The Tipping Point
Ubisoft
Issue 56 | September 2020
Agency
DDB Paris
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Alexander Kalchev Head of Copy & Copywriter Patrice Dumas
Production Team
Agency Producer Quentin Moenne Loccoz Production Pinkman.tv Director Alberto Mielgo
Other Credits
Account Team Nicolas Carlotti, Marie-Elise Archambaud, Quentin Grimal
Date
August 2020
Background
It had been over three years since the previous Watchdogs game was released (set in San Francisco). The new game was set in a dystopian post-Brexit London, with game dynamics and storyline completely revamped.
Ubisoft wanted to create interest in the new game before it’s launch at the Ubisoft Forward online event that replaced E3.
Idea
The goal was to demonstrate that in a world in which people oftentimes feel powerless, anyone has to power to be the grain of sand that could tip the scales towards freedom.
Resistance is not a grand gesture, but rather a series of small, determined acts.
The four-minute short film paid homage to the famous poem by Martin Niemöller (“First they came…”) and showed a manic, mesmerising chase in which a street artist member of the resistance is being pursued by a militarised police force called Albion.
The film ended with a tagline: reclaim your future.
Our Thoughts
We seem to be showcasing more online video than usual in this issue and that’s because, of course, in lockdown people have been consuming more online media.
While the conditions have made it easier for long-form advertising like this, it still has to be very, very good.
While some brands are hoping for a post- Covid world in which we are more tolerant and more careful with the environment, this is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The idea that after Brexit the new normal in the UK could be a hell of a lot worse than the old normal is one I have some sympathy with.