Finder Lurker's K-fee Parodies
In the summer of 2019, an American YouTuber under the name Finder Lurker had created 21 videos of what "modernized" advertisements for the now-defunct coffee-flavored energy drink company K-fee would’ve looked like. These commercials are similar to the original advertisements the company had originally made.
Finder Lurker, claimed they were official but this was proven to be false when they showed a "Making-Of" of all of the commercials. The person who created these is named Devin Millar, and he had done the editing, filming, narration, and even is the monster. This user a musician, artist, animator, and YouTuber outside of the commercials under his real name, and also has a bunch of other channels as well that make similar videos regarding the horror culture.
The commercials
There are English, German, Espresso, Radio, and even poster advertisements of the commercials all created by Finder Lurker, and they are all in similar formulas to the original advertisements. They all start out with a peaceful scene along with peaceful music before getting briefly interrupted by a monster at the end screaming and possibly scaring the viewer. Except instead of Adam, or Brad Johnson, it is Devin Millar himself as a Demonic Ghost-like creature with dark eyes and a long smile. (Similar to that of Jeff the Killer, or Momo.)
- Concert: The video starts out with an EDM concert in the middle of a desert at sunset, and then as everyone claps, the beat builds up and up, and then right before the beat drops, a ghost-like demon jumps up, screams, and shakes their head.
- Apex: We start out with a peaceful scene of a house on top of a hill on a beautiful sunny day with clouds, and then at a certain point, the camera stops moving and we focus on just the house, and then from out of nowhere, the ghost-like demon jumps up, screaming, and shaking its head.
- Truck: We start out with a truck on a half sunny-half cloudy day and it's carrying a giant cargo in a neighborhood. As soon as the truck leaves the scene the ghost-like creature hangs upside down screaming. This is the same screamer footage as the concert one but it's vertically flipped and lightened up and with a different filter.
- Playground: We see an empty playground in a neighborhood while hearing motorcycles driving in the background. Then we see all of the swings, the skatepark, and a kiddie ride, and then it shows the playground in full view again, and then after a couple of seconds of showing it, the ghost-like creature jumps up screaming. This is the only commercial without any filters.
- River: This advertisement starts out with a river on a giant rock overlooking the place at sunset with peaceful piano music with cars passing by the cliff. Then after a while, the monster jumps from upside-down screaming.
- Bike: The ad starts out with a peaceful scene with a bike next to a tree on a sunny day, and then eventually the camera pans across to show the entire scene, and then it stops at a certain point similar to the meadow commercial, and then suddenly the ghost-like creature jumps up from upside down and screams. This is the same footage as the River one but horizontally flipped, brightened, and with a different filter.
- Farm: It starts out with an aerial view of a farm with some cows in it, and then after a couple of seconds when the country music that's playing comes to its conclusion, the ghost-like monster jumps up screaming, with its face obscured by the darkness of the sunset. This is the same footage as the Playground one but with a darker filter.
- Neon: It starts out with a very lit view of Fremont Street in Las Vegas, and then after a while of showing everyone walking around and all, the monster with its hair tied up in a bun and with burnt eyes jumps down screaming. This is one of the scariest variants as there is no warning before the screamer comes.
- Clock Tower: It starts out with Clock Tower with fish all over it as the camera pans up to show it ringing its bells. Then after a couple of hits showing what time it is, the monster, now with mangled skin and white glowing eyes jumps down and shakes its head screaming.
- Mountain: It starts out with a view of the top of a mountain with other mountains surrounding it with very campy music playing, and then after a while, the monster jumps down screaming.
- Dock: It starts out with a dock with restaurants and a person walking on it with a fancy coat on at sunset, and then as soon as the person is beginning to leave the scene the monster jumps up screaming. This uses the same screamer footage as the Clock Tower but with a different filter and vertically flipped.
Light commercials
There was also, "Light" versions similar to the original ones for the original commercials made by the same company, but this time it is Finder Lurker's versions. The music is even slightly higher pitched in the same way to match the original atmosphere of the original video advertisements.
