Golfer Jordan Spieth shows off his lighter side – and impressive trick-shot skills – in his first Coca-Cola ad debuting during his U.S. Open title defense.
In the 60-second spot, the 22-year-old champion is waiting inside his production trailer to shoot a commercial during a rain delay when he reaches into a cooler for a Coke, leaving behind a divot in the crushed ice that resembles a golf hole. The indented image sparks an idea; a shoeless Spieth quickly grabs a club and gets creative – chipping shots off the walls and into everything from a bell-shapedCoca-Cola glass, to the pit of an avocado, to an open toilet. Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)”, fittingly, soundtracks the spot.
Making the Most of a Mulligan
Coca-Cola and Wieden+Kennedy Portland had to come up with a few tricks of their own to pull off the shoot at the TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas near Spieth’s hometown of Dallas. In fact, W+K had planned to film an entirely different commercial featuring Spieth and a friend playing golf on a hot summer day... but Mother Nature had other plans.
“We were scouting locations and doing pre-production in Dallas when the forecast took a turn for the worst and we realized we were in a flood zone,” said Sarah Traverso, group director of multimedia production and agency operations forCoca-Cola North America. “The sun was essentially the third character in our story, so we knew we couldn’t pull it off.”
Spieth’s jam-packed calendar left only one open date until October: Friday, April 29. Postponing until the fall would have meant missing the rest of the season’s major tournaments, the Ryder Cup and the Rio Olympic Games. Coke had no choice but to take a chance.
In the days leading up to the rescheduled shoot, severe weather threatened once again. “All signs were pointing to it not working out,” Traverso said.
But on the evening of April 27 – roughly 36 hours before the shoot – Traverso called W+K Executive Creative Director Hal Curtis and challenged him to “embrace the rain” and quickly develop a plan B in case of a washout.