The Idea
CANAL+
Issue 49 | December 2018
Agency
BETC
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Stéphane Xiberras Art Director: Rayhaan Khodabux Copywriter: Rémi Campet
Production Team
Traffic: Elodie Diana TV Producer: David Brakha, Isabelle Menard Production: Wanda Sound Production: Schmooze Director: Ivan Grbovic Post Production: Mikros Image
Other Credits
Client Management: Mathilde Villette, Eugénie Rodrigues, Céline Pontygayot Agency Management: Guillaume Espinet, Mathilde Lançon, Pierre-Alain Moreau
Date
October 2018
Background
CANAL+ is the leading French cable-network, known for creating wildly popular original content like the series Spiral, The Young Pope, Versailles and The Bureau, but also for its implication in and support of French cinema production. Today CANAL+ launches its new signature “CANAL+ CREATES”, consolidating its role as a major pillar for creation in France and Europe and full of promise for the future.
Idea
Accompanying the signature is a new film, that takes on a mad journey through the mind of a talented screenwriter as he’s writing a script for CANAL+. The film, which was directed by Ivan Grbovic is a craft masterpiece set to a dramatic Russian military music soundtrack. The cinematic ad stays true to the entertainment promise of CANAL+ and the attentive eye will recognize the style of Stéphane Xiberras’ (BETC Paris CCO and President) careful and quirky creative direction. Stéphane, who has been in charge of the CANAL+ account for over 15 years says : “People who watch our ads for Canal+ often ask me: “talking bears, unicorn balls, 80-year old Spitfire pilots.. Where do you get it all from?” The answer is “from inside our heads”, and that’s the whole theme of this film, to show the process of how an idea is born, the mysterious ways in which our minds associate one bizarre element to another. I was really excited about the visual challenge of the script, how to show the inside of a brain, while avoiding the usual clichés. I have actually learnt that it takes a lot of imagination in order to illustrate the imagination!” It is not the first time CANAL+ choses to pay tribute to the talent of its screen writers in their ads, in 2009 BETC Paris created “The Closet” (Gold Cannes Lions) and in 2015“Unicorns” (Silver Cannes Lions).