Winning Doritos ad was made for less than $2,000
— -- Who'd think a bag of chips and a dream could make you a millionaire?
It happened for Dave Herbert, 32, and brother Joe, 33, two unemployed but aspiring filmmakers whose Super Bowl ad for Doritos proved more popular in USA TODAY's Super Bowl Ad Meter real-time consumer rating than commercials created by the big boys of advertising. Chipmaker Frito-Lay had offered a $1 million prize for a win (USA TODAY had no connection with the company or its online contest for amateur ads to air in the game).
The morning after, the brothers still weren't sure how they'd spend their loot. Before winning, they had all sorts of answers, says Dave, whose whirlwind media tour with Joe includes a stop tonight at The Tonight Show with JayLeno. "But now that we won it and it's real, it takes more thinking."
While a date hasn't been set, the brothers, both married with six children altogether, likely will receive their winnings in their hometown, Batesville, Ind., says Ann Mukherjee, marketing head for Frito-Lay.
"We'd like to … actually do a great ceremony in front of all their friends and family," says Mukherjee, who says the company will have an ongoing relationship with the pair.
Rick Condos of Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the agency that helped launch the Super Bowl contest and its website, said the winning Doritos ad shows how content created by consumers has come into its own.
"We actually saw this year how technology is helping consumers create things to the point you don't know what's consumer-generated and what's not," says Condos.
The winning spot, made for less than $2,000 and filmed at a YMCA, shows a man using a snow globe as a crystal ball. He lobs it though the glass on a vending machine after predicting free chips for the office. Another colleague predicts a promotion, but when he lobs it, it hits his boss in the crotch. There was a little sleight of hand for the latter stunt: a Styrofoam ball, digital editing — and protective underwear.
With their prize money — minus taxes — the Herberts hope to launch a board game this year called Triviathon, as well as develop a film script.
