Suburban college students finalists for $15K in Chipotle ad contest
The idea came to Chris Darkes in a dream.
He woke up in the middle of the night, jotted down a plan for a new Chipotle commercial, and now it's one of 12 being considered for a national contest.
Darkes, of Schaumburg, is a communications major at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The ad he filmed and stars in with other students is called "Just the Fax." It's set in an office and deals with morning hunger.
Two teams of NIU students are among the finalists in Chipotle Mexican Grill's student advertising contest "30 Seconds of Fame." The winner is expected to be announced Thursday and will win $15,000 for themselves and $15,000 for their university.
If you had flash enabled you would see a video.
var so = new SWFObject("http://www.youtube.com/v/cO_6m6ntLv8", "Just the Fax", "300", "247", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addVariable("wmode", "transparent"); so.write("flashcontent");
"It feel really good to be a finalist," said Darkes, who co-produced the video with Brittany Samson of Huntley, Sara Honchar of Freeport and Joe Giorgi of Rockford.
Laura Vazquez, a communications professor at the college says she's proud of her students.
"Both of the ads which made it to the finals are very clever and well-produced," she said. " We have some very talented students at NIU."
The other commercial, titled, "Lucho Libre" is done as a Spanish soap opera parody.
"I think it's pretty neat to be a finalist," said Kristen Morrison, a senior communication major from Naperville who is on the team.
If you had flash enabled you would see a video.
var so = new SWFObject("http://www.youtube.com/v/MVL0t2erU5E", "Luncho Libre", "300", "247", "8", "#ffffff"); so.addVariable("wmode", "transparent"); so.write("flashcontent2");
Others on the "Lucho Libre" team are Nick Ziolkowski of Carpentersville, Steven Stein of Buffalo Grove, Steve Coughlin of Naperville, Ruben Ramos of Wheeling, Kathryn Panger of South Elgin, Matt Weinstein of Glen Ellyn, Matt Kososki of Downers Grove, Tom Conlon of Joliet and Geoff Maxfield of DeKalb.
Both teams are made up of members of the NIU Student Film and Video Association.
Chipotle sent invitations to several universities to encourage participation in the student video contest, in it's second year. The winner will be chosen based on a review by the company's internal marketing department.
Last year, the company put the winning spot on the big screen in Times Square during the holidays, ran it on TV during the college BCS championship football game and used it in some movie theater advertising.
Although the prize for the winning spot is only the money, Chipotle owns the right to all the commercials and they could be used in any way, said company spokesman Chris Arnold.