Shawn Mendes, Miller Lite Ad VOs in the Metaverse, Home Studios

Introduction

Hi there and welcome to Vox Talk, your weekly review from the world of voice over. I’m your host, Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices. In today’s show, you’ll hear about Shawn Mendes in Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, the Miller Lite Super Bowl ad in the Metaverse and David Ciccarelli, CEO of Voices, joins us to discuss audio recording studio tech from the Voices 2022 State of Voice Over Report.

News 1: Shawn Mendes in Lyle, Lyle Crocodile

Have you read the 1965 children’s book, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile?

Billboard reports that Shawn Mendes is extending his talents to voice acting. On Thursday February 10th, Deadline reported that the 23-year-old will voice Lyle Crocodile, the titular character of the beloved children’s book Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, which is set to receive the movie treatment from Sony Pictures.

The 1965 Bernard Waber book is about a crocodile named Lyle who lives a charmed life in New York City with the Primm family, assisting them with chores and being kind to their neighbors’ children. Everything is fine, until one day, a neighbor insists that Lyle should be placed in a zoo. “Mr. Grumps and his cat, Loretta, don’t like crocodiles, and everything Lyle does to win them over seems to go wrong. It will take all of Lyle’s charm — and courage — to reveal the hero, and friend, behind the big crocodile smile,” the synopsis reads.

Javier Bardem, Constance Wu and Winslow Fegley will also star alongside Mendes in the movie, which will be directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon. Will Davies will helm the film adaptation.

News 2: Miller Lite Super Bowl ad in the Metaverse

Did you catch the Super Bowl last weekend?

If you were just watching Super Bowl ads on traditional media, you would have missed the Super Bowl ad run by Miller Lite exclusively in the Metaverse.

According to the New York Times, Miller Lite, which is blocked from the Super Bowl broadcast by the N.F.L.’s longstanding exclusivity deal with Anheuser-Busch, instead released its tongue-in-cheek game-time ad in the metaverse, creating an interactive digital tavern serving up virtual pool, virtual beer and realistic expectations.

Ari Weiss, the global chief officer of DDB Worldwide, the agency behind the Meta Lite Bar, said. “We’re not taking ourselves too seriously with this. The metaverse is not going to save the world, or at least, not yet.”

The commercial featured the voice talents of Joe Gaudet as our guide through Miller Lite’s corner of the Metaverse, highlighting past Super Bowl ads from the relatable farmer to Clydesdale horses and beyond. Another voice actor you might recognize in the commercial is Tim Dadabo as the voice of the horse.

If you’ve not caught this ad, the video can be found on YouTube, which we’ve linked from the Vox Talk show notes for episode 108. But here’s a taste of it right now!

Conversation with David Ciccarelli

In studio today, we have a special guest! David Ciccarelli, Founder and CEO of Voices is here to share more about findings from the Voices 2022 State of Voice Over Report. Not only is David my Voices co-founder, he’s also my husband. Welcome to the studio, David!

So, we’ve been hearing a lot about the State of Voice Over Report and I thought it would be good to invite you here to talk about another fascinating aspect of what was learned. That would be what talent are doing in their home studios.

Wrap Up

And that’s the way we saw the world through the lens of voice over this week. Thank you for listening and for being part of our community here at Voices!