This delightful short film tells a complete story entirely through fake ads

April 12, 2019

Sometimes, the fake ads on Saturday Night Live are the best part of the show. But while the SNL team are experts at mimicking specific ads, or wringing a timely social message out of the format, they clearly do not know the medium as intimately as the commercial directing and producing team Ben and Adam Callner do.

With the short film Adman, the brothers playfully dissect their own trade and rearrange its vital organs into Jackson Pollock splatter art. It’s a surreal narrative piece entirely comprised of fake ads that, together, form a complete story arc. Now, the story itself–a boy-meets-girl yarn, ostensibly set in the ad world–isn’t exactly groundbreaking, beyond the casual handling of its big twist. What’s amazing, though, is the command the Callners have over the visual language, cadence, tonal humor, and overall vibe of various prime-time ads. This film should feel incredibly familiar, even as it descends into the lunacy of an ice cream-based sex act the likes of which you’ve probably never seen.

But if the absurdity is recognizable, so is the manipulative commercialization of human emotions during the “dramatic” scenes–which appears to be the part of an adman’s job I would guess least appeals to the Callners.

Have a look at the whole film below.