In the realm of added-value advertising, virals continues to hold strong as the industry's favorite tool used to spread the word. But, in a surprising move that bucks the trend, Euro RSCG creatives Israel Garber and Dave Arnold teamed up with Berwyn Editorial, New York to release a behind-the-scenes DVD package for Clearasil's May Cause Confidence campaign, featuring spots directed by Brian Lee Hughes through OPC. Influenced by the style of director Judd Apatow (Superbad, Knocked Up), Season 1: May Cause Confidence Uncut contains over an hour of never-before-seen outtakes from the campaign, which highlights the newly acquired bravado that Clearasil bestows upon its teenaged users.

"If you try to explain [the DVD concept] to a [client], it's too easy for them to say no," says Berwyn founder Scott Gaillard. "It's too easy for them to not see the vision behind the project."

Indeed, it is quite a sell trying to convince a client that the same oddball humor that makes Apatow "the man" among teens can work for an acne brand, and can work well enough that those same teens will want to invest an hour watching funny clips from its ad campaign. But, according to Arnold, this is an idea that you can't pre-sell.

"You just have to do it," he says. "We felt that was the only way to get it approved."

Arnold and Garber approached Gaillard with the minimal footage left over from the shoot and pitched him the idea, which he accepted, putting junior editor Ali Mao to the task of editing together the piece.

After it was completed, the team presented it to Clearasil, who approved the idea and subsumed the costs.

Boards spoke further with Garber and Arnold about the project:

Boards: It's a curious idea, taking a broadcast campaign into DVD format. Why did you decide on this route?

Israel Garber: We never looked at the creation of the commercials as "commercials". We approached the development of the stories as moments in the "short independent film" of May Cause Confidence. This way our thinking was always coming from the codes of modern film production.

We knew we wanted to do more with the content, but the DVD was decided after production as a compelling, untraditional route we would pursue completely on spec.

Boards: Were there other routes that you considered?

Dave Arnold: Drive-in theaters were high on the list. We basically wanted to own the outerweb, but because of budget constraints we had to settle on a DVD.

Boards: How/where will the DVD be distributed?

IG: It was distributed in LA, Chicago and New York over Memorial Day to over 10,000 teens.

DA: We also have a guy named Hernan, who is currently selling bootlegged copies in downtown Miami.

Boards: What does the DVD offer that's different from the campaign?

DA: More content, really. We didn't go into shooting the first campaign with the idea to make a DVD. Once the project was well received we decided to look through all the film and video we had for the funniest moments. I think that kept everything honest and real, not some fake blooper gag you shoot knowing you will need to fill up space later.

Boards: Do you have plans to extend the DVD concept further? A second season, possibly?

DA: We would love to put free DVDs in NetFlix teen comedy envelopes. If anyone at NetFlix is reading this give us a call.

Boards: What were some of the challenges working on this project?

IA: As always, it's deciding what is funny. What is "you had to be there" funny vs. "that shit is funny...play it again."

Webfiles
Euro RSCG> www.eurorscg.com
Berwyn Editorial> www.berwynny.com