DDB Paris: UNESCO asks people to consider what comes next

UNESCO has given DDB Paris a momentous job, to make people question what they see as normal and mobilise them to think about what the world of tomorrow could look like. It’s momentous because the world is following a path to what scientists believe may well be our own destruction. As dreadful as Covid-19 is, the pandemic has shown what normal could be post-Covid. DDB Paris’ job is to show that it is what normal should be, what it needs to be.

“Disasters and emergencies do not just throw light on the world as it is. They also rip open the fabric of normality. Through the hole that opens up, we glimpse possibilities of other worlds.” [Peter C Baker, The Guardian]

“After 1945, UNESCO was born of one conviction: the most serious crisis in our history could give birth to a better, more united humanity. This idea is more topical than ever after the global coronavirus crisis, which called into question our priorities, our ways of life and the very functioning of our society. At the same time, new hopes and forms of solidarity were born,” DDB Paris noted.

Sadly, people and institutions have short memories. There is a great temptation to simply forget and return to former lives – back to the old normal, even though it could cause a future health, economic and social crisis.

DDB Paris’ 2.20-minute film for UNESCO doesn’t need complex arguments to do that, just facts. Facts about the world before and during the epidemic. Put together, they lead to an unsettling conclusion – the “normal” world wasn’t normal at all and people need to use this moment to change it.

The next normal campaign is running on TV and in digital media.

Credits:

Agency: DDB Paris
Executive Creative Director: Alexander Kalchev
Art Director: Mickaël Jacquemin
Copywriter: Benoît Oulhen
Account Management: Vincent Léorat, Mathieu Bliguet & Olivier Guillerot
Strategic Planner: Cédric Ledoux Production: Ddb Paris
Sound Production: Sound Machine
Producer: Quentin Moenne-Loccoz

Music: Faith, Hope, Fear & Falling In Love by Clint Mansell
Music Supervisor: Charles-Henri De Pierrefeu @ Universal Music Publishing, plua Andrew Kahn & Erik Sutch @ Good Ear Music Supervision
Sound: Machine London
Sound Designers: Alex Bingham & Patch Rowland
Sound Producer: Matej Oreskovic
Press Relation Director: Anne-Marie Gibert

Client: UNESCO
Client Team: Matthieu Guevel, Julien Ravalais-Casanova & Mehdi Benchelah