strong.”
Spotmaking aspirations Titled “Man Conditioner,” this spec spot for Altoids is one of two directed by Shane Drake of Venice, Calif.-based production house Wild Plum. Drake took on the spec campaign to showcase his commercialmaking and storytelling talent. He’s looking to diversify more deeply into the advertising arena after having firmly established himself in music videos.
Drake’s clip credits include Panic at the Disco’s “Sins, Not Tragedies,” which won video of the year honors at the 2006 MTV VMA Awards. Other more recent directing endeavors include music videos for Paramore and Timbaland. Drake is handled for music clips by indie rep Tommy Labuda. The director runs his music videos through his own Los Angeles-based production house, Red Van Pictures.
Drake is no stranger to spots. For two seasons he has directed several of the American Idol music videos/branded commercials featuring competition finalists as well as Ford vehicles–and he is slated to do the same this year. Drake also recently helmed a Lincoln Mercury commercial for Team Detroit which debuted during last month’s Grammy Awards telecast on CBS.
The Lincoln spot and the American Idol fare were produced by Wild Plum, which funded the spec work for Altoids.
“Wild Plum has been totally supportive in launching my commercialmaking career,” said Drake. “They recruited me for my first year on American Idol and after seeing that work brought me onto their directors roster. They saw this spec campaign as being a way to help advance my career in commercials.”
Drake related that an agency creative he connected with–and “who prefers to be nameless”–ran the Altoids ideas by him. The concepts, including “Man Conditioner,” were part of a client pitch that never came to fruition.
Instant Attraction
“I immediately fell in love with the premises of the two spots and have wanted to do them for some time. The stumbling block,” noted Drake, “was getting the funding for the spec production. Ultimately Wild Plum came through with the financial backing to make the spots a reality.”
The other spec spot, “Wall Kiss,” features a man and a woman who are separated by several walls yet still manage to kiss each other through those walls via the “Curiously Strong” prowess of Altoids.
Drake assembled the crew, including several of his long-time music video colleagues such as DP Christopher Pearson, for the spec job. Wild Plum’s Shelby Sexton and Sandy Haddad served as EP and head of production, respectively.
“Once I read the scripts, I had a very clear vision of what the spots should be,” observed Drake. “It was quite straight forward from there after we got the funding for production. We auditioned actors with my knowing very much the kinds of people and characters I wanted. I was able to find the actors who matched what I had envisioned.
“Even the location fell into place for the campaign,” Drake continued. “We wound up shooting in the warehouse for electronics store Crazy Gideon’s in downtown L.A. It’s a location where I’ve shot tons of videos over the years and we were able to recreate there what the storylines called for.”
