The spot needed to feature six items—three priced at $3, three at $2. It’s simple in principle but surprisingly challenging to explain.

There obviously wasn’t enough time to call out all six products, so we leaned on visuals and supers to get that information across, while using an original song to emphasize the offerings and, of course, get a joke in there.

In this spot, we put a tot on a $3 bill and named him Totty Roosevelt.

This was very personally fulfilling for me.

This brief was four-pronged:

1. Introduce people to Sonic’s new 2 for $5 menu

2. Show someone using the Sonic App

3. Create assets that could easily adapt to a rotating menu

4. Highlight the variety in Sonic’s menu

The key here was a modular approach that would allow us to sub in new products as the value menu changed throughout the year.

We filmed the food items in a studio and were still able to showcase the app and highlight variety by telling a story about that one friend who can never make up their mind.

For the new 2 for $7 value menu, Sonic asked us to create video assets by re-cutting food footage we’d shot in previous quarters—in other words, there was no budget.

At the time we got this brief, Sonic was looking at ways they could lean into the brand’s fun summertime vibe. Meanwhile, we were itching to get the food out of that sterile studio environment. So, we pitched the clients a compromise: a super lean, one-day shoot

We shot the menu items at a Sonic restaurant built on a soundstage with some blurry people in the background (read: no OCPs). Combined with existing food footage, some fresh VO scripts, and a budget-friendly track, it was a low-lift, low-cost production that yielded a suite of television spots with a shiny new look and energy.