New Zealand Police is on a mission to attract new recruits with an entertaining campaign by Ogilvy & Mather exploring the diversity of the force and its understanding of all communities.
Called ‘Freeze!’, the hero video, directed by The Sweet Shop’s Damian Shatford, features over 70 actual cops, the police band, police dogs and cats, the Eagle helicopter, the AOS, William Waiirua, Black Ferns and commissioner Mike Bush running through streets demonstrating the crime-fighting capabilities and fitness of the police force.
Adding to the exciting, fast-paced action, the video includes humour in a pelvic-thrusting street dancer, a dancing cop, body-builder and hand-bag stealing dog.
The narrative reflects the New Zealand Police goal of attracting people who bring their own skill set, like problem-solving, working in a team, fitness or prepared to get fit. But most importantly it wants people who care about making our communities safe, says deputy chief executive of public affairs Karen Jones.
“There are more than 30 different career paths within New Zealand Police and we will invest time in training these people to ensure they have the skills to handle any situation”.
Police commissioner Mike Bush adds New Zealand Police is striving to increase its overall staff numbers over the next three years to meet its objective of being the safest country and to deliver on the Government’s signalled staffing increase.
Wanting to ensure it delivered the right message with the right tone, Ogilvy’s group creative director Lisa Fedyszyn says there were many important puzzle pieces it kept moving around, which made for an extremely fun and challenging project to bring to life.
Ogilvy’s executive creative director Regan Grafton says it believes this video celebrates the kind of recruits New Zealand Police want on their team – “ones who bring their own unique and diverse qualities, skills and quirks to the job”.
The humorous tone of ‘Freeze!’ is a change from the previous recruitment campaign, also by Ogilvy & Mather, that questioned the morals of New Zealanders in a social experiment involving struggling people on the street.
The video shows as people on the street become witness to a hungry homeless boy and a collapsed man to see who steps in to help. Those who do are considered the right fit for the police force.
Credits:
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, New Zealand
Client: New Zealand Police
Production Company: The Sweet Shop
Sound: Liquid Studios
