Quirky, big-budget commercials for Bud Light, Go Daddy and Doritos are a given during the Super Bowl. This year, though, there's an even bigger reason to pay attention to the ads: A few of your neighbors may enjoy their 15 minutes of fame during NBC-TV's broadcast on Feb. 1. (Well, more like 15 seconds.)
Dozens of Seattle Seahawks fanatics showed up at Century Link Field this week to shoot an NFL ad spot that will air during the game. Kris “Sonics Guy” Brannon was among familiar super-fans making cameos – along with Lorin “Big Lo” Sandretzky and an unmasked Phoenix Jones – and he gave use the skinny.
“There were 250 people,” Brannon said. “We met over at the Silver Cloud, the staging area, then we went down to Occidental (Avenue). They had people on the roof at Elysian Fields – probably 20 or 30 people – and they had a couple of people running with 12th Man flags to rally the crowd. … They got it all done in probably four hours, I'd say.
“They just got the crowd actin' crazy. They did a shoot in Boston, as well, so I assume the Boston group will be doing something similar. There's supposed to be a lot of celebs in the commercial. They gave use the names of a couple. They said Jimmy Fallon was gonna be in it. What it is to be a fan is basically the theme of the commercial. It could be anywhere during the game.”
So keep your eyes peeled. “With something like that, with group work, you're never quite sure what they're gonna use,” Brannon said. “They did do one action shot of me where I'm yelling specifically at the camera, but they also shot 10 different ones.”