Fabrice Brovelli: “The World Deserves Better than Advertising”
Fabrice Brovelli, now vice president of BETC Paris, started his career as a 20-year-old in the ‘80s, directing music videos for the underground punk scene (La souris déglinguée - Parti de la Jeunesse, Causa Nostra - Warum Joe and many others). He then produced credit sequences for MTV in the early ‘90s, as well as some clips of the Thugs (including the famous ‘Biking’). Unusually, he started his career in advertising by breaking into the office at Young & Rubicam and using their tech to edit videos. He was eventually offered a job and quickly reached the rank of producer - soon to be chased by BETC to take the direction of the TV production department in 1998.
While still keeping one foot in the music scene, Fabrice has developed and worked on some of the most memorable pieces of advertising (that he sometimes doesn’t call ‘advertising’ himself) and has won over 415 international awards in music.
As part of LA/PACs 50th anniversary in business and its partnership with LBBOnline to celebrate the milestone, LBB’s Zoe Antonov spoke to Fabrice about his most famous work, how he got from the police station to working at the agency he broke into, why advertising sometimes is blind to its own downfalls, and why punk will save the world.
LBB> You started your career in the ‘80s making music videos for the punk scene - how did this experience affect you and lead you to join MTV in the ‘90s?
Fabrice> The fact of the matter is that the world was living through a revolution. We saw the end of punk and there was a whole new youth generation who was coming into existence. It was the beginning of cable channels. We wanted to show that there were other ways to express ourselves through music, while we were also struggling against the establishment.
Some concerts were very violent. So much so, that I went with fear in my heart. But I really wanted to be there. We naively thought that music could change the world and that MTV understood this aspiration.
LBB> How did you get into the advertising business and what were your first steps in this field like?
Fabrice> At the time when I broke into advertising, getting equipment to film and edit was a very complicated and expensive process. I knew that Young & Rubicam were the first to have a three-machine digital control (only the oldies get that one) ‘Xcalibur’, which allowed them to make inlays, to generate backgrounds, etc.
I had noticed that at 18:30 during the shift change between the day and night teams, there was always nobody at the reception. I took advantage of this by hiding in the WC for a few hours with a book until everybody was gone. This is when I opened the control room with a screwdriver and used it to edit my videos on the punk bands I had filmed prior. I spent the whole night there, fell asleep on the couch and was woken up by one of the cleaners telling me I needed to go home.
I practised this a few times before one night I was surprised by a guard with his dog, who called the police on me and I ended up staying overnight at the station. However, I had the time to hide my BVU tapes in the false ceiling. After a few hours at the police station, where I had to endure the police’s obsession with what I had stolen - in fact, I had only stolen the time used on the machines that I could not afford - they released me early in the morning. The only thing I wanted to do was go back and find my tapes - I asked the reception to speak to the person in charge of the service, and it turned out it was some guy my age.
I explained to them what I was doing - clips for punk bands, tapes in the ceiling, lack of money, everything. The guy told me that we could continue to do it together if I wanted, so that I no longer had to hide in the toilets for my turn to edit videos. We continued for several weeks and ended up becoming friends, filming on weekends and editing together at night for all the bands we loved - Warum Joe, Little Nemo, The Players, Asylum Party, Mary Goes Round, The Dogs, The Degling Mouse, etc.
This person ended up being hired at Saatchi and becoming a producer - he told me I was the only person he knew who could take over the job at Y&R. So, I accepted - although I had no admiration for the environment. Coming from another sphere into advertising, I had such a different outlook on the way advertising works, so I tried to do work with the people I admired. I always saught out the directors I liked, so that’s how I ended up working with Jonathan Glazer on his first commercial.
LBB> One of your most notable works is the campaign you did with Evian - in particular the first spot, ‘Voices’, for which you produced the famous remix of Queen's ‘We Will Rock You’. How did the idea come about and what were the biggest challenges?
Fabrice> At the time, we had just produced the ‘Voices’ commercial where the first version was adults singing ‘WWRY’ with children's voices - not easy to produce. That version was launched in early spring.
