The rules were simple: Make a 30-second video featuring Doritos, including both the company’s logo and the actual chips. Five finalists were chosen, and the winning commercial debuted during this year’s Super Bowl XLVI.

Elon University alumnus Jason Walston was able to experience Doritos’ annual Crash the Super Bowl video contest by acting in one of the commercials picked for finals.

“We were selected to be one of five finalists out of around 6,100 entries,” Walston said. “It was pretty surreal.”

Walston, who graduated in 2007 as a music major, said his role in the commercial was actually the first role he ever auditioned for. His agent helped him snag the part in director Brad Scott’s commercial “Hot Wild Girls,” a comedy about two friends using technology to get the things they want for the Super Bowl, including a sombrero, attractive women and of course, more Doritos.

“(Filming the commercial) was very fun,” Walston said. “It was just one day, but it was a long one. I just showed up and put on a couple of different wardrobe pieces, and there was a make up artist. A lot of it was just waiting.”

But Walston isn’t the only person with an Elon connection involved with Crash the Superbowl. Several students produced videos and entered them in the contest, including senior Jay Light.

“The commercial I made was actually a group assignment for class,” Light said. “But I’d heard about the contest before I entered because I knew that other students had entered it before. I’d also seen the commercials.”

Light’s video “The Elevator” features a businessman eating Doritos in an elevator. A woman walks into the elevator and sees a man eating the chips before the doors close. When the doors reopen, the man is naked and covered in Doritos crumbs, and the woman pulls a chip out of her shirt, eats it and walks off the elevator.

“When we created the story, I was thinking of what would be quick and easy to execute, but still funny,” Light said. “That’s ultimately the kind of commercial you want to see at the Super Bowl.”

In regards to Walston’s commercial, Light said he thinks it was well-shot and punchy and he’s glad it was picked as a finalist. And though his own video didn’t make it to the finals, Light is ready to make improvements and enter the contest again next year.

“It was the coolest thing just to have a video in the contest,” he said. “It’s a really great platform for people who want to show their creativity in a less professional-type setting.”

Walston said the contest is a great opportunity for students.  Giving students an outlet for expressing film creativity is exactly the function of the contest.

“It’s for people who don’t have an established base yet in the industry, so the contest is great for aspiring professionals,” Walston said. “And even if they don’t win, they have a stellar commercial to show people.”

As for his own commercial, Walston said he finds news outlets talking about it every day, and he’s continuously surprised at the video’s popularity.

“It has been an overwhelming and awesome experience,” he said. “I’m pretty excited about the future.”