In 1931, Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard became the first man to reach the stratosphere. Nearly three decades later, in 1960, his son Jacques became the first to reach the deepest bottom of the ocean. This remarkable true story is the basis for The Piccards, the latest cinematic-style short in the Hennessy brand’s Wild Rabbit campaign from agency Droga5.
The Piccards reimagines the individual achievements of the two men as one continuous journey up—a surreal, adrenaline-spiked odyssey to the stratosphere and the deepest ocean depths. But at the core of the adventure is an incredible story about the bond between a father and son, the power of ambition and the will to achieve. Hennessy tapped musician Nas to tell the story of the Piccards’ intergenerational Wild Rabbit chase–Hennessy’s metaphor for the relentless pursuit of achievement.
The film was directed by Daniel Wolfe of Somesuch. Part of Wolfe’s vision was a collaboration with photography specialist Chris Parks whose abstract imagery has been in benchmark pieces such as Tree of Life and Gravity.
Credits
Client Hennessy Agency Droga5 Felix Richter, Alexander Nowak, creative directors; Phil Hadad, Marybeth Ledesma, creatives. Production Somesuch Daniel Wolfe, director; Lee Groombridge, producer; Chris Parks, photography specialist. VFX & Design The Mill Sean Costelloe, exec producer; Bugs Russell, producer; Jasper Kidd, shoot supervisor, creative director, 3D lead artist; Eric Pascarelli, shoot supervisor; Gavin Wellsman, creative director/2D lead artist Andre Vidal, Ben Kwok, Heather Kennedy, 2D artists; Jimmy Gass, Laurent Giaume, Katie Schiffer, Justin Diamond, Edward Hassan, Eshan Parizi, Paul Liaw, Joji Tsuruga, Greg Gangemi, 3D artists; Cedric Mernard, matte painting; Sally Reynolds, designer; Jacqueline Sand, production coordinator.
Can a sip of coffee spark progress? Family-owned company rolls out its first-ever brand awareness endeavor and illustrates a sustainable future.
A startling statistic: 80 million plastic coffee pods go into landfills daily. One week of this waste could circle the Earth, while one day could stretch from New York to San Francisco.
Committed to using coffee as a vehicle to create enduring change, the responsibly-sourced coffee brand, San Francisco Bay Coffee – which is owned by the Rogers Family Company – along with its creative and media agency of record, Cutwater, have partnered together to launch an all-new brand platform and integrated “One Small Sip For a Better Tomorrow” campaign which includes a series of playful, vibrant animation films, including this anthem piece which shows various people drinking coffee--with a flood of coffee pods falling out of their java mugs.
The remedy: San Francisco Bay Coffee and its certified commercially compostable OneCUP™ coffee pods.
Production and animation were spearheaded by Psyop and Wizz. The pieces were brought to life by directing duo Remus & Kiki. Music, sound design, and audio post were executed by Antfood.
“San Francisco Bay Coffee is the David in a category of Goliaths, yet they hold more true to values and practices we all want from our coffee brands. In addition to great tasting coffee, they innovate toward a better tomorrow. So if we want to make these great leaps of change, all it now takes is one small sip,” explained Cutwater founder and chief creative officer Chuck McBride. “We chose animation because the story needed a special way to help people understand the benefits of compostable pods in a not too serious way.”
