Bye-bye grunts and gore. O2’s Rugby World Cup #weartherose ad is an animated VCCP tear jerker.

Wear The Rose began life as a 360 degree virtual reality experience to support telco, O2’s, partnership of England Rugby in 2014. It used Oculus Rift technology to give rugby fans the experience of being part of the Senior England Rugby Team – being part of team talks, training sessions and drills virtually.

It was very blokey. But then rugby ads are, and it fitted into a genre that tends to applaud manly courage and the blood and guts damage players do to one another on the field.

This year, O2, has done nothing like that.

The 2015 ad is an animated VCCP tear jerker by Elliot Dear of Blinkink, who worked on John Lewis’s The Bear and the Hare in 2013. It is underlined by a score by Theo Vidgen, who composed music for The Hobbit. And it has the look and feel of an animated family movie. The film’s characters are animated versions of real players and they may be giants, but they find that bewildering. They are also husbands and fathers who have to be taught by a child about their purpose in life.

The tagline of the story is Make Them Giants. This is VCCP’s nod to rugby ad tradition – the fans fuel the game. The full-length version opens the campaign during the season premier of Channel 4’s Googlebox on September 11 and will run online. The bulk of the TV campaign will use cutdowns. There will also be shorter animated clips, responding to specific moments in matches to keep public support high.

O2’s chief marketing officer, Nina Bibby, commented, “Those who really know rugby will recognise the players, and they will get it. The animation broadens the appeal [and] makes sure we’re touching a broader audience, women and children, those who aren’t the die hard fans. As opposed to alienating, it will have more of an inclusive effect.”