Dre: The American Dream is founded on the idea
that starting from the bottom and working your ass off
will get you what you deserve.
Well, it had taken years,
but all of my hard work had finally paid off.
That's right -- Andre Johnson got an ad
in the Super Bowl.
These ads are cultural touchstones.
They get the biggest budgets, the biggest stars,
and the biggest audience.
Just getting one on air is advertising's highest honor.
♪♪
Andre Johnson?
Okay, I lied.
I'm Andre Johnson.
Advertising's highest honor
is getting an Ad World Award nomination.
Aah! Yeah! I told you, boy!
I told you, you could do this, Dre![ Cellphone ringtone playing ]
I told you, you could do this!
Oh. Hey, Stevens.
Really?
Me?
I had no idea the nominations came out today.
[ Ding! ]
Look, you know me.
I'm in it for the love of the game.
I'm not into it for the awards.
[ Chuckles ] No!
I'm just trying to stay humble.
I don't want any of this to go to my head.
Alright. Thanks, Stevens.
Bow!
Run me another bath, babe!
I'm about to get sticky.
Cra-a-azy!
Whoo!
Whoo-aah-ha-ha-ha-ha!
To Dre.
Ahh! Yes!
Your first ad was for a check-cashing joint.
[ Laughter ]Now...
you've been nominated for a car
that people actually want to be seen in.
Mm-hmm!Yes! This is a house of winners!
Yep.Take note, kids.
If you're thinking about bringing an "L"
up into this house, you best to think again!
Mm. She's talking to you.
I know.I know.
Finally, I'm being recognized. Mm.
You know, I had a plan.
I put in the long hours and the early mornings
on this campaign, and now this.
I hope this goes to show you that if you put your mind to it
and you stick to your grind,
anything is possible![ Laughter ]
Not for you guys.
I know.I know.
Babe... Yes?
Are you ready to walk the red carpet?
Oh. You and me.
Yes.Imagine...heads turning.
Mm-hmm. "Oh, look.
Is that the man who did the ad?"
Oh."And I think that's his wife.
They say she's a doctor, but she looks like a model."
So true. You really do, Mom.Well, wait, wait.
Wait, doesn't -- doesn't Devante have his spring concert the night of the ceremony?
Eh, he does, but you know what?
We'll just find somebody else to take him.
Yes. Because, you know, your father and I
only get to go out as adults twice a year,
and I'm not missing this.
Well, I can't take Devante.
My girl is coming into town.
Mm. Trying to save the relationship, huh?
Very funny, Diane.
We may be long-distance, but we're making it work.
Dre: Okay.Rainbow: Okay.
You know what?
I'll take Devante.
What? What?
Yeah. It's a blessing to be able to create
these memories with my grandchildren.
Hmm.
Plus, Ruby's out of town,
and I have no idea where she hides the remote.
♪♪
Ooh. Yes.
Hey, Dre. Hmm.
Congrats on the nomination, man.
Thanks, man.
You know, I still haven't come down yet.
Oh, I'll bet. They say the first award is the best.
Yeah.
Although, for me, I think it was my third.
The sixth, though, a very close second,
so I guess if I had to rank it --
let's see, it would be third, sixth,
first, fifth, fourth, second.
You've won six times?
Huh. Well, I guess I have, man.
I-I really don't keep track of that kind of stuff,
but I tip my Yerba to you, sir.
Oh. Namaste.
There he is! Whoo!
Congratulations, Dre!
Wow. Congratulations, Dre.
Boy, you really smashed through that Black glass ceiling,
which we all thought was always a terrible, terrible thing.
Now there's Black glass all over the floor.
You did that.
That's because I had a plan and I stuck to it.
Ooh.And because of that,
I am now breathing in the sweet smell of success,
and when I win, Josh, you can no longer wear
open-toed sandals because of that Black glass.
[ Chuckles ]
Ah, Dre.Yeah.
You're not gonna win.
Of course I'm going to win.
My ad was fire.
Yes. Sure.
Dre, it was very strong,
but everyone knows that that ad from Donahue and Baker,
the one with that little girl and the talking horse --
I'm sorry, but that's the one that's gonna win.
What?Josh: It really was a perfect ad.
The way they balance humor and emotion.
And then, at the end, when that gospel choir kicks in --
Man, you think you can save the world.
Dre, my mother called me for the first time in years
to ask if I knew the little girl.
I panicked and said yeah.
But, hey, at least now I'm back in the will, right?
That horse ad has nothing on my commercial,
and if you ask me, it's emotionally manipulative.
