As surfing becomes an Olympic sport for the first time in history, women’s surf and snow performance wear brand ROXY is reimagining a word that has previously placed female athletes in a box called CUTE.
“Welcome To The New Cute” from agency Fred & Farid Los Angeles encompasses nine brand films that take long-held perceptions of cute, and blows them wide open. Narrated by 2x Longboard World Champion Kelia Moniz, this longform film begins with footage of female, ROXY board athletes being the traditional kind of “cute”–sweet, smiley and girly–and quickly juxtaposes it.
A snowboarder drops hundreds of feet down the face of a snowy mountain; a surfer rides a wave weighing 400 tons. “This is cute, too,” says Moniz in the voiceover.
Winning a world title–cute. Wiping out on a 30-foot barrel–cute. Losing a tooth for the sport–cuteeee!
With appearances from the likes of 4x Surfing World Champion Lisa Andersen and Olympic Gold Medalists Chloe Kim and Torah Bright, the VO guides viewers through jaw-dropping clip after jaw-dropping clip, expanding what it means to be cute, and presenting the “new cute.” A fresh, badass, “upside down” interpretation of the term.
But badassery aside, sweetness is still A-OK. As Moniz narrates, “Cute is more than one thing, because we are more than one thing.”
CreditsClient ROXY Danielle Mckenzie, global marketing director; Shauna Freese, global consumer activations director; Clement Decaux, marketing coordinator. Agency Fred & Farid Los Angeles Chelsea Steiger, creative director; Hilary Smith, writer; Laura Beck, Jocelyn Lam, Bridget Callahan, art directors; Amanda Van Caneghem, exec producer; Andy Caramanzana, producer. Production Ways & Means Lana Kim, Jett Steiger, exec producers; Tamara Treu, post producer; Emilie Aubry, editor. Music Ali Helnwein, composer.
Director Gia Coppola Teams With Mejuri For “A New York Minute”; 1st Episode Takes Us To The Grocery Store
Mejuri, known for turning fine jewelry into an everyday luxury, has partnered with director Gia Coppola (The Last Show Girl, Palo Alto) and The Directors Bureau in Los Angeles, for the first time reimagining the brand’s story as episodic content. In a series of microfilms, co-created by Coppola and premiering following New York Fashion Week, Mejuri eschewed a typical celebrity campaign and cast us as voyeurs to a group of aspiring young women--real people, not actors--at the crossroads of their adult lives against the backdrop of New York City.
Titled “A New York Minute,” the series features five real-life friends, who include one perfectly imperfect heroine named Emma. The women celebrate ordinary moments and interactions which reveal, sometimes retrospectively, the extraordinary within the mundane. Adjacent to the brand’s own community, the 30-something year old cast includes Laura Love (Emma), Rebecca Ressler, Natalie Vall-Freed and Rozzi Crane. Mejuri’s jewelry makes an appearance as the best supporting actor.
“When I met with Gia and The Directors Bureau team, there was instant creative and personal chemistry and a natural alignment on the desire to push and blur the lines between marketing, storytelling, and the construct of what a ‘campaign’ could be,” said Jacob Jordan, chief brand officer, Mejuri. “Gia was able to push that idea into something that truly feels new and artful, with a realism and relatability that almost feels jarring. Gia was such a perfect collaborator and partner, someone I had complete trust in to be a catalyst for Mejuri’s values of celebrating women as their truest selves. I can’t wait for us to continue to tell the next chapters of this story.”
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