A campaign from telecoms company Orange to promote its sponsorship of the French team in the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup has drawn acclaim for its use of tech to address misogyny in the game.
Created by Publicis agency Marcel, the film titled “The Compil des Bleues” spotlights the on-field skills of the French men’s national team—or does it?
The first half of the ad presents highlights of the game featuring French soccer stars such as Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann. Halfway through, a line says, “Only Les Bleus can give us these emotions … But that’s not them you’ve just seen.”
The spot then rewinds to show that visual effects had altered original footage of players from the women’s team, including Sakina Karchaoui and Selma Bacha. The twist demonstrates that the women’s team has the same skills as the men’s.
It ends with the message: “At Orange, we support Les Blues” before showing images of players from both teams.
Orange explained in a statement that it was “taking a stand in favor of women’s football … with the aim of overturning one of the prejudices that all too often surround the player.”
The company added that some fans have formed biases toward women’s soccer despite never watching it.
After weeks of researching game footage from the French soccer federation’s archives, the ad’s creators were able to match moves from the women’s team with similar plays by the men to showcase their similar abilities.
The campaign was released June 28 and targets soccer fans online through platforms such as L’Équipe, beIN Sports, Foot Mercato, the French soccer federation’s platforms and through influencers on YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat.
The film has now picked up attention and praise from fans around the world.
Vivienne MacLaren, chair of Scottish Women’s Football and a digital and marketing expert, described the ad to Adweek as “brilliant” in its ambition and execution while being “built on the misogyny of some men who are quick to comment on how poor the women’s game is without watching it.”
She added, “Watch the first half and because it’s men playing, it’s validated. Then to see it’s the skill of female players is just wonderful and very clever.”
Since its release, the campaign has drawn over 44,000 views on YouTube alone.
Orange has been a sponsor of the French Football Federation since 2018 and last year renewed its $5.7 million deal for both the men’s and women’s teams to run until 2016.
At the time of announcing the new contract, Fabienne Dulac, chief executive of Orange France, explained: “It illustrates our ambition to be a committed and responsible operator, by carrying out preventive actions on the use of digital technology among young people. The collective and solidarity, values dear to Orange, are honored by the success of the national men’s and women’s teams and make us particularly proud of this partnership.”
The FIFA Women’s World Cup will kick off in Australia and New Zealand Thursday.
CREDITS:
Orange
Commercial & POS communication and creation chief: Quentin Delobelle
Advertising director: Ombline Thomine-Desmazures
Brand creative director: Annabel Salesa
Video production manager: Caroline Fortabat
Advertising manager: Jean-Philippe Francisco
Partnerships managers: Antoine Maillard, Laetitia Lauron et Mikel Sarriquet
Media and influence managers: Alexis Dreyfus, Isabelle Spanu et Morgan Challand
Marcel
Co-CEOs: Pascal Nessim et Charles Georges-Picot
Chief creative officers: Gaëtan du Peloux & Youri Guerassimov
Creative director:: Xavier Le Boullenger
Copywriter: Antonin Jacquot
Art director: Vincent Teffene
Assistant art director: Sam Salou
Motion designer: Julien Taillez
Social media creative: Mathieu Borza
Associate director: Eric Guillod
Account director: Solène Raverdy
Directrice de projet: Eva Castrillo
Project manager: Antoine Zago-Meyer
Strategic planner: Margaux Grenouilloux
Publicis Conseil
Executive creative director : Fabrice Delacourt
Client lead: Anne Dauvé
Production: Prodigious
Head of production: Timothé Rosenberg
Post production manager: Franck-Hervé Marc
Post-producer: Jonathan Keita
Lead flame artist – FX Supervisor: Nicolas Vogel
VFX: Sébastien Delecour, Sylysak Taidonekhong, Emilia Redondy, Luc Noehringer, Guillaume Riboulet,
Louis Nicod, François-Xavier Clément, Paul Crézé, Léo Auger, Adrien Vernier, Mathieu Cabaret
Chief editor: Mickäel Bandela
Archive research – Les Artisans du Film
Producers: Valéry du Peloux & Sixtine Busetti
Archivists: Rethi Tan (Lead) & Pouria Hossein-Pour
Sound production – Prodigious
Sound producer: Joël Tessonneau
Sound engineer: Olivier Vehert
