Including a narrative is usually a good way for a commercial to hook the audience with creativity, but this Y&R Midwest zombie spot for Sears actually overdoes the narrative focus to the point where the brand association is almost negligible. We know, zombies are popular, but it seems like the creatives put more time into the character development of the actors than organically integrating the product. Somebody really enjoys The Walking Dead.
The setup: a girl and a guy running from zombies try to escape in separate cars. The guy’s car won’t start, but the girl’s car has a Diehard battery that is still kicking even after the apocalypse, which is conceptually clever. But, the 70-second running time is too long for the two-second insert shot of a Diehard battery at the very end. If the first 35 seconds of the ad were cut, the relevant story points would still be in tact. There’s also a #SurviveZombies for brand engagement, but if you want or need a reliable car battery, you probably don’t care about hashtags or zombies. Credits after jump.
CCO: Bill Cimino
CD: Pam Mufson
CD: Jeremy Smallwood
Executive Producer: Brian Smego
Producer: Deja Von Ende
Production Company: Tool
Director: Tom Routson
EPs: Brian Latt, Dustin Callif, Oliver Fuselier, Danielle Peretz
Producer: Cindy Becker
Editorial: Whitehouse Post
Editor: Matthew Wood
Executive Producer: Dan Bryant
Producer: Laurie Adrianopoli
Visual Effects: The Mill Chicago
Original Music and Music Licensing: Beta Petrol
Sound Design and Mix: Another Country
Sound mixer: Dave Gerbosi
Addtl sound design: Matt Wood