DDB Paris has to make Volkswagen capture the heart of every driver with its proposition about driving – Hell is other people. The film is a self-affirming montage of the most annoying “others” with a smug voiceover that ponders the hellishness they cause. It’s a shared belief that few ever question.
When there is a traffic jam, the others caused it. When there is one only one parking space left, the others take it. Those who drive too fast or too slow, are too young to drive or too old to drive, those who park badly are always the same ones: the others.
The voiceover takes on just the faintest edge of absurdity as it criticises the others on the road, as if they were a distinct species. Perhaps the very discerning viewer notices that all these others actually look a lot like us. Whether this happens or not in advance of the tagline, the film ultimately leads to the moral of the story, We are all others like the others…
…and cleverly leaves the viewer to absorb the ramifications of that.
We are all others like the others is the philosophy behind Volkswagen’s safety technologies label, IQ.DRIVE – helping people make the roads safer for themselves but also for the others.
The film was directed by Si & Ad using 16mm film which gives the pictures a particular grain and timeless aesthetics. It is running on TV in France and in digital media.
Credits:
Agency: DDB Paris
Executive Creative Director: Alexander Kalchev
Art Director: Mickaël Jacquemin
Copywriter: Benoît Oulhen
Strategic planning: Loïc Morando
Agency account management: Alban Callet, Axel Renaudin, Coralie Bouillier, Maxime
Brafman & Léa Villani
Head of TV Production: Corinne Persch
TV Producer: Johanna Lubin
Post-producer: Jérome Deplatière
Production Company: Wanda
Director: Si & Ad
DOP: Barry Ackroyd
Producer: Antoine Bagot
Editing: Paul Watts
Post-production: Mikros
Music supervisor: Marine Cremer
Sound production: The
Client: Volkswagen
Volkswagen management: Pierre Boutin, Ghislain Laffite, Juan-Manuel Caparros,
Alexandra Tacconi and Mathilde Raulin
