Most fast-food chains have drive-throughs. Not many offer fly-throughs.
To illustrate how quickly customers can pre-order and pick up their balanced breakfasts with a new app, Dunkin' Donuts enlisted the help of wingsuit base jumper Ellen Brennan, who grabs a suspended paper bag of donuts midway through her descent from 8,346 feet ... at 120 miles per hour.
And yet gliding at speeds that most doughy, nebbishy humans would find synonymous with certain death wasn't impressive enough. She also threaded herself through a tiny needle at the same time, in a stunt the marketer says is the first time anyone has successfully grabbed an object during a wingsuit flight.
To be fair, Brennan had a little help. Velcro on the arms of her synthetic flying squirrel suit grabbed onto the special bag, sparing her the trouble of having to coordinate her thumbs (or distract her from her more important mission of staying airborne). But that's hardly the kind of cheat anyone is going to hold against her.
A 360° video shot by one of Brennan's airborne cameramen offers a different perspective on the gorgeous scenery, the Aiguille de Varan in Chamonix, France:
The behind-the-scenes video is an especially fun trip, mostly because it reveals just how hard it was to pull the stunt off. The effort is all the more impressive for the fact that Brennan came so close to hitting the target but failed multiple many times, honing in again and again on a tiny window, rather than just nailing it once.
In contrast, the 60-second commercial, created along with the rest of the campaign by DigitasLBi, almost makes it seem too easy.
As hyperbolic marketing goes, this is on the more entertaining and memorable end of the spectrum (if not as heart-stopping as Felix Baumgartner's base jump from outer space for Red Bull in 2012). It does, though, set the bar awfully high for other Dunkin' customers, especially in terms of style points, as well as for the kind of service the brand's locations will provide to passersby.
Then again, more prosaic consumers will probably have an easier time enjoying their coffee and donuts, as they continue on their respective trajectories, than Brennan did as she hurtled toward the ground.
CREDITS
Client: Dunkin' Donuts
Chief Digital Officer: Scott Hudler
VP, Digital Marketing & Innovation Marketing: Sherrill Kaplan
Senior Director, Advertising & Customer Exp.: Linda SanGiacomo
Senior Manager, Advertising: Christopher Beijar
Advertising Manager: Courtney Clayton
Director of Digital & Innovation Marketing: Paul Murray
Interactive Marketing Manager: Eileen Cawley
Agency: DigitasLBi, Boston
Creative:
Chief Creative Officer: Ronald Ng
Executive Creative Director: Doug Schiff
SVP Creative: Jamie Ferreira
Group Creative Director/Art Director: Mark Chamberlain
Group Creative Director/Copywriter: Marc Gottesman
Associate Creative Director: Mike Egan
Art Director: Brian Noyes
Copywriter: Jason Kaplan
Designer: Jimmy Alleman
VP, Exec. Producer: Ben Raynes
Account:
SVP, Account Director: Julie Blanche
Account Manager: Shayna Lederman
Social:
Lindsay Sutton, Caitlin Hurley
Business Affairs
Executive Director, Business Affairs & Talent: Dan Simonetti
Associate Dir, Business Affairs: Sarra Angelou
Integrated Production:
Kendra Schindler, Andre Ferla, Shayna Lederman
Production Company:
Seven Twenty
Directors:
Guido Perrini
Mark Chamberlain
Cinematographers:
Adrien Nisan
Lauri Aapro
Toby Bradley
Post Production:
DigitasLBi, Boston
VP, Editor: Toar Winter
Editor/Motion Graphics: Annie Lefley
Accomplice, Boston
Editor: Kevin Moore
Mr. Bronx, New York
Soundtrack Boston
Athletes:
Ellen Brennan
Laurent Frat