People only liked it because they were
trapped inside their house for the last year and a half.
I'm gonna win that trophy,
assuming that it's a trophy and not a plaque.
But whatever it is, I'm gonna wear it around my neck.
♪♪
Mm! Mm-mm-mm!
Dad told you to stop buying flowers for Mom.
It makes him look bad.
And I told him that he doesn't dictate
the way I love my mother.
Mm.
But these are for Olivia.
She's supposed to land in a few hours,
and I just want the day to be perfect.
I just need my woman to get here.
It's been a long two months, but whenever we're together,
everything just clicks.
♪ You make it look like it's magic ♪
♪ Oh, yeah
♪ 'Cause I see nobody, nobody but you, you, you ♪
♪ I'm never confused
♪ Hey, hey
♪ I'm so used to being used
The two of us just have a rhythm.
♪ So I love when you call unexpected ♪
It's a dance only we know.
♪ 'Cause I hate when the moment's expected ♪ Set to music we make.
Together.♪ So I'mma care for
♪ You, you, you
♪♪
♪ I'mma care for you, you, you, yeah ♪
This is the saddest thing I've seen him do.
If we leave now, we won't have to look him in the eyes.
Yeah.
♪♪
Sitting at the Ad World Awards amongst my peers,
I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
I was the heir to the throne,
and I wasn't going to leave here without my crown.
Announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, your host, Isaiah Mustafa.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Good evening, everyone,
and welcome to the 2022 Ad World Awards.
[ Applause ]Let's kick this thing off.
The nominees for Best Experiential Activation
for a Consumer Event are...
"Virtual Factory Tour" by DW Global.
"Destination of Choice" by GGR.
And Donahue and Baker's
"Little Girl with Talking Horse."
[ Applause ]
And the winner is Donahue and Baker.
"Little Girl with Talking Horse."
[ Cheers and applause ]
I'm telling you, it's gonna be their night.
Hey, they have one award.
Three 6 Mafia has one award.
Once again, it's Donahue and Baker.
"Little Girl with Talking Horse."
[ Applause ]
♪♪
And the award for Best Visual Effects goes to...
Donahue and Baker.
"Little Girl with Talking Horse."
[ Applause ]
Dre: This is garbage.
Itis gonna be the talking horse's night.
And now,
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Advertising...
Oh, okay.
...the nominees are...
Andre Johnson of Stevens & Lido
for "Hyundai Ioniq 5 Life."
Dre, get it together.
Alright, just smile when they announce the winner.
You may not win, but at least you can hide your rage.
That's right. Fix your face, sucker.
And the winner is...
Andre Johnson.
"Hyundai Ioniq 5 Life."
[ Applause ]Aw, I'm sorry, babe,
but, you know,
it was an honor just to be nominated.
Dre, you won!I won?
Yes! Yes! You won!
I did! I did! Yes!
Aah! I won!
Mnh!
Yeah! I won! Yeah!
Ohh!Oh, my God!
Yeah, okay.
Oh, thank you, bro. Thank you, bro.
Okay, uh, let's see.
I have a speech. Uh...
Um...
I want to thank Black Jesus and my mama
and my beautiful wife, Rainbow.
That's me. Hello!
Ooh, I can't forget my partners at Hyundai.
Uh, I'd like to thank the streets that raised me.
Uh, Forest Whitaker, you know what you did, alright?
[ Scattered laughter ]And uh...
R.I.P. to Nipsey Hussle.
You know, I emulate you in my work every day.
[ Slow music playing ]The marathon continues.
Hey, hey, hey,
why are y'all playing me off with this music, man?
I've worked my entire life to get up here for this moment!
You gonna try to play me off?!
Okay, if I was up here talking about
some "Save the Whale" tip,
y'all wouldn't be doing this to me!
Yeah! Oh, no, it's okay. I got Megan Thee Stallion knees.
I can get down here, too. Yeah.
Clipper Nation, baby! Clipper Nation!
Clip City, Chip City!
My upset was a huge win.
This is how Dr. Dre must have felt
when he made "The Chronic."
All of a sudden, everyone knew the name Dre Johnson,
and everybody wanted a piece.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Whoo! I hope you are soaking it up, Dre,
because you, my friend, have reached the pinnacle.
Oh.
Bow, you must be so proud of him.
Of course I am. Are you kidding me?
He's a great father to our five children,
and honestly, there's a lot of great fathers out there.
But only one of them has this award!
[ Laughter ]Hey, now!
Bam!Oh, are you kidding me?
I'm gonna go get some dessert.
