Provocative brand campaign calls on South Africans to shift the status quo

In a first for SA advertising, a bold and unhinged collaborative campaign that calls on people to “unlimit” their lives in whatever way is meaningful to them, has been launched as an online and TV ad. 

The Story of the Un from The Unlimited, a company which offers car, accidental, legal and life cover, is a bold brand campaign that unshackles old ways of being and unmutes new SA voices. 

The campaign was created in collaboration with 21 creators who told their unlimited stories in the face of tragedy, stigma, bias, inequality and the daily grind of a normal routine through video. 

The Unlimited and Joe Public Cape Town team created this campaign on a scale not yet seen in the SA advertising industry.

With the 21 individual collaborators and 15 directors contributing to bringing the manifesto of The Unlimited to life, The Story of the Un signals an inclusive shift in approach that hopefully inspires others in the industry to follow.

There’s no holding back in the brand campaign — it is bold and brazen, raw, provocative and unapologetic in its call that everyone in the country shift the status quo. To do this, The Unlimited asked the collaborators, “What does unlimited look like in your life?”

The brand TV ad and online content reflects the interpretations of the manifesto by a host of South Africans whose stories reflect the company’s mantra of shifting lives. With each creator given free reign to document how their lives are unlimited, this could be among the most original SA projects. 

“Scripted as The Unlimited’s manifesto, the ad is a stake in the ground in terms of who the company is and what it stands for. It’s also a look through the lens of what it means to unlimit your life, and how different that can be for a variety of people. The Unlimited wanted something real and inspirational to share with people and so the campaign is about being out there and authentic. These are all things important to the company,” says Susie Hart, head of brand at The Unlimited. 

Hart says The Unlimited was inspired by the collaborative nature of the project as it transformed into being the most unlimited creative brief of her career. 

The approach by Joe Public Cape Town in realising the potential of such a brief is a phenomenal story in itself, she says.

“They not only sourced this collection of people doing extraordinary things, they created a co-lab of directors and creators, with the unparalleled Fausto Becatti of Bioscope being the overall director. The result is a plethora of characters and cultures that come through in a unique and powerful way.” 

Campaign collaborators were united by one common trait: the undying will to defy expectation and challenge the norm. They push boundaries in their respective disciplines: from a young man who taught himself how to build robots, to a one-armed drummer who is undoing his past, and a drag artist who is breaking ground for the African LGBTQIA+ community. 

“For Joe Public, there’s beauty in the way the campaign was created — unhinged and authentic to each collaborator. The Unlimited is a maverick business unlike any other and we wanted their brand work to reflect this,” says Brendan Hoffmann, executive creative director of Joe Public Cape Town.

Hoffmann says the objective was to get people to produce different styles of work and take pieces of those stories to create the final ad.

“What an opportunity it has been to work with a brand that doesn’t play by the rules because it allowed the agency to create opportunities for many more creatives in the process, as the narrative was built through an organic approach of multiple voices and individual footage.”  

Click here to view the two-minute stories of each of the remarkable SA creators in The Unlimited campaign.

“The Unlimited believes there’s only one way to live and that is without limits. This campaign hopes to inspire people to unlimit their lives in whatever way is meaningful to them and to be part of creating a more inclusive and open minded world,” says Hart.

This article was paid for by Joe Public.