Lena Beug–who’s repped in the U.S. and U.K. by Moxie Pictures–directed this campaign produced by Red Rage Films, Dublin, for the Irish market out of agency McCann, Dublin.
In “Caf๏ฟฝ,” we open on a couple trying to order at a caf๏ฟฝ. The man orders to the waitress, “Dnos.” She’s confused. A voiceover explains that “when you’re not hydrated, your brain’s not at 100 percent.” Again attempting to order his food, the man repeats, “Dnos,” and points to the word on the menu. The waitress flips the menu over so it clearly reads, “soup.” He says, “Soup.” The voiceover concludes, “When you can’t think straight, hydrate. Deep RiverRock.”
The campaign also includes two other similarly themed spots, “Locker Room” and “Geraldine.”
“The minute I saw these scripts, I knew I wanted to do them,” said Beug, adding, “The challenge was to cast it and art direct in a way that would really push the idea. I wanted the viewer to see the world through the characters dehydrated eyes. It’s a strange, slowed down, de-saturated world where nothing is quite as it should be.”
DGA Spot Nominees: Lance Acord, Kim Gehrig, Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim, Andreas Nilsson, Ivan Zacharias
This yearโs field of nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award recognizing Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials consists of a filmmaker whoโs won the honor each of the last two years, another past winner, a five-time nominee, a helmer whoโs just picked up his second career nod, and a duo garnering their very first Guild nomination. The latter is the directorial team of Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim of production house PRETTYBIRD. The director now going for her third consecutive DGA Award win is Kim Gehrig of Somesuch. The other past winner is Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks. Nilsson won the honor in 2016 and now has three career nominations. Lance Acord of Park Pictures just earned his fifth career DGA Award nomination in the commercials category--his four prior nods coming in 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2017. And scoring his second career DGA nod is Ivan Zacharias of SMUGGLER who was previously nominated in 2023. The work Gehrig earned her third straight nomination on the strength of three entries: SiriusXMโs โA Life in Soundโ for agency Uncommon; Nikeโs โAm I A Bad Person?โ for Wieden+Kennedy, and the Apple client-direct spot titled โFind Your Friends.โ Nilssonโs latest nomination came for Hennessyโs โBoard Gameโ out of Wieden+Kennedy London; Andrexโs โFirst Office Pooโ for FCB London; the client-direct Apple spot โOne Moreโ; and Virgin Mediaโs โWhizzerโ for VCCP London. Acordโs fifth career nod is for Volkswagenโs โAn American Love Storyโ out of agency Johannes Leonardo. Zachariasโ second career nomination is for Appleโs โFlockโ out of TBWAMedia Arts Lab. And the duo of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim nabbed their first... Read More