Citroen, CMW ‘Escape the Ordinary’ with Magic, Soccer

Illustrating a campaign called “Escape the Ordinary” with a magician and soccer players from Arsenal makes sense thematically: Magicians do magic, and who could be less ordinary in Europe than soccer players from the English Premier League? Other than the British royal family, it’s hard to think of anyone else.

However, for CMW and Citroen, making a three-minute promo clip with cars and magic with extraordinary actors still resulted in a very ordinary spot. As you’ll see, the build-up drags, and the trick – which is more fake mind-reading than magic – isn’t very exciting. Pick a color, a card, and a year (and for whatever reason, the creatives decided to have the magician guess the incorrect year, maybe so viewers will believe it’s real?) To his credit, magician Drummond Money-Coutts brings enough energy and effort to make the clip watchable. The Arsenal players, Ramsey, pretty-boy Giroux, etc., are just show ponies who aren’t there to do much. Magic is supposed to wow, especially online clips that can be manipulated with editing, yet from the pledge, there was little chance that this wobbly trick would shock, awe, or bring out any sort of emotional response. But, with all the high-priced talent, the best trick may have been making an advertising budget disappear so quickly.

Some brief credits after the jump.

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