Home » England Soccer Player Declan Rice Stars In Striking Loneliness Campaign Via AMV BBDO & Seven Stones

1 December, 2022

England Soccer Player Declan Rice Stars In Striking Loneliness Campaign Via AMV BBDO & Seven Stones

British charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) has launched a striking new ad created by AMV BBDO and Seven Stones.

Featuring West Ham and England midfielder Declan Rice, the 60-second spot features an anxiety-wracked Rice chasing invisible opponents around an empty pitch with the stands packed with angry fans.

However, at the end of the ad, a hand enters the frame and pulls Rice off his feet. “You don’t have to be alone to feel alone,” the ad said. “Let’s tackle it together.”

The ad launched in the UK this week and will be accompanied by OOH billboards around the country.

Last year, CALM ran a very successful campaign with boxer Tyson Fury. The charity said that ad boosted public awareness by 50 per cent in the past year. With 125 suicides per week in Britain — with men accounting for around three-quarters of those deaths — the organisation is again leveraging sport to encourage more people to seek help.

“Elite sportsmen and women can play an important role in changing perceptions about mental health,” AMV BBDO strategy partner Joe Smith told Muse.

“By opening up about their own struggles, or encouraging others to get support, they can reduce the stigma around issues like loneliness or depression.”

“The ‘Invisible Opponent’ concept was always designed to work across different sports over time. Football gave us the opportunity to talk about loneliness specifically. Seeing one man alone on a football field, with 21 teammates and rivals removed, illustrates the insight that you can feel lonely even when surrounded by people.”

The ad uses new and existing footage, much of it gathered during England’s run to the Euro 2020 final held last year.

“We managed to get access to multiple cameras from the games which gave us unseen footage, and then frame by frame went about removing everyone in post-production,” explained Seven Stones managing director Dan Russell.

“To tell our story and go one bigger and better than our Tyson film, we also shot with Declan at a local stadium to make it feel more documented and epic — not your average game highlights. This required a computer-generated crowd, and there was also a challenging drone running shot that we superimposed over the same angle of footage we had of a full house at Wembley.”

“Everyone suffers at different times in their life, and there’s so many people out there who feel like there isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel — but all it takes is a conversation,” said Rice.

“It’s about having that support network and having people you can speak to. Because no matter who you are or what you’re going through, it should be easy to speak to the people you love. Just one conversation can make a positive difference.”

CREDITS
Client/Brand: Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)
Campaign title: The Invisible Opponent 2
Client name: Matt Jennings (CMO), Simon Gunning (CEO)
Ambassador lead / Photographer: Harvey Aspell
PR lead: Shervin Behzadi
Creative agencies: AMV BBDO and Seven Stones
Creative director: Zac Ellis
Writer: Zac Ellis
Strategy team: Joe Smith
Agency account team: Dan Russell and Katie Gorrod
Media planning: the7stars, Chris Gilfoy, Ben Edwards, Zachary Al-Moajil Cole
Production company: Prettybird
Director: Robert Wilkins
Co-founder / exec producer: Juliette Larthe
Head of production: Fiona Bamford-Phillips
Executive producer: Ted Thornton
Production manager: Lottie Lindsay-Bevan
Production assistant: Enrique Da Silva
Production intern: Aljoe Joby
Hero talent casting: Entourage Sport & Entertainment
Entourage head of production: Sophie Cowan
Head of talent casting: Rob Hughes
Sports choreography: Andy Ansah
1st AD: Samuel Powell
DOP: Tat Radcliffe
1st AC: Lucie Seymour
2nd AC: Joshua Dadson
Camera rrainee: Ted Kelly
Video playback: Alex Bates
DIT: Matt Cole
Gaffer: Mark Evans
Drone pilot: Magnus Honeybourne, Surface 2 Air Media
Sound recordist: Matt Bacon
Hair and make-up artist: Leila Karalic
BTS: Entourage Sport & Entertainment
Edit: Trim Editing
Editor: Paul Hardcastle
Assistant editor: Helena Teixeira
Assistant editor: Joey Henshaw
Executive producer: Noreen Khan
Lead VFX: ETC
ETC head of production: Matt Williams
ETC producer: Alex Carswell
Colourist: Jason Wallis
VFX support: The Hot Spring
Producer: Gemma Humphries
Production manager: Mayumi Borah
Senior producer: Anshul Gattani
Assistant producer – Saurabh Thakur
Creative lead – Pushkar Rawat
VFX supervisor – Asha Parakhal
VFX artists – Soumik Ghosh, Palash Ghosh, Sreejith
Tracking artists – Varsha Jain, Harit Chavda
Sound studio: Factory Studios
Sound design & Mix: Mark Hills
Creative director audio: Anthony Moore
Executive audio producer: Deborah Whitfield
Audio producer: Ethan Day
Music composer: Adem Ilhan
Hero talent: Declan Rice
Supporting talent: Henry Lkeije, Aaron Clarke
Thanks to: The Hive London, Jon Crownshaw, Sports On Screen, Darren Eastwood

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Campaign Against Living Miserably Declan Rice