What is The Chase about?

The Chase is a professional film campaign released in France in 2011 for INPES, the national public health agency, created by McCann Paris. This campaign operates within the public interest sector and employs a documentary-style approach to address a critical societal issue. Directed by Aoife McArdle and produced by La Pac, The Chase leverages high production values, striking cinematography by Steeven Pettiteville, and polished styling by Jean-Marc Mirete. The creative team, led by Manoelle Van Der Vaeren, Philippe Pinel, and Frederick Lung, crafts an emotionally resonant narrative designed to provoke reflection and raise awareness on a pressing public health concern.

What creative device does The Chase use?

The Chase employs the Symbolize the Problem format, as classified by Clapboard’s 12-format taxonomy. Rather than depicting the issue literally, the campaign uses metaphor and analogy to represent real-world dangers, likely related to health or risky behaviors, as a pursuit or escape. This creative approach leverages documentary and social experiment genre cues, creating urgency and emotional engagement through symbolic storytelling. By avoiding direct demonstration or testimonial, The Chase invites viewers to interpret the underlying message, aligning with Clapboard’s FORMAT#3: Symbolize the Problem.

What is the campaign proposition for The Chase?

The Chase positions INPES as an authoritative and empathetic public health voice, aiming to raise awareness and provoke thoughtful reflection on a significant societal issue. Strategically, the campaign targets a broad demographic by using documentary aesthetics and situational storytelling, fostering authenticity and relatability. By presenting real-life scenarios through a social experiment lens, The Chase encourages viewers to draw their own conclusions, reinforcing INPES’s credibility and influence in public health discourse. The campaign’s use of English alongside its French origin signals an intent to address both local and international audiences, underscoring the universal relevance of its message.

How does The Chase rank in Clapboard's archive?

The Chase holds a Clapboard Campaign Score of 60/100 in Clapboard’s global ad archive. This score reflects the campaign’s creative ambition, execution quality, and cultural relevance as assessed by Clapboard’s curatorial standards.

Who are the competitors in INPES's category?

In the French public interest and health communication sector, INPES faces competition from Santé Publique France, which leads with data-driven prevention campaigns and scientific authority, and Assurance Maladie, known for its broad reach and focus on accessible health information and chronic disease management. Fondation de France distinguishes itself through philanthropic engagement and community-driven initiatives, while MILDECA specializes in addiction prevention using targeted educational strategies. The French Red Cross leverages its humanitarian reputation and volunteer network to deliver health education and social inclusion campaigns, rounding out a competitive landscape focused on public welfare and behavioral change.

This INPES campaign uses urgent, cinematic storytelling to drive public interest action—an acclaimed McCann Paris film — Clapboard's Global Ad Archive.

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The Chase - INPES | Clapboard Ad Archive

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Description

The Chase, launched by INPES in 2011 through McCann for the French public service market, exemplifies a strategically sophisticated use of symbolism to compel public attention towards pressing societal risks, deploying a format that Clapboard’s taxonomy recognizes as FORMAT#3—Symbolize the Problem. Eschewing literal demonstration, this film pivots on metaphor and urgency, recasting a public health or safety threat as a relentless pursuit that viewers cannot easily escape or ignore. The creative approach leans on the documentary and social experiment vernacular, delivering emotional stakes and visual tension without resorting to didactic exposition, and instead relying on narrative momentum to render the issue accessible yet unnerving. The decision to invoke chase and pursuit as analogies for real-world dangers positions the work as a model of how abstract threats can be made tangible through creative craft, leveraging the language of cinema and genre to force reflection on what might otherwise be discounted risks. The agency’s hand is evident in the campaign’s high-gloss production finish, attention to atmospheric design, and a rigorously tight storytelling arc that sidesteps product claims or overt instructional cues in favor of evocative metaphor, allowing audiences to infer their own accountability and vulnerability. As is common within France’s public interest communications, the campaign prioritizes audience agency over paternalistic messaging, tasking the viewer with experiencing the problem’s emotional truth rather than its literal mechanics. This tactic not only amplifies engagement but also imparts the work with a resonance that outlasts a typical PSA, demonstrating how public service advertising can rival commercial campaigns in both craft and strategic intent. The campaign earns 60/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. For the sector, The Chase underscores that the most effective public service work now often resides in the creative interstices between genre fiction, metaphor, and participatory tension, because these register with modern audiences in a way that unvarnished documentation rarely achieves.