It already had somewhat of a success but existed only as a 45-second spot. Long story short, one day I found myself on a train between Bordeaux and Paris along with a class of primary school children who sang this version during the whole three hour journey without interruption.
When I returned to the agency my first job was to let people know that the children of France were obsessed with the song, and it absolutely had to be made into something. Evian refused to invest into the project but gave us carte blanche to try and develop it. So, we produced a two-and-a-half-minute version that we launched with Universal as a single, then the video, which of course ended up on all the musical channels.
That video became the reflection of the spirit of youth, of exceptional mineral water. The clip shows an animated 2D character made of water and able to cross all the tests of daily life, thanks to the extraordinary skill of adaptation. A character that should quickly become the new icon for Evian!
A lot of people from the advertising world criticised this project saying that it was not advertising! For me, this was the best compliment I could get because I think the world deserves better than advertising.
LBB> How did your relationship with Evian develop after this first collaboration?
Fabrice> Evian was a little overwhelmed by the magnitude of the phenomenon and understood that it was in its best interest to associate itself with the character of Waterboy. In fact, each time the teams changed, even if the people before them had created something exceptional before, the concept got challenged by the new team that wanted to mark its territory.
With one of those teams, we managed to create a great connection which allowed us to develop another exceptional campaign ‘Evian Roller Baby’ which entered the Guinness Book as the most seen ad in the world.
LBB> You have won more than 415 international awards in the advertising world, but what do the awards really mean to you and what should they mean to the industry in general?
Fabrice> Honestly, the awards flattered my ego, but only in the beginning. It's the classic story of a boy from the suburbs raised alone by his mother, who starts working at the factory at 17, arrives in Paris without any diploma, without knowing anyone, robs an agency and ends up on the podium for it... But you have to have the humility to recognise that I didn't win these awards alone. There are talented creatives, insightful salespeople and courageous clients behind each award. Once you've got an award, you look for what other awards you could have, and that happens again and again. Once you've got most of them, you move on. That said, I am incredibly thankful!
LBB> How do you make sure you keep up with music while practising your career, and what role does music play in your life today?
Fabrice> Music remains a driving force in my life, without it I would not be where I am today. Music is complex and it corresponds to the world today. I was a manager for many groups or artists who had, for some time, an international career, which allowed me to travel the world through festivals like Coachella (US), Summer Sonic (Japan), ES HA KAN (Timbuktu), Fuji Rock (Japan) - but also as an artist with KCPK. We could play from New York to Bamako, from Shanghai to Montreal, etc.
It remains a way to be in motion and to not get stuck. Moreover, today I am the manager for a rock group made up of young and very talented people between 18 and 21 years with the objective to play in Madison Square Garden before their 25th birthdays.
LBB> What are the biggest developments and changes you've seen throughout your career in French creativity, and what are your thoughts on the subject?
Fabrice> I am lucky to work at BETC where creativity remains an intrinsic value, which continues to differentiate us. It's not creativity that should be questioned today, it's rather how brands and advertisers have feuded with social networks, how they have financed their own dependencies to a system of an extraordinary opacity, which would like to make them believe that the more they post, the more they exist beyond all social, ethical, but also ecological considerations.
These are the systems that also would like to reduce the individual to a Pavlovian animal, so that they continue to consume again, and again. I am well aware that we have sometimes become the little vassals of this system, so it is increasingly hard to find a gap that allows the intelligence to express itself, by summoning the public available to the unknown, when so many others summon it on the already seen.
We have become the valleys of the permanent centrifuge of uninterrupted solicitations that makes the unique and sustainable story disappear. We post and repost in order to hook into the general competition of attention.
This sector has a responsibility to train and to educate the future generations. We are in total denial.
LBB> As a long time Adman, what are the tips and tricks you have left in the past and what are the things that you think are better today in the sector? What are your biggest inspirations in your work and in life?
Fabrice> The punk movement has been my biggest influence, although it is sometimes based on legends that are far from reality. There was a hope to change the established order, the ‘DIY or Die’ aspect. My biggest inspiration was always The Clash.
