A Short Film For Volvo: Moments
How & Why Volvo made a film about the moments that never happen
The commercial at the core of Moments has been made a million times. We have all seen the commercials where a momentarily distracted driver nearly ends up in a car accident. It’s been done in PSAs, car adverts and insurance commercials.
In recent years, with the proliferation of cars with collision avoidance systems (C.A.S.), we have begun to see an increase in these commercials. They follow a certain structure:
- The film starts on an average day. This is usually either a shot of the car driving down the road if there is only one person in the car. If there are passengers the advert will begin inside the car.
- The world of the commercial is limited to only the car and the area surrounding it. While most car advertisements spend a lot of time around the car, if the advert has a narrative we will typically see somewhere other than the car at some point. C.A.S. adverts tend to spend their time either following the car or showing it’s interior.
- A distracted pedestrian or driver nearly causes an accident, but thanks to {insert brand specific C.A.S. here} the accident is avoided. After a moment of shock, the driver and/or pedestrian sighs as a smile of relief comes on their face. Then they just continue driving.
Moments is a branded short directed by Gustav Johansson for Volvo. By subverting this structure and taking advantage of advertising tropes, Johansson creates an emotionally engaging film in its three and a half minute runtime.
The actual story of the ad is rather brief despite feeling as though it spans decades. A little girl worried about her first day of school converses with her mother, who tries to ease her worry. As this occurs we see a woman pour a cup of coffee before leaving her home in her Volvo. The little girl, prompted by her mother, begins imagining the story of the life ahead of her. She leaves her home, waving goodbye before continuing down the sidewalk. The driver speaks to her boss over the phone. The little girl crosses the street as a car approaches. The driver spills her coffee. Momentarily distracted from driving she looks away from the road. The car comes to a halt as the car stops itself in front of the little girl. The eyes of the driver and little girl lock, before the young girl walks away.
1The C.A.S. commercial at the center of this commercial fits the standard structure. For the driver it is an average day. She is seemingly going to work. For the pedestrian on the other hand it’s not an average day. In Moments it is the pedestrian's very first day of school. This specific once in a lifetime occurrence was chosen for a reason.
The film taking place on the first day of school emphasizes the youth and innocence of the young girl, which is effective in getting the viewer to emphasize with her. The first day of school is something most people can connect with or even feel nostalgic about.
Moreover, the film taking place on the first day of school also allows the film to use the nervousness of the little girl as a means of lulling the viewer into a false sense of security by shifting the focus. The early lines of “you can decide” and “you’re in control” said by the mother to calm the girl’s nervousness, sets the expectation that the ad will be focused on a much different subject, especially given how frequently it is touched upon within the film. Car advertisements often use phrases like “you’re in control” when they speak about their cars in reference to the superior responsiveness and maneuverability of their products. Putting the viewer “in control” is actually a trope of many advertisements in general. In Moments this helps distract the viewer from seeing the C.A.S. commercial at the film’s core, especially given that the mother says these lines as we are presented with images of the car. This is one factor which heightened the effectiveness of the film’s conclusion. Because the audience cannot see the conclusion coming, as they might with a typical C.A.S. commercial, the near accident is more jarring and as a result the viewer is put in the place and perspective of the driver.
One angle often used to advertise products is saying what type of person purchases a product, which is another direction the film seemed to be going in prior to its conclusion. The film seemed to be associating the Volvo brand with an adventurous lifestyle, which is not an uncommon thing for car commercials (and something even Volvo has done). This also distracted from the C.A.S. commercial at the film’s core.
2In adverts selling cars with C.A.S. (and car adverts in general), the world of the driver is usually limited to in and around the car. This is of course a limit of commercials. The product must be displayed, that is after all an advertisements central purpose. But sometimes the value of a product can be shown without showing the product itself. Moments does this, expanding the world of the driver with a few simple shots.
The very first shot we see from the driver’s perspective is coffee being poured into a cup. The next is the driver kissing her spouse on the cheek. These brief moments help expand the world of the film making the short feel more grounded. Her ordinary morning is something the viewer is likely familiar with.
Additionally, the world of the driver when she is in the car is not limited to the time immediately before and after the accident. We see her doing things most drivers do. She yawns as she listens to the radio. She apologizes to her boss over the phone (using Bluetooth) for running late. She reaches for a cup of coffee. The viewer can imagine themselves in this situation. The driver does not do anything blatantly erroneous, but makes a simple mistake in a single moment. Because her world exists outside the car and outside her mistakes she is not merely a distracted driver but rather a human who made a near fatal mistake.
Beyond this, the world of the film is expanded into the imaginary. Car commercials at times go into an individual’s imagination, and while this is typically visually engaging, it typically isn’t emotionally. Car advertisements which play with imagination usually do it from the perspective of a driver or a passenger in the car and spend more time flaunting the visual aspects of the car.
Moments does not do this. Instead it uses imagination to focus on the gulf of unfulfilled potential that is the young girl’s life. The montage we see is not a flash forward, but rather a series of what if scenarios. This is made most clear as we see the story shift as the mother reminds the young girl that she is “in charge” after the young girl mentions getting a job as “everyone usually gets”. This shows a shifting, malleable future for the young girl, making the prospect of the accident at the film’s conclusion more unsettling. Her future of limitless possibilities could be erased in a moment.
3The commercial does not end with a sigh of relief, a relieved smile, and the car driving off. Instead it ends with the girl walking into the distance. The central premise of C.A.S. adverts seems to be that C.A.S. technology can save lives and at the very least prevent accidents. And while there have been a couple creative takes, these commercials do not seem to focus on the value of the lives C.A.S. technology could save but rather the relief of the driver from avoiding an incident. The near accident is usually presented as nothing more than an interruption and inconvenience in the driver’s life and not the pedestrians. Merely a blip in the driver’s day. A near life altering event is rendered insignificant.
In Moments the near accident is presented as a near impediment to the potential future the film has laid out. This seems to be the focus of the film when one looks at the culmination of all of its parts. In the editing we see the story of the driver is always cutting into and interrupting the story the little girl tells. In the soundtrack hopeful music is cut short by the sound of the tires squealing, as is the story the young girl weaves, which we never hear the conclusion of. In all of its parts the driver is an interruption in the film, almost an antagonist. By making Moments Volvo presents the idea that in an instant where we fall short, their car could make a lifetime of difference.
It would be remis to not mention that this advert has the advantage of time. Most brands do not have lengthy adverts showing for their vehicles with C.A.S. But what gives this film its emotional punch is not so much the amount of time it has, but how it uses it: focused less on showing the product and more on showing why the product is valuable.
