Work of the Week: 06/12/24
Busy week without a moment to spare? Lost on LinkedIn without the faintest clue what people are talking about? Our roundup of the week’s best work from around the world is on hand to help you catch up.
Our selection ranges from surreal horror parodies to immersive wilderness car washes to heartfelt awareness campaigns. First we stop over in Saudi Arabia, for Riyadh Season’s Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk promo directed by MEGAFORCE, then we head to Germany, where drivers were treated to teleportation by Destination BC and Zulu Alpha Kilo, before Vodafone and Leo Burnett celebrate 40 years of connection in the UK with a nostalgic journey from brick phone to smartphone.
Once you’ve settled in, the latter half of our best ads will tug on your heart strings. Sephora Italia and LePub’s shock twist exposes psychological abuse; Stockholms Stadsmission and TBWA\ Stockholm raise awareness for generational poverty with absolute honesty; and finally, in the US, Apple partners with TBWA\ Media Arts Lab LA for a Christmas campaign in line with International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
Now buckle up, grab your favourite festive drink, and enjoy our carefully curated showcase of the week.
Riyadh Season – Obsession
Riff Raff's Riyadh Season promo put a smile on so many faces this week. A big one. A sinister one.
MEGAFORCE direct the surreal parody of a horror trailer for Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk's upcoming fight. Their rivalry transcends the bounds of the boxing ring, haunting one another in chilling everyday encounters. It's a killer combo of creepy and comedic, delivering both psychological tension and entertainment. A definite must-watch.
Destination BC – The Great Wilderness Car Wash
Over in Germany, a Hamburg car wash took people to Northern British Columbia, Canada, all from the comfort of their vehicle.
Enticing Germans to visit Canada’s great outdoors – and capitalising on regulations prohibiting the washing of cars at home – Zulu Alpha Kilo's first-of-its-kind activation for Destination BC transformed routine car care into an immersive intercontinental trip. The team worked with production company Unit9 on 3D projections, high-definition visuals, and perfectly synchronised soundscapes that bring BC's rugged beauty to life, its textures amplified by the water, foam, and soap of the car wash. Think evergreen forests, misty coastal landscapes, northern lights, storms, volcanos, and deserts – stunning.
Vodafone – 40 Years of Christmas on The Nation’s Network
The epic 40-year evolution of the mobile, from indestructible brick to sleek smartphone, is chronicled in Vodafone’s holiday ad by Leo Burnett, and directed by Tom Speers through Smuggler. The nostalgic trip down memory lane celebrates Vodafone’s heritage as the first mobile phone company in the UK, facilitating decades of connection at Christmas. The first-ever text message, in fact, read ‘Merry Christmas’, and was powered by the Vodafone network!
A nationwide wave of OOH accompanies the film, as well as a social content series fronted by brand ambassador Roman Kemp and his mother, singer and author, Shirlie Kemp.
Sephora Italia – Getting Ready
Think of a typical make-up ad – it’s probably fun, vibrant, and full of confident, smiling faces. Sephora Italia’s campaign from LePub starts out the same way; but a sobering twist reminds us that not everyone gets to enjoy such self-expression.
Raising awareness of early signs of gender-based violence, the campaign shows a girl happily dressing up in colour and sparkles to the guitar of Urge Overkill’s ‘Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon’. The music cuts out when her boyfriend’s car horn shakes her out of her daydream. Undoing all evidence of play, she makes herself as plain and small as possible for him, while chilling closing lines remind us, “Controlling someone’s makeup is abuse too. At first, violence, doesn’t look like violence.”
Stockholms Stadsmission – Utsatthet behöver inte gå i arv
I was really moved by TBWA\ Stockholm’s three-minute film for Stockholm's Stadsmission about the cycle of generational poverty. Directed by New Land’s Maceo Frost, it depicts poverty as a breeding ground for stress, neglect, and abuse, leading to parental coping mechanisms that are later echoed by their children. Every element, from the filmic quality and lighting to the acting, edit, and sound, grant the campaign an honest yet heartbreaking quality. But it does end on a note of hope: the vicious cycle is finally broken as donations help lift the next generation out of disadvantage.
Apple AirPods Pro 2 – Heartstrings
TBWA\ Media Arts Lab LA and SMUGGLER's Henry-Alex Rubin tell the story of a father living with hearing loss in Apple’s much-anticipated holiday ad, which launched ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3rd),
It’s Christmas Day, and a father watches his daughter unwrap her gift: a guitar. Memories of her childhood come flooding back, but all with muffled sound, her words unclear. The turning point comes when he turns on his AirPods Pro 2’s hearing aid feature, finally offering him clarity as he enjoys his daughter’s rendition of 'Our House' by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
The touching narrative was inspired by the cast’s own experiences, and was enhanced by masterful sound design from triple Academy Award-winner Paul N. J. Ottosson.
