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The director of the viral hit ‘Ship My Pants” walks the fine line between clever and stupid
After years of directing commercials for clients including Taco Bell, Coca-Cola and Orkin, Toronto native Zach Math’s ship has finally come in.
Math’s latest work, Kmart’s scatological “Ship My Pants,” has become a cultural phenomenon since its April 10 debut. The video on Kmart’s YouTube channel spawned a series of spoofs, and ABC’s Good Morning America referred to it as the “craziest ad ever.” Ever.
Zach Math
In the spot, a series of Kmart shoppers inform viewers that they can now ship their pants, their drawers, their nightie, even their bed, using the retailer’s “Shop Your Way” program, which provides shoppers with free shipping on items they can’t find in store. The payoff is that their delivery makes it sound like they’re saying the word “shit.”
The script originally called for the spot to feature just one family, but Math – who was born in Toronto’s Yonge and Summerhill area and studied film at Queens University – says he saw the comedic possibilities and urged Draftfcb Chicago’s chief creative officer, Todd Tilford, to consider expanding the scope.
“There’s such a fine line between clever and stupid, and you want to make sure you’re on the right side of that line,” says Math from his L.A. home. “Clearly there’s something inherently goofy about the play on the word, but [I thought that] if we could layer it with some subtext and bring in different characters, we could have something that is a bit more on the clever side of that line. Then it becomes very interesting.”
Luke Bryant of Toronto’s Thelonious Films, which represents Math in Canada for longer projects, says the spot is a perfect example of Math’s ability to wring humour out of any situation.
“Zach shines in the world of askew comedy – hilarious moments disguised as dramatic ones,” says Bryant. “He’s just one of those lucky guys whose mind can see (and push) the comic potential of every moment.”
Math has also stepped outside the commercial realm. His first feature, The Final Member, had its world premiere at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival last year. Five years in the making, the documentary is about the world’s only penis museum, the Icelandic Phallological Museum, that has a specimen of every mammalian penis except one: That of a human.
“It sounds like a sophomoric joke, but it’s anything but,” says Math of the movie, which recently got sold to the U.S. arthouse theatre chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas and Netflix.
It has been about seven years since Math has done any work in Canada, but he’s hopeful his increased profile from “Ship my Pants” will garner some calls from Canadian agencies.
“I just don’t get any calls from that marketplace—maybe they don’t know who I am up there anymore” he says. “It would be cool to do more Canadian work. I’ve just been so busy [with U.S. work] and off everyone’s radar. If there’s a great project that makes sense, I’d be really into it.”
This story originally appeared in the May 20 issue of Marketing, available now to subscribers and soon free on newsstands at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, June 16-22.
