When a friend showed Vinny Warren a “super-grainy and deteriorated” VHS film of guys screaming “WHAAASSSSUP!” at each other over the phone in 1999, he thought he’d struck gold. The Irish-born creative director of Chicago-based ad agency DDB was still young enough \u201cto be in touch with that youthful party spirit\u201d at 32, and he believed the short was wonderful \u2014 despite the fact that it had \u201cno clear joke,\u201d he adds. “There was something “irresistible” about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warren then had a thought: what if the guys were clutching Budweisers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charles Stone III wrote and directed the original short film titled TRUE. It was never meant to be a viral advertising sensation in the first place. Stone used it as a “calling card” to show Hollywood that he could tell a good story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was an up-and-coming director in 1999, seeking to create a name for himself in the industry. Until then, he’d largely shot rap\/music videos, which were lacking in story. So he filmed a low-budget film with his friends doing what they’d always done: talking on the phone about nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TRUE was warmly appreciated at “all the short-film festivals,” according to Stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Industry insiders began passing about a VHS copy of the picture, and Warren was eventually shown a super-grainy and deteriorated VHS copy of a copy of the film by an ad agency producer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warren became even more enthused about the film’s possibilities after witnessing the impact it had on those who saw it. “I couldn’t stop showing it to other (white) advertising professionals, and they all had the same reaction: every time we met, we’d yell ‘Whassup!’ and giggle. We couldn’t say no. On some levels, it was simply irresistible. I had a sneaking suspicion that if we did it perfectly, everyone in America would be yelling ‘Whassup!’ I’d put it to the test on my friends and coworkers in a small group setting. And no one was immune.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warren decided to pitch the idea to Anheuser-Busch executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
August Busch IV spent the night in Chicago. It was October 1999, and Warren and the rest of the DDB crew were brainstorming Super Bowl 2000 concepts. In a hotel bar, the presentation took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We showed him the TRUE film’s video, and he enjoyed it,” Warren explains. Busch, on the other hand, saw it as “simply another promising idea vying for funds and attention.” Warren explains that Budweiser and Bud Light had a long history of creating highly successful Super Bowl commercials by this point. \u201cIn the game, they had a standing order of five minutes of airtime,\u201d he explains. \u201cThat’s a total of ten 30-second commercials for all of their businesses. Each and every year. As a result, they overproduced Super Bowl concepts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To put it another way, Busch liked the grainy, deteriorated VHS, but it didn’t stand out among the other concepts presented. However, it did have one distinct advantage: compared to other ideas, it was quite inexpensive to shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DDB was given the go-ahead by Anheuser-Busch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, there was a snag. Before they called Charles to tell him, Warren had already sold the idea to the client. They had to locate down Charles Stone and inform and persuade him of the situation. Stone was persuaded by the offer of $50,000 plus recurring income and the opportunity to shoot the commercial film without artistic constraints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Budweiser commercial, like the original film TRUE, was shot in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The film was meticulously reconstructed, with a few subtle references to Budweiser thrown in for good measure. Warren and his crew were now waiting to see how it performed in the lab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
DDB would create 30 to 40 ads for all of Anheuser Busch’s brands before Super Bowl. The client would then evaluate the completely produced and edited TV commercials for ‘likability,’ or which ones were the funniest, and choose the ads with the highest scores to show during the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The top ten best\u00a0ideas would be chosen three months after the original pitch to air during the Super Bowl. “It was critical to get your ad in that collection,” Warren explains. “And because A-B always had the very first commercial spot (the so-called ‘1A’ spot) within the game, the spot that tested the best automatically ran during that coveted 1A slot.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Whassup?” was one of the ten chosen, but it didn’t win the 1A position.\u00a0\u00a0Now QWarren had to wait to see when “Whassup?” would air in the game this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n