Pringlelina: A Love Story

• Agency: BBDO
• Client: Pringles U.S.
• Category: Video Design — Short Film
• Location: New York City, New York, United States
• Project Brief: Craft a video telling a brand story through humor, character-driven narrative, and unexpected comedic moments.

A man builds a life-sized woman out of Pringles chips. He takes her on dates. He slow-dances with her in his apartment. The short film treats this premise with complete sincerity, and that's what makes it funny.

BBDO shoots "Pringlelina: A Love Story" like a romantic drama. Warm amber lighting, shallow depth of field, soft focus through curtains. The apartment looks like a Wes Anderson set dressed by someone having a breakdown. The man gazes at Pringlelina the way people gaze at each other in perfume ads. The production value is doing the comedy's heavy lifting because no one on screen acknowledges that any of this is strange.

The tonal pivot is the payoff. A roommate's untimely arrival knocks Pringlelina over. Chips scatter across the floor. The man drops to his knees, devastated. But he still picks up a single chip and eats it. The music cuts. The romantic score that carried the entire first act disappears, and what's left is a man on a floor eating the remains of his date. 

The ad works because it commits to one joke for the entire runtime and never winks at the camera. The man's devotion is played straight. The cinematography is played straight. The only thing that isn't straight is the premise, and that gap between tone and content is where all the humor lives.

BBDO understood that the funniest version of this ad is the one that takes itself the most seriously.