Waze: Air Dancer

Waze, the Google-owned navigation app, launched Waze Ads last year. This self-service platform for SMBs allows business owners to target drivers who are in the area to drive more traffic into stores.

This month Waze Ads has launched a video campaign to promote its new service and highlight some of its features.

'Air Dancer' features a tube man that lost his job as a business promoter due to the effectiveness of Waze ads. In the ad we follow this “has-been” in a heartbreaking montage, as he narrates his story with a broken, sad voice. “Ever since business owners started using Waze ads to attract nearby drivers- I felt lost”. We see the blue, wacky-wavy character as he visits every cliche of a sad montage, including a ridiculous bar fight followed by a police arrest, a poor inflatable family (and dog), and even a “promoters support group” scene.

The ad was a collaboration between Waze ads and Google Tel-Aviv creative team. For this one, they turned to the creative duo “Too short for modeling” (dir. Tal Rosenthal & Noam Sharon) to write, direct and edit the spot (and dance, wearing “cameo” shirts).

For the production, the team (led by Hamutal Peles at “we-do productions”) chose to avoid CG at all cost: so every inflatable character in the ad was hand sewn and tested many times in the months prior to the shoot itself.