Anthony Brooks Volkswagen Commercial

[MalusDB]

and a storebought it seems

If it was a storebought it must have had a decent amount of breaking in. Turning one out of the box OH is a dreadful experience from my... well experience.

[rubixwiz031]

I think its just a zhanchi with a rubiks logo

[wasianrubiks]

Tht was epic haha

[Anthony]

Cool! interesting that they picked OH.

My guess is that solve was incredibly hard considering how much he was being thrown around. Maybe Anthony will chime in and give us the play by play.

Yeah I'm a little interested how it was all done too, (how many takes?) there has to be a good story here.

Very cool video! I'm also glad that cubing is getting more publicity. Awesome Anthony, very cool commercial! Looks like it was a lot of fun to be in!

Yeah, I'm certain that regardless of whether Anthony beat the driver's lap time he had to agree in advance to allow VolksWagon to manipulate the results to demonstrate how amazingly fast/efficient their car is. Of course they wouldn't make a commercial and allow him to win - that would defeat the purpose of their advertisement. From VolksWagon's perspective, Anthony was only there to demonstrate some perceived comparison of speed, and it may be the case the entire thing was only simulated. My guess is they just had him do a OH solve while hauling ass in the car, and they used that footage to their advantage. However, in the case that this was in fact a legit lap/cube solve race, I'm curious to know if Anthony actually did finish his solve before the lap ended. I'd also like to know if he's even allowed to discuss it, or if he had to sign some sort of NDA. Hmmmm

Here's a condensed version of the story:

I was contacted by Volkswagen two weeks before filming in May. At first, I was a bit skeptical because of how little information was given, but after speaking to a representative on the phone I realized how awesome an opportunity this was and began rescheduling my final exams. Completely worth it. I was flown out to LA and, for a few short days, got to experience what I imagine it would be like to be a movie star. It was surreal.

The art direction crew which was responsible for all four commercials initially brainstormed dozens of potential acts that could work with this idea. Eventually, they settled on bringing in a guitarist, beat boxer, fast talker and Rubik's Cube solver. And no, they did not bring me in because they thought I was the OH world record holder - nor did I claim to be. The head of the art direction staff informed me that she spent several days watching YouTube videos and searching the internet to make sure she chose the "right group of people." I was told that I was selected for being "one of the fastest in the nation as well as seeming to have a personality and 'look' that would be perfect for the job." I'm well aware that I'm only ranked 89th officially in the world at OH solving and that Feliks and Michal are much, much faster at OH than I am, but thanks to those of you who felt the need to clarify in the video's comments lol.

I can't publicly disclose certain details, but I will say that I did much more than OH in that car and I was a bit surprised by the end result. I think it's quite cool, but it's definitely not the direction we seemed to be headed in based on our on-set discussions and talk on the phone afterwards.

In the end, I'm extremely impressed by our sport's tremendous growth over the four years I've been around and I'm proud to have had the opportunity to represent the community on such a large scale. I have plenty of truly awesome stories to tell and I'm sure many of you will hear them soon.

See you in Vegas.

[Godmil]

... I was a bit surprised by the end result. I think it's quite cool, but it's definitely not the direction we seemed to be headed in based on our on-set discussions and talk on the phone afterwards.

Whatever the initial plans the end result is amazing. You come across really well, and I can see it being a nice boost to the overall image of cubing. Well done.

[rubixwiz031]

Anthony, PLEASE tell us- did you fake the solve????? We are all dying to know.

[aronpm]

We are all dying to know.

Are we? I just thought the ad was awesome.

[Mollerz]

What a great advertisement! I love the "Can we go again!?" at the end.

[Dene]

That was freaking awesome Anthony! Loved the seriousness at the start . You look like an android or something XD

[tasguitar7]

Well, looking at the video, Anthony picks up the cube at 23 seconds and the clicking at the end stops at 54 seconds. This would be a solve time of 31 seconds, well above Anthony's average. This makes it seem as if he would have had to have faked the solve in order to allow the car to win. However, it appears that he did not get inspection time. How big of an impact this would have is unknown (to me), but also probably not the 12 seconds necessary to allow the car to win.