Film-maker, 26, wins $25,000 prize; fills $3.5m. Chevy Super Bowl spot
A 26-year-old film-maker has won a contest to produce an ad for Chevrolet to be shown on the Super Bowl on February 5 . With spots on the programme costing upwards of $3.5 million the first prize for aspiring film-makers was listed as $10,000. But , according to Adweek, Zach Borst will collect $25,000 from General Motors. Maybe someone thought $10,000 sounded a bit mean.
And while agencies have been spending small fortunes shooting ads for the big game , Zach shot his commercial in just four hours.
The ad, produced in 60- and 30-second versions, tells how a young man, just graduated from high school, mistakenly thinks his parents have given him a yellow Chevy Camaro as a reward. Then a neighbour, the car’s actual owner, steps into the gleaming vehicle and drives away . What the parents had actually given their son was a dorm-room fridge, which was standing beside the car.
The spot will appear on the Super Bowl as one of the four ads Chevy has bought in the game. Borst from Long Island, New York, says he’s been producing films since his childhood and has founded his own production company, Goat Farm Films.
He had a lot of competition in Chevrolet’s Route 66 Super Bowl ad contest. Filmmakers from 32 countries submitted 400 scripts and 198 films .
Joel Ewanick, GM’s global chief marketing officer, told Adweek , “When I saw Zach’s spot, I had to laugh because the situation is something many families can relate to — expectation and reality.”
Zach, delighted with his win, said: “My Dad was a cop and worked real hard to buy his kids their first cars. They were used cars, but mine meant the world to me.
"Then I wondered: What would it look like if I got a brand new Camaro? I mean, after all, who wouldn’t want a Camaro as a graduation gift?”