Directed by A.V. Rockwell via production house PRETTYBIRD, this TV commerical for Visa launched during Monday Night Football on ESPN (9/11 Buffalo Bills vs. NY Jets game) and will air throughout the season across NBC, Fox, NFL Network, ESPN, and Amazon on Thursday Nights.
Part of the new “Neverending Fan” national campaign, this spot is a retrospective of a fan’s lifelong love of the Buffalo Bills, spanning different generations and marking memorable moments along the way–including a marriage proposal.
Credits
Client Visa North America Agency Wieden+Kennedy Portland Karl Lieberman, global chief creative officer; Azsa West, chief creative officer; Matthew Carroll, Edward Harrison, creative directors; Liam Mckay, art director; Will Curtis, copywriter; Orlee Tatarka, head of production; Robert Saxon, executive producer; Paul Golubovich, sr. producer; David Trujillo, design director; Lis Parker, sr. design producer; Jeff Ackley, Adam Sirkin, motion leads; Ryan Jacobson, David Mellor, motion designers; Amy Lindblade, group strategy director; Patrick Cooper, strategy director; Keiko Schnelle, strategist. Production PRETTYBIRD A.V. Rockwell, director; Suzanne Hargrove, exec producer; Tracy Hauser, director of production; Matt Wensinger, line producer; Rina Yang, DP; Kai Boydell, production design/art direction; Lily Garcia, 1st AD. Editorial Final Cut Jim Helton, editor; Megan Marie Connolly, Elijah hermitt, assistant editors; Justin Brukman, managing director; Suzy Ramirez, exec producer; Rebecca Mitchell, head of production; Miles Barfield, producer. VFX Significant Others Justin Brukman, managing director; Alyssa St. Vincent, exec producer; Dirk Greene, executive creative director; Nicholas Renaudeau, Flame artist; Phil Brooks, head of design; Jacob Williams, VFX assistant; Kyla Amols, producer; Hoa Vu, production coorindator. Color Grade Trafik Daniel de Vue, sr. colorist; Monica Escalante, assistant colorist; Julia King, color producer. Music New Math Kala Sherman, exec producer; Raymond Loewy, David Wittman, creative directors; Dan Sammartano, composer; “Buffalo Waterworks,” title. Sound Design/Mix Machine NY Michalis Anthis, sound designer/mixer. Matej Obreskovic, exec producer.
Luke Jaden directed two films for PETA, including this one titled “Inhumane” which highlights a family of sheep fearing for their lives on a farm--and for the inevitable day when they will be slaughtered for meat.
Jaden--an alumnus of SHOOT’s 2023 New Directors Showcase--explained that the campaign was aimed at “silent storytelling. Looking back at the power of silent film--we wanted to show that animals are not silent. Animals may not be able to talk like us humans, but they are just as sentient as us and animals can communicate a conversation between one another. They are highly observant and intellectual beings. So, we wanted to highlight the feelings they do feel, which I would say was the biggest challenge. We captured them in their natural environment in a docu-style approach to not distract them as the camera can be an unfamiliar thing. We wanted to craft and build a conversation that would coalesce as a narrative between the animals and their families on the farm. We really wanted to show those ideas on-screen and we wanted to approach this with a sensitive, unobtrusive lens that captured the honesty and fear these animals can and do feel on a farm before they are killed by their owners.”
Octagon Haus was the production company on the PETA work, which came out of agency Viewmaster.
