jumP LA editor Patrick Griffin, working with Smuggler Director Filip Engstrom and The Mill, tackles “Better, Stronger, Smarter,” a humorous and engaging spot introducing Mazda's new CX-5 crossover.
Press release from jumP:
LOS ANGELES -- The crossover vehicle is still trying to figure itself out - is it a large car? A small SUV? Something in between? jumP LA editor Patrick Griffin, working with Smuggler Director Filip Engstrom and The Mill, tackles this riddle in a humorous and engaging story of a spot introducing Mazda's new CX-5 crossover.
Better, Stronger, Smarter, borrowing music from and paying visual homage to 1970s hit TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, opens on a beaten-up jalopy sailing across the desert, its multi-colored doors falling off and tumbling into the dust trail behind it. As the hood pops off in a geyser of sparks and the dumbfounded driver pulls the gear shift right off the frame, the narrator assails the current generation of crossovers as a mish-mosh of compromises that have created vehicles suitable for nobody.
Shift scenes to Mazda's state-of-the-art labs, where an armada of white suit coats labors tirelessly to create the CX-5. Griffin delivers a parade of images portraying the staff at work behind elaborate testing machines, clocks, gauges, and giant computer screens, until they kick out their new creation, a "crossover without compromise."
"I was a huge fan of the Six Million Dollar Man growing up, so it was really fun for me to cut this spot," noted Griffin. "The biggest challenge we faced here was cutting all the funny footage that Filip shot down to a coherent 60."
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
