Hip, hot and happening are words that come to mind when viewing the new MTN
Pulse commercial.
Conceptualised by advertising agency MetropolitanRepublic, the spot aims to strike
a chord with South African youngsters that subscribe to the urban youth culture
currently on the rise in our country and more especially in Johannesburg.
The brief given to executive producer Gavin Joubert of Bomb Commercials was to
create a cutting-edge television commercial that captures the underground,
futuristic movements happening in downtown Johannesburg.
The commercial takes on the style of a documentary, following young urban
influencers, from radio DJs to extreme sportsmen as they show the world what
stimulates their pulse. According to Joubert, during the casting process, agents
were on the lookout for “the cutting edge of urban youth culture’ also known as
“influencers’: fashionistas, musos, extreme sportsmen and other eccentric go-
getters making waves in today’s sub-cultures.
Joubert – who was also the line producer for Oscar-winning film Tsotsi – says that
the agency allowed him and director Teboho Mahlatsi significant creative freedom
when shooting the advertisement: “Because of the documentary approach we were
given a lot of freedom to explore and capture the “influencers’ or brand
ambassadors’ daily routines and the essence of what inspired them – their
pulse.’
The ad was shot primarily on the RED Epic, with some truly impressive extreme
biking shots captured by strapped-on Go-Pro cameras. “We wanted to use a doccie
style approach fused with stylised portraiture. It was important to keep the
locations and the look and feel real, so lighting was limited in order to keep true to
the influencers’ real surroundings,’ Joubert explains.
The commercial was shot on 24 July 2014 at the Smoking Pistons Motorcross track,
the YFM Radio Station in Hyde Park, in Alberton and some quirky streets in Jozi’s
very own urban cultural hub – Maboneng.
Assisting Joubert and director Teboho Mahlatsi in bringing the spot together were
producer Marc Harrison, DOP Alard De Smidt, production designer Dimitri Repanis,
line producer Maurice Dingli, first assistant director Barry van Niekerk and stylist
Trudi Barklem.
Joubert thinks that the youth of South Africa will identify with the commercial and
its target market in particular. “It will resonate with young audiences, especially
because it captures those fresh, cutting-edge sub-cultures that are exploding in our
cities at the moment.’
