The production cost is in the idea. An example of powerfully effective communication, without raising the ire of the CFO.
Of course, if you ask most major ad agencies to do something like this you'll be bogged down in process, endless meetings, a phalanx of producers, a horde of union film people, a convoy of trucks full of equipment you don't need, a platoon of account executives grazing at the craft services table, etc., etc., etc. And it probably won't turn out as good, regardless of the huge sum it cost.
We at Reason Partners believe the film production business is a business ripe for change. It's full of redundancies and it's wasteful. Agencies and production houses will either embrace new technology and the resultant new ways of doing things, or go the way of the typesetting business. Not to mention, the record business.
Could you imagine this as a commercial for say, Windex? All you need is a logo at the end.