The Dark Knight Rises soon, and Adam is no Christian, but George Barris built the greatest batmobile.
“Breath”
This was the ad that turned my nascent professional career on its ear, the moon shot, the boyhood dream made real.
Shot by Kinka Usher for BBDO this ad debuted in the Super Bowl in 1997, and officially kicked off PepsiCo’s Special Edition/Episode 1/Lucasfilm alliance. As the wide eyed kid who 20 years earlier had first seen Star Wars in the theater, visiting Skywalker Ranch and reading the legendary prequel script under lockdown was beyond surreal.
That was all quickly topped by selling in an ad concept to LFL, pre-proing with Rick McCallum and Kinka Usher, selecting and dubbing the plates from Empire straight off the D2 master, even addressing notes on the roughcut - from George no less - and adding in the cantankerous usher via bluescreen.
The highlight was when I was able to personally instruct our “Darth” - sadly not Dave Prowse, though his suit from Empire was the real deal - how to properly swing his light saber (less epee, more two-handed broadsword).
You can’t make this stuff up.
