South Africa’s Phone-Addicted Youth Fight Back in Cell C Spot

“These kids are always on their phones. They’re so disconnected.”

 

Really? 

 

Egg Films’ Slim directed #ConnectYourWay, 1886’s vibrant new Cell C ad that celebrates all the ways the youth are actually more connected than ever.

 

“The core idea of connection is what attracted me to the job. It’s such a relevant and everyday idea, where the older generations (like me) frown upon the youngsters constantly being attached to their tech. But it is the future and we are literally watching the evolution of our species,” says Slim, before laughing at himself for sounding too deep.

 

Exposure’s Rory O’Grady shot the ad, which was art directed by Keenan McAdam and edited by Joe de Ornelas at Left, with Wondermerk adding all the quirky filters and effects you’d expect from a cellphone ad. “We made an early decision in the treatment stage to work hand-in-hand with Graeme Carr and the champs at Wondermerk. We wanted the digital effects to create a feel of modern technology throughout and to add a sense of energy and colour to the contemporary summer feel. Rather than going the typical, traditional post route, we wanted to rather utilize tech-savvy digital designers and motionographers. We feel that their unique style has added an interesting, not-so-common digital look to the ad in a world where digital glitches and effects are already becoming quite overused.”

 

Left reinvented their post-production workflow for the collaboration. “We literally had a rough edit approval with Joe at Left, then we moved him to live with the post guys at Wondermerk for two weeks to create an easy-access, back-and-forth process between the two departments, which are usually very separate.”

 

Look out for cameos from a host of Cell-C sponsored celebs, including Miss South Africa Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, Bonang Matheba, and Babes Wodumo.  Nola Williams had fun with their wardrobe, which was sponsored by adidas. 

 

“We tried to deliver every aspect of our lead character’s life through the view of her cellphone – literally the view of how we now all interact and experience a saturated social experience through our devices,” says Slim. “We wanted to have a fairly chaotic and energetic narrative, an almost visual assault of our lead’s life through her phone to visually juxtapose the sentiment of her generation being ‘so disconnected.’ To keep this frenetic montage of moments coherent and in line with the treatment, we kept returning to the core narrative thought: what would we see ‘in a day in the life of our lead’s phone?”

 

#ConnectYourWay was conceptualised by 1886, with Stuart Stobbs as executive creative director and Caroline Crowther producing for the agency.