UCF alumnus Brandy Gill never thought an idea he had put away would possibly give him a TV spot during the Super Bowl.
Gill, who graduated in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and in advertising and public relations, has entered a commercial he made into the Doritos and Pepsi MAX “Crash the Super Bowl” challenge. Out of 5,600 other entries, he is one of ten finalists.
“I had the idea for a while, ” said Gill, the creative director at Acropolis Inc., an award-winning, full-service advertising agency in Orlando. “It was one of those things that I had filed away and when I saw the ad for the challenge, I thought I should use it.”
The commercial Gill submitted starts with his boss, Scott Major, saying that Pepsi MAX has zero calories. Major encourages the people he is speaking with to take a sip. As they take a sip, they all exasperatedly sigh “Psshh” in disbelief.
“It was inspired by my friends because I’ve got a couple buddies that make that sound all the time,” said Gill. “There really wasn’t much more thought than that.”
The commercial cost $30 to make and was filmed in a conference room where Gill works, with his coworkers as the actors.
“I thought we’d do it for a laugh, send it in and forget about it,” Gill said. “I never thought anything would ever come from it. If I had thought that we would have gotten this far, I would have put more work into it.”
Despite his doubts, Gill received a phone call from Pepsi’s public relations people and was in total disbelief when he heard the news.
“It was a total shock. I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about, ” Gill said. “I thought I owed them money. I had no idea why they were calling me and they said ‘surprise you’re in the top 10.’ ”
Major wasn’t surprised by Gill’s accomplishment at all.
“Nothing would surprise me with him,” Major said. “He is an amazing talent and the most amazing part about him is his inclusiveness of ideas with his team. He always aims high. That’s one of the reasons we pursued him [as an employer]. I think he did a great job.”
Major was excited to take part in the commercial with the staff.
“It was a blast,” he said. “I’m not a shy person, but until you actually get to the other side of a camera, even on the amateur level, its interesting how it challenges you to keep your own personality. Watching everyone bring out their personalities helped me. No agent will be calling me for a movie roll any time soon though.”
The top five finalists for Doritos and Pepsi MAX will receive $25,000. The top three commercials from each brand will be aired during Super Bowl XLV. If the commercial is number one on the USA Today Ad Meter, the person will receive $1 million, second place will receive $600,000 and third place will receive $400,000. If Doritos and/or Pepsi MAX sweep the top three on the USA Today Ad Meter each winner will receive $1 million. The finalist with the highest-scoring ad will receive a contract to create commercials for Doritos and Pepsi MAX.
Gill is the only top contender from the state of Florida and is ecstatic about that.
“Everybody else that came in the top 10 are from California and they’re involved in production and film and want to be directors,” Gill said. “I hope that in some way it will shed a little bit of light on Orlando and Central Florida because there are a lot of talented and creative people here.”
Junior Aerospace Engineering major Rick Sanchez also shares the same enthusiasm that Gill has.
“It think it’s great that a UCF alumni may have a Super Bowl commercial,” Sanchez said. “It shows how big UCF is and how much we are progressing through the nation.”
Gill has been using social media to encourage people to vote for his commercial. He has created a Facebook page, facebook.com/voteforbrandy, and has been tweeting about it. He even arranged a Tweetup on Wednesday at Lizy McCormack’s, which is where individuals who tweet meet up in the real world.
He has also had segments done about him on Fox 35 and did a call-in interview with Real Radio 104.1.
Despite being in the top 10, Gill isn’t entirely confident he’ll win because his competition spent millions of dollars to produce. If he does win $1 million, he plans on taking care of his family and friends and investing in his friend’s idea to start an Orange Blossom Pilsner brewery in downtown Orlando.
He plans on sharing the $25,000 with all of the people who have helped him get to where he is today.
Gill will not find out if his commercial is one of the top three for Pepsi MAX until the night of Super Bowl XLV.
Voting can be done three times a day from a computer, mobile phone and Xbox. The commercial is titled “Zero Calories? Psshh.”
To vote for commercials, visit crashthesuperbowl.com.