The latest iteration of AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign, now in its seventh year, is making sure that everyone hears the message loud and clear during Distracted Driving Awareness Month: No distraction is worth a future.
Oscar-winning (The Fog of War) documentarian Errol Morris directed these two campaign spots via Biscuit Filmworks for BBDO New York, shining a light on the faces of distracted driving by showing us what might have been for two teenage boys.
If Caleb Sorohan and Forrest Cepeda were alive today, they might be pursuing their dream jobs or teaching their kids to play sports. Maybe they’d still be figuring life out. But we’ll never know–smartphone distracted drivers cut their lives short when they were teens. Forensic artists and visual effects teams recreated what Caleb and Forrest would look like today had they not been killed, and each :30 spot tells the story of what each might be doing with his life. The spots end on the line “This is what Caleb Sorohan/Forrest Cepeda would look like if they hadn’t been killed in distracted driving accidents.”
This week’s Top Spot tells us what might have been for Caleb. VFX house on the campaign was The Mill New York.
Credits
Client AT&T Agency BBDO New York David Lubars, chief creative officer, worldwide; Greg Hahn, chief creative officer, NY; Matt MacDonald, executive creative director; Kevin Mulroy, Bianca Guimaraes, creative directors; David Rolfe, director of integrated production; Julie Collins, group executive producer; Dan Blaney, executive producer; Bree Hopenwasser, producer; Crystal Rix, chief strategy officer; Charles Baker, strategy director; Claire McCastle, project manager. Production Biscuit Errol Morris, director; Julie Ahlberg, line producer; Shawn Lacy, managing director; Jeff McDougall, exec producer; Rachel Glaub, head of production. Editorial Exile NY Steven Hathaway, editor; Molly Rokosz, assistant editor; Sasha Hirshfield, exec producer; Evyn Bruce, producer. Finishing/VFX The Mill NY Angus Kneale, chief creative officer; Ben Smith, executive creative director; Gavin Wellsman, Corey Brown, creative directors; Patrick Heinen, shoot supervisor; Fergus McCall, colorist; Rachael Trillo, exec producer; Nirad “Bugs” Russell, sr. producer; Sophie Mitchel, Mia Lalanne, coordinators; Krissy Nordella, 2D lead; Corrie Brown, Jamie Scott, Kevan Lee, Rob Meade, compositors; Bobby Ushiro, design. Music Human James Dean Wells, exec producer; Theo Degunzberg, Gordon Minette, composers. Audio Post Human Craig Caniglia, post producer; Sloan Alexander, engineer. Age Progression Art Phojoe Jovey Hayes, age progression; Emanuel Craciunescu, age progression art direction.
Tonal, the strength training system combining revolutionary digital weight technology with personalized, AI-powered coaching, has introduced its new brand platform, “Power Progress,” and advertising campaign developed in partnership with Quality Experience (QX), the creative independent agency founded by Ari Weiss.
Directed by Aube Perrie of Pulse Films (UKMVA Director of the Year 2023 & 2024, UKMVA Best New Director 2021 and Webby’s Best Music Video 2022) with visual effects from The Mill NY, this brand film contrasts how the heavy chains of the past still shape how we work out today, with Tonal representing the future of fitness.
In addition to the brand film, the campaign includes cutdowns ranging from 90 seconds to 15 seconds, with even the shortest spot clearly connecting the old and the new. French director Perrie’s body of work includes music videos for Harry Styles, Megan Thee Stallion, and RM’s “LOST!”
“Sports marketing has had a long history of breakthrough advertising,” said QX creative chairman Weiss. “We wanted to launch with an idea as disruptive as the product itself. Not an easy bar to live up to. Like any great idea the insight is dead simple but the execution is unexpected and riveting. Great sports marketing doesn’t happen without great sports marketers and the team at Tonal shared our ambition to make the marketing as disruptive as the product.”
