Via production house Company, Academy Award-winning (No Country For Old Men, Fargo) filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, a.k.a. the Coen brothers, directed “Easy Driver,” a Super Bowl commercial for Mercedes-Benz, which will make its broadcast debut during the 4th quarter of the Big Game on Feb 5.
The “Easy Driver” :60 pays tribute to the 1969 seminal film Easy Rider, replete with Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild,” actor Peter Fonda, and a group of rebel bikers who are considerably older now. Fonda too has some gray around the temples. It turns out that his Mercedes AMG GT roadster is parked in front of the bikers’ bar hangout, blocking their motorcycles from getting out. Not to worry, though. Fonda appears, gets behind the wheel of his AMG and hits the open road, driving free and easy akin to the spirit of his character in Easy Rider. The AMG GT was "built to be wild" and "born to be wild."
Merkley + Partners, NY, teamed with German agency Antoni on “Easy Driver.”
Credits
Client Mercedes-Benz Agency Antoni-Germany André Kemper, chief creative officer/founder; Dr. Tonio Kröger, managing partner/founder; Marcell Francke, Stephan Schaefer, creative directors; Mark Rota, executive producer. Agency Merkley + Partners NY Andy Hirsch, chief creative officer/chairman; Gary Grossman, director of broadcast production; Alex Kobak, sr. producer. Production Company, Los Angeles Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, directors; Dan Hainey, DP; Ron Neter, line producer; Robin Benson, Richard Goldstein, exec producers; Ari Schneiderman, head of production. Editorial Final Cut NY Rick Russell, editor; Jen Sienkwicz, producer; Sarah Roebuck, exec producer. Mike Radforth, UK loading assistant; Geoff Hastings, NY cutting assistant. Visual Effects Blacksmith Tom Bussell, VFX lead; Iwan Zwarts, lead compositor; Daniel Morris, Liz Lyons, compositors; Michael Dunkey, CG FX artist. Rotoscoping Trace VFX Bogdan Mihajlovic, tracking; Megan Sweet, producer; Charlotte Arnold, exec producer. Color Company 3 Tom Poole, colorist. Music “Born To Be Wild”–Steppenwolf Audio Post Heard City, Phil Loeb, sound mixer; Sound Design Trinitite Studios Brian Emrich, sound designer.
How do you top one of the most viral brand videos ever made? Spoiler alert: you can’t. But when Dollar Shave Club tapped Zack Seckler to direct a new campaign to revive the absurdist humor of its iconic launch video, he knew he had a rare opportunity to create something special.
The brief was simple: introduce the concept of a physical “Club” that people would love to join while showcasing Dollar Shave Club’s products and embracing the weird. From script to direction and post, Seckler--an alum of SHOOT’s 2021 New Directors Showcase--was invited to help sculpt that vision.
The result is this “Welcome to the Club” spot which invites us to join a unique, seemingly exclusive but in reality an accessible and affordable fraternity of Dollar Shave Club members. But you need to know the password or more accurately, the two-word phrase--"shave money."
“The Club” campaign brings the brand back to its humorous roots, reflecting a new chapter after being acquired by Nexus Capital Management from Unilever in late 2023. The work takes Dollar Shave Club back to its disruptive beginnings and what made the brand a viral sensation from its inception in 2011.