- Neon: It features the same Las Vegas Fremont scene from the original commercial of the same name but instead of the ghost-like creature jumping up, instead it's a polar bear puppet jumping up and giggling, with it being very obvious it's about to jump at the bottom of the screen before it does. It then quickly shows an illustration of the bottle with the same teenage boy talking about the product along with the same child whispering as from the original commercials.
- Concert: It features the same concert footage but instead of the monster jumping up, it's a Buddha statue clumsily going up and the music stops. It then quickly shows the illustration of the bottle with the same teenage boy talking about the product along with the same child whispering as from the original commercials.
- River: It shows the same river scene with the cars passing by the cliff, and the camera on a rocky shore, but instead of the ghost-like creature popping up, a white teddy bear pops up and giggles while going, "Boo!" It then quickly shows the illustration of the bottle with the same teenage boy talking about the product along with the same child whispering as from the original commercials.
- Playground: It shows the same footage as the original one but instead of the ghost-like creature jumping up, instead it's a monkey puppet jumping up saying, "Ooo ooo monkey!" It then quickly shows the illustration of the bottle with the same teenage boy talking about the product along with the same child whispering as from the original commercials.
Radio commercials
Finder Lurker also went far enough to create "Radio" versions of the advertisements as well. These are all done in the same style as the original radio advertisements but with
- Bar: It's a conversation between a man and a bartender in an East Coast-esque bar and the bartender says, "Oh! Hi! Why the long face?" Then the man is depressed and says, "She dumped me. I'm gonna lose my kids and my house." And then the bartender thinks and then says," Hm. I got an idea! Um, it's a little bit of a long story, but, I know how you get your life back together. Alright, so all you have to do, is-" And then getting interrupted by the same scream as the screamer commercials, and then very shortly the two kids, the teenage boy, and the whispering child talk about the product and its details.
- YouTuber: A dubstep song plays with a male narrator saying, "My name is Rapping Ranger! I am the best gaming channel that involves anything to do with shooting and racing, and I am the one person with the most subscribers! Please subscribe-follow for more videos, ha, and be sure to follow me on all of my social-" Then being interrupted by the scream, and then the teenage boy and child talking about the product.
- Music Festival: You hear a boom and a crowd cheering and a male DJ announcing, "What is up now Cloud Festival! We are going to rock this f****** house! Now on the count of three, we're going to blow this party to the moon! Three, two, one-" And then getting interrupted by the scream along with a teenage boy, and a childlike voice saying the product's name and details about it.
- Airplane: We hear a little boy asking his mom on an airplane, "Mommy mommy! How long until we get to Paris?" Then the mom answers, "We have only 3 hours, our plane took off 5 hours ago." Then the kid laments saying, "Aww, that's gonna take 300 years!" Then the mom reassures him, "No it's won't I can read you a story." Then the agrees and then after a couple of seconds the plane starts to go through some turbulence, and then the kid gasps and asks his mom, "What was that mommy?" Then the mommy says, "Oh don't worry sweetie, that's just a little-" Then her sentence gets interrupted by the scream, along with all of the narrators saying all of the product details and all like the other radio ads and all.
- Restaurant Ad: We hear happy pop guitar music along with a male narrator saying, "Have you ever wanted a BBQ and a foot massage at the same time? Well stop right there and let me tell you about it! Here are Quacker's BBQ and foot Massage, we have all kinds of deals including Kid's Meals, Kid's Massages, and so much much much much much much much much more for adults! With a cross between a greasy spoon and a foot massage place, we have all kinds of things in store. Also be sure to bring your family, friends, and don't forget to support the cause of everything we got here at-" Then the sentence gets interrupted by the same scream ad the commercials,s and then it goes into this time scary-sounding trap music along with a new teenage by talking about the product and it's detailed, and then being followed by a re-recording of the child whispering.
