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Tracy Tuten

How Volkswagen Conducted Its Canine Chorus | Special: Super Bowl - Advertising Age - 1 views

  • Last week, Volkswagen and Deutsch, Los Angeles, unveiled a 60-second Super Bowl teaser on YouTube and then on broadcast TV during an episode of "The Middle" on ABC. The spot stars mutts barking a canine rendition of "The Imperial March," aka "Darth Vader's Theme," the track featured in last year's VW Super Bowl darling, "The Force."
  • The dozen dogs, selected from a pool of 40 who "auditioned," were chosen not for their vocal chops but, in some cases, for their resemblance to "Star Wars" characters, according to Tim Mahoney, chief product and marketing officer for Volkswagen of America. "See if you can find Chewbacca," he said, adding, "If you have a pet in the house, this ad drives them crazy."
  • The ad was directed by Keith Schofield of Caviar Content, who said the dogs were shot together and then separately on the set, barking to a temporary track created by Endless Noise's Jeff Elmassian, who was also behind the arrangement of John William's original Vader march for "The Force." Prior to production, "we talked about how this should probably be handled like a music video," said Deutsch Director of Integrated Content Vic Palumbo. "We needed to create the track first and then figure out who the dogs are, what notes they're going to be singing."
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  • The idea behind "The Bark Side" was to create an ad to promote an ad. "We were among a few brands last year who pre-released our Super Bowl ad, and the feeling was we were ahead of the pack," said Mark Hunter, chief creative officer for Deutsch, apparently with no pun intended. "So this year, it's what can we do to continue to set media trends."
  • One of the biggest challenges was the balancing act of using unaltered dog barks and digitally enhanced ones. The final mix featured a combination of both. "The human ear is discerning enough that even a lay person can tell when something is synthetic," said Mr. Elmassian. "You want a certain amount of barks to not be effected. Your ear will anchor onto enough of those and start to forgive some of the sounds that do border more on the effected side."
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    Interesting look at what it took to produce the VW Bark Side teaser commercial
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