Vauxhall Muddy Boots Ad

It was a pleasure to work on this great ad for Vauxhall cars, for their Crossland X model. Early on in the process, Zak Emerson (the director) had proposed the idea of using the Flanders and Swann classic, The Hippopotamus Song (aka Mud, Glorious Mud). 

The advert focuses on a group of parents picking their kids up from a rugby game, many of them appalled at the muddy state of them and not wanting to let them into their precious vehicles. But our ‘hero’ owns a Vauxhall and, you know, lives for the moment, so just bundles her muddy kid into the back without a care in the world (and of course the car still looks immaculate anyway!)

I worked with the team to produce a new arrangement of the piece timed to the commercial… we tried a few different ideas including using a clunky school orchestra sound, but they ended up with quite a grand orchestral version which we recorded with a large (50 piece?) orchestra in Angel Studios (which sadly closed down last year). The session was conducted by the lovely Alastair King, who I’ve worked with on several projects now, including The White Princess and Emma.