- Product Ad: We hear happy-sounding whistling music along with a male narrator saying, "With Sandy's glove wipes, we can ensure your home is clean and you are well. They are complete contactless, nobody will ever know you even used them." Then the sentence gets interrupted by the scream, following the same scary-sounding trap music along with the new teenage boy and the whispering child saying the product and its details.
- Play Ad: It starts out with some dramatic music with a male narrator saying, "Experience the beauty, the sheer joy, and everything in between. Experience. "The Wanda Hills" coming this weekend with kids and adults only 50% off. And don't forget to bring your-" Then the sentence gets interrupted by the same scream, and then some scary-sounding trap music along with the new teenage boy and the whispering child saying the product name and details.
"Magazine" Advertisements
Finder Lurker also had created, "Magazine" advertisements that had artwork of disturbing imagery of cartoon teenagers killing their parents, authority figures, and vice versa, and of very obscure art intended to wake up the viewers in the same way as the original magazine ads. Despite being called, "Magazine" ads, none of these actually appeared in any real-life magazine issues and are only based on the likeness of the real magazine ads.
"Espresso" Advertisements
Finder Lurker had also created, "Espresso" advertisements which are very short videos with scaled-down screamers usually in the Instagram format, and specifically designed for such. They usually feature some kind of, "Challenge" or meme related thing for a couple of seconds, or sometimes even minutes, depending on the theme, before the ghost-like creature jumps up or down from either side of the screen screaming for a short period before ducking and then showing the product information. In this case, it's advertising there, "Espresso To-Go" drinks from the company's old, and one of their original websites from 2008 that they previously had really advertised, which can even be seen on the Wayback Machine revisions. There never used to be any advertisements for this and that is why Finder Lurker had particularly made it a thing.
Cast & Crew
- Director: Devin Millar
- Producer: Devin Millar
- Editor & Compositor: Devin Millar
- Camera Crew: Devin Millar
- Actors: Devin Millar (Ghost-like Demon Creature)
- Platforms: YouTube
Trivia
- The Buddha statue from the "Light" version of the "Concert" advertisement is a direct nod to the Buddha advertisement from the official commercials.
- Due to the rather advanced nature of the advertisements, unlike a lot of other K-fee parodies, many K-fee fans had actually believed the advertisements were official. They are even treated as such among the community.
- According to Devin, the ads were actually made in 2016 but became lost in his hard drive for a while.
- There is a small rumor that these advertisements were originally on the K-fee official site, and that they were deleted, but this was never proven. The website went defunct in 2013 also.
- This is the only series of screamers Devin did where he did not do the scream himself to match the likeness of the original advertisements and keep the same spirit and atmosphere.
- A running gag throughout the creation of these advertisements was "recipe" being misspelled as "recipie".
- Originally Devin was going to use all of his friends as unique monsters for each video, but this was scrapped.
- Also according to Devin, the hardest part of the whole thing was animating the can with the heart beat.
Links
NOTE: The following videos contain screamers!
- Concert: youtube.com/watch?v=_BEe9leFtZI
- Truck: youtube.com/watch?v=Zzr_pNU_xYU
- River: youtube.com/watch?v=kj4gjGEM8t4
- Playground: youtube.com/watch?v=Igp_6nL3KtA
- Bike: youtube.com/watch?v=IpBLL444GKI
- Apex: youtube.com/watch?v=K3tCwj75yuU
- Farm: youtube.com/watch?v=1FoDxAIGm28
- Neon: youtube.com/watch?v=WS7CiT6d0Hk
Lite Version
- Concert: youtube.com/watch?v=IFqAa5u9Z7g
- Playground: youtube.com/watch?v=HmqDv98qEGg
- River: youtube.com/watch?v=IoXQebQRoxQ
- Neon: youtube.com/watch?v=0cadNbgGAaA
Others
- youtube.com/watch?v=BhSmj4b8j4k
- youtube.com/watch?v=CO22SFNvHTo
- youtube.com/watch?v=QloYBMaWLfk
