This centerpiece spot in a new campaign for The Wall Street Journal from creative agency The&Partnership, NY, challenges readers to go beyond the memes, hashtags and and algorithmically selected news stories that populate our media feeds so that we can advocate for and make better, more informed decisions.
Juan Cabral of MJZ directed the “Read Yourself Better” :90.
Justin Ruben, ECD, The&Partnership, NY, said, “The idea behind “Read yourself better” is to highlight how hard it is for consumers to navigate our overloaded media landscape and to figure out who to trust and what’s worth reading. The WSJ is a solution to this with its quality journalism based on facts. Creatively we wanted to bring the online and offline world to life in a new and unexpected way and create a visual world that also broke through the clutter.”
Credits
Client The Wall Street JournalAgency The&Partnership New York Justin Ruben, executive creative director; David Tomkins, art director; Simon Philion, copywriter; Veronica Jeronimo, designer; Kevin Wilson, head of integrated production; Niki Polyocan, producer; Colm Murphy, chief strategy officer. Production MJZ Juan Cabral, director; Emma Wilcockson, exec producer; Roman Vasyanov, DP. Production Partner Labhouse Flora Fernandez Marengo, managing director; Natalia Mussolana, producer; Patricia Rzeznik, production manager; Esteban Gomez, 1st AD; Micala Saeigh, Maria Battaglia, art directors; Florencia Tellado, stylist. Editorial Rock Paper Scissors Mikkel EG Nielsen, editor; Alex Liu, assistant editor; Eve Kornblum, managing director. VFX Framestore Murray Butler, executive creative director; Jordi Bares Dominguez, VFX supervisor; Sarah Hiddlestone, director of production; Raul Ortega, 2D lead; Greg Gaskins, Kieran Walsh, Flame team; Steve Drew, Zavier Mojica, Matt Pascuzzi, Nick Tanner, Terner Thompson, Brad Moon, compositing team; Sue McNamara, sr. VFX producer; Beau Leon, colorist; Andy McLintock, sr. color producer; Evan Reinhard, Nabil Moo, color assists. (Toolbox: Photoshop, After Effects, Maya, Flame, Nuke, Baselight) Sound Wave Studios NY Chris Afzal, Aaron Reynolds, sound designers/mixers; Vicky Ferraro, exec producer; Eleni Giannopoulos, associate producer. Music Mort Garson, “Plantasia” Voiceover Boyd Holbrook.
How do you top one of the most viral brand videos ever made? Spoiler alert: you can’t. But when Dollar Shave Club tapped Zack Seckler to direct a new campaign to revive the absurdist humor of its iconic launch video, he knew he had a rare opportunity to create something special.
The brief was simple: introduce the concept of a physical “Club” that people would love to join while showcasing Dollar Shave Club’s products and embracing the weird. From script to direction and post, Seckler--an alum of SHOOT’s 2021 New Directors Showcase--was invited to help sculpt that vision.
The result is this “Welcome to the Club” spot which invites us to join a unique, seemingly exclusive but in reality an accessible and affordable fraternity of Dollar Shave Club members. But you need to know the password or more accurately, the two-word phrase--"shave money."
“The Club” campaign brings the brand back to its humorous roots, reflecting a new chapter after being acquired by Nexus Capital Management from Unilever in late 2023. The work takes Dollar Shave Club back to its disruptive beginnings and what made the brand a viral sensation from its inception in 2011.
