The way the West was really won

When I was little, I was pretty fascinated with cowboys. I remember my first Western, it was a typical meet-at-dawn-for-a-showdown type of Spaghetti Western. They had guns, they rode horses and they fought the bad guys - this is what my dreams were made of for months to follow. I distinctly recall the cowboys sitting around a campfire preparing baked beans.

This stuck with me.

In college, we received a brief for Heinz Beans. My fond memories of cowboys eating beans sprung up immediately, as I started brainstorming. I came up with the pay-off line, The way the West was really won, for the campaign.

As I didn’t appreciate the art direction for my college hand-in, I decided to redo the ads for my portfolio. I used Adobe Photoshop and InDesign for my endeavour, to truly capture what I had in mind the first time around.

I extended the campaign, adding one more print ad, a TV ad, as well as an online initiative to encourage people to sign up to the Heinz Beans database.

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Television

Open on a small town straight out of a Spaghetti Western. It’s hot and windy, while a tumbleweed is making its way across the street. We see a cowboy standing against a pillar, and then we follow him. Another cowboy is shown resting, sitting with his feet up.

A calm before the storm.

The sitting cowboy is agitated, as he stands up to walk down the street. We show a series of close up shots of the two, focussing on their eyes, boots and hands - adding to the suspense of the duel, while not giving away the actual distance between them.

They stand opposite one another, the cowboys are only revealed in close-ups. Their eyes meet and the mood is tense. The one smirks, the other is startled and tries to draw - but the grinning cowboy gets there first!

We hear no gunshot. The camera zooms out and we hear a can opening. They didn’t duel to the death, but for the tender taste of Heinz Beans.

Online

Online game with three levels, each stage with an upgraded difficulty level. The user must sign up to the Heinz Beans database in order to partake in The way the West was really won online game.

 

In the game, the user will be portrayed by a cowboy - only the hand and pistol will be visible during gameplay (similar to first person shooter games, like Doom).

The user will be competing against other players that are signed in. The aim of the game is to collect as many cans of Heinz Beans as possible, while shooting the duds, within a limited time frame in order to accumulate points.