Valtteri Bottas is a ravishing Formula One driver and Bose sponsored athlete from Finland. Race fans know he can drive fast as hell when he’s behind the wheel of a rocket-powered car, but what about helming the controls of a more “dynamic” vehicle?
Enter the New England Patriots’ defensive duo (and identical twins) Devin and Jason McCourty and their trusty Boston duck boat, “Faneuil Holly.”
Instead of rolling around town in Bottas’ brand new Mercedes-Benz GLS, the twins took him on a VIP tour through the streets of Boston in a duck boat — the official vehicle of every one of the city’s 11 championship parades since the year 2000. Once the land portion of the tour was over, it was time for a showdown on the Charles River, with the twins putting Bottas’ world-class racing skills to the test in a duck boat versus duck boat battle on the water. The Finnish Flash took home the title in dramatic fashion, but there were no losers on this day, as the three athletes formed a bond and a friendship that will surely last a lifetime.
Or at least until Bottas left for the airport and for the United States Grand Prix race that took place later that week.
Looking back, this was a whirlwind of a project that could have only come together with an amazing amount of coordination and collaboration from all parties. From our team concepting and securing the duck boat tour and race, to Bose running point on the logistics of getting sign off from all the involved parties (Mercedes-Benz, F1, NFL, New England Patriots), this was truly a team effort. Add in that we had approximately three hours to shoot multiple locations throughout the city, both on land and water, and this ended up being just the kind of project we love to work on. It’s easy to pull off a shoot with tons of time, minimal logistical challenges and a budget that allows for multiple seafood towers in craft services — that’s a layup. But it’s a special kind of squad that can band together to create greatness when you need to toss a couple of NFL athletes and a race car driver behind the wheels of multiple duck boats in a three-hour shoot window with barely a week to plan the whole enchilada.
That’s the Big Brick difference.
