ANZ Special: Peter Carstairs

Despite tough competition from the likes of Puppymonkeybaby and Heinz's stampeding sausage dogs, the breakout star of the Super Bowl this year was undoubtably a Doritos-loving foetus.

A finalist in the last-ever Doritos Crash the Super Bowl competition, Ultrasound might have missed out on the grand prize, but the spot's director Peter Carstairs got the last laugh when it became the most shared commercial of the event, garnering global media attention and whipping up a Twitter storm thanks to its 'controversial' subject matter.      

As part of our ANZ special, the Aussie native (and former lawyer) tells shots about making Super Bowl history and how he keeps a sense of perspective.  

You originally trained as a lawyer, how did you get into directing?

I’ve been directing drama for years but I’ve only been directing commercials for 2 years. And yeah, before I went to film school, I did a law degree. So when I was working in long form drama, I used to sometimes work as a lawyer in between jobs. But I don’t any more, thank God!

How and when did you come up with the idea for Ultrasound and what were the main challenges involved with making the spot?

I approached the guys at Cummins + Partners not just to write the script but also to partner with me on devising the concept. I love Heath [Collins] and Liam [Jenkins] as creatives and I knew they’d be a great fit for the boldness of the brand. And I was right! It aslo seemed like the right thing to do because Jim [Ingram] and Cuz [Ben Couzens] actually gave me my first ever job two years ago.

The biggest challenge was to craft an ending that, on the one hand, honoured the completely outrageous idea but that, on the other hand, did it in a way that would be palatable to a broad audience. Let’s not forget the miracle of childbirth can be very confronting!

It must have been disappointing to miss out on Doritos’ grand prize, but was there some comfort in the fact that firstly you made history for having the first Australian commercial at the Super Bowl, and secondly that Ultrasound emerged as the most popular commercial of Super Bowl 2016?

I was disappointed for about a day. Then, when all the surveys started coming in, and we ended up as the most popular commercial of the Super Bowl it became clear that we were going to win the big game. We ended up ranking as the most popular, most engaging and most shared ad of Super Bowl (from a total of 70 spots) according to the NY Post, Adnews, Adweek, Adforum, and Unruly to name a few. We were even ranked third on the USA Today Admeter (which, to be honest, is not a great measure as it’s not a survey and can be totally manipulated by agencies and their networks getting behind their spots).

At the time of writing, Ultrasound is also being aired in the US right now (while Dogs isn’t). Go figure… And online, it’s been a total smash. The day before the game it had had over 65million views on Facebook and Youtube. And at last count, it’s now had close to 100 million views. So, yes, we didn’t win the Doritos prize but I like to think we won the grand prize.  Sans a million dollars, it really could not have gone better!

What was your reaction to the Twitter controversy surrounding the spot [pro-choice group NARAL accused Doritos of being ‘anti-choice’ for ‘humanising’ the foetus; other commentators claimed it promoted abortion]?

It was a surprise that both the pro choice and the anti-abortion movements jumped on it to further their causes. I’m not sure how that’s even possible but apparently it is in America! At the end of the day, I just put it in perspective. Ultrasound has been seen by well over 200 million people and one group posted something silly on Twitter and suddenly the media say there’s a ‘controversy’. Truth is, it’s not a controversy. 99.9% of people who saw it understood it’s a piece of entertainment, not based in the real world, and it’s really funny. That’s all there is to it.

Sadly, I don’t think NARAL furthered their cause by overreaching the way they did – they received an immense amount of criticism (which is what most of the tweets were i.e. pro-lifers bashing NARAL and vice versa). The whole thing did, however, give me a first hand insight into how deeply divisive the issue of abortion is in the US and how vitriolic the argument can get. I personally think it reflects the way the US is deeply divided in its thinking generally. It’s like there are two very different countries. One is in 2016 and the other is on planet WTF.

Have you had a lot more scripts coming your way since the Super Bowl? What are you working on right now?

Yes, I’ve had a lot more scripts coming my way since the Super Bowl and am currently looking for representation in the US and Europe.  I’ve also signed with a big theatrical agency so am being sent feature scripts too. Amazing. Right now I’m travelling and also pitching on a big comedy for a well-known car brand.  And reading some feature films.

Which Australian brand would you love to direct a commercial for and why?

There are a LOT! But if I had to pick one, I think the brand that consistently makes great story and comedy spots here is AAMI Insurance. They’re funny and the writers create strong, on-going character relationships, and they rarely get it wrong. They’re always emotionally satisfying in one way or another. But I’ve never pitched on one… So Lenna Boland et al, if you’re reading, let me know when you’re ready to send me that AAMI campaign...