If you thought the woman featured in an NFL playoff commercial on ESPN this past weekend resembled a well-known Corridor businesswoman, your eyes weren’t fooling you.
That woman was, indeed, Candice Luter, owner of Cedar Rapids-based Candice Luter Art & Interiors – a company that’s attained a national profile through her design work, including a Black History Month production line for Target, and a devoted local and national following.
But the commercial itself, which features Ms. Luter in various embroidery-related NFL playoff scenes enhanced with AI technology, came about as the result of having “randomly crossed paths” with Ryan Noreen, a 15-time Emmy Award-winning video producer and founder of NXT Creativ in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
“About a year ago we crossed paths on Instagram and followed each others’ work,” Ms. Luter said. “We had brief interactions about design here and there and just sort of kept in touch as acquaintances on social media.”
“Basically, he does a lot of AI videography” for top-level clients including the NFL, NBA and designer Louis Vuitton, she said.
Then in late December, Ms. Luter received a message from Mr. Noreen.
“He happened to see some of my recent AI designs that I posted, and I joked around about needing to take a few lessons from him since he was the pro,” she said. “That must have sparked a reminder about his upcoming shoot … He was like, ‘I know it’s last minute, but I’m planning on shooting this commercial next week for ESPN.’”
Mr. Noreen told Ms. Luter he had developed an advertising concept for the NFL, “where basically there’s a fashion designer, and she’s weaving and threading for the playoffs, designing what would be the jerseys for the NFL.
“He said, ‘I think you’d be perfect for this role. Is this something that you’d be interested in doing?’” Mr. Noreen told Ms. Luter. “I was like, ‘yeah, of course!’ He said that ESPN ultimately decides who they pick, ‘but if you’re interested, I’d be happy to send him some of your headshots and try to put you in.’ So that’s basically how I got the role.”
The commercial itself featured scenes with Ms. Luter, including her seated at a sewing machine, “sewn” into tableaus of embroidery thread and video clips of NFL players and a replica of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded annually to the Super Bowl winner.
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The entire process, from contact to filming, transpired rapidly, Ms. Luter said.
“By the time I found out, they were like, ‘can you be in Minneapolis in four days?’” she said. “So I drove up there, and it was an all-day shoot with a small group of people.”
Ms. Luter said the atmosphere on the day-long shoot was relaxed, yet exciting.
“Honestly, I thought I would be more nervous,” she said. “Maybe that’s because I had no speaking lines. But I think that says a lot about the laid-back environment that Ryan had created for the team he assembled. I felt ready to try something new, but in a way it all felt familiar, like I had already done it before. Maybe I was just in the right place at the right time in my life to have the confidence to say ‘yes.’
“As a creative, I appreciate when I can flow in the moment when it strikes and having people around me that know how to support my vision,” she added. “Even though I had never worked with (Mr. Noreen) before, I wanted to be one of those people for him. If he needed to shift, I wanted to be able to shift with him. Having put together props and wardrobe for my own two-day commercial/photography shoot a few years ago for eight models, I learned very quickly that you can never have enough backups or extra hands. While I may be new to acting, I definitely am not new to pivoting.”
The creative framework behind the production was particularly inspiring, Ms. Luter said.
“Because I love to learn new things, I really enjoyed the overall process of seeing how it’s done, but also why it’s done,” she said. “I definitely didn’t hesitate to ask questions throughout the day on things I was curious about or speak up if I felt like I should make an adjustment, particularly working with the sewing machine, to better sell the ‘fashion designer’ story to support their vision. It just felt easy, fun, and collaborative.”
One aspect of the finished commercial that was particularly interesting, Ms. Luter said, was its use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the editing and post-production process.
“We would have called it ‘special effects’ back in the day,” she said. “I’ve been trying to learn AI myself, which is actually why I crossed paths with him, because I’m wanting to learn that and add it to my skillset.”
In several cases, the AI portions of the commercial were apparent to Ms. Luter.
“For example, I was wearing pants that day on the shoot, and in the commercial there’s a lot of shots where I’m wearing a skirt,” she said. “I definitely was not wearing a skirt. And if you look really quick, there’s a shot where my hair is longer, and then there’s another angle where my hair is shorter.”
The AI elements of the commercial were “actually kind of cool,” she said.
“We think of AI as this very scary thing, and it can actually be a really cool tool,” she said. “Sometimes we think of AI as creating stuff on its own. (But) I think it also speeds up the time that a company can produce stuff if you’ve got an actual physical person there, walking the path of how they want it to move, rather than spending so much time trying to prompt it and to get it to do what you want to do. So I think that jumps things ahead of the curve.”
The commercial portrayed Ms. Luter as a seamstress and an NFL aficionado. Ironically, neither of those are the case.
“I can barely sew a pillow,” she said. “And I’ve watched the Hawkeyes (play football), but that’s about it.”
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Many people didn’t realize Ms. Luter was in the commercial, she said, until she shared the experience on her social channels. Thereafter, she received a barrage of congratulations – and one particularly touching message.
“Your commercial is EPIC!” the message said. “I know we barely know each other but I’ve been following your success and it’s beyond inspiring. I still have my Target stuff from your collection and a wall hanging in my daughter’s room. You’re amazing! My friend Ashley Smith works for the NFL in NYC, her brother plays for the Chiefs, and I’m going (to) tell her I know another NFL rockstar now too! Congratulations!!!”
Ms. Luter said comments like that have helped inspire her, especially during recent times when she said she’s struggled.
“The Corridor has the best support system of any community that I know,” she said. “Everyone wants to see me win in life. And I was really overwhelmed with the comments. I just happened to look back and I actually started crying. It’s just been such a tough year for small businesses, and really everybody in general. And as long as I’ve been doing this,there’s still that imposter syndrome. There was a part of me that was thinking, everyone thinks I’m really killing it in life, but I’m struggling just as much as everybody else. So there was a part of me that started crying, thinking that I feel like a fraud. I’m probably not doing as great as people think.”
And while Ms. Luter was uncredited in the commercial and had no speaking lines, she said she’s interested to see if the experience can lead to new opportunities in her career, especially regarding the modeling aspects.
“I don’t know where it will go,” she said. “I still feel like it’s about who you know and who you cross paths with. And I’m always convinced that people like to work with people that are just fun to be around and easy to work with. I’m just hoping that maybe I can lend more of my design skills, supplying different props that they might need in the future. I don’t feel like this is like my acting debut. But it’s definitely given me more confidence to put myself out there in ways that I otherwise wouldn’t feel qualified for.”
She also said she hopes she can increase exposure, and opportunities, for other Corridor businesses and entrepreneurs.
“While I was there (for the shoot), I told them we’ve got a lot of talented people back where I’m from,” she said. “We work with a lot of local welders and woodworkers, and we’ve got access to CNC machines. So if you guys need anything for prop design, going forward, we’re only four hours away. And we’ve obviously got very talented makeup artists and photographers here in the area. I really try to keep the mindset of, how can I wiggle my foot in there, on behalf of not just myself, but what I would say is my extended family, being Cedar Rapids, and seeing how I can connect talented people with talented people. So I hope something more might come out of this.”
And Ms. Luter said that she’s heard there “a few more different commercials with some additional content will be released this weekend” throughout the NFL playoffs, during ESPN or ABC broadcasts.
“Stay tuned,” she promised.
