Several years ago, Ford of Europe produced a commercial for a then-new coupe called the Puma. In the spot, Steve McQueen's image was digitally removed from the Bullitt footage and digitally placed into the Puma so that it appeared he was "driving" it through San Francisco. At the end, he backs the Puma into a garage right next to his "old" '68 Mustang and a motorcycle resembling the one in "The Great Escape." He then gets out of the car and he and everything else in the garage except the Puma fade away. The tag line on the screen was "Puma. A Driver's Dream."
The ad won several awards and did show up in the U.S. on one of the "Best Foriegn Commercial" specials. It was very convincing and it was amazing how well they pulled off the effect. Every shot had to be matched just so. As an example, when he backs the Puma into the garage, we see McQueen stick his head out the window to look rearward. That was the shot of him doing the same in the Mustang after overshooting the turn at Larkin and Chestnut.
Great, right? Why not use the same technique to advertise the Mustang, as was suggested here? It would cost a small fortune. That 1997 Puma spot is estimated to have cost over $1,000,000 by the time they were done: Six days of location shooting in San Francisco; rights to Steve McQueen's image; rights to use the Bullitt footage from Warner Brothers; rights to the Lalo Schifrin music; etc...it all adds up. Given Ford's current financial situation and the Mustang's relatively low volume, it would be unlikely they could pull it off.
The Puma commercial is somewhere on the web, but I don't have the link anymore.
Dave Kunz
'68 Bullitt replica
The ad won several awards and did show up in the U.S. on one of the "Best Foriegn Commercial" specials. It was very convincing and it was amazing how well they pulled off the effect. Every shot had to be matched just so. As an example, when he backs the Puma into the garage, we see McQueen stick his head out the window to look rearward. That was the shot of him doing the same in the Mustang after overshooting the turn at Larkin and Chestnut.
Great, right? Why not use the same technique to advertise the Mustang, as was suggested here? It would cost a small fortune. That 1997 Puma spot is estimated to have cost over $1,000,000 by the time they were done: Six days of location shooting in San Francisco; rights to Steve McQueen's image; rights to use the Bullitt footage from Warner Brothers; rights to the Lalo Schifrin music; etc...it all adds up. Given Ford's current financial situation and the Mustang's relatively low volume, it would be unlikely they could pull it off.
The Puma commercial is somewhere on the web, but I don't have the link anymore.
Dave Kunz
'68 Bullitt replica
