Reggie Watts Takes a Long, Strange Trip to Introduce Google Stadia

“What’s Stadia?”

The short answer is: It’s Google’s new cloud-based platform that lets users play popular console games on their computers. But Reggie Watts, appearing in Omelet’s jokey, visually exhilarating launch spot for the product, doesn’t trade in short answers. 

No, siree. Instead, the comedian and musician extolls Stadia’s attributes for two full minutes in vivid, compelling detail, leading viewers through an eye-popping, mind-melting, not-so-serious odyssey of Kurbrickian proportions.

“Stadia is only the newest, most logic-defying, mind-bending, absurd gaming platform on Earth,” he tells some dude who wanders into his consumer electronics shop. 

That’s when campy cosmic winds start to howl and both men rise into a freaky-fantastical dimension. 

“Forget boxes,” says Watts. “Forget consoles. Just your games, your screens and electric air. And this electric air is Stadia!” 

Iconoclast directing duo Vania & Muggia generate a realm of absurd wonders replete with astronauts, a giant hand, an otherworldly nightclub, rafting excursions through game-worlds … and a cute mutt who will never retrieve Stadia, because Stadia has no smell. 

It’s fun stuff that exhaustively explains Stadia’s mission in an unexpectedly compelling way. Alas, there’s no monolith, but that morphing game-controller is really all you need.

“As lifelong gamers, we immediately understood the change that Stadia brings to gaming,” Omelet creative director Josh Smutko tells Muse. “Leaning into the absurdity of it, talking about turning games into air you can play, was something we found early and got very excited about.” 

As for the selection of Watts, “we wanted someone both brilliant and absurd, someone who’s talented, a creator, entertaining and approachable, someone who signals the future in a self-aware and humble way,” says agency creative chief Mike Wallen. “Reggie is basically Stadia personified, and he’s also a gamer himself.” 

Smutko adds: “At the end of the day, the brief wound up being focused on driving and connecting with internet and gaming culture,” with the resulting wild ride “more about going to the source material and participating in the creation of culture, rather than chasing or copying the most viral bits of it.”

CREDITS

Google Stadia:
Rick Osterloh, SVP, Devices and Services
Adrienne Hayes, VP Marketing, Mobile and Wearable Hardware
Phil Harrison, Vice President and General Manager, Stadia
John Justice, Vice President Product Management, Stadia
MJ Johnson, Marketing Director, Gaming
Xanthe Wells, Executive Creative Director, Devices & Services
Christian Haas, Global Creative Director
Christine Lindemann, Head of Production, Global Hardware Brand Team
Jayme Figueroa, Brand Marketing Manager, Gaming
Gage Clegg, Integrated Creative Lead
Tim Guy, Creative Lead, Brand Expression
Michael Gross, Senior Creative Producer
Jake Pearce, Consumer Marketing Manager, Gaming
Joe Haldeman, Producer
Maggie Beane, Associate Producer

Omelet:
Thas Naseemuddeen, CEO
Mike Wallen, Chief Creative Officer
Josh Smutko, Creative Director
Raul Montes, Creative Director
Tiffany Lam, Associate Creative Director, Art Director
Ernesto Campabadal, Associate Creative Director, Copywriter
Sarah Crum, Jr. Copywriter
Darryl Hagans, Executive Producer
Gerry Romero, Producer
Pete Talaba, Chief Strategy Officer
Riley Strand, Senior Strategist
Jesse Sinkiewicz, Sr. Business Affairs Manager
Andrew Krensky, Managing Director
Rafik Massoud, Sr. Brand Manager
Anthony Fernandez, Brand Manager
Jazmin Waters, Brand Coordinator

Iconoclast:
Vania Heymann , Director
Gal Muggia , Director
Caroline Pham, Executive Producer
Richard Weager, Producer
Ian Craig, First AD
Joe Thornber, Production Manager
Menno Mans, Director of Photography
Tal Baltuch, Creative Assistant

Unit + Sofa:
Bára Wochnerová, Production Manager
Tereza Kalová, Producer

Exile (Editorial):
CL Weaver, Executive Producer
David Won, Producer
Lorin Aakill, Editor
Nate Gross, Editor
Mitch Goldberg, Editor

Framestore (VFX):
James Razzall, President
Bethan Thomas, Director of Production & Operations
James Rogers, VFX Supervisor
Cat Pavitt, VFX Producer

Lime Studios (Sound):
Susie Boyajan, Executive Producer
Rohan Young , Sound Design and Mix
Loren Silber, Audio Mixer
Matt Miller, Audio Mixer

Music:
“Dream Weaver” by Gary Wright
High Wave Music and Universal Music Publishing

Walker (Music):
Sara Matarazzo, Executive Music Producer
Stephanie Pigott, Executive Music Producer
Danielle Soury, Music Producer

BTS Photography:
Maxim Stano, On-Set Photographer