Each year, there are 400,000 burn victims in France, of whom 10,000 are considered by medicine as severe. Once out of a health care pathway often long and painful, burn victims must face the gaze of others and an outside world who is easily reluctant to help them get back to the normal course of their lives. Their condition, widely misunderstood, further reinforces their sense of isolation.
To change our way of looking at burn victims is the aim of this new TBWAParis campaign, fruit of a lasting collaboration with the association Burns and Smiles. Through “Matheo,” a film directed by Bertrand Degove and Fabrice Gobert via production house Wanda, teenagers are featured in a story…of teenagers. Can a teen with severe burns live a “normal” life?
Credits
Client Burns and Smiles Agency TBWAParis Benjamin Marchal, Faustin Claverie, executive creative directors; Lena Monceau, Julia Deshayes, conception/art direction; Maxime Boiron, head of TV; Lorraine Poincignon, TV producer. Production Wanda, Paris Bertrand Degove, Fabrice Gobert, directors; Antoine Bagot, producer; Jacques Girault, head operator; Micka Arasco, SFX makeup. Postproduction Wanda, Paris Olivier Glandais, head of postproduction; Cecile Dessertine, editor; Frank Voiturier, calibrator. Sound Production TBWAElse Olivier Lefebvre, head of music and sound; Fanny Mithois, sound director; Vendome UHL, Matthieu Seignez, Max Labarthe, sound engineers; Marion Le Guluche, music rights. Music “The Only Living Boy in New York”
Following World AIDS Day, which was celebrated on December 1, co-production companies Central Films and Freelance For track one man’s existential, and potentially career-altering, decision to “come out” as living with HIV in Spain in this public service spot titled “The HInVisible Celebrity.”
Out of agency Señora Rushmore for ViiV Healthcare Spain, in collaboration with GESIDA, SEISIDA, and Apoyo Positivo, the PSA--directed by Rodrigo García Sáiz via Central Films Spain--addresses the stigma against publicly living with HIV in Spanish society. In the more than 40 years since the first case of HIV appeared in Spain, no public figure in Spain has claimed to have HIV. Viiv Healthcare Spain asks, if there are 150,000 people with HIV in Spain (or approximately 1 in 300), why don’t we know anyone with HIV?
The central character, who dons a mask of television-pixelated anonymity, gives himself an introspective pep-talk ahead of announcing his status to the Spanish public. Along the way, he wonders what will become of his career, and reputation in general, even as he recognizes that his declaration could change Spain’s cultural landscape for the better and for all of those in Spain who live with HIV every day. As no public figure in Spain has ever announced living with HIV--due to fear of public rejection--this character realizes that such a role model could change that.
The character has already begun building social media awareness with his Instagram profile, @famosoinvihsible, which began cataloging his life as a public figure earlier this fall. Still, though, the figure either leaves himself out of the picture, faces away from the camera, or dons the pixelated mask associated with anonymous admission. “The HInVisible... Read More
