L&M Publications
Merrick Life • Bellmore Life • Freeport-Baldwin Leader • Wantagh-Seaford Citizen

Check out Zach's commercial here.

“Chevy Happy Grad,” an ad submitted by 26-year-old Merokian Zach Borst, will be aired during the telecast of Super Bowl XLVI, beating out submissions by independent filmmakers from around the world as part of Chevrolet’s Route 66 Super Bowl ad contest.
   
Those with keens eyes have already caught the spot running, as it did this weekend during the Giants vs. 49ers NFC championship game.
   
The contest ads had more than 32 million total online views between December 22 and January 14.

   

“We asked filmmakers to depict life’s journey and how Chevrolet is there along the way,” said Joel Ewanick, General Motors’ global chief marketing officer.  “When I saw Zach’s spot, I had to laugh, because the situation is something many families can relate to – expectation and reality. ‘Happy Grad’ clearly shows the passion that Chevrolet elicits.”
   
Mr. Borst’s audience on Super Bowl Sunday is expected to exceed 110 million television viewers. “Chevy Happy Grad” was filmed near his home in Merrick during a weather window that offered Zach, his cast and crew only four hours to complete the project.
   
“My dad was a cop and worked real hard to be able to buy his kids their first cars. They were used, but mine meant the world to me,” Mr. Borst said. “Then I wondered: what it would look like if I got a brand new Camaro? I mean, after all, who wouldn’t want a Camaro as a graduation gift?”
   
Mr. Borst, an aspiring filmmaker, has been producing films since his childhood and founded his own production company, Goat Farm Films, based in New York.
   
His winning commercial can be found on our Facebook page (facebook.com/merricklife) or at merricklife.com. Congrats Zach, we’re happy you call Merrick your home.
   
For more about Zach Borst go to his website at www.goatfarmfilms.com. On his website, created and designed by Mr. Borst, he credits the winning commercial as follows: Written, directed, produced, edited, sound designed and color corrected by himself; camera operations and help throughout: Michael Ilkiw.
   
The commercial stars Brett Siddell, Jamie Keohane, Rob Sciglimpaglia, Mark Ilkiw, Steve White, Rob Fattorini, Linda Elizabeth Freund and Papa Ilkiw. He gives special thanks to Diane Ilkiw for the robes and to all the Ilkiws for the house.

– Erin Donohue