Okay, babe.
Dre, you are truly an inspiration.
I used to half-ass things around here.
But now that you showed me what's possible,
I'm still gonna half-ass things around here.
But now I might feel bad about it.
Josh: Dre. Hmm?
After this win, you can make whatever ads you want.
[ Gasps ] It's advertising "Mad Libs."
A-list celebrity, plus crazy location,
plus random brand.
Bradley Cooper. Spooky forest. Skechers.
RZA. The Great Pyramids. Snapple.
Mr. Peanut, on a jar with other peanuts --
W-W-Wait a minute. What am I doing?
What? You --I'm off work.
Stop using my brain and not paying for it.
♪♪
Oh!
I can't believe you're actually here.
[ Squealing ]
Oh, neither can I. I'm so excited to see you.
Oh. Mm.
How was your trip?
Ooh, my trip was terrible.
I had to wake up super early and then catch a train
to the airport, and then once I got there,
my flight was delayed.
I'm just... I'm wiped out.
But none of that matters, because I'm here with you now.
Well, you can relax because I have planned your whole stay.
So, first...Okay.
...we have a swan boat ride at Echo Park Lake,
then dinner at your favorite taqueria.
Mm. Ooh, and I got you something.
It's not much, but I thought it would be nice to...
...have.
[ Snoring ]
[ Whispering ] Hey, uh, babe, I think you're on my phone.
♪♪
Man, I remember when I won my first.
I was so afraid to take my eyes off it,
I slept with it for days.
It's crazy, man.
Just to think, seven years ago,
I was the Black guy they hired to come over to do
the ads that they needed a Black guy to do.
After winning this, Tim Cook knows my name.
It's crazy, right? Mm-hmm.
Anyway, I was listening to this podcast with Tom Brady --
Ah.
Of course you're a Brady guy.
What can I say, man?
I love a guy who's killing it in his 40s.
Okay.
Anyway, he was saying how some people,
they win, you know, they get what they want,
they start to lose their edge,
but for him, every title just made him hungrier.
Yeah.You know, more competitive.
I get that.
You know, after winning something like this,
having a taste of that, it's hard to give up.
Mm. You don't have to tell that
to a guy who's won six of these.
And to be honest, I haven't even started trying yet.
Okay, well, just letting you know,
I'm coming for you, alright?
And you're gonna have to go through me,
because this guy is lonely.
He's gonna need some friends.
[ Chuckles ] Well, challenge accepted.
I just -- you know, I feel so bad,
you starting so far behind and all.
Yeah, that's where I am, but you should know,
no one's gonna out-work me.
I'm talking 25 hours a day, 8 days a week,
379 days a year.
Dre, I got a feeling this is gonna be fun.
Oh, it is. Alright.
They said iron sharpens iron.
So Griffin and I are gonna sharpen each other up.
Time to go. Why?
Just saw Charlie dip a shrimp in the chocolate fountain.
[ Sighs ]
He said he was gonna do that.
It's disgusting. Mm-hmm.
♪♪
[ Door closes ]
Huh.
♪♪
Your girlfriend flew in from 3,000 miles away,
and you're setting up tea trays?
Hey, shouldn't Jack and Jill be going up the hill
to fetch a pail of water?
I don't know what that means,
but Olivia is taking a nap right now,
and this is because I decided
to surprise her with her faves when she wakes up.
So, we've got macarons from Bottega Louie,
we have got tuna sandwiches from Bay Cities,
and Fatburger fries.
Uh-huh.
Why are you overcompensating
like a bald White man driving a Corvette?
I don't know.
I-I guess we just haven't seen each other in person in,
like, two months, and we've missed so much
about each other's lives.
Half of her stories are about people I don't even know.
I guess I-I thought it wouldn't be this hard.
Junior, being in a relationship is hard,
even when you're in the same city.
What you and Olivia are trying to do
is damn near impossible.
But I can tell you this --
I walked out on your grandmother when things got hard,
and it was one of the worst decisions
I ever made in my life.
Really?
Yeah.
That, and investing in my cousin's
drive-thru soup restaurant.
You need two hands to eat soup.
Thanks, Pops. Mm-hmm.
Oh, whoa.
You do not wanting her eating these
before tonight, though.
Trust me.
Tuna fish kisses?
What were you thinking?
♪ Understand, I'm just tryna be the daily ♪
With my award in hand, I had a taste of winning,
and I was never going to stop.
I was ready to chase GOATs until I was the GOAT.
You gotta turn that down or you're gonna wake the baby.
