SHOOT Names GEICO Game Night Top Video of 2017
Comedy Spots Dominate SHOOT's Ten Most Watched Videos of 2017
A rundown of the top 35 videos of the year from our ScreenWork gallery
By Shoot Staff Reporter
Of the 10 most viewed SHOOT videos of 2017, eight were marked by humor, perhaps reflecting the need for comic relief during what many regard as serious, trying times for society at large.
Indeed the need to get away from it all was the theme driving the entry which generated the most views of 2017--Booking.com’s “Kindergarten” directed by Jared Hess of Community Films for Deutsch. In the spot, a beleaguered kindergarten teacher surrounded by classroom chaos talks of how she values her precious vacation time, which she gets the most out of thanks to Booking.com.
The second most viewed SHOOT video of 2017 yielded more comedy--Little Caesars’ “#1 Dad” directed by Mike Warzin of production house Arts & Sciences for agency Barton F. Graf, New York. In this commercial, a dad pays the price for not bringing home the Little Caesars “Extra Most Bestest” pizza which has the most cheese and pepperoni at an unbelievably low pricetag. Going to somewhere other than Little Caesars and paying more for less toppings is a big mistake. A father makes this mistake and as a result, his son demotes him, stripping the #1 off his cap. So the “#1 Dad” is demoted to just “Dad.”
The year’s #3 entry, Lexus’ “Man & Machine,” takes a break from comedy and moves into the visually driven, stylized arena compliments of director Jonas Akerlund via Serial Pictures for agency Team One. “Man & Machine” features dancer Lil Buck and the single from Sia titled “Move Your Body.” The spot parallels the relationship between the shapes and movements of the human form and the power and athleticism of Lexus’ most premium models. Minnie Driver debuts as the new voice of Lexus, introducing the new global tagline, “Experience Amazing.”
Finishing fourth and returning to the comedy discipline in SHOOT’s 2017 video derby was Nissan Titan trucks’ “No Lazy Horses” directed by the Traktor collective of production houses Supply & Demand and Traktor for TBWAChiatDay New York. When a guy’s truck conks out, he lifts up the hood to reveal how powerless his horsepower had made him. Under the hood are hybrid human/horse characters (actually folks in cheesy horse costumes) who are lazy and insist that in order to rev up they need the gent to sing a ridiculous “Pretty Pretty Pony” song and then accompany it with a dance. At the mercy of his “lazy horses,” the man sings and dances only to be seen by the driver of a Nissan Titan truck who stops to lend a hand, thus rescuing our song-and-dance man. TBWAChiatDay turned to humor in a product category not known for it. Titan disrupted the myth that to be a serious truck, you need serious advertising. Comedy appeals to the younger truck buyer--as does the Titan which sports a customer base that has tapped into the GenX demographic.
GEICO continues the laughter with the #5 entry, “Game Night” directed by Randy Krallman of Smuggler for The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va. In the piece, a neighborhood game night gets a little tense as people become a bit exasperated as they try to guess what a sloth is drawing (at a painfully slow pace). At the end of the ad, a spokesperson relates: “As long as sloths are slow, you can count on GEICO saving folks money.”
