Dickinson County barn featured in Coca-Cola commercial

A young New York City film director came to Kansas last spring to shoot a commercial for Coca-Cola, and said he was caught off-guard.

“Kansas is wonderful,” said Zach Lowry, film director of Flex Collective, which filmed the 59-second commercial. “To be honest, it blew my mind.

“I’ve shot all over the world on various projects, but I’d never experienced before such a whole collaborative process as we did in Kansas.”

The project involved more than 100 volunteers who spent more than 500 hours reconstructing the interior of a Dickinson County barn to the specifics Lowry needed.

In February 2014, Lowry sent out a plea to Kansans through the Kansas Sampler Foundation, based near Inman. Lowry said he needed a weathered, wood barn, preferably with a wood-shingled roof, next to or surrounded by a wheat field and big enough to fit a 1965 Mustang inside – diagonally.

More than 2,500 responses came pouring in with Lowry finally deciding on the Dickinson County barn near Chapman.

On Monday afternoon, Lowry released the finished project. Within 90 minutes, the commercial had garnered more than 7,000 views.

“How do I like it?” asked Marci Penner, director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, a grassroots organization whose mission is to preserve and sustain rural culture. “I think my tears answer that question.

“It’s a commercial designed to tug at your heartstrings but in the end it was the production of it that tugged even harder. It was a shared experience for many that will last a lifetime.

“Best thing? Kansans being Kansans changed how big city guys look at our ruralness. Now that’s a full-length movie.”

Lecompton farmer and photographer Kevin Kirkwood introduced Lowry to the 114-year-old barn featured in the commercial. His wife’s family had leased the land the barn sits on for several decades. The Kirkwoods sought the current landowner’s permission to film the commercial.

“Kevin just called me out of the blue and told me – first of all, he’d been trespassing and taking pictures of the barn and wanted to know if that was OK,” said New Cambria farmer Lonnie Heigele, who owns the barn. “Then he said he wanted to send in a picture of the barn for a commercial.

“It was just an old barn on the farm. It didn’t have a lot of value to me. I said whatever they wanted to do was fine.”

When Kirkwood sent the photo in to Lowry, he received an almost immediate response back: It was the barn.

Kirkwood said he was taken by Lowry’s work ethic and enthusiasm for the project. And Lowry said he was taken with Kansans.

“Kansas is one of the most honest places in America,” Lowry said Monday night. “They have a true passion for the story. It is a genuine place to work. I loved shooting there.”

In a column describing the process for making the commercial, Lowry wrote:

“Kevin worked tirelessly to fix the barn, locate a car, actors and anything else we needed to create the world of the narrative. Every prop, location and car you see in the commercial was donated for free out of love for the story we told. The story couldn’t have come alive in the fashion it did if every element wasn’t completely genuine and authentic.”

The child actor, Kaeden Jac Saunders, came from Wisconsin. The grandfather, Bruce Silkey, was a friend of Kirkwood’s from Lecompton. The young man, Glenn Davis, was recommended by the Great Plains Theatre from Abilene.

The blue 1970 Ford pickup came from Rodney Scripter from Abilene; the roughed up ’65 Ford Mustang is owned by Nathan Liska from Lawrence, and the restored ’65 Mustang is owned by Ken and Cindie Bailey from Hoyt.

The Dickinson County barn had originally been scheduled for demolition, Heigele said, but the bulldozer never showed up. It had been used for years as a granary but through the years had become neglected, like so many Kansas barns of the late 19th and early 20th century.

The work Kirkwood and his volunteers did on the structure has now made it strong enough to remain standing and created enough room for the cameras and actors to move in the building.

Some interior walls needed to be moved, Kirkwood said.

“I called on my best friends to help me,” Kirkwood said. “Everything was donated.

“These were just college kids from New York who were shooting the commercial. When they told me the story, it gave me goosebumps because it was a generational thing.”

The commercial features a 9-year-old boy working on restoring a 1965 Ford Mustang with his grandfather, drinking Coca-Colas and creating memories. It later shows him as a grown man driving the refurbished car, with a photo of him and his grandfather hanging from the rearview mirror.

During the course of the two-day shoot, Kirkwood took more than 2,000 photos and now plans to write a book about the process.

“I drive by that barn every day and used to never think anything about it,” Heigele said. “Now, I think about all the people I met and the fun kids.

“I probably won’t tear it down.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2015 at 7:35 AM with the headline "Dickinson County barn featured in Coca-Cola commercial."