[ Music stops ]What -- What is --
Well, you would've woke him if I hadn't kept him up.
Pops, it's well past his bedtime.
What's up with that?I know. I know.
I-I could've sent a video,
but I thought y'all might want to see this.
Okay, Devante, go ahead. Show them what you got, kid.
Let's see.
[ "Mary Had a Little Lamb" playing on keyboard ]
♪♪
I couldn't take my eyes off of Devante.
All you want as a parent is for your kid to find
something that brings them joy, and he had clearly found it.
It sounds really good.
Look at his face, babe.
Look how happy he is.
I had no idea that Devante loved playing the piano like this.
How could I miss this?
Oh, it's not your fault, Dre.
You just got delinquent daddy syndrome.
We all got it. There's nothing you can do about it.
Anyway, um...
he should be in bed right now.
♪♪
Hey. Yeah?
You comin' up to bed?
In a bit.
Aw!
What's wrong?
Are you mad 'cause Stevens asked you to bless the statue
with a traditional African prayer?
No.
I mean, yeah, but that's not it.
Look, I spent my entire career proving
that I deserve a seat at the table.
Mm-hmm.
Tonight was supposed to be the best night of my life.
Babe, but I'm sitting here thinking that
I'm the most terrible father in the world
because I missed one recital.
Aww.
I know where you're coming from with this.
Every working mom deals with this trade-off.
If I'm to chase all of these new opportunities,
I've gotta do it with more than the 110% I've been giving.
Mm-hmm.Which means I'm gonna miss
spring recitals or soccer games
or open houses and graduations.
Then, all of a sudden, I become the dude that was never there.
That's not a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
Don't let a scheduling conflict spin you out, Dre.
You're a great dad.
[ Sighs ] Yeah.
And you've always been present in the lives of our kids.
That is not gonna change.
We'll figure out the rest.
We always do.
You're right. Yeah.
But your boy did do his thing
with that speech tonight, right?
That was a speech. Mm-hmm.
That was a speech. Now, I don't know why
you had to do it a second time at the afterparty,
but hey.
Well, you ain't never complained about me
doing it a second time --
Yeah, but it's usually just for me,
which is what I'm waiting for.
Let's go. Oh.
Okay. Hold on.
Come on. I wanna hear that speech!
You stay right there.
Yeah, she a little crazy.
Yeah, she's definitely a little out of whack,
but you know what?
It's my fault for getting a roommate off Craigslist.
Last week, she accused me of using more than
my fair share of tap water.
I mean, you should have seen this coming
when she declared 9:00 P.M. to 6:00 A.M. "quiet hours."
Ugh. You're right.
But I remember you saying that you liked, uh,
Kayla from your research seminar.
Why don't you see if she needs a roommate?
Whoa. I can't believe you remember me talking about Kayla.
I mean, I can't be in New Haven,
but I still want to know everything about your world.
I'm really glad we did this.
I gotta admit, it's been pretty hard,
but us, here, together, this works.
Yeah, it does.
But I think that's the problem.
What do you mean?
Being here with you feels great,
but that's not what our life is now.
Our relationship is texts, missing each other,
never being on the same page,
and hoping we can remember each other's
potential roommate situation.
I know it's hard, but it's only gonna be a year --
or two, or six if you get your PhD,
but we love each other.
We can figure it out.
Right?
I do love you.
But I don't think this is what either of us really wants.
So are we breaking up?
♪♪
Sometimes it's hard to accept when things need to change.
♪♪
Well?
♪♪
Alright, boy.
Come on, sit down.
But the truth is, without change, you can't grow.
Alright, team, let's, uh,
come up with a strategy for that new client.
Shouldn't we wait for Dre?
Uh, no. Dre will not be in today.
He's taking a personal day.
Oh.
♪♪
Right now, my son doesn't care that I won a trophy.
♪♪
And neither do I.
♪♪
Oh.
Now, thisis the saddest thing I've ever seen him do.
When was the last time he moved?
I don't know.
Should we poke him to see if he's okay?
My poking stick's in the attic.
[ Sighs ]
Let's just go.
We'll spray him with cologne and rotate him once a day
so he doesn't get bed sores.
Hmm.
[ Cellphone clicks ]
Play "Un-Break My Heart."
Cellphone: The user you share this account with
has canceled your subscription.
[ Inhales, exhales deeply ]
Okay.
♪ Don't leave me in all this pain ♪
♪ Don't leave me out in the rain ♪
♪ Un-break my heart
♪ Say you'll love me again
♪ Un-cry these teeeeears