shots 20th: 2001 - Stars buckled up with BMW

The debut of the BMW films from Fallon Minneapolis in 2001 saw a sea change in the way agencies and clients thought about and approached advertising and, specifically, branded content.

Fallon – working on the first round of films with David Fincher and Anonymous Content, and subsequently with Ridley Scott at RSA – created eight short films over two years that were helmed by some of the world’s most celebrated directors including Ang Lee, John Woo, Wong Kar-Wai and the late John Frankenheimer. Starring the ever-suave Clive Owen as The Driver and initially available only on the internet, before the internet was an established advertising destination, the shorts were the springboard for Dan Wieden to establish the Titanium Lion at Cannes Lions in 2003.

Hugely expensive to make but hugely popular, there was such demand for the films that BMW decided to launch them on DVD too, eventually releasing a number of differing compilations and making them available in BMW showrooms. Jim McDowell, vice president of marketing for BMW North America at the time, said of the work: “The Hire was an unprecedented example of media convergence that both pushed and crossed boundaries. We had no idea how successful it would be since we were going into uncharted territory when we started the project. In the end, [it] far exceeded any of our expectations.”

The campaign won at a clutch of advertising shows including The One Show, The Clios and at Cannes and set new boundaries for what could be done with advertisers. The BMW films led the way in establishing advertising as entertainment.

They forced people to seek out what was essentially a 10-minute commercial and made the advertising industry rethink its approach for the 21st century.

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