B.B. King. Really? I don't think I've seen him since made a deal with the Devil in 02 shilling Burger King, because B.B. King = Burger King, get it? Then in '03 he showed us how to deal with diabetes because too much Burger King... Ok, never mind.
But I digress. In this bold ad, we see a perfectly lovely young woman with a sense of adventure who scores B.B. King's old guitar - Lucille - at an auction. Probably riffing off the real life event when The 80th Lucille was stolen in 2009 and ended up in a pawn shop, we see how the girl goes on drive to find B.B. King and return his guitar. She finds him backstage - (why isn't this man sipping sarsaparilla on a porch watching his 50 grandchildren dance in the yard or something? He's 89 years old and gave us so much great music let the poor man kick back already! ) - and B.B. has a moment with his old guitar. Clearly it's a magical guitar because it's still playing like it was just tuned despite being unused for years. B.B. Then decides to sign the guitar and hand it back to the wide-eyed young woman, who would never in a million years sell that guitar for lots of money. Nope siree.
While the casting is quite nice, the pacing strikes me as odd. It's a mellow tune picked for this drive, and that seems ill-fitted for a quest where you're out to return a guitar to the king of the blues. Using the story of lost Lucille is probably lost on people as well, despite the fact that B.B is a living legend. Heck, the best way I ever saw the blues in a commercial was when heineken reached the parts other beers could not reach and made the blues. Oh how I wish B.B. King had done that ad instead. That one actually almost fits the line “One Bold Choice Leads to Another” too. Nerd-nitpick: Lucille is a black guitar.
See also Camry, Bride breakout
CCO: Jason Schragger
ECD: Margaret Keene
CD: Erich Funke
ACD/Copywriter: Julia Regan Markiewicz
ACD/Art Director: Jera Mehrdad, Vik Bhalla, Javier Torok
Art Director: Max Wang
ACD/Art Director: Vik Bhalla
Art Director: Max Wang
Copywriter: Eric Stevens (Breakout/ Guitar), Brian
Frisk (Breakout/ Guitar), Nick Spahr, Chris Ford (Bucket List)
Director of Content Production: Sara Seibert
Senior Broadcast Producer: Jennifer Vogtmann
Senior Integrated Producer: Holly Otto
Director of Print & Integrated Art Services: Lorraine Alper Kramer
Group Account Director: Erica Baker
Management Supervisor: Carla Tanchum
Chief Strategy Officer: Mark Turner
Strategic Planning Director: Evan Ferrari
Senior Strategic Planner: Erika Bridges
Strategic Planner: Lindsey Summers
Executive Communications Director: John Lisko
Business Affairs Manager: Biba Millstein
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Smuggler
HEAD OF PRODUCTION: Andrew Colon
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Lisa Rich
DIRECTOR: The Guard Brothers
EDITING COMPANY: Rock Paper Scissors
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Dave Sellars/Angela Dorian/Linda Carlson
PRODUCER: Leah Carnahan
EDITOR Guitar: Adam Pertofsky
EDITOR Breakout and Bucker List: Stewart Reeves
FINISH: A52
MUSIC: TBD
SOUND DESIGN: Noises Digital
Adland® is a commercial-laden heaven and hell for advertising addicts around the world.
This advertising publication was founded in 1996, built on beer and bravery, Adland® now boasts the largest super bowl commercials collection in the world.
Adland® survives on your donations alone. You can help us out by buying us a Ko-Fi. Adland® works best in Brave browser
A number of Lucilles have existed - some of them not black. BB King calls all his guitars Lucille, and they are mostly Gibsons, so Gibson made a "Lucille" model in the 1980s. Did the young woman find a Lucille Gibson and assume it had been his personally, and he showed his appreciation for her attempt to return it by upgrading its value considerably with his signature? We have no idea, but I like that version. lol
- reply
PermalinkYeah that version/explanation works. What do you think about the song choice? I feel with B.B. King's body of work there's many more options that express longing and loss better than this one.
- reply
Permalinkwhich song is in the commercial?
- reply
PermalinkReally?
It's B. B. King's "Lucille" because first idea. *sigh*
- reply
PermalinkThis one matches the one in the commercial pretty closely, right down to the dog-ear single-coil pickups. I think that's what they are called. Obviously, the idea was to have her find a guitar that he might have played MANY years ago. Of course Gibson didn't start putting "Lucille" on the headstock until they came out with his signature model, so there was some creative license taken. Personally, I think it's a cool little commercial.
- reply
PermalinkActually, they might have engraved "Lucille" into the truss-rod covers on his earlier guitars. I have no idea. I was mistakenly thinking they showed the large "Lucille" inlay of his current guitars, but they didn't.
- reply
PermalinkSince this has turned into a picture thread, I'll bite.
I think that the guitar picked is the burned wood color because that's the color of the guitar on the album cover "Lucille", where the art direction/photo is quite deliberately reminding viewers of the shape of a woman. (Next comment will have another photo)
- reply
PermalinkFor shits & giggles, we can pretend that Lucille looked like this, because of another cover, namely the one of Mississippi seeds, har har har! Of course, that's not the case, and the mass-produced, once stolen, original Lucille with the inlay you speak of is a black guitar. I don't know if B.B. King ever had a guitar with a copper-nameplate like the one shown in the ad. All I know is, I don't like the advert very much, but I like B.B. King. Oh, and this has something to do with Toyota and "bold".
- reply
PermalinkAh the magic guitar commercial. Has anyone else noted that when she first opens the case and picks up 'Lucille", the headstock is to the left, the body to the right and the nameplate is readable, making it a left hand guitar. When she hands it to BB, it has magically transformed into one of his right handed guitars.
- reply
Permalink