Hasta La Motion!

Uber is highlighting the absurdity of the traffic situation in Asia’s biggest cities as part of its first ever brand purpose campaign. Using cardboard boxes to represent cars, the film humorously shows the reality of how people get around currently and ends with images of a city being overrun by boxes. The film was shot on the streets of Bangkok with around 200 extras. The Uber boxes commercial was filmed in Bangkok with 200 extras, set to the track “Bare Necessities” from the 1967 Disney film The Jungle Book. The film is a reminder of just how serious the traffic crisis enveloping our cities is becoming. Uber-commissioned research show that people in Asia are stuck in congestion for 52 minutes every day, in addition to the 26 minutes they spend trying to find parking spots. Forty three percent of millennials are considering getting rid of their cars all together.

Ridesharing companies like Uber are part of the solution to traffic congestion because they can create a viable alternative to private car ownership by giving people access to an affordable, reliable and safe ride. Together with good public transit, they make it easier for cities to move to a car-lite future.

“We use boxes as a way to dramatise the traffic situation and highlight some of the funny, absurd and occasionally annoying situations that we face on daily basis in traffic,” says Esh Ponnadurai, Marketing Director, Uber, Asia Pacific. “We also hint at the need for solution, of which ride-sharing plays an important role.”

Uber used two sources for the statistics underpinning this campaign. Firstly, a consumer survey of 9,000 people in nine Asian cities on attitudes towards traffic and parking. Secondly, Uber commissioned the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to assess the potential benefits that greater ridesharing adoption may bring to Asian cities. The results are online at unlockingcities.com

Uber Boxes Credits

The Uber Boxes commercial was developed at Forsman & Bodenfors by copywriters Jacob Nelson, Rikke Jacobsen, art director John Bergdahl, designers Emelie Lindquist, Johan Fredriksson, planners Tobias Nordström, Leo Bovaller, music supervisor Jenny Ring, producer Alexander Blidner, account supervisor Sanna Fagring, account manager Helen Johansson, account director Alison Arnold, and PR director Bjarne Darwall, working with Uber Asia Pacific marketing director Esh Ponnadurai and rider marketing lead Kunal Gupta.

Activation strategy and orchestration were by Mano Copenhagen. Distribution was through Oath.

Filming was shot by director Adam Berg via Indio with director of photography Mattias Rudh, executive producer Johan Lindström, producer Ben Croker, 1st AD Tony Fernandez and production manager Kate Wynborne.

Editor was Paul Hardcastle at Trim.

Visual effects were produced at Swiss by VFX supervisor Leo Wilk, executive producer Emma Rosas Host, producer John Thorstensson, VFX coordinator Jonas From, VFX artists Peter Marin, Jon Wesström, Nicklas Bühlman, John Svensson, Markus Bergqvist, Marcus Krupa, Mattias Josefsson, Benjamin Kraft, Mattias Lind, and Anne Isaksson.

Colourist was Mark Gethin at MPC Los Angeles.

Sound was designed at Redpipe by sound engineer Joakim Kristensen.