For too long, golf ads for golf lovers have featured golf pros playing great golf. Boring. Someone had to make it stop.

For the 2024 Masters, to attract newer golfers, we instead showed something much more relatable: someone playing golf terribly. We invited iconic actor, director, influencer, Blue Steel creator, proud bad golfer (and known rejector of almost all commercial work) Ben Stiller to be our star.

This work was created for The Masters, the second largest and most prestigious golf tournament in the world. The Masters takes place every April in Augusta, Georgia, USA.

The tournament was established 90 years ago and since then it has made strides towards being more inclusive and inviting. But for a tournament so famous and celebrated with so many traditions and fancy blazers, it’s hard not to be known for being old-school.

AT&T needed to shake this up if we were going to use our sponsorship to attract and appeal to new audiences.

We see Ben Stiller playing an absolutely awful round of golf. Stroke after stroke, mistake after mistake, he strays further and further off course.

After who knows how long, Ben finds himself outside an abandoned petrol station with tattered clothes and chapped skin. He’s gained a beard, but he’s lost his mind. A passerby asks: “Are you Ben Stiller?” – Ben whispers: “I don’t even know anymore.” The grunt of a nearby water buffalo interrupts. Then we see Ben riding the water buffalo, golf bag still slung over his now-dirty shoulders, through a remote, high-altitude desert. So remote that an AT&T satellite call is the only hope for help.

When he finally finds his golf ball, Ben satellite calls his buddy, golf pro Jordan Spieth. Jordan asks “Where are you this time, Ben?” and Ben explains, voice quivering: “I’m a little off the green…somewhere between heaven and hell.”

The formal brief: To tell the Masters audience about AT&T satellite calling, the future of calling for help. AT&T satellite calls will make it possible to call for help even when you find yourself way off the normal cell phone grid.

The real brief? Make people laugh, make The Masters more relatable, and make AT&T the hero. And catapult our commercial from a very small run for a very small, niche audience into mainstream culture.

Our star, Ben Stiller, famously rejects almost all commercial work. Our director was heavily involved in convincing Mr Stiller to come on board. So, the directing task began WEEKS before we even got to set.

The director’s calm, inviting and inclusive approach transformed the set in a palpable way. They lovingly overthought every angle, every word of dialogue and every artistic detail while still maintaining an environment where everyone truly felt welcome to contribute or challenge. They directed Ben Stiller and also Jordan Spieth (not an actor at all) and also seemed to somehow have a natural command of the water buffalo’s attention, too.

It was mentioned often and by every department and client that this is the kind of new, fresh directing we need a lot more of.