Comcast’s Xfinity brand recently surprised a couple customers who are Fast and Furious super fans by taking them on the ride of their lives, and straight “into a scene” from the latest installment of the franchise, The Fate of the Furious.
Xfinity brings the fastest Internet speeds to the most homes in the U.S., and what better way to drive that message home than to partner with sister company Universal Pictures to take two unsuspecting customers on a furious ride, complete with the same cars from the movie, explosive stunts and the same high-speed chase between Dominic (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) as seen in the latest film.
Directed by Jeff Tremaine (Jackass and Bad Grandpa) via production house HeLo, this Xfinity stunt was conceived in collaboration with agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P) to promote Xfinity’s new Gigabit Internet service. The entire experience was shot live in one take. The crew rehearsed for days to ensure the two fans really had no idea what was coming.
“Fast and Furious and Gigabit Internet are all about blistering, excessive speed. This provided the perfect partnership opportunity to create the most extreme entertainment experience,” said Sherri Davis, Xfinity’s sr. director of brand experience. “Rather than trying to explain how fast Gig-speed is, we showed it, capturing two lucky customers on the most fast and furious ride of their lives.
“You get a different kind of satisfaction than a traditional TV shoot when everything is live; there’s nothing quite like it,” said Laura Petruccelli, associate creative director, GS&P. “We knew the stunt had to live up to the Fast franchise. To make it as real as possible, we used the same cars from the movie driven by the same stunt drivers.”
With 1 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) connection, customers can download a 6 Gigabyte HD movie in 40 seconds or download a 15 Gigabyte video game in two minutes.
