In a coup to position itself as the refresher of choice for discriminating grown-ups, last year Schweppes Europe launched the Schweppes Short Film Festival.
Like Little Minx’s Cadavre Exquis (“Exquisite Cadaver”) project, five directors from The Sweet Shop were tasked with creating short human dramas for the ‘net, the only requirement being that each film contain a “Schhh Moment.”
“Consequently all the shorts make reference to Schweppes at some point, however this product placement is thankfully subtle and clever,” says Creative Review, which posted the films on its blog.
Our favourite was “Signs,” a slow-moving story about two lonely office cogs that fall in love without saying a word, and — even more surprising — without help from the internet. Created by Publicis Mojo and @RadicalMedia Director Patrick Hughes, the wordless oeuvre’s done the rounds of our circle of friends and is very much worth the watch.
It’s also with pleasure that we admit to not having known this was sponsored work until the “Schhh Moment” happened, at which point we were all, Wait a minute! — but it was integrated in a natural way, and didn’t harm the film’s flow in the least.
As of March of this year, the Schweppes Short Film Festival hit the Viral Video Chart Top 10 on YouTube — largely because of the popularity of “Signs.” We give Publicis Mojo props for a job well done, for nourishing the creativity of others while furthering the objectives of Schweppes, and for executing this film project without a hitch.
