After winning the account in a creative pitch at the end of 2018, Brooklyn, NY-based agency Dead As We Know It launches its first work for Pendleton Whisky with the brand’s first national marketing campaign which includes this centerpiece spot, “Everybody Falls.”
Created to honor the traditions of the American cowboy, Pendleton Whisky is the official whisky of the Pendleton Round-Up, one of America’s oldest rodeos, held each and every year in Pendleton, Oregon, since 1910.
In “Everybody Falls,” Dead As We Know It aimed to capture the unique culture of the Pendleton Round-Up, and to highlight the intense athleticism of the sport of bull riding. Dead As We Know It landed Jake Scott of RSA Films to direct the commercial, which was shot at and around the Pendleton Round-Up’s 101-year old, 17,000-seat stadium, and cast the campaign exclusively with bull riders–all of whom are competitors in the grueling professional rodeo circuit, participating in over 100 rodeos per year.
Starring up-and-coming bull rider Dalton McMurtrie and veteran Pro Rodeo champion Douglas Duncan, the commercial tells the story of a young prospect’s tough road to the Pendleton Round-Up. We watch as he repeatedly falls off practice bulls and doggedly gets back on. Finally, surrounded by his mentor and friends, the young cowboy climbs onto a 1,500 pound bull at the Round-Up and hangs on for eight harrowing, victorious seconds. The moment is celebrated with glasses of Pendleton Whisky under the stands, just inches away from the bull pens.
