Butterflies, a TV ad promoting the Qantas sponsorship of the Australian Rugby Union team featured on Australian televisions and the Australian Rugby Union site in May. The campaign was launched to coincide with tickets going on sale for the Wallabies’ six home Test matches against Samoa, Italy, France, South Africa and New Zealand.
The 2005 Qantas Wallabies television campaign uses butterflies to symbolise the buildup of tension, excitement and expectation that the players and their supporters experience in the lead up to a Test match. Lote Tuqiri, George Gregan, Matt Giteau, Chris Latham, Elton Flatley and Clyde Rathbone experience a clear case of butterflies on match day as they prepare themselves for kick off. Then, once they don the Wallaby jersey and take to the ground, the butterflies disappear and are replaced with determination, self-belief and national pride. “Everyone gets them. Champions use them.”
Credits
The ARU Butterflies campaign was developed at advertising agency George Patterson Partners Sydney by copywriter Paul Nagy, art director Guy Collins and agency producer Mark Summerville.
Director Mark Toia, is based at Zoom Film & Television, Brisbane. Postproduction was done at Cutting Edge, with VFX supervised by Jeff Gaunt. Music was scored by Chris Elves and sound was designed by Ross Batten.
The commercial was shot at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium in April, where live Monarch butterflies were used to represent the players’ thoughts and emotions.