Hasta La Creative!

Aaron Paul (of Breaking Bad fame) lends his voice to The Garage/Team Mazda’s latest effort for Mazda, “A Driver’s Life.”

The 60-second ad, which launches a new campaign called “Driving Matters” for the brand, traces the life of a driver, beginning with getting a driver’s license on the second try. A montage of automotive moments are set to a rhyming narrative that is grating and tired in places, but receives a much-needed boost from Paul’s voiceover skills. These include Seussian lines like “First drive, fast livin’—hit the garage door…was forgiven” and traces the evolution from “a roadster, second hand” to “starter,” “mid-size” and “family cruisin,’” and ending with purchasing “something new” that “reminds you of when you were you.” The slightly sentimental spot seems to have struck a chord with viewers, perhaps aided by Paul’s celebrity, gaining almost one million views on YouTube in under a week.

Credits:

Client: Mazda Motor of America
Campaign: Driving Matters
Spot: “A Driver’s Life”

Agency: The Garage/Team Mazda
Chief Creative Officer: Harvey Marco
Creative Director/Copywriter: Steve Morris
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Melissa Webber
Copywriter: Erik Moe
Director of Content Production: Tom Anderson
Senior Producer: Chrissy Hamilton
Group Account Director: Stephanie Kendrick
Account Director: Dave Brown
Planning Director: Ben Chung
Business Affairs Director: Bart Kias

Production Company: RSA
Director: Jake Scott
Director of Photography: Chris Soos
Executive Producer: Tracie Norfleet
Producer: David Mitchell

Editorial Company: Cut+Run
Editor: Steve Gandolfi
Assistant Editor: Sean Fazende
Executive Producer: Carr Schilling
Head of Production: Amburr Farls
Managing Director: Michelle Eskin

Animation/Visual Effects Production: Jogger
Creative Director: David Parker
Animation/End Tag (or logo): Golden
Creative Director: Jake Banks

Colorist: Siggy Ferstl @ Co3
Finish: Jogger
Audio Post: Eleven Sound
Mixer: Scott Burns
Music Company: Human
Composer:
Sound Design: Eleven Sound
Sound Designer: Scott Burns

If a new Xbox One ad gone awry is any indication, the voice-command function on the Microsoft Kinect device is working a little too well for some gamers.

The commercial shows Aaron Paul, best known for playing Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad, using the feature by bossing around an Xbox. But according to complaints on social media sites including Twitter, the spot’s audio accidentally—and amusingly—turns on the consoles of viewers who happen to watch it while in the same room as their voice-enabled Xbox Ones and Xbox Kinects.

“I find it funny when people complain about the kinect sucking and not working,” says one reddit commenter. “By watching this video on my phone Aaron Paul turned on my Xbox. Thanks Aaron Paul.”

The phenomenon appears to be a boon for the brand, generating quite a bit of press for an otherwise straightforward celebrity spot, which now has more than 2.6 million YouTube views since being posted June 5.

Paul, to the disappointment of many a fanboy, does not address the Xbox in the 30-second ad as “bitch,” Pinkman’s hallmark greeting. But the broken-hearted can rest easy knowing all is well in the universe—as he does grace a gaming exec with the title in this longer ad for the brand.

Bryan Cranston, the DEA's No. 1 pain in the ass during his iconic run as meth kingpin Walter White on AMC's Breaking Bad, has been getting some press lately for his early-'80s work in the commercial below for Preparation H (a product that basically defined the Reagan Era). Cranston's earnest take on lines like "It accelerates the absorption of oxygen to help shrink swelling of inflamed hemorrhoidal tissue" is so unironic, it's ironic.

UProxx posted a bunch of his ads from that decade, and Cranston's vaunted range is on full display. He's a smarmy "high-paid fashion model" for JCPenney, a bugged airport runway worker for Deep Woods Off, and a B.O.-cursed bus commuter dressed up as a skunk for Shield deodorant soap. (In some of these, his glib line deliveries and feathered hair remind me of the late, great Phil Hartman.)

Breaking Bad co-star Aaron Paul also did some early commercial work, notably a mind-blowing Juicy Fruit ad with a telekinetic twist from 2000, also posted below. (I wish Paul would shill for Preparation H and coin the catch phrase, "For when it itches, bitches!") On Breaking Bad, Cranston and Paul's characters often escape by the seats of their pants, but with their peril growing as the show winds down to its final episode, it will take more than Preparation H to save them from a painful end.