After Droga5’s heroics for ‘The Y’ we’re here for good, again, with Stella Artois, Mother London, production company 1stAveMachine and studio Palma Pictures in a new global campaign aimed at raising money for Water.org. Water.org is a charity supported by The Martian star Matt Damon (whose biggest problem in the film was finding water) and the aim of the campaign is to raise money to unshackle many of the world’s women from the constant hunt for water. And make you feel good about Stella, of course.
It’s all very beautiful and clever, using a zoetrope to create the illusion of movement. Zoetropes were used in early film-making, to give the illusion of movement.
Here’s Matt Damon.
And here’s how they did it, featuring, presumably, agency creatives Jess Reynolds and Chris Vernon.
Stella says it’s already helped 290,000 people access clean water through Water.org. If you visit BuyaLadyaDrink.com and donate $25 you’ll receive a specially-designed Stella ‘chalice’ (ie. glass) with a drink of your choice as well as guarantee someone in the developing world access to five years of clean water.
Nothing not to like there then – or is there?
Stella owner AB InBev is in the process of merging with rival SABMiller in a £71bn deal. Giving a million people access to clean water through this scheme would mean raising $25m, which it probably won’t. The fees to the PR companies involved in the mega-merger may reach almost that sum, those to the investment bankers will far exceed it. Which puts such ‘here for good’ schemes into context.
Will the spinners and bankers be donating some of their swag to Water.org? Think they should.
To the ad: it’s a tricky balancing act between Stella’s increasingly posh image and poverty, which Mother and its cohorts just about pull off.
MAA creative scale: 7.
