Axa ad stars a bird-loving girl and grumpy grandpa

Insurance advertising tends to fall into two categories—either ramming home a message about price, or focusing on peace of mind. A new film from Axa tends towards the latter, but it does it in an unusual way with some beautiful and emotive storytelling. Created by French agency Publicis Conseil, the almost four-minute film focuses on the relationship between a widowed grandfather and his granddaughter. The girl's mother takes her round to her father initially because the nanny is sick; he looks reluctant and not sure what to do with her. However, the girl picks up on the fact that her grandparents were keen birdwatchers, and starts to get into the hobby too. At first she knows nothing about it, and the grumpy grandfather is pretty hard on her, telling her she's getting things wrong and criticizing her drawings of birds. But gradually they start to bond over the activity, going on field trips together with his beloved telescope. If you're wondering what all this has to do with insurance, well it doesn't, until the very end, when something unexpected happens during one of their outings. We won't spoil it, but suffice to say that the point of the ad (according to Axa) is to remind us that "it's often during difficult times that we realize that some things are more important than others." The ad was directed by Australian director Sean Meehan via Superette, and it will be running in Switzerland and Ireland. The music is an original composition by British composer/orchestrator Sam Thompson ("Sex Education," "Rocketman"), in collaboration with Christophe Caurret at Prodigous.

A bird-loving girl warms her grumpy grandpa's heart in Axa insurance ad

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