Dunkin’–known for donuts, morning pastry and coffee–extends its reach to higher-end espresso drinks, heralding the introduction with a campaign from BBDO NY which includes the unveiling of a faux line of “Espresso-Wear.” The tongue-in-cheek rollout comes in the form of this online film directed by Brian Billow of O Positive.
The functional fashion includes Cappu-chinos, Americano-veralls and Latte-nk Tops, which allows people to keep their hands free and their espresso drinks–whether it be a latte, americano or macchiato–close by at all times. Driving the film is a score by Bang Music, New York and Prague, to accompany lyrics penned by Talon Gustafson and Brian Pinkley, associate creative director and sr. art director, respectively, at BBDO NY. Brian Jones served as composer for Bang, with sound design from Sam Shaffer at Mackcut, NY. Their collective effort now lands them the number one slot on SHOOT’s year-end quarterly Top Ten Tracks chart.
The film opens with a man going about his business. He’s wearing a pair of Cappu-chinos, trousers with two pockets large enough to each accommodate a full cup of Dunkin’ cappuccino. As our protagonist makes his way through town, running errands, he sings lyrics which include, “Walking around in my Cappu-chinos. Now I can hold my coffee in my clothes. Free to go about my business where I go with my Dunkin’ cappuccino in my Cappu-chinos. Doin’ stuff in my Cappu-chinos like fixing my hair and folding clothes.”
The song then introduces us to similarly functional overalls (Americano-veralls) and a casual pullover shirt (Latte-nk Tops).
Brian Jones
SHOOT connected with Bang president/composer Jones for insights into the Dunkin’ piece. He pointed out that a measure of creative restraint was necessary for the film.
“What tends to make a wonderfully silly idea like ‘Espresso-Wear’ work from a musical standpoint is making sure it feels ‘real’ rather than a parody,” he observed. “It’s more funny when you believe these people are really into their new ‘Espresso-wear’–so rather than nod and wink and make sure everyone knows we’re in on the joke, we thought it was important to go straight for an earnest execution of the song.”
Bang, continued Jones, was “brought in at the boards stage–the creatives wrote the lyrics which clearly inform much of the on-camera character movement so we had to make sure timings were working. Having the song written ahead of shooting also meant that Brian Billow could use the music during casting. We worked closely with the creatives and producers at BBDO to make sure the overall feel of the song was right before they shot and went very quickly into edit. Not only did we have to be sure we had tight :15s for each vignette, we also needed to write the longer song that would more fully develop the idea.”
As for his biggest takeaway from his experience on the Dunkin’ project, Jones shared, “Working on a project like ‘Espresso-Wear’ reinforced many lessons we’ve learned over the years–but perhaps the most important lesson is to HAVE FUN while you’re doing it. Be goofy, try something you know will never make the final cut, just to do it and make yourself laugh. You can stumble upon happy accidents that would never have come without messing around a bit. That playful spirit comes through the track and adds to the overall feeling you impart to the film.”
The BBDO contingent on “Espresso-Wear” included Gustafson, Pinkley, worldwide CCO David Lubars, NY CCO Greg Hahn, executive creative directors Doug Fallon and Steven Fogel, director of integrated production David Rolfe, VP/group head executive producer Dan Blaney, VP/executive producer Diane McCann, and producer Katie Greene. Mackcut’s Shaffer additionally served as audio mixer.
To see the quarter's Top Ten Tracks Chart, click here.
