Droga5's Stunning Hennessy Ad Tells the Amazing Story of the Pioneering Piccards

Today, Hennessy has launched The Piccards, the fourth iteration of the brand’s Wild Rabbit campaign. The new creative continues to bring to life the spirit of Hennessy’s ‘Never stop. Never settle.’ mantra, this time through the remarkable true story of the Piccards, a pioneering family of explorers whose relentless pursuits pushed the limits of potential and made history.

In 1931, a Swiss physicist by the name of Auguste Piccard became the first man to reach the stratosphere. Nearly three decades later, in 1960, his son Jacques became the first to reach the deepest bottom of the ocean. This remarkable true story is the basis for Hennessy’s latest film. 

Told in fresh, cinematic style 90 second film, The Piccards reimagines the individual achievements of the two men as one continuous journey up—a surreal, adrenaline-­spiked odyssey to the stratosphere and the deepest ocean depths. But at the core of the adventure is an incredible story about the bond between a father and son, the power of ambition and the will to achieve. Told in additional iterations of 60, 30 and 15 second films, Hennessy tapped musician Nas to tell the story of the Piccards’ intergenerational Wild Rabbit chase – Hennessy’s metaphor for the relentless pursuit of achievement.

The film was directed by Daniel Wolfe of Somesuch.Co. Part of Daniel’s vision was a collaboration with photography specialist Chris Parks - who’s abstract imagery has been in benchmark pieces such as Tree of Life and Gravity. Beyond Daniel’s attention to story and performance, there was a dedication from an early stage in achieving a unique, cinematic look to the film.  This was brought to life across all departments, from the incredible, research-based production design, to the capture of material on 35mm film. In the final stages of the process each frame was printed back to a film negative before final master.