Cadeau, UNC band hours spent hours to get seven seconds in a TV ad

By R.L. Bynum

CHARLOTTE — UNC freshman Elliot Cadeau and the Carolina band spent hours in production for seven seconds at the end of a 30-second Marriott Bonvoy commercial that debuted this week.

The “Game Day Rituals” ad will run for the next two NCAA tournaments, replacing the commercial that had run the last two years in which Grant Hill is talking with a group of mascots.

“It was really fun,” Cadeau said Wednesday before UNC’s open practice at the Spectrum Center. “It took a really long time, but it was still really fun.”

Cadeau is seen walking out of a Fairfield Inn in Raleigh with 24 members of the UNC band.

Although the commercial didn’t air for the first time until this week, the production was done before Cadeau made his debut as a college player.

Jeff Fuchs, the director of university bands, said the commercial was made in two lengthy sessions: four hours on Oct. 17 at the band’s rehearsal studio on campus and about eight hours on Oct. 13 at that Fairfield Inn.

“So, the soundtrack is all us,” Fuchs said. “And then there’s just two little clips at the end. That’s why movies are so expensive to make, I guess.”

Fuchs said the band had never done anything quite like this for a national commercial and that Marriott gave the band members a token of appreciation and contributed to the band program.

Cadeau regularly appears on national TV. But for the band members, it’s probably a thrill that they’ll appear regularly for the next couple of years.

Also debuting this week was Armando Bacot appearing in a Turbo Tax ad.