Two besuited men fighting in a cafe. Women jumping through plate glass windows, from helicopters and out of buildings. A driver blowing up a stack of TVs in the desert with his car. These are just some of the stunts that were celebrated on Sunday (March 2), not at the 97th Academy Awards, but during the event’s commercial breaks.
The high-octane action appeared as part of an ambitious, six-spot ad stunt that featured Samsung, Carnival Cruise Line, Kiehl’s, L’Oréal Paris and ad-tech firm Mntn. A collaboration between Disney Advertising, Kimmelot and Maximum Effort, the campaign served as an ode to stunt workers and a Los Angeles film community that is still grappling with the aftermath of this year’s wildfires.
“The entire project was a love letter to the stunt community,” said Chris Denison, who served as stunt coordinator for the spots. “A lot of stunt work is behind the scenes, so to have something that was dedicated to the craft and [to be] able to shine a light on on the specific performers was really incredibly special for us.”
ArtClass Content, Empire Stunts, More Media and Really Original provided an assist on the campaign running on Disney-owned ABC. More than 150 crew members, including over 75 stunt performers, from two Los Angeles-based production companies worked on five of the six spots, which were filmed in LA after the recent wildfires. The Carnival Cruise spot was filmed on location in the Dominican Republic, with helicopter jumps completed practically without blue screens.
Storytelling through stunts
The first step in the process of creating the stunt-centric ads involved connecting stunt types to specific brands and their value propositions. The idea was to not overload viewers on the same stunts and storylines. Six fight scenes in a row wouldn’t be compelling, for example.
“The brands that we had come in are all very high-horsepower brands with really compelling products and it was fun to think about the specific components of stunts and how we could apply those to each brand and in a fun way,” Denison said.
The Samsung spots key in on two artificial intelligence-powered features of the company’s Galaxy S25 series smartphones, using the personalized Now Brief feature for a “John Wick”-type fight scene and the Audio Eraser feature to highlight how to remove background noise from footage of a 184-foot stunt drop.
Collaboration between the many agencies and partners involved in the campaign was crucial — especially in the Mntn commercial that brought together stunts and special effects departments — as was the planning necessary to get the “most bang for the buck” out a series of 30-second spots.
“It caused all of us to just be ruthless with the decision making,” Denison explained of the creative process. “It was very cool to strip everything down to its core.”
Perhaps the most understated of the ads speaks to the reality of stunt work the clearest. The spot for Kiehl’s, a 173-year-old brand owned by L’Oréal that had never run a national TV ad before, shows what stunt work is like between takes. The Western-inspired concept evolved from water cooler conversations about the funniest stories the stunt crews had about their work, and demonstrates the value proposition of Kiehl’s Better Screen UV Serum as stunt players are left in their rigs while everyone else on set — including the horses — goes to lunch.
“This is a fun way to shed light on something that can actually happen, but there’s no real jeopardy to being wrapped up in the rig as they were,” Denison noted on the low-impact stunt.
Timing is everything
The timeline for the campaign was accelerated, requiring tight planning and teamwork throughout the process. The production started to pick up speed before Christmas, but when everyone came back to work in January, wildfires began wreaking havoc in the Los Angeles area.
“There were certainly some folks on our crew that were were heavily affected by the fires,” Denison said. “I can’t speak for them, but from what I witnessed, their attitude was one of, ‘Let’s get to work. Let’s show the spirit of Los Angeles is not broken after this giant natural disaster.’”
All together, the production of the six spots serves as another reminder of the resiliency of LA and its creative ecosystem. That spirit was a focus of the Oscars broadcast on Sunday but stunt work was not. There is still no Academy Award for stunts, although many in the film industry have been lobbying for change. The buzzy ad stunt could help continue a conversation recently ignited by films including “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” and “The Fall Guy.”
“We feel that action is a fundamental component of filmmaking, the creativity that goes into it and the meticulous planning and professionalism is, in my opinion, every bit as on par with the other disciplines that are recognized by the Academy,” Denison said. “Nobody who’s an active stunt performer got to where they are through a lack of determination or resilience, so we’re just going to keep advocating for that and and keep doing what we do.”
