Responses by Amir Farhang and Ramy Youssef, directors, Caviar.
Background: Wieden + Kennedy wanted to take a different approach in the second year of that campaign, offering a concession of sorts from NBA player Luka Dončić centered around his internal anthem: “Bad Luka. Nice shoes.” A top-five player for the Lakers who makes no apologies for being one of the baddest on the court, he’s ready to concede that he may be spirited at times, but it’s just who he is—a “sorry not sorry” of sorts. The target is the hardcore young hoopers and enthusiasts of basketball and sneaker culture.
Design thinking: The scripts were already baked. Our job was to bring it to life and dramatize it in a way that felt genuine but also self-aware and not too serious.
Challenges: Trying to lock down a shoot date with Luka as he embarked on a new season . He showed up to camp in shape and locked in, coming back with a fueled resolve to prove that he’s serious about winning. We had to move the shoot date multiple times to let him get his time with all the commitments he has toward readying himself for games, but we were able to adapt to whatever he needed.
Favorite details: The moment where the ref looks up and says, “You know I get defensive.” Anyone who’s followed Luka’s antics with NBA refs knows how funny that is.
Visual influences: We watched a Lifetime movie because we wanted to see a hyper-dramatized narrative that comes off as tongue-in-cheek without drifting into parody. We also worked with director of photography Larkin Seiple, who shot the horror film Weapons, and so there’s a similar look to that film. Weapons was scary but funny at the same time. The look and feel had an ominous undertone, yet still carried a lightness to it.
Time constraints: There were a ton of cameo ideas initially pitched to us, with various actors at different stages of availability. In the end, we landed on the perfect ensemble.