With $500, Fan Created a Top Super Bowl Ad

If one of Sunday’s top-rated Super Bowl commercials can be made for $500, is the big-budget ad agency in trouble?

Not likely.

But that was the cost of producing the Doritos “Pug Attack” commercial that tied for the Number 1 spot on USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter, its creator J. R.  Burningham told CNBC Monday. In the commercial a running pug, set in slow motion, knocks down a door and a man holding a bag of Doritos to get to the tortilla chips.

For Burningham's top ranking, he receives a $1 million in addition to the $2,500 already received from Pepsico , which makes Doritos. Burningham was one of 5,600 entries in the Frito-Lay Crash the Super Bowl ad campaign, which invited fans to make a commercial.

A freelance editor and part-time Web designer, Burningham said he didn’t know his ad was going to be aired until he saw it on TV with millions of other Super Bowl watchers.

“I saw the first frame and went crazy. I don’t remember anything after that,” said Burningham, who watched commercial in the Doritos suite in the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, where the game was played.

To create the ad, everyone worked for free, said Burningham, including a dog trainer who is a friend’s brother. The pug also belongs to a friend. Burningham also rented a camera with a couple of lenses and provided food for the crew.

Click here to watch the Super Bowl commercial.

With the $1 million bonus, the recently engaged Burningham said he’ll put some of it toward his upcoming wedding and fund a film project.