Worried About the Future? In This Bubbly Ad, It Couldn't Be Rosier

Retro-future schlock rocks the here and now—to the tune of BTO’s ’70s anthem “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet”—in this fun :45 from Norwegian telecommunications firm Telenor and Nord DDB.

Dubbed “The Best Is Yet to Come,” the spot pops with manic energy and delightfully campy visuals. The production feels like a gift sent backward (or forward?) in time to relieve some of the stress we’ve all endured during these past few months.

Set in a colorful techno-utopia, the story follows a future-gal’s early-morning quest to find milk for her coffee. Bots, hover-cars, holo-screens and outlandish push-button gizmos abound. The super-horse seating seven clones provides a surreal highlight.

So, it’s the year 2150 or whatever and she can’t get milk delivered to her door? Were the drones on strike that day?

“The world has been in need of more optimism for quite some time, and with the pandemic, it’s more obvious than ever,” says Linda Wetterborg, who heads sales and marketing at Telenor. “Connectivity is all about opportunities, how we can better our ways of living or simply have more fun. We wanted to inspire more people to see these opportunities.”

Director Andreas Nilsson serves up a jokey Jetsons-meets-Barbarella vibe, with a dash of Le Corbusier in the architectural aesthetic.

“Lately, all stories in pop culture about the future seem to paint a very dystopian and dark picture,” says Nord DDB CEO/CCO Andreas Dahlqvist. “The ambition here was to create a romantic, positive view of technology, depicting the future as a warm and bubbly cartoony possibility.”

Initially launching in Sweden, the campaign targets progressive, tech-savvy urbanites.

“Of course, the pandemic brought a lot of [filming] challenges, but restrictions can also be seen as creative opportunities,” says Dahlqvist. “At the same time as we were planning this, many of the other marketers had to pause their productions, which meant that we managed to get an exceptional crew—everyone themselves in the need of this kind of optimism.”

This marks the first major effort from Telenor and Nord DDB since the pair began working together as the year began. Nord DDB’s recent notable efforts include this 2018 holiday ad for electronics retailer Elkjøp, a clever stunt tied to the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album and McDonald’s ecologically minded tiny restaurant for bees.

CREDITS

Agency: NORD DDB
Andreas Dahlqvist: CCO
Jens Welin: Senior Client Director
Johanna Björnfot: Client Director
Anton Bolin: Art Director
Hanna Stenwall: Copywriter
Svante Pårup: Copywriter
Lena Gallon: Client Manager
Fredrik Kjellström: Graphic Design
PR Director: Susanne Johansson
Social media director: Anna Olivemark
Planning Director: Johan Rynell
Communications planner: Jesper Andersson
Design Director: Cecilia Af Petersens
Senior Creative Designer: Martin Andersson
Creative Designer: Marc Östlund
Brand Strategy Director: Michael Hollesen
Client Manager Design: Beatrice Engman

Client: Telenor
Linda Wetterborg, Tribe lead Marketing communications
Tobias Clewemar. Head of Brand
Kendra Ibsen, Head of marketing and execution
Anna Edding Heijde, Acting Head of marketing and execution
Mimmi Sköldberg, Brand Campaign Manager
Mathias Murman, Content Marketing Manager
Vidar Hekkelstrand, Head of Design

Production company: Bacon
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Executive producer: Samuel Cantor
Producent: Kalle Wettre
DOP: Jakob Ihre
Set Design: Koja
Styling: Sofie Krunegård
Editor: Thomas Lagerman
Sound set: Marthin Mighetto

Post production: Bacon X

Agency producer: Göran Lagerberg, House Agency