This ad was particularly difficult for us because, out of several jokes written for the ad, many of them got cut because they weren’t translating and they weren’t funny. In other instances, they just took too much time.
Initially, after Merkel first arrives, he sees Brink Fleet and, with a tear in his eyes, runs across the show lot just taking it all in. Sadly, though, that entire segment had to be cut. However, lucky for you, we still have the clips so you can still enjoy seeing Merkel as he experiences Brink Fleet for the first time.
The other really funny thing that happened that day, was that, Diana Brink came out to observe while we were shooting that segment. Accompanying her was her dog, Elvis.
After Merkel’s first run at the camera, something didn’t feel quite right so, I asked Reed to run back to his starting position and just try some different funny runs on the way so we could see what we thought would work. Without hesitation, Reed takes off running across the lot. At the same time, Elvis decided that it was a good time to run Reed off the lot. Had it lasted 2 more seconds, we would have that footage to share. Alas, Elvis was called off before we could get the camera rolling. Suffice it to say, it took us a good 10 minutes to regain our composure.
Beyond that, the ad was fairly straight forward. We knew that Merkel could not simply find Brink Fleet and that be the end of it. We wanted it to be life-changing for him. Thus, the gag where Merkel makes his transformation into a very un-Merkelly gentleman who ends up peeling out of the drive, leaving Kevin with the infamous polyester shirt.
While this ad was not as slapstick as many of the others, we really enjoyed making this one, and we look forward to continuing Merkel’s escapades.
