MUMBAI: In continuation of our Throwback Thursday series featuring brilliant ad campaigns from the past, we revisit an ad that sent shivers down viewers’ spines. And that’s not just because the brand it endorsed was called the Dirt Devil.
The TV commercial for the German vacuum cleaner brand was a brilliant spoof on the 1973 cult classic horror The Exorcist – which is touted as the ‘scariest horror film of all time’. The creative recreated in a 90-second spot is based on one of the most iconic scenes from the film. It showcases the seemingly supernatural cleaning power of a Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner, with a hysterical twist in the end!
Client: Dirt Devil
Product: Centrino Cleancontrol Vacuum cleaner
Year released: 2011
Country: German
Production Company: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Copywriter/Art director: Andre Price
Producer: Christian Hergenröther, Andreas Roth
Director: Andreas Roth
Director of Photography: Roland Stuprich
Music/Sound Design: The German Wahnsinn
The brilliance of the advert lies in how the creators manage to link the cleaning accessory brand with The Exorcist. And therein resides the genius of creative brainstorming. Featuring a priest, a possessed girl, and some fantastic atmospheric cinematography, this German commercial is a brilliant ode to the classic film. Plus, the twist in the tale is perfect to a fault- adding the contrasting dose of humour to the terrifying build-up.
Check out the ad below, and even if you have seen it before, it’s sure to make one smile – if not break out into a guffaw – while marvelling at the imagination of its makers. It may even make you want to watch the horror classic again. You have been warned!
The makers later released an extended version of the 90-second ad in 2013. True to its brand name- as they say, the devil lies in the details. The vacuum cleaner commercial reconstructs the sequence with spine-tingling detail, hitting a nerve with generations of horror genre fans. The detailing is so excruciatingly built up with the theatrical atmospherics, the foggy night ambience, the compelling visuals with the spooky house – all accompanied by hauntingly eerie music that develops into a dramatic crescendo- which many viewers felt even surpassed the original!
Just as in the film, the TVC depicts a pastor on a cold night standing in front of an old house bathed in a ghostly light. An old woman opens the door and leads him up a creaky flight of stairs to a room from where blood-curdling screams of a girl can be heard. He hesitantly enters the room, alongside heart-thumping music, and looks at the bed only to find it empty. In a petrifying moment, the camera pans to the ceiling to show the girl stuck to the ceiling. As the horrified man looks on, she is rocked back and forth across the ceiling, seemingly by some unknown paranormal force. The suspenseful sequence lasts for a few terror-filled seconds before the mystery behind it is revealed to the viewers.
In a hilarious twist, the creepy events are followed by a complete reversal of setting: The camera then pans to the floor above, where a jolly old woman with her hair set in curlers is merrily vacuum-cleaning her carpeted floor – resulting in the ‘suction’ of the young lady in the room downstairs to the ceiling. The TVC throws in the cheeky reminder at the viewer “You know when it’s the devil”, underlining the ‘powerful suction capacity of the vacuum cleaner. The ad comically ends with the cleaner’s power being unplugged, and the woman downstairs is heard falling back onto the bed.
The Dirt Devil The Exorcist commercial has been produced with creative and technical finesse that scores high on the entertainment quotient. The product’s power is implemented humorously with a dramatic film showing the young woman being possessed by a different kind of ‘devil’.
The creative, produced by German film school Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg has top-notch camera work, lighting, visual and audio effects, accompanied by good acting, which isn’t something you can say about most commercials. The ad manages to spoof one of the scariest films of all time and get its brand message across, even as it not only catches the attention of the viewer but manages to hold it for over three minutes. If that isn’t an advertising win, then pray what is?
You can watch the extended version of the Dirt Devil – The Exorcist commercial here: