Seems like everywhere you went Monday, talk was centered on the Super Bowl. Not the game; the commercials.
Internet companies may have dominated the small screen throughout Sunday's game, but one of the top comment-catching $2.2 million moments arose from the Mountain Dew ad featuring a mountain bike rider chasing down a cheetah who'd stolen his can of soda.
The stars were none other than Zulu and Shaka, a 21-month-old brother-sister cheetah team from Auburn. Monday, the two felines stalked the perimeter of their Auburn home, oblivious to the attention paid them around the globe for "doing the Dew." For their work, the pair earned enough money to make substantial donations to wildlife conservation programs.
Founder and director Dawn Simas said the commercial was filmed near Los Angeles over a four-day period, not including the "prep days" for the actor to get to know the female cheetah, Zulu. She was selected for close-ups while her less-friendly brother did all the action shots.
Wild About Cats volunteers gathered Sunday to watch the ad's first airing, paying little attention to the Titan-Rams match-up.
"We had a big Super Bowl party and we couldn't give a hoot about football," she said. "We went in the kitchen during the game and ran back to the TV during the commercials."
The cat handlers were pleased with the results but the ending where one of the cat's spots was rearranged to spell "Do The Dew" took them by surprise.
"They must not have liked the original ending," she added.
"I thought it was hilarious," he said. "It was great how the guy hit the front brake and flew off to tackle the cheetah. I was working on a bike and I just started laughing."
The commercial's gross-out moment came when the mountain biker finally caught up to the world's fastest animal and shoved his arm down its throat to retrieve his Dew. Actually, three robotic cheetahs were used--with the Auburn cheetahs as models--for both the take-down and throat-grabbing scenes.
"That ball is the only lure they need," Simas said of the exercise-loving animals. "They did get a meat reward afterward, though."
And there was no fear of Shaka running off into the Southern California desert, either, Simas said.
"They're so focused when they're in predator mode."
Although Simas opted not to disclose the exact amount the foundation earned for the spot, she did say money will be given to conservation projects in the wild benefitting wild cats.
Shaka and Zulu are the only working cheetahs in show biz, Simas believes.
"Most all of them in captivity are in zoos and they're not handleable usually," she said. "These two walk around on leashes."
