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.
With one in five Brits (22%) experiencing a fraud attempt every single week, telecommunications company O2 and VCCP London’s AI creative agency faith have launched what's billed as a first-of-its-kind campaign to fight back against scammers.
At the heart of the campaign is Daisy, a lifelike, state-of-the-art, Conversational AI character designed to speak with scammers and keep them on the phone for as long as possible so they have less time to try and scam real people.
The newest member of O2’s fraud prevention team, Daisy was created using a range of cutting-edge AI technology and is indistinguishable from a real person. Based on a real-life relative of a VCCP employee to ensure total believability, Daisy was built to play on scammers’ own stereotypical views that older people are easier targets for scams. While anyone can be a victim of a scam, criminal fraud gangs often target the elderly, so by leaning into scammers’ own biases, Daisy became the perfect scambaiter.
Phoney fraudsters--including many posing as some of the UK’s most trusted businesses--thought they’d got their hands on an easy target, but Daisy has been beating them at their own horrible game, answering scam calls and wasting scammers calls as part of an awareness campaign which exposes fraudsters tricks and tactics and offers top tips on how to avoid scammers.
Daisy is able to interact in real-time ensuring no suspicions are raised on the other end of the line, and has worked 24/7, and over the course of many hours of scam calls she’s told meandering stories of her family, talked at length about her passion for knitting and provided false personal information including made-up bank details.
O2 and faith worked with leading U.K. scambaiter Jim... Read More
