Coca-Cola ad made by BYU students wins film competition, will screen at theaters
Apr 20, 2024, 6:00 AM
A crew made of up BYU students films a Coca-Cola branded advertisement at the Thanksgiving Point Megaplex on Feb. 23. (BYU)
(BYU)
PROVO, Utah — An ad for Coca-Cola made by BYU students may be showing at your local movie theater sometime soon.
The ad, made by BYU advertising students Adam Sheets and Destinee Neville and their team, received the 2024 Red Ribbon Grand Prize of the Coca-Cola Refreshing Films contest on April 11.
The ad, titled “Signs of Friendship,” will be showcased at Cinemark, AMC Theatres, Megaplex, Cineplex Cinemas and Landmark Cinemas.
“Working together with Coca-Cola Refreshing Films has truly been the opportunity of a lifetime,” Sheets said. “I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of the BYU AdLab, which gives us these kinds of unique, real-world opportunities to work with industry-leading brands and empowers us to follow our dreams.”
The AdLab is a student-run, professionally mentored ad agency in BYU’s School of Communications.
READ MORE: After 40 years, Payson High bringing home Bacon
The Coca-Cola contest is for company-partnered schools to give upcoming filmmakers the chance to create content for the silver screen. The program is celebrating its 26th year of fostering talent and providing real-world opportunities for students.
The AdLab’s Coca-Cola script was picked to be one of four finalists out of the 60 schools that participated in the contest. After earning a finalist spot for the script they wrote, the BYU students and the other finalist teams received a $20,000 grant to use to create their ad.
More than 50 BYU students worked overnight filming at the Thanksgiving Point Megaplex in February to bring their vision to life. The students got to work with Coca-Cola while creating the branded spot.
“You learn as much as you can from textbooks, but having a real-world experience was unlike anything I could have otherwise prepared myself for,” Neville said. “There are hundreds of details I know how to address and juggle now — there is a workflow I know how to stay on top of. I know how to get in sync with a brand so we can create something together as a team.”
Read the full story from KSL.com here.
