Darci Marchese, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Think you could create a commercial cool enough to run during the Super Bowl?
Some local college students gave it a shot and now they’re in the running for the 13th annual Crash the Super Bowl Contest by Doritos.
Last year’s winner was the memorable commercial where a dog owner lured his pug with Doritos into a glass door, and the dog and door end up on top of his owner, crushing him.
This year, as a school assignment, a communications class at Bowie State University set off to produce some commercials.
“We finished off with four commercials and three of them made it (to the finals),” boasts Bowie State senior Yolanda Garr.
She says the class of about 25 paired off into five groups, and starting was the hardest part.
“Everybody wanted to be the boss. It was really bad at first,” she says.
Eventually, she says the class got it together and came up with fresh ideas.
Classmate Lauren Poindexter, 21, a senior at Bowie State agrees.
“We did put in a lot of work and had some really good ideas,” she says.
“We have that raw talent, that raw hunger. You know we’re the under dogs and we’re here to take it,” the communications/broadcast journalism student adds.
Their three commercials are doing well in social media. They are “Booty Call,” “‘The Weight is Over” and “The Crunch that Lasts Forever,” which stars a Grandma passing gas while noshing on chips.
The commercials are posted on Facebook, and the more the “likes” the better.
“You can go onto Facebook, type in ‘Doritos crash super bowl.’ If you type in Bowie State under the search engine all three of our videos will come up,” Poindexter explains.
Ironically, their favorite commercial was the one that didn’t make the finals because it broke the rule of including no unoriginal content.
The ad showed President Obama and Mitt Romney during a presidential debate and then flashed back to both men as boys in detention in school together. A bag of Doritos brought the boys together.
The top ten commercials will be chosen Dec. 14 and the winner will be announced in January.
The grand-prize winner’s commercial will air during the Super Bowl. If the ad places in the first three spots in the USA Today Ad Meter rankings, the winner will receive a bonus $1 million prize.
In addition, the winner will get the chance to consult on another ad for Doritos.
Garr knows what’s at stake. She says she and her classmates were first inspired by the million dollar prize.
“But then eventually it was to get our foot in the door,” she says.
Follow @dmarchesewtop and @WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
