Martin Scorsese sets out to preserve a Hitchcock film which was never made. Only three pages of the script for The Key To Reserva (or Clave Reserva) remain in existance, but Scorsese is adamant he can make the film - not as he himself would make it, but as an actual Hitchcock film.

This is actually and ad campaign by Freixenet, a Catalan winemaker who produce champagne-type wines. It seems every year on Christmas day they have a special advertising spot on Spanish TV which they produce something special for.

According to a press release from ad agency JWT the idea for the ad came from executive creative director Alex Martínez and his team in Barcelona.

“We wanted to produce something that would be pure entertainment, something that was true to our philosophy that it’s not enough now to ‘buy’ audience time — we need to create advertising that the audience chooses to spend time with.”

And so this year they have Martin Scorsese starring in and directing the ad in a funny short film format.

The ad was produced by produced by Ovideo and RSA Films and has it’s own website - and the existence of YouTube and other video sharing sites means that this years Freixenet ad will get a much wider airing than previous years.

Interesting and clever stuff, not to mention expensive. It does beg some interesting questions for viral marketing too - with everyone and their dog trying their hand at viral marketing, has it gone mainstream? Will you be able to get by on a clever and funny idea in the future or will you need to add Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Spielberg to your idea to get some attention?