We worked with the agency of record to enhance their idea for this launch, adding the idea of bringing legendary country artist Willie Nelson into the concept.
By placing the music legend in a 60’s VW Bug and running this story alongside the track “On the road again” we were able to elevate the idea and in doing so we created the top Ad of the month worldwide in AD FORUM.

The E-40 Beer commercial was a fun collaborative project to work on. The project came to me
from the company owner Mr. E-40 himself. He reached out and said he wanted a lifestyle type
ad that appealed to all young demographics. We then brainstormed scenarios where young
people would enjoy a beer, from watching a sports game, to a bbq at the beach, a friendly
house hold game of cards, etc. Also since E-40 is most known for music we decided to include
a scene in the recording studio. The studio scene was a subtle nod to his musical roots but
not taking the commercial too deep into an urban only landscape. It also served as cross
promotion for one of his younger artists Nef the Pharaoh who is featured in the studio scene.
The casting of the video for us was very important to make sure we represented a diverse
collective of millennials.
When it came down to the shooting of the commercial we wanted a very solid, classic, clean
look. Most of the shots are on tripod with a fixed angle on long lenses to give us shallow depth
of field. For our wide establishing shots we used a really wide lens, a 16mm. Our camera of
choice was a red dragon. We chose that camera to give us the highest resolution at the time
and to give us the most room to work with the colors in post. The shoot was scheduled into
one really long day. We shot between 3 separate locations and each location we were able to
knock out at least two different scenes. For our end frame which is the hero shot of the beer it
was actually something that came about on set. Originally we were going to do some type of
beauty lighting on a bottle in a studio backdrop on a separate day. But when we were at the
beach and had the bonfire going someone placed a few bottles in front of the fire. I looked at it
and was like “this looks cool”. So then we decided to light it and try it out. The shot turned
out amazing and ended up being our key product shot. Overall the shoot was a lot of fun and
a great success for everyone involved.

The client was looking for a piece of content that transcended past the wheel market and into a house hold market. Its easy to make gear heads care about fast cars but its hard to manifest a piece of automotive content my mom shares. That said, everyones been cheated on and everyone wants to see the underdog win. All it took was the click-bate tag line, “supermodel destroys cheating boyfriends Ferrari” and Forgiato – Unbreakable, was born.