Miller High Life Beer is more than just a beverage; it also can help your TV set reception, in this spot out of Dentsu/Young & Rubicam, Taipei, Taiwan. That’s the offbeat lesson learned by a couch potato who’s watching a basketball game in the comfort of his living room. Suddenly the picture goes out, and is replaced by dense static and interference. The man walks up to the television, sets his bottle of brew on top of the TV set so he can free his hands to fix the problem. But before he can adjust a single knob, the picture comes back bright and clear. He picks up the bottle, and then the static resumes. He puts the bottle back down on the TV, and the basketball game returns in full color.
After repeating this bottle-up, bottle-down scenario a few times, the man realizes that the only way he can watch the game in peace is to keep his Miller perched atop the set like a bottle-shaped, glass antenna.
However, inspiration dawns on our couch potato as he hustles to the kitchen and grabs a can of Miller out of his refrigerator. He puts the beer can on the TV set, replacing the bottle. But the can has transformed his TV set into a boob tube—literally— as the basketball game gives way to a T&A fest of swimsuit-clad women.
The man appears to appreciate this change in programming. Using old-fashioned ingenuity, he figures out a way to watch the buxom beauties while emptying the contents of the beer can. The spot cuts to him sitting in his recliner, slurping the Miller brew through a three-yard-long straw—all the while keeping the can on top of the television.
The virtual one-man creative band for Dentsu/Y&R was Randy Larson, who served as creative director, art director and writer. Agency producer was Robert Chen. The commercial was helmed by comedy director Brian Bain via Morrison Productions, New Orleans. (Bain is repped in New York and L.A. through Manhattan-based Conspiracy.) Bain cast Taiwanese comedian Christopher Chen to pull off the storyline.
Holly Vega executive produced for Morrison; line producer was Debbie Koppman. "Sleeping Man" was shot on location in New Orleans by DP Steve Hunter (who’s repped as a director/cameraman via Morrison Productions). The ad was edited by Kyle Curry of Storyville, New Orleans. Colorist was Rick Stevenson of Filmworkers Club, Dallas.
