Shots: Headshots

When the shots team were originally tasked with creating an advertising campaign that wouldn’t miss its target, the editorial team knew what it was up against and called in BETC Euro RSCG Paris.

“It was very hard to find a good idea for a magazine that is about good ideas,” explains BETC Euro RSCG creative director Olivier Apers. “There was a bit more pressure on us than usual because we had to convince shots it was a good idea but also impress the other agencies who will all be watching to see what we come up with.”

The result is a print campaign (press and DM), which features in the upcoming issue of shots magazine, and a viral, directed by Partizans Hervé Plumet, set inside the ‘biggest ad agency in the world’. The viral starts with the camera approaching the agency’s creative director, who grabs a brain that’s sitting on a bench, throws it onto the cutting board and chucks it into the blender, along with a shots DVD and box. The CD then blends it all up and pours the mixture into a creative’s empty, lobotomised skull before stapling the top of his head back on

It’s not known whether the BETC creatives’ objected to the concept of having their brains scrambled but Stéphane Xiberras, ECD and president, says it the idea for the campaign may have frightened them just a little. “From now on, I am a monster,” jokes Xiberras. “After I made a machine that makes crap advertising and put it in the office, all the creative people were looking at me saying: ‘Don’t you like us anymore? Do you want to fire us?’ Then Olivier comes up with the idea of chopping up creatives’ brains and blending them! So now I am a monster in the agency,” he laughs. “Thank you shots!”
Director: Hervé Plumet
Producer: Frédéric Genest
Creative Director: Olivier Apers; Stéphane Xiberras
Creative: Arnaud Assouline; Benjamin Le Breton
Agency Producer: David Green
Director of Photography: Christophe Guyon
Production: Partizan Paris
Agency: BETC Euro RSCG
Agency Country: France
Brand: shots
Music: COM Events