In August 2018, German car manufacturer Audi inked a four-year collaboration with Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur to become the club’s official car partner. To celebrate the commencement of this partnership, Audi has worked with the sports division of the UK based creative agency We Are Social to develop a new campaign promoting the union.

The campaign, titled ‘Dare to Be Different,’ has begun with a new advert subverting the expectations of corporate sponsorships in sports. We Are Social Sport creative director Gareth Leeding says, “Usually, sports sponsorship activations from car brands just involve pictures of players receiving cars. It’s tired and outdated and in desperate need of some new thinking. We wanted to rewrite the rules for Audi and Spurs and put a new star in the spotlight in a twist on the car demo video.”

This new star is a live cockerel, which acknowledges the club’s famous emblem. In the supporting cast are Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Davinson Sanchez and Lucas Moura, four of Tottenham’s top players. In an amusing sequence, the players appear on a commercial set and ask for the attention of the crew but are largely ignored because the crew’s attention is focused on the cockerel, which emerges from its trailer and saunters over to the sleek new Audi i8. By flapping its wings, it activates the car’s motion control technology and successfully opens the trunk before hopping in. From there, it makes its way to the driver’s seat, where its crow triggers the voice navigation system while its beak ignites the engine with the start-stop button. While this all occurs, the players watch in an entertained manner.

The bold decision to relegate the players to the background allows the film to separate itself from the wealth of corporate sponsorship adverts that follow a formulaic style, and appropriately enables both Tottenham and Audi to ‘Dare to Be Different.’