Free turns corporate comms into Covid campaign

Disconnected, but connected – we find ourselves, in these strange days, contending with both isolation and, for many of us, more comms than ever before, in the form of telephone chats, video calls and all manner of online mullarky.    

Paris agency Herezie, in just two days, managed to adapt a campaign for Free into a crucial social message, by pointing out how people must stay home, but can make the most of lockdown with the help of Free's network services. 

The quartet of films, titled Le Voisinage (The Neighbourhood), were directed by Julien Zenier and produced, over the period of a week, with the production company Eddy. They feature the French cities of Caen, Bordeaux, Marseille and Paris, and each depicts a series of dialogues between neighbours taking place from their respective windows or balconies. 

In each film a story is told that demonstrates useful ways to employ telecoms: gaming becomes a pretext for solidarity between generations, music brings people together, parents share info on distance learning via video calls, of course, potential lovers who begin by yelling at each other from separate balconies, exchange phone numbers for more intimate badinage… how very French.