7Up's global 2021 campaign: refreshment and taste in a zero gravity world

the briefing

7Up is the original lemon & lime soda drink. The brand has been laying low for a while. London agency VaynerMedia asked our London office an interesting question: how do we get audiences to taste 7Up with their eyes and ears? A campaign idea was born: what would the refreshment and clarity of 7Up look like in a Zero Gravity environment?

the approach

Research started answering some of life’s greater questions: What does zero gravity look like? How do you show transparency? Or refreshment? Director and Chuck Studios founder Olaf van Gerwen sourced reference materials and went from immersion to explosions, from the ethereal to the tangible. After a couple of existential crises, the team designed a world that reflects the fluidity and transparency of 7Up in a Zero-G world.
A shooting board was made. Every single frame was designed and sketched. R&D for rigs and technology took around four weeks to complete. Pneumatics, ultra-high-speed Phantom cameras, motion-controlled robots, and servo-engines were put to work during four days of shooting in our Amsterdam studio. Truckloads of lights made the Amsterdam autumn look like a midsummer’s day in a scene where we shot people enjoying real 7Up.

The hours and hours of high-speed materials were cut to 30 seconds in the editing process. Bespoke music was composed by our good friends at MassiveMusic, and shots that were impossible to achieve in-camera were added in CGI by the talented visionaries of Glassworks in London.

The film will be on a screen near you soon, whether that's on TV, social media, OLV, or in-store. You couldn't dodge it even if you'd want to. Enjoy!