[kia motors - 2004]
behind the scenes
We filmed in the swamps of the West Bank in New Orleans. You'll notice the short sleeve shirt I'm in. Doesn't look 40 degrees out, does it?
You'll also notice the three-foot alligator I'm holding. Sure, it was in the script (the sides, as they say in the commercial world), but I was still a little surprised when the handlers showed up with an ice chest full of alligators. Their snouts are usually taped shut for safety reasons. I say usually, because when they handed me the thing, it was untaped. "The director says you could see the tape on camera," the handler says. "You OK with this?"
Seeing as how I already had the alligator, I say, "sure, why not." Black, always eager to make things more interesting, bats it on the nose a few times. "That there makes him open his mouth, yeah."
Despite his help, I still have all my fingers. And by now, I am a minor celebrity in Canada.
UPDATE: Kia has temporarily stopped running this commercial because they actually sold out of Sportages up north. Now THAT'S HOW TO ADVERTISE A CAR, BABY!
A few years back, the Canadian branch of Kia Motors came down to Louisiana looking for an actor that could sell a car in Cajun. They found one Black Guidry, a swamp tour guide from Houma, but he wasn't an actor... he was the real deal. The commercial aired in the U.S. but didn't do so hot, because outside of Louisiana, people would rather see a hot chick in a car commercial than some Cajun guy. But in Canada it took off because that's where Cajuns come from. Took off so much so, in fact, that they came back down here to find him for a second round of commercials. "You got this job," Black guffaws to me the first day, "because of me, cher."