For many people, death is an uncomfortable topic, so Hornet directors Moth decided to confront the subject head-on. Teaming up with Saatchi&Saatchi and Marie Curie, the aim of this campaign was to highlight the way people use euphemisms to talk about a very difficult subject, the ‘D-word’. Marie Curie is a charity that specializes in caring for people with a terminal illness and S&S approached us to help them tackle the collective unwillingness people have with starting a real conversation about it.
At the beginning of production, Moth decided with S&S that the closer the visuals were to everyday objects and situations, the funnier they would become in this context. This meant staying away from anything anthropomorphised—like a pencil with arms and legs, for instance—and instead going with something more realistic like a stick of butter with a pair of googly eyes stuck on it. The impact of this decision allowed the wit and humour of each of the euphemisms to land swiftly rather than the viewer questioning what or where these animated characters were. After creating realistic and believable textures for each concept, Moth employed tight camera crops of objects to play with bold colors for backgrounds and real-world lighting. This decision created the cheery death-odyssey that starkly contrasts with the serious subject matter of the film.
