Comrades Marathon

client:
SuperSport/DStv
--
July 4, 2023

The Brief:

Create a promo that captured the ‘endurance of the human spirit’ ethos of the event

The Solution:

The creative process began with a deep dive into the history of the event, which is long, rich and full of emotion. The challenge was to capture some of this, but still make our script relevant and ‘necessary’ for today’s audience. Ironically, a reminder of the endurance of the human spirit could not have come at a better time, as the last few years have been immensely challenging on the world at large, at times even challenging what it means to be human. So we had a licence to go hard at a deeply-emotive and uplifting narrative. As music is ultimately the emotional bedrock of an edit, our choice for this promo was crucial. We, by some luck, managed to find a piece of music that harkened to Vangelis’ classic Chariots of Fire score, without copying it outright. The Chariots of Fire score is played at the start of the race itself, so not only was it a good fit for the edit, but it would’ve touched the hearts of any viewer who’d ever dared to run arguably the greatest ultra-marathon in existence.