Few things in life are as predictable as horror movies. You know at least one character will survive so that there can be a sequel. When a character says "I’ll be right back," he’s a goner. And when a character attempts to flee the killer by car, the car never starts.
A new ad created by Warren, Mich.-based Campbell-Ewald Advertising, however, suggests that the last rule doesn’t apply to Chevrolet. "Start Dammit Start," one of three humorous spots in a branding campaign for the carmaker, implies that Cujo could have been thwarted by a Chevy.
"Chevrolet cars enjoy a tremendous amount of trust and dependability [in the eyes of consumers]," explained Bill Ludwig, Campbell-Ewald vice chairman/ chief creative officer. "As we talked to people about what differentiates Chevrolet from other cars, the first thing they always said was, ‘That thing always started and got me where I wanted to go.’ So we exploited that."
"Start Dammit Start" combines scenes from classic horror films with original footage directed by Tom Schiller of Five Union Square Productions, New York. Ludwig said he wasn’t at liberty to identify what films they used per the direct licensing deal with undisclosed movie studios, but that "you could probably guess." SHOOT’s crack investigative unit came up with three probabilities: the aforementioned rabid dog thriller Cujo, The Howling and the ’90 remake of Night of the Living Dead.
"Start Dammit Start" shows a succession of people in peril, trying desperately to get their engines to turn over. A woman runs toward an old station wagon and climbs in through the back. Once in the driver’s seat, however, the wagon fails her. Another woman, accompanied by a young boy, appears nervous as she coaxes the car, "C’mon, turn over." A sweating man also pleads with his car: "Turn over, turn over, turn over." A close-up of a dashboard reveals that the engine failure light is on. This segues to another scene, where a woman bangs deliriously on a steering wheel with her arms and fists.
As the ad progresses, the tension escalates. We see a woman’s blood-stained cheek. Then we hear glass shatter. A threatening figure is seen through a driver’s window. Finally, a pitchfork pierces through a car’s roof, missing a girl in the driver’s seat by inches. She screams.
As her scream fades, the screen fades to black and reads: "If only everything were as dependable as a Chevy." Then the Chevrolet logo and tag appear on screen ("Chevrolet: We’ll be there"), and we hear a car’s ignition starting.
Campbell-Ewald’s creative team originally intended to rely solely on existing footage for "Start Dammit Start." Ludwig said that agency art director Robin Todd spent a weekend watching every slasher flick she could find. "She came staggering in one Monday morning and said, ‘If I never see another Friday the 13th movie, it will be too soon,’" Ludwig recalled.
But at the eleventh hour, an actress in one of the films they’d selected backed out of the deal. Having already tapped Schiller to helm the other two ads in the campaign ("Computer" and "Airport"), the agency then approached him to capture some additional footage. "He’s done the parodies of movies on Saturday Night Live," Ludwig said, "so we thought, ‘What the heck, let’s have him shoot the scenes while we’re there.’"
Schiller was more than happy to take on the extra assignment. "It was really fun to be out there in the middle of the night, surrounded by junk and screaming your head off," he said. Moreover, the whole project was a "wonderful" experience, largely because of the agency creative team. "[They] were some of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with. They were supportive, helpful and low key. It really flowed nicely."
Schiller found the perfect location near New York’s Liberty State Park, beneath an overpass of the New Jersey Turnpike, for shooting the pick-up scenes. Schiller said the dark and remote area was "the kind of place where you’d find a dead body."
Five Union Square executive producer Barbara Gold added, "Not only did we have to make sure we would be able to shoot even if it rained, but we wanted a place where we could just turn the camera around and get three different [and] very scary locations in one night."
The casting process also proved to be an interesting experience. "It was one of the funniest casting sessions I’ve ever seen," Schiller said. "You find that some people really can’t let go and scream out loud. But the three actors we found could let go and look terrified. They were wonderful."
To capture the classic horror film look, two old cars were brought in: a jumbo paneled station wagon and a generic brown sedan. The actors were also given a dated style. "We wanted [them] to look mid- or early ’80s," the director said. "So we did the hair and the clothes just like that." One of the women in "Start Dammit Start," for instance, wears a floral printed shirt and matching floral Keds, and her blond hair is styled à la ’80s teen pop star Debbie Gibson.
According to Schiller, the actual shooting was very straightforward: "I just told the actors to scream their guts out and pretend they had to leave the spot immediately, and they did." In addition to the scenes with the actors, Schiller helmed the aforementioned close-up shot of the dashboard. Using a real dashboard with rigged wiring, the director "played it like a piano until we got the right effect."
In the end, they achieved the right effect for the entire spot, according to Ludwig. "Chevy does a lot of testing [as part of its marketing research]," he said. "There was a ninety-seven percent awareness of this commercial. This is probably the highest scoring recall spot they’ve ever had."
