'Scapegoat' Stands Trial in Animated Sustainable Banking Spot

ASN Bank is back with a new chapter in its ongoing animated series on sustainable banking, which aims to show ‘money can create happiness’ for people, plants, and wildlife alike. It’s the sixth CG animated film created in collaboration with creative agency Selmore and crafted by creative production studio Ambassadors.  

This time, we’re introduced to ‘The Scapegoat’ who is on trial for eating a flower, much to the detriment of the bees who need them to pollinate. After facing prosecution from the other fable forest creatures, it’s decided by the Wise Owl that the Scapegoat also helps fertilize a rich natural world, in his own special way. In this campaign, ASN Bank wants to shake off the ‘right’ vs ‘wrong’ discussion surrounding sustainability and show that every contribution to a sustainable future counts.

ASN Bank was recently ranked as the most sustainable bank in the Netherlands by the Social Brand Index, and throughout the campaigns’ four-year run, has shown that the value of money is determined by what you do with it. Old habits don't have to die hard when choosing a bank; you can instead choose one that invests in a cleaner environment and doesn’t work with shady regimes. 

Renée Ras, marketing team lead at ASN Bank: “In our latest campaign, we called for positive change with our 'Short-term Tuna'. With the vision to restore nature with the economy.
 In our new campaign, we show how we want to make this tangible, by fully investing in a richer nature. Protecting and restoring our ecosystems is essential to our own health and happiness. And everyone can make a positive contribution in their own way...”

“With every mythical creature that we add to the fabulous animal kingdom, ASN Bank’s Guiding Idea is reinforced,” adds Anja Froeling, managing partner at Selmore. “Again, we show that money can create happiness – especially if you enrich it with nature. The Scapegoat symbolizes the morality that ASN Bank wants to let go of. 
Because it is not a sin to reap the benefits of nature, as long as we ensure that we don't take more than nature can give us.”

Nick Groeneveld, director, Ambassadors: “At Ambassadors, we see each film in this series as a challenge to push our creative approach to the next level, beyond what we’ve done in the previous films. For our sixth spot, we introduced multiple miniature sets and environments, lots of new characters, a crowd scene, and topped it off with that nice layer of humor. There’s a great sense of trust and collaboration with Selmore and ASN Bank, and working with a client who is doing good in the world makes it that much more rewarding for us.”

The miniature set was again built with organic materials found on the forest floor, to emphasize the importance of nature and give the environments an authentic feel. Further to the shoot, Ambassadors brought the fabled forest to life from character design to animation, VFX, sound design, original music composition, edit and color grade.

The 35-second campaign film is now airing on Dutch television and showing online.