Photo courtesy of Alvin Chandra
UR alumni Dave Horowitz ‘95 and Nick Sivakumaran ‘95 have a one-in-ten chance of seeing their Doritos Crash commercial air during Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1.
Online voting for the contest ended Jan. 28 and in addition to the commercial airing for millions to see, the winner will receive $1 million as well as a one-year contract with Universal Pictures.
Horowitz and Sivakumaran worked to shoot the 30-second commercial for Doritos entitled “The Lemonade Stand” in one day, with a budget of only $1200. In the commercial, seven-year-old Addison turns an everyday lemonade stand into a full- on bidding war for a bag of Doritos.
Addison ultimately makes a huge profit, selling the bag of Doritos for 84 glasses of lemonade.
The commercial has already gathered attention and was featured on “The Today Show” earlier in January. Horowitz and Sivakumaran have worked hard to keep fans voting by using the commercial’s Facebook page and Twitter.
Whether or not the commercial wins, the publicity gained from this experience is sure to provide a breakthrough for the two talented alumni.
Sivakumaran summed up his feelings and said, “It’s still such a shock that we’re at the stage we’re at right now.”
Commenting on the obstacles faced during the making of the commercial, both Horowitz and Sivakumaran reflected on different points of the project. Sivakumaran said that finding the perfect girl to star in the commercial, searching for the perfect location and having only one day to shoot were among the most difficult elements of the project. Horowitz added that it was immensely challenging toensure that the commercial was exactly 30 seconds in length.
“You need to tell your story in 30 seconds. You realize just how important every frame is,” Horowitz said.
Neither one of the UR graduates initially showed interest in film during their time at the university. Director Sivakumaran majored in Biology and Psychology on the pre-med track, while producer and editor Horowitz majored in Japanese. Towards the end of their four years, Horowitz and Sivakumaran teamed up to film a commercial for a competition after seeing an advertisement in the Campus Times. The pair won and their commercial was aired on MTV and Comedy Central. From there, Sivakumaran entered the Take Five program to study film and Horowitz enrolled in a New York Film Academy workshop to further pursue his love of film.
Horowitz and Sivakumaran encourage anyone who is interested in film to be proactive and to dive into the industry in any way they can.
Freshman Ben Chomsang commented on the commercial.
“As a student who is interested in film and media production, I am very excited to hear that two UR alumni are a part of the ‘Lemonade Stand’ commercial. For me, our two alumni would definitely [be] […] people whom I look up to.”
Konzel is a member of
the class of 2018.
