We hear from Megaforce directors Raphaël Rodriguez, Charles Brisgand, Clement Gallet and Leo Berne, as well as Charlotte Marmion, Producer and Managing Director at Iconoclast. The team discusses working to a budget without compromising on scale and how to carry forward an existing brand message while making your mark. They also get into the nuts and bolts of making a truly striking ad.

Crocodile Inside sees a couple’s huge argument literally tear their world and their apartment apart, accompanied by Edith Piaf’s L’hymne à l’amour. As the boyfriend falls through the collapsing building his girlfriend has a change of heart and leaps across to rescue him. They reunite as the building crashes to the ground around them, ending with the tagline ‘Life is a Beautiful Sport’.

“I think what [Lacoste] wanted to show was the importance of having an elegant attitude when going through adversity,” says Berne. This is illustrated by the leap made by the girlfriend, which is a motif for Lacoste. In this gesture she makes the decision to reunite, saving her relationship and tying the ad into the legacy of this series of work.

This high-octane story is held together by believability and the team explains the decision to work with experienced actors instead of models – which they believe is key to the success of the project. “How do you believe in these people and recognise yourself in them?” Gallet asks. “Sometimes, the weakness of a fashion campaign is that it looks a bit far from reality… We wanted to prioritise the acting skills."

The filmic, blockbuster feel was achieved through clever pacing and VFX by Time Based Arts, worked into the budget by shooting in Ukraine. The team concedes that this was an expensive project but they argue that it takes more money to capture hearts and minds.

“For me [the success of the ad] is not about budget, it’s about a dreamlike ad that transports you in a crazy world. It’s a crazy world of fantasy,” says Marmion.

Created in partnerships with Adobe