French women’s football team ad serves as a poignant reminder of assumptions and gender ability

Are only men capable of performing football feats?

Joining the Nike and Adidas-dominated library of cool and memorable football ads, is telecom operator Orange’s ad for ‘Les Bleues’, aka the French women’s football team.

Adding another adjective to the two words – cool and memorable – is ‘poignant’ because the ad, made by Publicis’ Marcel, a custom-made AI platform, uses creative technology to bend reality and peoples’ assumptions.

The nearly two-minute-long ad starts off as a Reel of some of the best moments of the French football team, including stars like Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann. Nobody battles an eyelid seeing them perform the moves.

If only.

What the viewer sees is nothing, but neat VFX work. Mbappe and Griezmann never performed those moves, it was ‘Les Bleues’ players, including Sakina Karchaoui and Selma Bacha, instead.

Changing the final word from ‘Bleus’ to ‘Bleues’, referencing the French women’s football team, was the classic final touch; the FIFA Women’s World Cup, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, starts on July 20.