Exploding Statues and a Lovely Horse

ATG, the Swedish Horse Racing Totalisator Board, was founded by the Swedish state. Agency Åkestam Holst has worked with ATG for two years and with this new campaign the agency has produced their best work to date.

Swedish commercials normally shoot for a laugh, and set in that context this beautiful piece really stands out. The commercial was shot in Madrid. But a few seconds into the film you can see "St.George and the Dragon," Bernt Notke's medieval statue in Stockholm's Old Town cathedral, Storkyrkan. On the campaign website levandespel.se ("Levande spel" means "Living Games") you can see the commercial plus behind-the-scenes footage. By Swedish standards this is quite pretentious, and therefore paradoxically quite cute. I love the sound design as well, the fact that they chose not to use music. My only reservation is that it should have been longer; I'd like to see a 90 second version.

Creatives were Jesper Holst, Johan Baettig, Mark Ardelius and Hanna Bjork. Director was Mattias Montero, Sweden's best DoP who recently started directing too. The production company was Social Club, post by Stockholm Post Production and sound by Housework. Read more from Worldview: Sweden