Tag: film advertising

Chevrolet: Then & Now

As a way to celebrate turning 100, Chevy creates a spot titled “Then & Now” that shows people staying connected to iconic moments, locations, and Chevrolet vehicles as if those moments are with them right there, right now.

A simple device that does the heavy lifting

The mechanism is beautifully restrained: vintage photographs of Chevrolets and the people around them are held up to the camera in the exact same locations today, aligning past and present into a single frame.

In automotive heritage storytelling, the fastest way to communicate longevity is to make time visible with a device that needs almost no explanation.

Why it lands emotionally

The film does not argue that the brand matters. It shows that memory matters, and lets the vehicles sit naturally inside that truth. The hand-held photos are the emotional bridge. They make nostalgia feel personal, not corporate.

The business intent behind the sentiment

A centennial can easily become self-congratulation. This avoids that trap by focusing on the audience’s continuity. The brand is the thread that runs through people’s lives, places, and rituals, rather than the subject demanding applause.

What to steal for your own anniversary work

  • Choose one visual metaphor and commit. One repeatable device beats a collage of “greatest hits”.
  • Let people be the hero. Heritage feels earned when the customer’s life is the storyline.
  • Use restraint as a quality signal. Minimal copy and slow pacing can make the work feel more truthful.
  • Anchor the past in the present. Showing the same place now keeps nostalgia from drifting into museum mode.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Then & Now” in one line?

A centennial film that aligns vintage Chevrolet photos with the same real-world locations today to show continuity across generations.

What is the core creative mechanism?

Hand-held historical photographs matched precisely to present-day scenes, creating a single frame that contains both time periods.

Why does this approach work for anniversary advertising?

It makes time visible instantly, and it ties the brand to lived memory rather than to corporate milestones.

What is the most transferable takeaway?

If you can show the passage of time with one simple, repeatable device, you can tell a heritage story without overexplaining it.

TyC Sports: Argentinos

As the 2010 World Cup kicks off, this TyC Sports film by Young & Rubicam Buenos Aires is built to do one thing fast: stir up Argentine fans everywhere with a burst of identity, memory, and belief.

A World Cup rally film is a piece of sports storytelling designed to compress national pride into a repeatable emotional cue. It is less about information and more about turning viewers into a synchronized audience.

In global sports media and broadcaster marketing, pre-tournament films like this work best when they feel like culture, not advertising.

A simple mechanism: recognition, then escalation

The structure is familiar and effective. Start with the small details only insiders recognize. Then scale up into a collective “we”. The film keeps pulling the viewer from personal belonging into shared momentum, so the emotion arrives before the rational brain asks what is being sold.

Why it lands for Argentine fans worldwide

The spot trades on lived cues. The way people speak about football. The intensity. The inevitability of hope. You do not need to explain Argentina’s relationship with the game. You only need to trigger it, and let the audience do the rest.

That is also why the film travels. Fans abroad are exactly the audience most hungry for a cultural tether during a tournament, so the message plays as connection as much as hype.

The business intent behind the emotion

For TyC Sports, the goal is not to educate. It is to concentrate attention and loyalty at the moment the tournament starts, when viewing habits and media choices are being formed. The film frames the channel as the emotional home for the campaign, not just the place that carries matches.

What to steal for your next fan-led campaign

  • Build from insider truth. Specificity creates belonging faster than generic patriotism.
  • Make it chantable. The best sports films reduce to a line or feeling people can repeat.
  • Escalate from personal to collective. Start in the individual, end in the crowd.
  • Keep the brand role clean. If you are a broadcaster, act like a rally point, not a sponsor.

A few fast answers before you act

What is this film doing in one sentence?

It rallies Argentine fans worldwide by turning cultural recognition into shared tournament momentum for TyC Sports.

Why do pre-tournament films outperform match promos?

They create emotional commitment before viewing decisions harden. They make people choose a “home” for the tournament.

What makes sports patriotism feel authentic instead of generic?

Specific cultural cues and language that insiders recognize. The more precise the truth, the less it feels like advertising.

Who is the most valuable audience for this type of spot?

Fans who are not physically in the country. They are most likely to share, and most likely to use the film as a cultural tether.

What is the biggest creative risk with rally films?

Drifting into clichés. If the cues are too broad, it becomes interchangeable with any other team’s hype video.