Sam Adams and Boston Dynamics Throw a Humans-Robots Party in Super Bowl Ad

Robaaaht paaaahty!

Samuel Adams’ popular (yet irritating) “Cousin from Boston” boogies with rad (yet terrifying) robots in a regional Super Bowl spot.

We’d hoped the anthropomorphic industrial mechs from Boston Dynamics would whup the pitch-bro’s aaahss in preparation for subjugating the rest of humanity. Naturally, nothing violent transpires in the ad from Goodby Silverstein & Partners, which hypes Sam Adams’ Wicked IPA Party Pack with a frenzied bash filmed at BD’s headquarters with zero CGI.

Here’s an extended cut:

That might be the most Baaahston commercial evaaaah made! (To short-circuit the robo-pocalypse, just pass around the brewskies. Good to know.)

Those are some mighty amazing dance moves. From the bots, that is. The cousin, portrayed as always by Greg Hoyt, proves hopeless. BD founder Marc Raibert also appears, along with campaign regular Haas Manning and Boston actress Jennifer Ellen Chase. Aaron Stoller of Biscuit Filmworks directed.

“We knew ‘Your Cousin from Boston’ had to throw a party, so we thought, What’s the craziest party scenario he could get himself into? What’s something the world has never seen before? And then it hit us—Boston Dynamics robots!” GS&P associate creative director A.J. Warren tells Muse.

“It gave them an opportunity to show off some functions they had recently developed, such as dancing side-by-side with human beings, grabbing objects from human beings and carrying kegs,” Warren says. “We even had them playing beer-pong—but that didn’t make the cut for legal reasons with beer-advertising standards,” Warren says.

Those dancing and keg-carry sub-routines should come in handy for warehouse work. Or weekends at the frat-house.

And if robo-pong footage leaks to the web, it’d be a total pissaaaah, just like this teaser, which broke a week ago:

The pup’s called Spot. Little nipper also answers to “Spaaaht” and he’s down with Jimmy Fallon. Atlas performs the backflip and hoists beer barrels, while Stretch bops to the beat.

“These robots are not wheeled onto set and powered on—they walk to set like human beings,” says Boston Dynamics marketing lead Nikolas Noel. During the shoot, “we all waited as Atlas gently walked from behind the director onto set like an A-list actor.”

“Some of the robots’ movements were programmed in advance, but the team also made several live, on-set adjustments, literally typing on their laptops and writing code to guide the robots’ movements at 3 in the morning,” he says. “This spot is all about humans and robots having fun side-by-side. They’re coming together to enjoy a great beer. That’s a future Sam Adams can get behind.”

“Your Cousin From Boston (Dynamics)” follows last year’s regional Super Bowl foray from Sam Adams, with rampaging Clydesdales wreaking havoc among the townies:

CREDITS

Client: The Boston Beer Company
Brand: Samuel Adams
Spot Name: “Your Cousin From Boston (Dynamics)”

Client
Co-Founder and Chairman: Jim Koch
President and CEO: Dave Burwick
Chief Marketing Officer: Lesya Lysyj
Director of Marketing: Matt Withington
Senior Brand Manager: Kelly Bivens
Brand Storyteller: Dave Wells

Agency: Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Creative
Associate Creative Director: AJ Warren
Associate Creative Director: Brett Beaty
Associate Creative Director: Sean Smith
Associate Creative Director: Anthony DiMichele
Senior Copywriter: Craig Shervin
Senior Art Director: David Spradlin

Account 
Account Director: Kate Colantuono
Account Director: Rachel Stermer
Account Manager: Nolan Solis

Brand and Communication Strategy 
Partner, Head of Brand Strategy: Bonnie Wan
Partner, Head of Communication Strategy: Christine Chen
Director of Brand Strategy: Stephanie Bousquet
Director of Communications Strategy: Caitlin Neelon
Senior Brand Strategist: Marisa Perazzelli

Production 
Director of Production: Leila Gage
Executive Broadcast Producer: Matt Flaker

Business Affairs 
Director of Business Affairs: Judy Ybarra
Senior Business Affairs Manager: Chrissy Shearer

Production Company 
Company Name: Buscuit Filmworks
Production Company City: Los Angeles, CA
Director: Aaron Stoller
Partner / Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Prodcer: Mala Vasan
Head of Production: Sean Moody
Director of Photography: Jody Lee Lipes
Production Designer: Alexandra Schaller

Editorial Company  
Company Name: Arcade Edit
Editing Company City: New York, NY
Executive Producer: Crissy Desimone
Editor: Jeff Ferruzzo
Assistant Editor: Eddie Mikasa
Senior Producer: Alexa Atkin

Music and Sound Design Company  
Company Name: Human
Music and Sound Design Company City: New York, NY
Head of Sync and A&R: Kamela Anderson
EP: Carol Dunn
Creative Director: Mike Jurastis

Audio Post Productiom Company  
Company Name: Lime
Audio Post Production Company City: Santa Monica, CA
Audio Mixer: Matt Miller
Audio Assistant: Ian Connie
Senior Producer: Sam Sotomura
Executive Producer: Susie Boyajan

VFX Company  
Company Name: Timber
VFX Company City: Santa Monica, CA
Head of Production: Ryan Dahlman
Flame Lead: Brian Shneider
VFX Supervisor: Aryel Melek-Shalom