Burger King Demystifies a Great Mystery that Plagues Soccer Fans

Buzzman Paris’ latest work for Burger King plays on a common behavior on the soccer pitch—the tendency of players and refs to talk behind their hands. What could they be saying? “The Hand” below, which combines all four TV ads in the series, gives you a few guesses. Though you’ll get the gist pretty quickly.

There are a lot of theories as to why players talk behind their hands (some even think they should be penalized for it). The most common reason is pretty practical: It’s the easiest way to be heard, without yelling too much, by the person you’re trying to address—and avoid being understood by anybody else.

It’s safe to assume a food order’s been passed from hand to hand this way once or twice. While Buzzman gets points for being observant enough to build on a minor detail that people occasionally wonder about, the work is otherwise pretty low-hanging fruit, more resembling stuff they did as a younger agency, when budgets were smaller, and at a time when observations like this made a bigger impact, because nobody thought brands noticed things ordinary people did.

The work went live on Amazon Prime Video and French television on Sept. 24, debuting during Paris Saint-Germain vs. Marseille Classico. It will also appear in all future Ligue 1 games.

CREDITS

BURGER KING® FRANCE
Managing Director Alexandre Simon
Marketing Director Timothée Loizeau
Media Officer Erinna Beaudron
Product Manager Sofia Nimmegeers

BUZZMAN
President and Executive Creative Director Georges Mohammed-Chérif
Vice – President Thomas Granger
Managing Director Julien Levilain
Creative Directors Patrice Lucet & David Derouet
Art Director Stéphane List
Copywriter Antoine Moittié
Associate Director Loïc Coelho
Account Manager Adrien Meunier
Head of PR & Communication Paul Renaudineau
PR & Communication Manager Marie Smid
PR & Communication Assistants Inès Pereira & Alizée Bédu
Head of Production Vanessa Barbel
TV Producer Saveria Besset
Producer Assistant Charlotte Perrin

Film Director Blacktool
Producer Clément Langlais
Producer Brieuc Dupont
Production Manager Hervé Leriche
Production Coordinator Ségolène Bouric
Post Production Blacktool
Sound Studio Schmooze