Masculin et Féminin: When Advocacy, Football, and Clever Marketing Collide
Masculin et Féminin: When Advocacy, Football, and Clever Marketing Collide
Last year, a creative agency produced a commerical that deceived viewers, and it went viral for all the right reasons.
Welcome back to Ballsy Branding — a weekly newsletter that dissects bold marketing initiatives from in and around the world of sports!
This week: A commercial from the land of wine, cheese, and not-so-peaceful protests. France!
The Campaign
Few things in sports wield the same kind of cultural currency as highlight reels — and for good reason.
They’re simple, entertaining, and powerful. They show us our favorite athletes at their best, and in doing so, inspire action, making them invaluable tools in marketing.
Rarely, however, do highlight reels make people think — at least like this one.
What begins as a typical highlight reel for France’s national team, featuring world-class maneuvers by stars like Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann, is soon revealed to be the product of everyone’s favorite identity thief: deepfake technology.
In other words, the commercial you just witnessed does feature France’s national team — just not the one you might’ve expected.
Titled “La Compils des Bleues” it was developed by Paris-based creative agency Marcel, and produced by Orange, a French telcom company, in partnership with the French Football Federation.
Production-wise, it involved eight VFX artists manually retouching footage from 80 football games, and took over 500 man-hours to produce.
Though not explicitly stated, the ad was published (in part) to promote the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
That said, it was intended as more than a mere ‘bon chance’ for the team.
At its core, the commercial was produced as a symbolic rebuke to mysoginistic views1 about the quality of — and entertainment value inherent in — women’s football.
Through playful subversion, the ad quietly challenges viewers' gender biases — even those held by progressive fans — illustrating just how exciting women’s play truly is.
The Impact
According to Marcel, the commercial garnered over 15 million views through airing on various TV channels as well as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The ad also generated a significant amount of earned media, featuring in several prime-time news segments and generating an estimated 50 news articles worldwide.
Takeaways
At first glance, a few things stand out: how impactful it can be to flip common marketing tropes — like male-dominated highlight reels — on their head; how playful deception can be leveraged for positive messaging; and even the fact that deepfake technology can be used ethically2.
However, in my view, the biggest takeaway is… fighting for social change doesn’t always require actual fighting.
In other words, “La Compils Des Bleues” embodies the power of showing, not telling. It doesn’t lecture viewers, nor does it point any fingers. Instead, it embodies the perfect balance of cleverness, technical precision, and a touch of cheekiness, without a whiff of heavy-handed, moralistic messaging.
In doing so, the commercial shows that a velvet-gloved approach to advocacy-based marketing doesn’t mean the message has to suffer. In fact, it can open up consumers to new, entertaining possibilities of all kinds.
Despite the growing popularity of women’s sports worldwide, researchers have claimed that nearly two-thirds of male football fans harbour hostile, misogynistic, or outright sexist views about women’s sport. One study from Leicester University went so far as to say that increased media coverage of women’s sport, for some, represents a “visible threat”.
Who knew?
Wow. I mean that's the kinda commercial you want. You're catering it to the people of France who are most interested in soccer. Good commercial, but amazing analysis. These small, but big stories are so interesting. Amazing topic choice as well. Great job, Angus!