Hasta La Motion!

Mercedes is running “The Big Race”, an integrated advertising campaign associated with the 2015 Super Bowl, featuring Aesop’s fable characters Tortoise and Hare. Mercedes has been building interest in the campaign over the weeks leading up to the big game, with teasers featuring former football player Jerry Rice. Mercedes has also rolled out a social extension that includes Twitter accounts for the Tortoise and the Hare and a call for viewers to show their support by tweeting either #TeamTortoise or #TeamHare. Online at bigrace.com, the campaign is designed to promote the 2016 Mercedes-AMG GT S.

Rice discusses who will win the race between the Tortoise and the Hare with eight-year-old and “pet rabbit owner” Andrew Hunter.

On this segment of Showdown with Jerry Rice, Stephanie Branton, Playboy’s Miss September 2014, predicts that the Hare will win on game day, and she’s got the evidence to back it up.

On this edition of Showdown with Jerry Rice, Jerry brings in the Tortoise for a phone interview. Unfortunately, the phone line isn’t exactly “secure.” Nothing’s going to stop the Hare from having his say.

Mike & Mike in the Morning debate who will win in The Big Race between the Tortoise and the Hare. “Greenie” loves a good underdog story, while Golic favors reality over storybook endings.

Fable Credits

The Mercedes Big Race campaign was developed at Merkley + Partners and Razorfish by executive creative director Andy Hirsch, group creative director Chris Landi, associate creative director/art director Kirk Mosel, art director Jenna Lowy and copywriter Gregory Kissler, and broadcast production director Gary Grossman, senior producer Alex Kobak and agency producer Chris Coccaro.

Animation of the Mercedes Big Race commercial was produced by director Robert Stromberg via RSA Films with director of photography Paul Cameron, executive producer Tracie Norfleet, line producer Alejandra Quesada and production designer Jan Roelfs.

Editor was Steve Gandolfi at Cut & Run, New York, with executive producer Raná Martin, producer Ellese Jobin, and assistant editor Stacy Peterson.

Visual effects and grade were produced at MPC New York by VFX managing director Justin Brukman, VFX executive producer Camila De Biaggi, VFX senior producer Victoria Lovejoy, VFX supervisor/3D Lead Chris Bernier, creative director/2D lead Alex Lovejoy, lead animator Graeme Revell, colorist James Tillett, VFX team Carl Fong, Jonathan McKee, Gigi Ng, Jacob Fradkin, Tyler Cole, Andres Weber, Tiago Dias, Charlotte Bae, Angela Carafas, Reginald Emvula, Emma Taylor, David Estis, Carolyn Figel, Kelly Bruce, Andrew Montague, Dan Fine, Anthony Patti, Danica Parry, Lee Wolland, Lukas Wadya, Michael Nieves, Ross Scroble, Bill Burg, Anderson Ko, Sean Curran, Anthony Traviesco, Chloe Dawe, Carlos E. Flores, Jimmy San, Irene Kim-Ahiska, ShuChen Lin, Cody Chen, John Patterson, Martin Boksar, Chris Gereg, Brian Houlihan, Nick Tanner, Ajai Verghese John, Akshay Wadwalkar, Manjunath Ramakrishna, Sumesh Chammancheri, Vittal Kuntla, Bibin Balan P., Minju Thottiparambil Sukumaran, Pritesh Krishnappa Kotian, Raju Ganesh S., Inigo Vimal Roy, Debalina Dasgupta, Amlan Manna, Ankan Sanyal, Allwyn Lopes, Debashish Raha, Jacob Oommen, Elangovan Ganeshan, Ganesh Kumar S., D. Venkatesan, Dheeraj Hebbar, Amresh Kumar, Raj Kumar R., S Rajesh, Shalwin Shaiju, Vikram Kumar Singh, Sachin Suresharo Dhapudkar, Swarup Kumar Panigrahi, Rajkumar C., S. Sundaramoorthy, Vinoth Kumar.

Sound was designed by Bill Chesley at Henryboy and mixed by Philip Loeb at Heard City. Music was produced at Woodwork Music.

Teaser Credits

Filming for the teasers was shot by director Greg Popp via Supply & Demand with managing partner Tim Case and Charles Salice, executive producer Jeff Scruton, head of production Rika Osenberg, producer Henri Dragonas, director of photography Mark Plummer.

Post production was done at ODD-NY by creative director Gary Breslin, head of production Matthew Turke, producer Bennett Lieber.

Editor was Georgia Dodson at Cut & Run with executive producer Jeane Lane. Colourist was Chris Ryan at Nice Shoes.

Sound was mixed at Sound Lounge by Seth Phillips.