Now that's a blast from the past! I actually know the guy on the left in that photo. Flew with him before he got hired at Continental and after he got furloughed. He told me the real story behind the commercial.
That photo was taken at sunrise in front of the main hangar at Stapleton. He said not even a bird was chirping when the director started running around with a bull horn yelling "QUIET...QUIET ON THE SET!!!!"
Later, they were filming the pilots driving the the Mercury Marquis on some roads in the mountains and one of the Captains drove it into a ditch and lost a whole day of shooting.