Super Bowl commercials are an iconic piece of Americana. If you’re not there for the game on the football field, you’re there for the commercials, and Doritos are always in the running for the funniest advertisements. Who could forget the Doritos time machine in 2014, or Lil Nas X in cowboy boots in 2020?
Photo Courtesy of Eden McColl
Doritos Commerical
Dylan Bradshaw, a Columbus native, and Nathan Norell have become a part of entertainment history. Their commercial, “Abduction,” was named winner in Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl,” competition, where creators can submit their commercial for a chance to win Super Bowl airtime and $1 million.
Bradshaw and Norell met at a party in Los Angeles in February of 2020. With no friends or jobs in L.A. on the horizon, the meeting felt like pretty good timing.
“[Norell] comes out with like an Elon Musk flamethrower and he's like, ‘Yo guys, the party's inside now, come on in,’ Bradshaw says. “It was almost like God or the universe was telling me, like, ‘Why do I want to be friends with this guy?”
Photo Courtesy of Eden McColl
Dylan Bradshaw and Nathan Norell
They became best friends as they worked together for Zach King, a popular content creator on YouTube. But soon, the best friends decided to strike out on their own, with Bradshaw hoping to direct movies and Norell diving into content creation. This commercial presented the perfect opportunity to get the band back together.
“We were just like, ‘Oh my gosh! What an awesome opportunity for us to maybe make something together for fun,” Bradshaw said.
With less than a month to make their dream a reality, the storyboarding process began. Although the shoot itself took one night, preparation consisted of many long hours.
The idea alone took weeks of ideating, distilled from a Google Doc that contained over fifty different ideas.
“People say like ‘spaghetti season,’” Bradshaw said. “You're throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, and you know, we got one noodle that stuck with our alien one.”
Inspiration flowed from all different sources: Stranger Things, a Pixar short and even old Doritos commercials. Their favorite is from 2008, where a hilariously large rat bursts through the wall and tackles a man eating Doritos.
“We just love that because it's like no dialogue, [it’s] very visual comedy,” Bradshaw said. “Like comedy spectacle.”
Comedy spectacle is the big laugh moment of “Abduction:” the protagonist is whipped around by a UFO beam while clutching his bag of Doritos. That scene alone took a team of visual effects students two weeks to render, but the results were worth it.
“If you're afraid, at least have the courage to get after it and chase your wildest dreams because no one's going to do it except you,” Bradshaw said.
As surreal as the commercial style is, it was even more surreal when Bradshaw and Norell received the call that their video placed in the top three in the competition.
“I was just blown away,” Bradshaw says. “I think it took me a second to process it emotionally. It's just crazy how quickly life can change and how far you can go if you’re just focusing on one thing and like give it your all.”
Bradshaw quickly called his parents, who reside in Dublin, Ohio, and told them the news. He called being born and raised in Columbus with loving parents a “cheat code” on life.
“I know everyone kind of jokes about Ohio now, but I have a ton of pride being from there,” Bradshaw says. “Hopefully, we can come through for the voting and regardless, it's just been such an honor to represent…to be an Ohio filmmaker.”
“Abduction” was chosen to run during the Super Bowl on February 3rd, and the pair won $1 million.
“This is such a crazy dream to potentially play a Super Bowl commercial,” Bradshaw says. “You know, Dylan back in October was just a dreamer, but if I wasn’t this would have never happened. So just keep dreaming and chase after those dreams. It's all right there if you just focus on the positives.”
Maggie Fipps is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
