"To be honest, anybody who knows Mike and I, knows that [Alan and Jerome] are pretty much just us. We talk like that, we say the 'N' word to each other, but we are self-aware, whereas there is a whole fleet of youngsters out there who aren't so self aware about it," says Tom Kuntz. "I live in New York City and you come in contact with a lot of people like that. Even my little nephew in Connecticut is pimping, which is miraculous! We were lucky to have two opportunities to completely exploit this trend."

The other opportunity is of course the duo's short film "Tokyo Breakfast". Set up like a pilot for Japanese TV, the humor of the short revolves around a modern Japanese family making ample use of both hip hop stereotypes like malt liquor, and the Japanese-inflected take on the "N" word. The pair's solid understanding of suburban white America's (and Japanese) fascination with African-American lingo and style was a key factor in the success of the Fox campaign, as was casting and accurate scripting by creative director Eric Silver and art director Reed Collins.

"We cast during the SAG strike but fortunately, these were classified as promos and we were able to use good talent. We found one guy in LA and the other guy in New York and they didn't know each other at all, so we sent them out to eat, drink beer and get a vibe together. They just gelled," says Maguire, pointing to his and his partner's joint approach to casting as a strength. "As for the dialog, it was pretty much according to the scripts, although they threw in words here and there, and that was them freestyling at the end of the spots. If you get good casting you luck out. Everything we've done so far, we've been lucky with casting. That's one of the points of having a directing team, two people can fight for good casting."

The spots look at the sometimes troubling Wigga trend and take the piss at the same time as celebrating the trend. Other recent Kuntz & Maguire ventures have included a number of campaigns and one music video, all produced through recently-defunct Propaganda/Satellite. A British campaign for Monster.com through Saatchi & Saatchi, London, had the directors working in a slow motion and cinematic style to suit the brand's "Beware The Voices" cutline.

"Mike and I do a lot of stuff from the same world, but we don't like to repeat ourselves," says Kuntz. "It was fun to do something visual, dryer and darker, whereas a lot of our stuff is lo-fi and human.

"Foot Long Hot Dog Inventor" is perhaps more in line with the work the boys are known for; created for the UK market out of DDB Chicago, the Budweiser spot pays tribute to this real American hero and goes so far as to have Survivor front man Dave Bickler emotively crooning out the cheesy theme song as he clutches at his head phones in the studio. A new US Bud campaign out of DDB however sees a less in-your-face comedic execution.

"This campaign has all these guys in a contemporary urban setting. It's kind of a shit happens campaign and is almost very un-beer commercially. It's quiet and not goofy and feels like a movie with an interwoven story, composed and filmed cinematically" says Maguire.

Another package of spots for Volkswagen out of Arnold Worldwide, Boston was also recently completed but not yet approved at press time. Also of note is their first music video, "Frontier Psychiatrist" for Australian sample jockeys The Avalanches. Set entirely on a stage, the video has different goofy costumed actors portraying each sample comprising the track.

"The Avalanches video was done all in one day and was fun for us. We love commercials and it's cool to do the good stuff but it was nice to do something where we generated the idea, with no one to answer to and completely self indulgent," says Kuntz. "We are obviously into the music and there's no Exxon logo at the end of it, and, their brief was they wanted it as fucked up as possible, so it was good to align with them. With this video we were going for "The Gong Show" on acid, or maybe with a fevered nightmare."

The video came into being after several of their treatments had been rejected, including an idea for the thankfully now-defunct Spice Girls involving a singing and dancing pig. In addition to commercials, the pair is planning on adding more videos and another short to their portfolio in 2002.

"We plan on doing more videos but there is never any budget and production companies don't always want to get involved because of this," says Kuntz. "We are planning on doing another short film, not a sequel, but it could have a racial subtext."

Tokyo Breakfast> http://www.hypnotic.com/tokyo