Who are the Ad Wizards?

Morgan Freeman’s voice can even humanize credit cards.

There’s a lot to like about Visa’s Go World campaign, namely the heavenly voice of Morgan Freeman.  But for the purposes of this post, let’s take a look at how these spots look.

The first three videos, while much more somber, only use actual footage and photography from Olympic coverage. The last three, being more light-hearted, uses a lot more animation and special effects. All six are sepia-toned, thus allowing Visa’s logo to “pop” off the final frame.

The interesting aspect of these spots is that it takes until the final frame to discover what the ad is about. What Visa’s ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, hopes is that through the similar tones and Freeman’s narration, the audience can remember who the advertiser is without hitting them over the head with it. It also hopes that with this discreet use of Visa’s name and logo, they can allow the audience to get wrapped up in the story and not realize they are being sold to.