The Ant Party – Jim Beam The Remake Contest Winner – The best home videos are here

Jeff Schmale and Chris Gorman of Bel Air, Maryland takes home the grand prize in Jim Beam’s(R) “The Remake” online video contest.

“It feels great to have won the contest,” said Jeff Schmale, grand prize winner. “It’s much more satisfying to have created something that was judged to be the best rather than winning a random sweepstakes-styled contest. It also makes me not look like such a fool for sitting in my kitchen for four nights playing with plastic ants.”

Jim Beam invited people across the country 21 years of age and older to enter “The Remake,” a consumer-generated video contest offering a grand prize of $25,000, a trip for four to Las Vegas, and a chance for the winning video to be showcased on JimBeam.com. Contestants could choose one of two categories:

• “The Remake” category challenged legal purchase age consumers to create and upload spoofed versions of three Jim Beam commercials – including “The Girlfriend,” which played on sports networks like ESPN(R) and TNT.
• “Best Story” sought out the most creative individual who used humor and imagination instead of fancy video production equipment to create a successful commercial. Jeffrey Border of Reinholds, Pennsylvania, won the prize for “Best Story,” a Flip(TM) Mino video camera.

Nearly 300 video entries were received. The finalist videos were then uploaded to jimbeam.com for public voting. In a month’s time, more than 6,000 votes were cast, with “The Ant Party” receiving the top honors. The creators of the runners-up – “The Boss”, “The Culture Gap”, and “The Eco-Tragedy” – each received a Sony(R) HD Digital Video Camera.

“Every video submitted brought the Jim Beam brand to life,” said Kelly Doss, Senior Director of Bourbon and Whiskies, Beam Global. “The experience has definitely inspired us to create more campaigns that are worthy of such a savvy and funny audience.”