Super Bowl Ad $1 Million Prize Could Go to $200 Commercial: Watch Funny Ads Here (VIDEOS)
A Super Bowl ad $1 million prize could go to a man that made his commercial for only $200. Raj Suri has been entering the Doritos' annual Super Bowl advertising contest for four years and has finally cracked the top five as a finalist with a spot that was quite inexpensive.
The Super Bowl ad $1 million prize is offered every year by Doritos and thousands of submissions pour in from 30 countries, with just two slated to play during the big game— only the ad with the most votes gets the cash prize, though. Raj Suri's ad "Time Machine," which shows a little boy tricking a man out of his Doritos, has been selected as a finalist, and the Arizona software engineer couldn't be happier.
"It's been a crazy couple of days," he told Patch.com. "My phone has been blowing up; I cannot keep up."
39-year-old Raj Suri and his friend, director Ryan Anderson, met at a film festival four years ago and began trying every year to win the Doritos contest. The pair managed to have such low filming costs by shooting the commercial at Anderson's Arizona home and using his 6-year-old son Gavin as an actor.
"It's really rewarding because every year we've honed our craft," Suri told The Baltimore Sun. "When you put time and energy into something and you learn and get better, it's just very satisfying."
Suri, Anderson and the other finalists will be flown to the Super Bowl in the Doritos suite and there they will find out which two commercials are played and which one wins the grand prize. Doritos picks one winner for the $1 million, while the other is chosen by online voting, which ends Jan. 29.
The competition is stiff, though. Suri and Anderson are up against a similar commercial, "Cowboy Kid," which features another cute kid riding a dog to snatch some Doritos. There are two ads that take place in an office— an employee is being accused of stealing the chips in both cases— and another particularly disgusting ad involving a Doritos "finger cleaner" that could make viewers cringe with laughter.
Whether he wins or not, Suri is simply excited to be among the finalists for something he made.
"It's humbling," he said. "It really is. Win or lose, we created something spectacular."
Vote for the finalists at Doritos.com.