Carroll Trosclair's Blog

Agencies for Burger King, Stove Top and other companies demonstrated in 2008 just how far the industry will go to be different.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky of Miami sent an expensive production crew 20,000 miles to rural areas of the world for Burger King’s "Whopper Virgin" ads. According to The Telegraph of London, the crew used "13 planes, two dog sleds and one helicopter" to find unbiased "whopper virgins" in Greenland, Thailand and Romania. They even brought their own hamburger cooking equipment. We may never know how much they spent just producing the commercials and accompanying documentary. See "Whopper Virgins."

Heated roofs were installed in 10 downtown bus shelters to help illustrate the warm feeling that Kraft’s Stove Top stuffing can give you.

Microsoft reportedly spent millions to get Jerry Seinfeld to co-star in a series of commercials with Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Imagine what those two would cost on the open talent market.

Victoria's Secret

Victoria’s Secret went beyond a few 30-second commercials. It produced a 43 minute televised style show to illustrate how little clothing it could show on million dollar models.

Coca Cola’s 2008 Super Bowl commercial illustrated how much more freedom that agencies now have in producing commercials. The telelvision spot featured three huge balloons breaking away from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and chasing an equally-large balloon Coke in the skies above Manhattan. The commercial probably would have been impossible, or at least tremendously expensive, to produce without computer graphics, which have opened a whole new world of possibilities for advertisers.