A Kid's Existential Questions Anchor Intermarché's Charming New Spot

Ah, the age of questions! French supermarket Intermarché uses the old trope, of the 6-year-old with the existential itchies, in an ad titled “Questions.”

There’s something quaint about a play on something so normal. It feels like a dispatch from another reality, yet we can see the evidence that these long-suffering adults hail from ours: Sure, there’s one scene where the dad’s at work (mask-free! With others!), but all the other scenes feature this tiny family in almost sinister solitude. 

They are forever alone and forever together—cutting hair, reading, fishing, camping—like the last people in the world. It’s everyday life, more or less confined, with no respite. 

For the first time, we’re reminded of how the DNA of advertising has changed. Even in its most derivative and timeless tropes, we can’t help but see our strange new world reflected back at us.

In this context, and set to music from François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows,” the barrage of questions adds a sense of claustrophobia. So when the parents prove good at rolling with them, their patient answers as creative as the questions themselves, they seem almost heroic.

This lines us up for the punchline, the hardest question of all. “What’s for dinner tonight?”

Enter Intermarché: “To help you eat better every day, Intermarché has already improved 650 of its products. Less salt, less sugar, less additives, less questions.”

“Questions” was directed by Rudi Rosenberg of Insurrection for agency Romance, which in May graced us with “I Want to Be With You,” an ode to long-awaited de-confinement in France, also for Intermarché. (Clusters of France have since been placed back on viral alert.)

The ad started its run on Oct. 4 on TV and via digital.

CREDITS

Brand credits

Marketing and Communication Director: Anne-Marie Gaultier 
Strategic and Operational Marketing Manager: Vincent Bronsard 
Brand and Communication Manager: Camille Sassi 
Media Manager: Hervé Ribaud 
Advertising Manager: Aurélie Ansart 
Project Manager: Mallorie Baluteau 
Media Project Manager: Marion Malezieux

Agency credits

CEO: Christophe Lichtenstein 
Executive Creative Director and Copywriter: Alexandre Hervé 
Copywriters: Charlotte Roux, Philipe Pinel 
Art Director: Julien Rezette 
Senior Strategic Planner: Jérome Lavillat 
Account Team: Marie-Laure Dangeon, Emilie Franck, Arthur Amis, Julie Valero 
TV Producer: Emilie Talpaert

Production credits

Production: Insurrection 
Director: Rudi Rosenberg 
Sound production: Schmooze