"par nous, pour les enfants"

Ville approached me and Deauville Studios in November 2024 to plan their winter drop. At first, they wanted us to produce another ad to promote two pieces of knitwear. Knowing we could do that easily, I wanted Ville to interact with its community not only by social media, but with some sort of pop-up event.

In Montréal, there are several places where you can organize a pop-up shop. Every brand does at least one per year.

The real challenge is making getting people to show up to your pop-up shop in the winter, when it's very cold and gets dark very early. People need an incentive to go out of their place to join a pop-up shop where they can either have fun, or have an incentive.

Ville is all about community, and thoroughly supports causes where an oppressor fights for their liberation. Supporting the Palestinian cause is one thing Ville and Deauville have in common.

Therefore, we decided to plan a charity event with a toy exchange at Le Ninety, where people would be invited to either exchange their toys or 10$ for a commemorative Ville t-shirt. The toys and profits received from this event would then be given to Palestinian refugees through Islamic Relief Canada.

The ad

We decided to produce an ad in the style of an Iñárritu movie, where the whole video would be a one take, showcasing a funny exchange between friends at a café, where they argue about what's the greatest toy there ever is. Throughout the argument, a jazz song plays and gets more intense until the drop, where the barista asks for the friends to pay the bill. They all proceed to pay in toys, and the cue card announcing the toy exchange at Le Ninety appears.

The event

Deauville was tasked in producing the merch, designed by Ville. Under my creative direction, we ended up with Paddington holding a palestinian flag.

Then, we visited Le Ninety to plan how we were going to accommodate the space. With a few volunteers, Deauville Studios and Ville were able to host an amazing charity event.