Furlined and The Martin Agency Team Up Again For Walmart's 'Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' Advertising Campaign

Walmart's video gamers, "Nick and Steve," bring the next iteration of their video game rivalry onscreen to tout Activision's much-anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 midnight release. Airing this week, the 0:30 second commercial 'Garage' and webisodes on walmart.com/MW2 tell the story of Nick and Steve -- who can't stop competing with each other - as they try to beat the game and eliminate each other in the process. They rib each other mercilessly over the phone, while playing from their respective homes and keeping close tabs on each other.

Furlined director Brian Aldrich continues the storytelling on the Web in the viral campaign with (12) short films, each giving an inside glimpse of Nick or Steve's world and their gaming cheats: Nick's special commando action figure mascot as mentor, Steve's ploy to buy his wife flowers to free up more gaming time, Nick faking sick at work and Steve strategizing about how best to get to Walmart, and more. The webisodes were co-directed with Joe Alexander, creative director at The Martin Agency, who has brought in Aldrich to execute a number of projects from The Martin Agency.

Aldrich shows off his strength in casting and performance with 'Garage,' building on the characters created by The Martin Agency in last year's 'Madden 09' spot for Walmart and Activision, also directed by Aldrich. 'Madden 09' quickly reached number one video on FunnyOrDie.com and proceeded to take over viewers on YouTube, GameTrailers and BuzzCuts, while Nick and Steve reached near celebrity status at the Rose Bowl's Maddenpalooza Festival.

"Based on last year's popularity, Activision and Walmart asked for a sequel with the same gamers," said Joe Alexander. "Brian brings the character subtleties to life in a very funny way, providing insight into Nick and Steve's personalities in just a few nuances and comments. These are regular guys who aren't just people that engage the viewer, but actually are the viewer," explains Alexander.

Behind the scenes, Aldrich took a non-traditional approach to shooting 'Garage' and 'Madden 09' by using two cameras simultaneously, one at each location built out for Nick and Steve. The result is an authenticity between the actors as the flow of conversation is unfolding.

"I took a simple idea and complicated it," explains Aldrich. "We set up a situation to catch the natural chemistry and nuances from the performance. Using two cameras maintained a natural flow that continued all the way through the edit."

Production Company: Furlined Director: Brian Aldrich Executive Producer:George Meeker Agency:The Martin Agency Creative Director:Joe Alexander Creative Supervisor:Adam Stockton Senior Copywriter: Trent Patterson Executive Producer: Brett Alexander Producer: Darbi Fretwell Editorial Company:Beast Editor: Adam Svatek

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