VaynerMedia introduces PepsiCo’s new Mtn Dew Black Label, a new berry-flavored version of the brand that also includes herbal bitters, with a new campaign launched with the spot “Gentleman of the Jacket.”
“Gentleman of the Jacket” sees a group of guys introduce “A classier side of Mountain Dew” in predictably cringey fashion. They don black jackets over their more casual attire, mimicking the fake classiness of the beverage. It opens on professional skateboarder Theo Beasley passing out cans at the park, transitioning to a bar as his buddy calls for a can, which he sends to him on a skateboard. The friend then delivers the painful line, “It pairs perfectly with those moments of chillness” while slipping into a black jacket of his own.
Of course the real audience for the beverage is the type of bro whose idea of “classy” is bothering to pour a Bud Light into a glass while watching UFC…and the spot ends with a young gamer hyping the drink as “the classiest way to reward yourself after a job well done.” VaynerMedia definitely targets the drink’s intended audience here, but is it one that really cares about feigned sophistication? It’s kind of hard to imagine the core Mountain Dew demographic caring about “real sugar” or herbal bitters at all and harder still to imagine any kind of expanded audience swayed by unconvincing promises of classiness.
One aspect of the spot that’s unusual visually is the way the scenes transition, captured in a continuous take.
“The transitions from scene to scene consisted of one long continuous take to ensure each of the three environments were tied together seamlessly. The set was built to adhere to this flow,” Mountain Dew marketing director Sadira Furlow explained to AdFreak. “One of the funniest things to film was the skateboard with the can on it. Believe it or not, it is incredibly difficult to get a can to sit on a mini-throne on a skateboard and move up and down a ramped surface at full speed. We even had a skateboard/can handler responsible for pulling it along.”
Sadly, the skateboard/can handler appears to go uncredited.
Credits:
Client: Mountain Dew
Agency: VaynerMedia
Chief Creative Officer: Steve Babcock
Vice President, Group Creative Director: David Rosenberg
Creative Director: Anthony Coleman
Associate Creative Director: Angelo Pournaras
Art Directors: Cindy Choi, Heather Han
Senior Copywriters: Joshua Rosenblat, Nick Maciag
Designers: Raymond Croft, Christian Powell
Senior Vice President, Account Strategy: Dennis Ossipov-Grodsky
Group Director: Roger Ramirez
Account Director: Sara Giles
Account Manager: Neelam Rana
Vice President, Delivery and Production: Aaron Behr
Associate Director, Delivery and Production: Kristen Fleming
Project Managers: Dominic Hackley, Meredith Feir
Production Company: Vayner Productions
Creative Director: Jason Beauregard
Director of Photography: Erik Dettle
Post Production Supervisor: Andrew Hart
Post Production Coordinator: Glo Gambino
Editor: Sean Henderson
Animators: Alexander Smith, Sydney Daugherty
Producer: John Hollingsworth
Mix Company: Nutmeg
Music by “The Emergence” TE Music Group