The Economist is to debut a new commercial on 3 July which seeks to reach out to a younger potential readership. Red Wires, from agency AMV.BBDO and directed by Tom Carty (he of Guinness Surfer fame), stars wire-jumper Florent Blondeau walking through a city on a series of red wires.

The film is somewhat reminiscent of Carty's earlier Rush Hour spot for the BBC. According to The Economist, the spot "marks the beginning of The Economist talking to people who might not yet consider themselves to be Economist readers through its marketing and advertising. It was sparked by research undertaken by the magazine last year which discovered that, because of the rise in the number of people going on to university, there are now over 3 million people in the UK whose interest in world affairs, travel, news and politics suggests an unconscious affinity with what The Economist reports on every week."

In that respect, it follows from the AMV print campaign that we reported on last June, which was also targetted at a younger audience than the traditional white on red ads that are held in such reverence by the industry. The Economist says that the “Let your mind wander” endline is "a metaphor for the inherent pleasure in connecting different ideas, and how this is reflected in the wide-range news and analysis available in a copy of The Economist".