BMW: Legend by Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Date: Feb 2019

For the introduction of BMW’s X7, it again goes big, telling the ‘Legend of Ol’ McLanden’.

The X7, BMW’s first standard seven-seater, is the German automaker’s biggest model ever, which makes it fit for an ambitious epic poem.

The spot introduces the 'Legend of Ol’ McLanden', a poem read by actor Chris Pine. As this mysterious folk tale unfolds, McLanden – the unseen driver – braves the challenges of cityscapes, dockyards, mountains and more, all behind the wheel of the heroic X7. McLanden conquers everyday obstacles, although these hurdles are blown up to mythical proportions thanks to the poem’s large language.

“McLanden beat Roy the Destroyer with ease and brought all the Razorback Rogues to their knees,” says Pine in his VO, referring to a giant jackhammer operator and a gang of Mad Max-like motorcycle riders, respectively.

McLanden’s ordinary day becomes legendary at every turn. Besides the two mentioned marauders the X7 faces a Poseidon-like city worker, shifty dock gangs and a genius and his fiendish lawyer. In the end, it’s revealed that McLanden isn’t a larger-than-life mythological character, but actually an ordinary, albeit fierce woman picking up a group of school girls. The tagline is “Make everyday legendary.”

Credits

Ad Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Client: BMW of North America

BMW

Vice President of Marketing BMW of North America: Trudy Hardy

Head of Brand Strategy and Communication BMW of North America: Wolfgang Gross

National Marketing Manager: Lisa Judge

National Marketing Campaign & Production Manager: Neil Moreno

Creative

Co-Chairman: Jeff Goodby

Co-Chairman: Rich Silverstein

Chief Creative Officer: Margaret Johnson

Creative Director: Roger Baran

Art Director: Stefan Copiz

Copywriter: Andrew Bancroft

Production

Director of Production: Tod Puckett

Executive Producer: Benton Roman

Account Services

Group Account Director: Theo Abel

Account Director: Alissa Sheely

Account Manager: Olivia Mullen

Assistant Account Manager: Rebecca Bell

Project Manager: Kaitlyn Landers

Brand and Communication Strategy

Group Communication Strategy Director: Dong Kim

Sr. Brand Strategist: Mackenzie Beer

Business Affairs

Broadcast Traffic Director: Ruchele Eisenman

Senior Business Affairs Manager: Chrissy Shearer

Production Company

Company name: MJZ

President: David Zander

Senior Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins

Director: Dante Ariola

Producer: Natalie Hill

Director of Photography: Kasper Tuxen

Production Designer: Nigel Phelps

AD: John Lowe

Editorial Company

Company name: Work Editorial

Editor: Rich Orrick

Assistant Editor: Theo Mercado

Senior Producer: Jamie Lynn Perritt / Brandee Probasco

Executive Producer: Marlo Baird

Telecine

Company name: MPC LA

Colorist: Mark Gethin

Executive Producer, Color: Meghan Lang

Color Producer: Rebecca Boorsma

VFX/Finishing

Company name: MPC LA

Creative Director: Michael Gregory

Shoot Supervisors: Michael gregory, Dan Seddon

CG Supervisors: Ryan McDougal, Tim Kafka, Josh Hatton, Nishanth Shrinivasa, Boyo Frederix

Lead Compositor: Toya Drechsler

Compositors: Rodrigo Jimenez, Guillaume Weiss, Alexander Kulikov, Dylan Brown, Concept Art/DMP: Jason Heinze, Abhilash A, Bala Krishnan R, Geetesh Tari

Mohan Rao, Srinivas Achary, Silvia Bartoli, Sachin Sureshrao Dhapudkar

PreVis: Alex Moon

CG Animation: Srikar Balakrishnan, D. Venkatesan, Carl Edlund, Sashdy Arvelo

CG FX: Bhargavan SP, Prashanth Paramasivam, Andreu Lucio, Arnau Gilabert, Jinguang Huang, Andy Sheng, Nema Safvati

CG Lighting: Martino Madeddu, Sumit Kumar, Asher Stusek

Executive Producer: Karen Anderson

Senior VFX Producer: Christian Downes

VFX Coordinator: Justin Rogers-CdeBaca

Producer: Mireille Antoine

Line producer: Chris Preston-Barnes

Music

Music company: Woodwork Music