Amid PR Crisis, Uber Debuts First U.K. TV Spot

While Stateside, Uber is in the midst of a massive PR crisis that just keeps on going, its marketing carries on in Europe with its first U.K. TV ad emphasizing how effortless it makes urban travel. The new spot tells the story of a young couple meeting for a first date, featuring scenes that segue seamlessly through different moments of their night out. The neatly choreographed spot, directed by Somesuch's Kim Gehrig ("This Girl Can," "Man in the Moon" ) for BBH London, depicts the confident girl and somewhat goofy guy dancing, bowling, eating hotdogs, looking at the view and escaping from the rain. Shot in one long sequence, it sees them transfer from scene to scene by moving through a series of Uber cabs (and, after an awkward start, slowly getting more in synch with each other). It's set to the soundtrack of "You're the Boss" by Elvis Presley -- with the implication that the girl is not only the boss of her Uber app, but of the guy too. The campaign will run for six weeks and also includes press and out-of-home ads in major U.K. cities London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Edinburgh. Gehrig commented on the film: "When we embarked on our film, the brief was to make it look as effortless as possible. We rehearsed for days, and the challenge was how to get our dancers from one end of the set to the other in 60 seconds. As the film is one shot we had nowhere to hide. Every action and movement needed to be efficient, telling the story and getting us through cars as quickly as possible. Every scene needed to have its own story as well as move us through the set. We designed the set to start feeling real, then it deconstructed as the film progressed. The more our couple fell for each other, the simpler the set became. The car's always a portal to a new location. It was a lot of fun to do, even though it took all day and night to achieve one shot." Uber's current problems stem largely from its culture that has been inhospitable toward females and minorities, so the irony is not lost on us that the director of its first U.K. ad happens to be a woman.

Amid PR Crisis, Uber Debuts First U.K. TV Spot

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