We hear this piece of Coca-Cola spec creative has been making the rounds in the ad community, but as of this week, the person behind it—freelance copywriter Tom Mullen of Exit 3A—has cut out the middleman by sending it directly to the media. Spreading spec creative virally is smart on two counts: 1) There’s an offchance it might get you hired, and 2) as one of our colleagues points out, if the advertiser actually does anything resembling the idea without your say-so, there’s plenty of evidence for a lawsuit. But we’re not great legal minds here; so with that, here’s the guy’s pitch—complete with a still from the movie Red Planet, as reproduced from Mullen’s Adobe Acrobat attachment:

Coca-Cola
“Planet Red”
:30

We open on what appears to be the red planet (Mars). We see an astronaut in a spacesuit walking in a white crater.

As the camera moves in, we see the oxygen tanks the astronaut is wearing are actually filled with a fizzy liquid. The mouthpiece in his helmet is actually a straw.

The camera reveals that the guy inside the astronaut suit is drinking the fizzy liquid, via the mouthpiece, as he explores the red planet.

The camera pulls away revealing that the red planet is actually a can of Coca-Cola in deep space. The astronaut has been ‘exploring’ and walking on the Coca-Cola can. The white crater the astronaut has been exploring is the white swirl on the Coca-Cola can.

Title card: The Original Red Planet.

Logo: Coca-Cola

VO/Tag: “Red Means Go.”

Tell us what you think.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor