Once all the 2010 pink shoelaces, pink sweat wrist bands and pink socks were handed out to registered runners, other competitors in the field wore their own pink items in support of the PinkDrive initiative - which strives to bring breast cancer screening and education to the women of South Africa. The commercial's aim of using the Comrades Marathon to create awareness of breast cancer, had worked.
PinkDrive CEO, Noelene Kotschan, said, "Much of this support was due to the fantastic ad created for us by Euro RSCG. Many people who registered with us said it was the ad that inspired them to join the PinkDrive in the first place."
Created by the Agency's Executive Creative Director, James Daniels; Art Director, Romy Lunz; and Copywriter, Balekane Mokodotoa, the ad was shot and directed by Mason from Frieze Films at the old Kempton Park Hospital on Johannesburg's East Rand and the Randburg Athletic Club.
The agency, Euro RSCG, came up with the intriguing idea for the commercial that involved fifty athletes pounding through a working hospital. The only option was to shoot in the abandoned and derelict Kempton Park Hospital that had squads of cleaners working slavishly for three days to prepare the location for shooting.
The suspense-filled 45" commercial called 'Race' opens in a quiet hospital where everyone is going about their daily business, when the presence of the runners is first implied, then revealed in glimpses, until eventually they are pounding their way, en masse through the hospital. The ad culminates with all the athletes converging in the hospital foyer, blocking the entrance door. Suddenly the message becomes powerfully apparent as the ad ends on a slower, poignant shot of the woman being kept out of the hospital - the crux of the idea. The animated pink shoelaces reinforce the symbolic link between the pink and the cause.
"We decided to focus on the idea of staying out of hospital by picking up potential breast cancer early," says James Daniels, executive creative director of Euro RSCG SA. "The message is clear that thanks to the money they will raise by running in pink at the Comrades, these runners are doing their bit to help keep women out of hospital, and possibly save a life."
The absorbing and dramatic visuals give an epic feel to a very human story. Mason said, "Apart from its conceptual strength, the script also lends itself to really interesting and compelling visual imagery, with the hospital environment." Post production was conducted at The House in Bryanston by Andrew Traill, with music by Rob Schroeder of Rob Roy Music.
Click here to view the ad. [3MB]
