An Arizona wedding photographer who crafted a Doritos commercial starring his 6-year-old son and a "time machine" won $1 million for his efforts this week after the ad beat out 5,000 others in Sunday's "Crash the Super Bowl" contest.
Ryan Andersen, of Scottsdale, Ariz., is the mastermind behind the aptly titled "Time Machine" Doritos commercial that won the seventh annual commercial contest sponsored by the chip company.
With a team of producer friends and a $300 budget, Andersen's spot featured his son luring a neighbor into a cardboard box time machine that, conveniently, only runs on Doritos.
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After airing with one other Doritos finalist during the big game, the fate of Andersen's "Time Machine" was left up to the fans, who voted online. Andersen and his team were named the winners on "Good Morning America" Monday.
"I wanted to make something that could get me noticed so I could fulfill my future goals in filmmaking," Andersen, who dreams of becoming a fulltime commercial director, told SBARTSTV.com. "The fact that Doritos turns Super Bowl airtime over to fans is genius. Not only does it give little guys like me a chance to do something amazing on a huge level, but the amount of marketing that goes into this just from us as creators has got to be worth its weight in gold for Doritos as a company."
Raj Suri, a Virginia Tech graduate who served as producer of the ad, said the commercial had every component a successful marketing campaign should have: humor, a theme, and a message.
"There was something about our spot that resonated with people," he told WSLS.com. "I think there was something about our team. We don’t have a lot of resources; we're just a bunch of guys who are just trying really hard to make it in this industry."
So what will they do with the $1 million prize money?
"I'm sure we're all going to buy a couple fancy things and pay off some bills but I hope these dollars can be used to enable these people to really just make it in this career," Suri said.
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