Gatorade’s new “Messi Don’t Go Down” campaign debuts with a 60-second TV and digital spot featuring soccer superstar Lionel Messi from agency TBWAChiatDay. The work highlights Messi’s unique style of play in which he refuses to dive, flop or give in during adverse situations on and off the field. Messi’s message, according to the commercial, is that “life has more in store for you, if you just stay up.”
Stuart McIntyre of production house Imperial Woodpecker directed the Messi spot with VFX from The Mill.
Credits
Client Gatorade Agency TBWA\Chiat\Day Brent Anderson, executive creative director; Renato Fernandez, worldwide creative director; Mark Peters, creative director; Brian O’Rourke, director of production; Guia Iacomin, executive producer; Chris Spencer, sr. producer. Production Imperial Woodpecker Stuart McIntyre, director; Doug Halbert, Charlie Cocuzza, exec producers; Matt Wersinger, line producer. Editorial Whitehouse Charlie Harvey, editor; Devon Bradbury, assistant editor; Jonlyn Williams, producer. VFX The Mill Bill Higgins, lead 2D artist; Tara DeMarco, Krysten Richardson, 2D artists; Andy Wheater, matte painter; Matt Longwell, Massive (crowd simulation); Enca Kaul, exec producer; Ben Sposato, producer; Pat DeVaney, production coordinator. Postproduction The Mill Adam Scott, colorist; Thatcher Peterson, exec producer. Music Barking Owl Kelly Bayett, creative director; KC Dossett, producer. Sound Design stimmung Gus Koven, sound designer; Kristina Iwankiw, producer. Audio Post Formosa John Bolen, mixer; Hermann Thumann, second mixer; Lauren Cascio, exec producer. Research STALKR Colleen Cavanaugh Anthony, exec producer; Oliver Merchant, producer; Ed Cook, research.
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.
