England Women's Footballers Reminisce their Most Meaningful Christmases in PayPal and FA Ad

Mob Sport collaborated with Cake (the Sports and Entertainment hub of Havas) to produce a Christmas-led project for PayPal and the FA, showcasing three of the England women’s football team: Lucy Bronze, Nikita Parris and Georgia Stanway. 

Focused around memories of family Christmases at home, each player described their most meaningful gift they received as a child. Shot within a constructed white box, we projected home video footage onto each wall, capturing the moments of the three girls opening their most treasured gift. Shot in the Futsal Arena at St Georges Park, there was the requirement for the VFX team to clean up the area around the white box, to convey a sheen, polished and finessed end product. 

The concept was ideated and brought to life by director Ben Jones, who had wanted to execute the atmospheric setting for a while. 

“It was a great project to work on and Lucy, Nikitta and Georgia were fantastic to work with. We went in deliberately unscripted, with just a few questions that I hoped would elicit some genuine and insightful answers that could carry the emotional tone I was looking for. All three players were brilliantly open and honest and for me that’s what makes the film really work. It is always the tricky thing with shooting sports stars, because so many of them can be very guarded. The idea of using the projection screens was something I had wanted to do for a while and as well as the visual look it also helped in creating an atmosphere for the players to feel comfortable and more relaxed in.” said Ben Jones.

This piece will sit across the digital and social platforms of both PayPal UK and the FA up until Christmas.