Walmart wasn’t cool, and they didn’t care. Until they had to fight online competitors like Amazon. Our mission was to elevate the brand so that people wouldn’t be embarrassed if their neighbors saw a Walmart box on their porch.
THE OSCARS - Year one
Walmart was going to the cool kid party. The Academy Awards. And we had three :60 second commercials slots. As we all learned from countless TV shows, if you’re going to the cool kid party, you need a cool friend to go with you. In this case three of the hottest directors in Hollywood. The script? A Walmart receipt.
FAMOUS CARS - Golden Globes/Super Bowl
The brief was to do a spot that demonstrated how grocery pick-up worked. Not an exciting brief, since we’d have to demonstrate the service, and show cars picking up groceries.
We had to show Walmart, which is a big boxy store. And we had to use real employees. So what was left to have fun with? Yup, the cars.
THE OSCARS - Year two
For year two, we needed a new challenge for directors. And three new directors as well. So we decided this year was all about The Box. Each film had to start with a box arriving at a porch from Walmart, the rest of the :60 seconds are up to you. Melissa McCarthy, Dee Rees, and Nancy Meyers signed up to the challenge. Bringing us a coming of age film, a sci-fi thriller and a journey into Hans Zimmer’s mind.
TIME OF MY LIFE
The request was to make a film about value. Saving money by shopping at Walmart. And to do it in a way that was warm and fuzzy. Well, for a spot about being a value store, I have seen a few people cry during it. I’m not crying, you’re crying.