Venables Bell & Partners riffs on Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds in its latest spot for Audi, “The Drones.”
In the ad, a swarm of violent drones descend on a group of officer workers as they leave for the day. One man gets in his Audi, which it turns out has the right tools to help him avoid death by drone. The connection comes with the line, “Advanced technology doesn’t have to be intimidating.” which precedes the “Challenge all givens” tagline. It’s more than a little bit of a stretch, but the spot is still memorable and well put together, as an homage to a Hollywood classic is more than most ads in the category pull off.
Another ad released by Venables Bell & Partners for the campaign, “Teenager,” takes the more familiar approach of dealing with a parent and a teen learning to drive. In this case, the teen trades adding her dad on Facebook for driving the Audi A6.
Credits:
Client: Audi
Spot: “The Drones”
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners
Founder, Chairman: Paul Venables
ECD: Will McGinness
Creative Director: Tyler Hampton, Lee Einhorn
Art Director: Greg Wyatt, Byron Del Rosario
Copywriter: Bryan Karr
Director of Integrated Production: Craig Allen
Executive Producer: Mandi Holdorff
Producer: Hannah Murray Founder, Executive Strategy Director: Lucy Farey-Jones Group Planning Director: Orit Peleg Partner, President: Paul Birks-Hay
Acct Director: Justin Pitcher
Acct Manager: Oliver Glenn, Natalia Montero
Prod Company: MJZ
Director: Dante Ariola
DP: Matthew Libatique
Executive Producer: Scott Howard
Line Producer: Natalie Hill
Editorial: Rock Paper Scissors
Editor: Adam Pertrofsky
Asst Editor: Marjorie Sacks
Executive Producer: Angela Dorian
Producer: Shada Shariatzadeh
VFX: The Mill
VFX Supervisor, 2D Lead: Gareth Parr
VFX Supervisor, 3D Lead: Simon Brown
Creative Director: John Leonti
Executive Producer: Enca Kaul
Producer: Chris Harlowe
Production Coordinator: Karina Ford
Music: Elias Arts
ECD: Vinnie LoRusso
CD: Mike Goldstein
EP: Vicki Ordeshook
Head of Production: Katie Overcash
Sound Design: Brian Emrich, Trinitite
Mix: Loren Silber, Lime Studios