Canal+ and the art of being a rat

Meet Zoé, Elie, Lila, and Yanis, a group of friends united by a single passion: mastering The Art of Being a Rat. 

A campaign created for Canal+, produced by BOL, directed by Device and brought to life by BETC.

"Developing the main characters was one of our biggest challenges. Since they’re rats only in spirit, we steer clear of social class stereotypes. We put a lot of thought into their acting, gestures, voices, slang, clothing and personalities to ensure they felt genuine and relatable. Infusing subtle, adult humour was essential to shaping the characters. Focusing on crafting clever dialogues and assembling a top-notch cast of voice actors. By avoiding childish jokes and worn-out clichés, we ensured the humor was fresh and the characters remained authentic and relatable."

For the visual style, we drew inspiration from contemporary anime influences that truly connect with Gen Z. We made an extensive exploration to fine-tune the style, meticulously crafting every background detail and experimenting with a variety of facial expressions and actions for the characters. The lighting played a big role in this campaign, since it highlights the essence of this lifestyle, whether it’s catching an early morning flight or collecting cups at the end of a festival, these moments truly define what it means to be a rat.

The sound design plays a crucial role in making every action immersive and setting the unique ambience of each scene. Equally important is the voiceover, which defines and brings the characters to life. By bringing all these elements together, we’ve put together a fun and fresh campaign that any thrifter will totally rat-ify.

We explored several iterations of the visual style and character development, fine-tuning the concept until it was spot-on for both the agency and the client. Finally, we created a poster to celebrate the mini-series and showcase the group of friends.