One Super Bowl commercial will pull a *Soprano finale* ending on us...

[Xstatic1]

NEW YORK - Amid the wall-to-wall sound during next Sunday's Super Bowl, one commercial from PepsiCo could send some viewers grabbing for their remotes to check whether they'd accidentally hit the mute button.

The pre-game advertisement features a joke that originates from the deaf community and will play out on screen over 60 seconds of total silence, a veritable eternity when it comes to the noisiness of Super Bowl ads.

"It's a popular story and we just turned it into an advertisement," said Clay Broussard, a supply and logistics manager at PepsiCo who proposed the idea for the ad. "This is the PepsiCo flavor of that joke."

The joke goes like this: Two guys are driving to their friend Bob's house to watch the Super Bowl. Once they get to Bob's street, neither knows which house is his. They sit in the car, arguing, until one of them has an idea. He starts laying on the horn, and one by one, the houses light up and dogs start barking.

One house stays dark and quiet: It's Bob's.

Deaf people will be falling out of their chairs in disbelief, National Association of the Deaf president Bobbie Beth Scoggins wrote in an e-mail response to questions. Hearing people, Scoggins wrote, will stop what they're doing to see why there are no sounds. She believes it's an historic first for an ad featuring American Sign Language to get such prominent play.

"I was glad to see this part of deaf culture awareness shared in a most clever way," Scoggins, who is deaf, wrote by e-mail as she was traveling.

Broussard, who plays Bob in the commercial, has worked for PepsiCo in Dallas for 27 years. He got involved in the deaf community through a church he and his wife attended, where the services were conducted entirely in sign language. Broussard is not deaf.

The two actors who play Bob's friends ? Brian Dowling and Darren Therriault ? are also PepsiCo employees, and are deaf. Dowling works for Frito-Lay in Arizona, and Therriault works for PepsiCo in Chicago.

Broussard worked on the ad concept on his own time. He said, "This was all extra credit."

It was 18 months before he showed it to senior managers, who decided they wanted it for the Super Bowl.

The ad was directed by Baker Smith, with creative help from BBDO-NY. A PepsiCo spokeswoman declined to say how much the ad cost.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22824530/

 

[Farang]

Wonder what Broussard's bonus will be this year.

 

[Eeezee]

Do we really need news about commercials? That's kind of ridiculous. It's like an advertisement for an advertisement...

 

[jpeyton]

Sounds stupid.

Every year, there is always a commercial that tries the "controversial" approach and fails.

And every year, the beer commercials are always the best ones.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

WTF does that have to do with The Sopranos?

 

[Raiden256]

Awesome. Kind of ruined it for me, but I'd probably have lawled.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Eeezee
Do we really need news about commercials? That's kind of ridiculous. It's like an advertisement for an advertisement...

Breaking non-news: advert has over 60 seconds of silence. Film and no audio at 11.

 

[Xstatic1]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
WTF does that have to do with The Sopranos?

did u watch the series finale?

 

[Auric]

It's great how they can pack so many things together that I don't care about: American football, advertising, sugar-water, and retards. Oh, and deaf people. Ha ha ha. Wait, what was I getting at?

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Xstatic1

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
WTF does that have to do with The Sopranos?

did u watch the series finale?

Yes. 60 seconds of silence doesn't equal that ending.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Sounds stupid.

Every year, there is always a commercial that tries the "controversial" approach and fails.

And every year, the beer commercials are always the best ones.

"Some of them are like mystery ads. They're big and boldly produced and you have no idea what the fuck they're selling. Two rabbits are sitting on a log. One goes home and hangs himself. Buy a bike."

Kudos to whoever gets that.

 

[anxi80]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: Xstatic1

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
WTF does that have to do with The Sopranos?

did u watch the series finale?

Yes. 60 seconds of silence doesn't equal that ending.

left out that while the guys are arguing in the car, journey's 'any way you want it' is playing on the radio.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: Xstatic1

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
WTF does that have to do with The Sopranos?

did u watch the series finale?

Yes. 60 seconds of silence doesn't equal that ending.

The tenuous connection is that people will be wondering if there is something wrong with their TV/cable connection.

Of course, now we've been warned....

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Sounds stupid.

Every year, there is always a commercial that tries the "controversial" approach and fails.

And every year, the beer commercials are always the best ones.

no way not anymore, the best commercial IMHO recently others have been even better. the Monkey one for E-Trader is classic.

Monkey Linky


Last year the cake was taken IMHO by Robert Golet *RIP* f*cking with people in the office.

Robert linky

Burt Renyolds Fed Ex - good shit

Burt Renyolds Fed EX - lol

I still laugh at this Sprint one, stupid but effective.

Sprint Crime deterrent linky


'course that's just my opinion

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: mugs
The tenuous connection is that people will be wondering if there is something wrong with their TV/cable connection.

Of course, now we've been warned....

Wow, you'd have to be pretty stupid not to work out what was going on at the end of the Sopranos. As for the advert, doesn't everyone mute the sound anyway? Why would you listen to that crap? Either that or they'll be channel flipping or getting some more :beer:

I've trumped Pepsi. Just transmit a black screen with no sound. Wow, that would be the best advert ever. Dumbasses.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: mugs
The tenuous connection is that people will be wondering if there is something wrong with their TV/cable connection.

Of course, now we've been warned....

Wow, you'd have to be pretty stupid not to work out what was going on at the end of the Sopranos. As for the advert, doesn't everyone mute the sound anyway? Why would you listen to that crap? Either that or they'll be channel flipping or getting some more :beer:

I've trumped Pepsi. Just transmit a black screen with no sound. Wow, that would be the best advert ever. Dumbasses.

I didn't watch the Sopranos live, but a lot of people who did see it live did say they thought their cable went out because the audio and video ended so abruptly. In retrospect, the ending makes sense.

No one mutes commercials during the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is when companies bring out their best commercials. Super Bowl commercials are very entertaining.

 

[Auric]

Has there ever been an upside down television advertisement like in magazines?

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: mugs
No one mutes commercials during the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is when companies bring out their best commercials. Super Bowl commercials are very entertaining.

It's official, you're all crazy

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: mugs

No one mutes commercials during the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is when companies bring out their best commercials. Super Bowl commercials are very entertaining.

i do, sometimes i even change the channel
i coudl not care any less about the stupid comercials, id rather the cameras just stay on the field the entire time even when nothing at all is happening

ive also never watched the 1/2 time show