An old commercial from Subway (you know, the sandwich place) is going viral because, well, it’s weird as hell and looks like it was shot by Paul Thomas Anderson or something.
The commercial goes for over two minutes and cycles through the life of a boy from birth to… moving out of his family home? I think?
There’s shots of birds flying, a bizarre escapade through some sort of farm, a boy pissing outside (???) and a whole segment that appears to be shot from the perspective of a four-wheel drive in a forest in the dead of night. The hook at the end and the reasoning behind all of this is, apparently, that you get asked a lot of questions in life – but one always sticks out and is very familiar to Subway:
“What are you going to try today?”
In the advertising world, virality is the goal. You want people talking about your product; you want people all around the planet to see your commercial; and you want the company paying you to be really, really happy with the end result.
To live is to suffer. To survive is to find meaning in the suffering. Find meaning with Subway’s®️ new signature flatbread sandwiches™️
— Jules (@Julian_Epp) June 27, 2019
Some people will go their entire marketing careers without a viral hit to their name, thrashing through their lives wondering if this latest project will finally be The One. Of course, all of this relies on the belief that virality can be planned out and manufactured, a train of thought that sometimes comes to fruition but more often than not does not. It’s far more likely that some tween in South Dakota doing a backflip while his parents fight in the background will go viral than your carefully planned campaign for the latest breakfast cereal. The middle ground in all of this is when commercials go viral, often for a reason not entirely planned out.
Enter: Subway.
The footlong empresarios’ newfound wave of attention, all on the back of this bizarre 2016 video, is thanks to the Subway Brazil team.
“This video was created with our team in Brazil in 2016,” said Bob Brown, a spokesperson for Subway.
“We’re excited for the storytelling and creativity that takes place around the world, from this story in Brazil to dedicated Franchisees in the United States and our culinary innovation taking place globally.”
The commercial also went viral largely because it was tweeted by Video Director for SB Nation Ryan Simmons. He says he even trimmed out two seconds of the ad, because there was a full-frame extreme close-up of the mother’s nipple before the baby started breastfeeding.
FAQ:
Q: Is this real?
A: Real as you and me.
Q: Who made it?
A: A firm called Stink (!) out of their Brazil office with director Salsa (?)
Q: Is that a little boy peeing?
A: Yes.
Q: I got it right on the first guess.
A: That’s not a question, and no you did not.— Ryan (@rysimmons) June 27, 2019
I’ll embed the full video below, and just try to imagine when and how Subway will work its way into the scenery amongst clips of women giving birth, horses running through fields, and a boy moving out of his childhood home.
got another capitalism greatest hit. i will give you one hundred thousand dollars if you can guess the brand by the end pic.twitter.com/bwfJJLabg4
— Ryan (@rysimmons) June 27, 2019
