Consequence, full-length short film, directed by Noah Marshall

CR has stumbled upon this rather fine selection of short films a little late but thought we’d put them up on the blog in case you’d missed them too. Created by New Zealand agency Publicis Mojo for Schweppes towards the end of last year, the films are part of a new campaign to reposition Schweppes as a soft drink for adults.

Perhaps with the success of the branded content BMW films in mind, the agency devised the concept of a Schweppes Short Film Festival, with five directors from The Sweet Shop asked to create films aimed at ‘a mature audience’. The resulting shorts are a mixture of the darkly comic and the provocative, and are shot in a variety of styles from noir to horror to retro. Unusually, Publicis Mojo and The Sweet Shop were given a free rein in terms of creative content by Schweppes, as long as each film contains a ‘Schhh Moment’. Consequently all the shorts make reference to Schweppes at some point, however this product placement is thankfully subtle and clever.

Consequence, ad version, directed by Noah Marshall

The films were also scripted to allow 45-second commercials to be cut that could run on TV, aimed at pushing viewers on to the website, at schhh.eu/shortfilms, where the full ‘adult’ films can be viewed. The films are, perhaps inevitably, slightly less successful in this shorter format, yet the ads still serve as a good taster for the overall campaign’s style and content.

Jet Black, full-length short film, directed by Kezia Barnett

So far the Schweppes Film Festival campaign has only played out in Eastern European territories, although is hoped to roll out internationally in the future.

Magnifique!, ad version, directed by James Pilkington

Finder’s Keepers, ad version, directed by Melanie Bridge