By Malay Desai
From: Brazil, by Y&R
Brazil’s biggest airline unveiled its new commercial before the 2014 FIFA World Cup kicked off in Sao Paulo. Featuring star footballers Thiago Silva (who’s shown departing for Brazil from Paris), David Luiz (who departs from London) and Marcelo (who’s at Madrid airport), the film shows them being deliberately harassed by common folk such as traffic police, cab drivers, security guards and nearly everyone at the airport. Confused and frustrated, they show off their dodging skills to make it to their airline gates. ‘The opponents will not like it at all, but TAM is bringing our stars to play at home,’ a voiceover says, as the players relax in the airline.
Why we like ?
At the world’s largest gathering of eyeballs this year, brands across segments have invested their top bets and bought massive airtime to show off their grandiose campaigns. We featured Nike’s eccentric ‘Winner Stays’ campaign in May and it unveiled an even longer, animated film on the eve of kickoff, that’s taking some sheen off the ‘official’ sponsors Adidas’s ‘All in or nothing’ route. McDonald’s, Castrol, ESPN and Coke too have released worthwhile films – replete with big names, budgets and sharp production values.
But if we make a box and label it ‘positive energy cliches’, nearly all of the above would fall flat into it. The one that stands out for bravely turning the ‘support your stars’ vibe on its head is our pick of the season. Largest in the country by market share and fleet size, TAM serves all over Brazil with routes to Europe.
Although the three footballers are from Brazil, they are shown flying in to Sao Paulo from their ‘club homes’ and assumingly TAM destinations London, Madrid and Paris. That’s a clever opening goal in the first half itself.
Then, winning our ‘best use of celebrity’ mention so far this year, the agency has put the stars in new, unique situations. No girls swooning, no kids challenging them for a game, no comic antics a la Turkish Airlines and Messi. There is pure surprise as kids, cops and random folk ill-treat the heroes… and the montage builds up substantial curiosity in the viewer to know what the hell this is for.
The copy toward the end is critical, but ends curtly. The branding through the film (mobile app, ticketing staff, shots of business class) is bang-on too.
We are watching the Cup closely this time, and although the biggest films of the season are already out (check out ‘Game before the Game’ by Beats headphones featuring Neymar), some sports brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma will have more aces up their sleeve. Keep watch this corner for the goals and misses!
To watch this film, feed this link into your browser ~ Vimeo. com/90570553
