BBDO and AT&T have delivered another powerful offering in the "It Can Wait" ad series. But while last year's "Close to Home" took its time setting up the board—showing us the different people who eventually collide at ground zero of a neighborhood car crash—"The Unseen" goes in a more supernatural direction.
To fully appreciate the 3:37 film, it helps to watch the 30-second version first. Without context, it feels almost like a ghost story, the kind you're told about some mysterious road where, at night, a spectre lures people into accidents.
The longer version has more in common with "Close to Home"—it turns out they share the same director, Anonymous Content's Frederic Planchon. We learn that the man in the car is a good, conscientious dad, with a rowdy band of kids that he drops off at the pool before heading off on his grim adventure. His wife calls to tell him the dog's gotten out. Her worry is contagious.
There are also red herrings: A man walks outside for the mail, and as he does, the father's phone beeps, but he doesn't check it. It's almost enough to make us believe things won't turn out as badly as they do.
But it's then, in the quiet, that the spectre appears, a king-sized distraction on top of everything else, collapsing the father's guard and completing the star-crossed trajectory.
The agency says the ad could have been even more supernatural than it already is.
"There were a few different ways we could play it," says BBDO executive creative director Matt McDonald. "Ultimately, we wanted to make it not seem like the Sixth Sense. Ostensibly, the kid could have jumped in the car at the pool, one of those crazy things that can happen. We had another version that played it a little more supernatural, but that took away from the ending."
AT&T's "It Can Wait" has run for six years and featured a number of memorable executions, including a painful 2013 Werner Herzog documentary and this recent sobering video with the cast of YouTube reality show @SummerBreak.
Company data shows one-third of those exposed to the campaign have altered their behavior, and more than 10 million people have taken the "It Can Wait" pledge to avoid looking at their phones while driving. It's also seen 5 million downloads of its DriveMode app, which silences alerts and creates autoreplies to tell people you're on the road.
"The Unseen" keeps the campaign's bar high, but also signals a commitment to storytelling freshness. We're anxious to see what it'll bring us next. Meanwhile, AT&T's global marketing officer, Lori Lee, writes more about the new spot in a blog post here.
CREDITS
Client: AT&T
Title: The Unseen
Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Matt MacDonald
Creative Director/Copywriter: Rick Williams
Creative Director/Art Director: Marcel Yunes
Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe
Group Executive Producer: Julie Collins
Executive Producer: Dan Blaney
Managing Director: Mark Cadman
Senior Director: Mark Tillinghast
Account Director: Matt Mason
Account Manager: Johnny Wardell
Account Executive: Erin Sheehan
Planning Director: James Lou
Engagement Planning Director: Charles Baker
Senior Planner: Simonas Piepalius
Business Affairs Manager: Nancy Espinal
Production Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Frederic Planchon
Managing Director/EP: Eric Stern
Executive/Production: Sue Ellen Clair
Head of Production: Kerry Haynie
Producer: Erin Wile
Production Supervisor: Donald Cager
DP: Jody Lee Lipes
Editorial: WORK Editorial
Editor: Rich Orrick - RICH ORRICK
Executive Producer: Erica Thompson
Producer: Jamie Perritt
Assistant Editors: Christopher Fetsch/evelina gokinayeva
Visual Effects: The Mill
Shoot Supervisor: Gavin Wellsman
Colorist: Fergus McCall
2d Lead Artist : Krissy Nordella
2d Artist: Gavin Wellsman, Heather Kennedy, Alex Miller, Nicolette Picardo, Alex Wysota, Kevin Donahue
3d Artist: Sandor Toledo, Peter Karnik, Alex Allain
Design: Yuanbo Chen
Senior Producer: Nirad "Bugs" Russell
Executive Producer: Sean Costelloe
Mix Studio: Heard City
Sound Mixer: Phil Loeb
Sound Designer: Brian Emrich
Music track: Villa Del Refugio
Music artist: This Will Destroy You