Watch the campaign conceptualised by Forsman & Bodenfors here.
The UN has roped in Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic´ to spread the mission of its World Food Programme.
The footballer speaks to viewers in the evocative video. Amid visuals establishing his global stardom, he says that while everyone recognises his name and cheers for him, there are some names no one cheers for. He removes his shirt to reveal several names written on his body. Ibrahimovic says if he could, he would write all the names on his body, but there are too many of them – there are 805 million people suffering from hunger, with too many of them being children. People affected by war, natural disaster and extreme poverty. As he enters a football pitch, he urges all his supporters all over the world to route their support to these people, who really need it.
The film cuts to a real match played on 14 February, in which the footballer scored for Paris Saint-Germain against Caen. He removes his shirt after scoring to reveal the artwork with names to the world. He signs off saying, ‘Whenever you see me, you will see them.”
The UN programme feeds around 80 million people in 75 countries each year. More at wfp.org/805millionnames.
Credits
Brand: UN (WFP)
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors
Writer: Fredrik Jansson
Art directors; Staffan Lamm, Andreas Malm
Account director: Hans Andersson
Account executive: Martin Johansson
Agency producer: Jens Odelbring
Web producer: Peter Gaudiano
Production company: New Land / Iconoclast
Director: Gustav Johansson
Director of photography: Niklas Johansson
Executive producer: Erik Torell, Solal Michenmacher
Editor: Robin Siwe
Producer: Sophie Tamm Christensen
Production manager: Sophie Hedberg, Arnaud Le Méné Grade
Sound design: Eric Thorsell
Post production: Stopp
Web agency: Lundgren Lindqvist
Developer: Mikael Holm
Media partners: Thor Nielsen, Jakob Stigler, BeOn/AOL
Music: Jónsi
Title of song: ”Tornado”
Written by: Jón Þór Birgisson
Produced by: Peter Katis
Music supervisor: André Brink
Published by: Universal Music Publishing Scandinavia
Label: Parlophone/XL recordings
Mastered by: Greg Calbi
Photographer: Niklas Johansson
Post production: Joakim Rissverds Linjepunkt
(Credits courtesy: Campaign UK)
I think it is remarkable ho footballers have historically been able to reach more masses of people on a visual advertising scale than really any other professional athletes out there. Zlatan is one of the worlds finest soccer player and for him to extenuate his already inked body with names of people that fall under the UN’s “hungry list’’ is something can be considered “next step’’ and really implies how committed of an effort this really is. The background music itself is moving and capturing from the initial minute and then they went to live footage for people to truly grasp the legitimacy of the ad and how serious they are about revealing to the public the staggering statistics in reference to hunger and how many people suffer. The line where Zlatan says, “Wherever you will see me, you will see them.” Is the most powerful and easily understood.