It's Your Hair vs. Your Commute in This Surreal, Entertaining Hair-Care Ad

The other day over a coffee break, some guy at the office with a massive bouffant admitted he gets up an hour early to do his hair. He also arrives at work way earlier than I do. I hate him. Hoping to break the mold of unreasonably lustrous hair advertising, international haircare brand Syoss gives us "The Thief." Created by Walker Zurich, the piece is narrated by a woman on the run. Except she's not the thief. Her daily commute is. [kickout id="1"] The production here is lovely—postmodern, stress-inducing and vaguely surreal, manifesting the scattered, harried mindset of someone whose life is an existential race. You see without seeing. Things disappear. Time feels like it's working against you. In one strange instant, an astronaut checks the time on an empty train platform. But the copywriting drives this home, lending gravity to what our rational selves may dismiss as a frivolous idea. "My daily commute is a thief, a burglar who steals away my precious time," the woman says. "A mugger who lies in wait for me, waits until I’m half-awake and then, quite brazenly, robs me of my morning." She goes on, "It shows no mercy. It steals my breakfast, my long, hot shower and that priceless me-time I need to do my hair." In less careful hands, that tie-in to Syoss could sound foolish, but the brand doesn't push its luck. There aren't any product shout-outs. Instead, what follows is a familiar fantasy: That picture of the put-together adult we imagine we could be if we weren't falling behind—again. "What witchcraft sets her apart from us mere mortals?" our narrator wonders as a woman floats through morning transit, untouched by grit and stress. Her hair—not unrealistically beautiful—is light as a cloud on her shoulders. The feeling elicited is ugly and familiar, like the burning rage cloud that hovers over me when I see Bouffant Guy. (When does he sleep?) And though the motivations may be commercial, thoughtful narration strikes chords we feel in ourselves. "I don't want to arrive looking like this. I want to strive through the office with a mane of golden fire. I want to turn heads, raise heartbeats, taunt ex-lovers." “With this film, we wanted to create something that was different to the usual mould that hair ads stick to," explains walker Zurich Creative Director, Pius Walker. "We’re lucky enough to have a client who allows us to do this and push away from the conventional.” If "The Thief" succeeds, it's because its aspirations are relatively reasonable. Our protagonists in a rush, spilling coffee and struggling into their shoes, are more relatable than a caricature of some haggard soul who's lost the plot. The most stirring elements of self-actualizing fantasy are said, not seen, like the secret ideal of ourselves we rarely discuss out loud. The monsters here are not our failure to be better, but time and productivity culture. Our envy-inducing woman is not so much perfect as peacefully unruffled. We're left not believing Syoss will transform us, but wondering whether the right product might save us some time, even help recalibrate a few priorities. The sell doesn't promise respite from life's demands, but it's sound enough. The film was directed by Joachim Zunke via Cobblestone, with a score by Lukas McNally and Tim Knapp. It kicks off parent company Henkel's 2017 "Get Syossed" campaign in Switzerland. CREDITS Date: 19.05.17 Title/Project: SYOSS – The Thief Agency: walker Zurich Agency contact: Pius Walker Agency contact job title: Creative Director Account Director: Cornelia Nünlist Writer: Roger Beckett Art Director: Stefanie Huber 2nd Art Director: Franziska Krentzien Strategy & Concepts: Catherine Elf CEO (Inhalt&Form): Dominik Stibal Creative Director (Inhalt&Form): Karin Estermann Project Manager (Inhalt&Form): Manuela Marty Marketing Manager (Henkel Beauty Care): Christian Volk Executive Producers (Cobblestone): Pieter Lony & Juri Wiesner Director of Photography (Cobblestone): Joachim Zuncke Director (Cobblestone): Joachim Zunke Lighting (Cobblestone): Philipp Gerhardt Styling: Imke Hille Hair/Make Up/Special Effects: Nadin Wagner Editor: Alex Kutka Compositing Artist: Sven Schönmann Postproduction Supervisor: Tanja Bruhn Sound design: Michael Krüger & Christopher Szillat Music: Lukas McNally & Tim Knapp

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It's Your Hair vs. Your Commute in This Surreal, Entertaining Hair-Care Ad

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