Brothers and Sisters ECD explains why The Fableists is both "liberating and scary" as the ethical kids clothing brand unveils first promotional film
Kids clothing brand The Fableists, a joint venture between Little Black Book director Matt Cooper and advertising agency Brothers and Sisters, has unveiled its first promotional film which will go on to form part of an ambitious series documenting extraordinary kids from around the world.
Speaking to The Drum, Brothers and Sisters founder and executive creative director (ECD) Andy Fowler, explained that about a year ago the agency had “set out our stall to work differently and do joint ventures with start-ups” with an agreement that would see Brothers and Sisters take an equity share of the new business and then use its marketing expertise to “help it grow”.
Of the decision to partner up with Cooper, Fowler said: “The more you look at it the more you realise that the high street is so appalling ethically. The motivation for us was that most of the clothes our kids wear in this country are made by other kids in sweat shops in Asia. The whole kids-making-clothes-for-kids cycle is shocking.
“When Matt told us his idea for a sustainable kids clothing brand we thought there was so much potential in it and Brothers and Sisters has really gotten behind it. We’ve created the website, all the photography for the look book and this is the first film for the brand that we’ve made with the help of a lot of our friends in the creative community.”
The film, directed by Olivier Venturini out of Great Guns - known for spots including the D&AD nominated ‘Dressed to Kill’ for Wallis, Adidas, PlayStation and Coca-Cola amongst others - features Finn, a fearless young London boy escaping to an urban jungle on his skateboard.
According to both Fowler and Venturini the process of finding Finn was not an easy task with Venturini unsure that a skateboarder was the right way to go for the debut ad.
“My main concern was that I found skateboarding too trendy and too cool and I didn’t want it to look like we were trying too hard, that’s why there isn’t a lot of skateboarding in the film. What’s more important is that sense of freedom,” Venturini said.
Although the film is a commercial venture, Venturini revealed that for him as a director he felt far more creative freedom with this project than he had done with others as “there was no commercial pressure”.
He added: “From the start only the top people were involved. It’s rare in my work that I get the chance to speak with the top guys and that made the process feel more creative, I didn’t have to worry about the politics.”
Fowler echoed those sentiments commenting that “most of the time you have to deal with other people’s money and other people’s brands, when it’s your own brand you’re the top of the food chain and the buck stops with you.”
He remarked: “Creatively that is really exciting because you’re not answering to anyone else and you can do anything you want. For a creative company that is quite liberating, but it’s also scary as we have to make it work and we’ve got to make money out of it - it’s a proper business.”
With the first ad going live online this week, Fowler told The Drum that the vision for the campaign is to create “a series of films all around the world”.
“This one is in Britain but maybe we’ll do the next one in Brazil or India. The big idea is to show how kids should live, they’re supposed to be free spirits and be able to go out there and do whatever they want.”
Other collaborators involved in this film included the cutting-edge visual effects company Electric Theatre Collective and the Edinburgh-based psychedelic rock band Delta Mainline.
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