LOUISVILLE, KY — For the first time in its nearly five-decade history, Mercer Transportation has a national television commercial, and this weekend, the whole country gets to see it. The cinematic spot, produced by Chronicle Cinema, airs nationally on FS1 during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway this Saturday, the race Mercer Transportation is presenting, putting the brand in front of a national motorsports audience.
Mercer came to Chronicle for one reason: the cinematic bar. The company wanted its first national ad to feel less like a commercial and more like a tribute, and it hired Chronicle Cinema on the strength of our film work to make it happen.
So we didn’t build it on a stage. We shot it on the move. Over three days, a Chronicle crew caravanned three Mercer semi trucks and three chase vehicles 865 miles from Louisville to North Wilkesboro and back, filming across five states while chasing, and being chased by, the massive storm systems rolling across the Appalachians the entire shoot. The journey was the story: real trucks, real drivers, real miles.
Shooting on the move, with real Mercer drivers, was the whole point. “The weather, the locations, the traffic, the moments. They were real,” says writer-director Zach Meiners. One car ran 10–20 miles ahead to scout the road and set up drone shots as the trucks passed one at a time, while a second camera vehicle grabbed running shots on Canon C500s and a Ronin steadicam rig built by DP Nate Glass. Fourteen people rolled across seven vehicles, plus one dog, Bella.
By the time the convoy reached North Wilkesboro, the crew was spent, but the payoff was on the track. As the presenting sponsor of the race, Mercer had the run of the speedway: the team rigged a massive flagpole to the back of one of the trucks and flew a giant American flag as the hero truck rounded the oval. “An epic ending to an incredible journey,” Meiners says.
The result plays less like an ad than a salute. Through early mornings and late nights, it frames truckers as the backbone of the country, and Mercer, across nearly five decades, as the name that keeps America moving. Every load starts with a plan and a promise, but the throughline is the people behind the wheel: the owner-operators who take pride in doing things right.
— Eric Johnson, General Manager, Mercer Transportation