Sapeurs
The insight
'Made of More' is a claim, and a claim invented in an agency about character will always smell invented.
The idea
Rather than cast a character who embodies the line, find a real Congolese subculture already living it.
The Stupid/Smart of it
Stupid: Running a beer ad in which the beer is nearly absent, about a subculture almost no viewer had heard of.
Smart: Building a global beer campaign around Kinshasa dandies is unexpected, but they embody the brand line more convincingly than any script could.
Why it works
Guinness's equity is character over circumstance; the Sapeurs are that idea made flesh, which no other beer could claim.
Pairing the TVC with a five-minute documentary buys the credibility that makes the claim survive scrutiny.
The magic
That the Sapeurs are real and were already doing it. Cast actors and the whole thing is a costume drama.
Act-poweredIt works because it genuinely happened. Nothing as fiction. Has to be seen to work.
The way in
The devices behind this one, from our library of ways in: