Professional Bull Rider Adriano Moraes reads a newspaper on a New York City corner for a Professional Bull Riders promotional spot.

February 1, 2007 - While New York City, and Wall Street in particular, are associated with the iconic bull, a new commercial featured one like never before. VERSUS and The Professional Bull Riders, Inc. (PBR) brought the toughest bulls of the PBR to New York City’s Madison Square Garden from January 6-7, for the VERSUS Invitational to kick off the 2007 Built Ford Tough Series presented by Wrangler. The event marked the first time the PBR was ever in New York City.

To promote the event, the network filmed a commercial on December 10 in New York City's financial district. The commercial featured a high-noon showdown between three PBR cowboys--Adriano Moraes, Sean Willingham and Austin Meier--and three bulls. The network cut the commercial into two spots; a 30 and 60 second. The 60 second spot featured a cowboy exiting the Wall Street 2/3 subway station and another exiting a New York City yellow cab.

The exterior cowboy shots were filmed on Stone, Pearl and Hanover streets in lower Manhattan, but the bulls were filmed in November at the 2006 PBR World Finals in Las Vegas against a green screen and later composited with backgrounds shot in Manhattan. These composites underwent extensive color correction and manipulation to make it seem as though the bulls were actually shot on location with the cowboys. All post-production work was done by Creative Group New York.

“We chose the financial district because it’s an area of the city with an old New York vibe and that’s what we wanted to convey in the spots,” said Michael Magnotta, Vice President, Creative Director for VERSUS. “Plus, it was a great place to shoot; there weren’t crowds of people, and we were able to control traffic. The city was also very easy to work with; we were able to get permits and approvals very quickly and that played a big role in the overall success of the shoot.”

The spots ran in the local New York market and nationally and were part of a larger promotional campaign for the VERSUS Invitational that featured billboards, wild postings and even NYC yellow cabs covered in faux fur and horns to resemble bulls. New Yorkers who hailed the cabs got a free ride as part of the promotion.

Interested in shooting your next commercial in New York? Contact the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting at (212) 489-6710.