Mr Smith’s Peter Carstairs + Cummins & Partners create history with Doritos TVC – first time an Aussie spot has aired during a Super Bowl
UPDATE: The spot didn’t win the $1m prize, but it was voted third most popular commercial of the 2016 Super Bowl and viewed by more than 100 million people during the game.
For the first time in Super Bowl history an Australian commercial has aired during the Super Bowl broadcast. The commercial titled “Ultrasound” was a collaboration between Cummins & Partners creative team Heath Collins & Liam Jenkins (bottom left) and director Pete Carstairs (bottom left) of Mr Smith.
The commercial was created for the Doritos ‘Crash the Super Bowl’ competition where 4,500 commercials were entered from around the world – with the Aussie entry “Ultrasound” being selected as one of only two commercials to air during the iconic half time break at Super Bowl 50. It’s now up to the USA Today Ad Meter to determine which ad will be crowned the winner.
Since being shortlisted as one of the top three commercials in Crash the Super Bowl competition, “Ultrasound” has received over 60 million views online, with 1.5 million social shares and was the clear favourite in the social media world.
Says Ben Couzens, executive creative director at Cummins & Partners: “Having an opportunity to write a Super Bowl script isn’t something that comes up very often down here in Oz so when 
Pete came to us from Mr Smith and asked us to write him a script for the competition, we obviously jumped at it.”
Says Helene Nicol of Mr Smith: “Our mantra is Make it Happen. On Ultrasound, it was simply a matter of bringing together the right people and giving them the resources needed to bring a big idea to life.”
‘Ultrasound’ aired during half time at Super Bowl 50 to a global audience of more than 100 million people. A touchdown for Down Under.
Pictures have been sent to CB live from the Super Bowl in San Francisco.
Writers: Heath Collins & Liam Jenkins
Agency: Cummins & Partners
Executive Creative Directors: Ben Couzens & Jim Ingram
Production Credits:
Director: Peter Carstairs
Exec.Producer: Helene Nicol
Production: Mr Smith
Cameraman: Earle Dresner
Prod. Design: Ben Bangay
1st AD: Greg Spiler
1st AC: Grant Sweetnam
Art Assistant: Andrew “Killer” Bowden
PA: Oliver Ramsay
Electrics: Chris Dewhurst
Grip: Rob Hansford
Video: Michael Gibbs
Makeup: Lynn Parups
Wardrobe: Anje Bos
Cast: Genevieve Morris
Tiffany Davis
Simon Todman
Casting: Megan D’Arcy @ Nick Hamon Casting
Post Production:
Method Studios: Andrew Shostak
Producer: Merrin Jensen
Editor: Billy Browne
Animation: Steven Bronson
Sound: Ritchie Buxton of Sound Lounge
20 Comments
Yessss!!! That’s huge.
Hats off. Well done everyone involved.
SICK!!
Now those humourless fucks over at Buzzfeed are tryna squish it… Reckon they’re jealous!
If this doesn’t win, it will become another US conspiracy theory
Winner
Onya guys
Big Australian agency wins competition meant for amateurs. Yeah, congrats.
Awesome fellas. Saw it here in the US. Best TV spot aired.
Hi Aaron.
I knew that lame dog ad would win. What is it about about people loving ads with dogs in them?
Hilarious!! The way they got 3 dogs on top of each other was genius, and one of them even had sunglasses on! And a hat! Bravo.
I have vague memories of other Australian created spots appearing in the Superbowl.
No offence because this ad is not bad.
The script is a good idea. Direction competent but nothing special.
However, the continual bombardment of hyped up publicity for it on here have made me really dislike it.
What also irks me is that a 45 year old director asking an experienced agency to write an ad for him for a competition meant for amateurs and directors starting out.
And who takes credit?
It seems that normally the director would write the idea himself, and this is obviously expected as all the official awards and benefits of this competition are tailored for the director.
We don’t see the two creatives being offered a mentorship with Zack Snyder?
All this really proves is that without clients and the usual bullshit process decent scripts can be written and made. No real surprise there.
@good work
What a weary son of a b**ch you are.
The age of the director isn’t important. It is the new paradigm that it rose from. Crowd sourced, user generated, whatever you call it….it beat nearly 5000 other entries. And the cream rises. So the good will always be good. And isn’t it nice to know that talent prevails. Well done Carstairs and Cummins &partners. They got attention in the fiercest competition there is. AND GOT STIFFED BY AMERICAN PURITANI CAL VALUES.
but they won the court of public opinion.
Bravo
Wow an idea for an ad written by experienced ad agency creatives beat a bunch of ideas written by amateur directors. Fierce competition indeed.
@Big picture
So you’re saying the point of all this was to validate the worth of ad agencies, creatives and experienced directors to clients?
btw I heard that Tom Kuntz and Jonathon Glazer entered a co-directed piece with Wieden and Kennedy writing for them… but sadly they didn’t make the cut.
I can’t imagine any woman who has ever given birth enjoying that commercial. It was so obviously made by men.
Hey @Is it the first.
I also have vague memories of an Aussie spot running in the Superbowl.
I think it was around 1995.
I think it was for Powerade.
What makes it really embarrassing is that I think I worked on said spot (at McCann).
I think someone at the time said it was running in the Superbowl, but it wasn’t such a big deal back then so no-one really cared.
Then again, it was the Nineties and much fun was to be had in the business so I could well be wrong about everything.
Although I’m pretty sure I did work at McCanns.
🙂
Ah, the Nineties.
My Dad was a career (M) Ad Man from the 50’s & 60’s . Critiquing Ads was a family pastime. I am SURE Dad would have loved Ultrasound.