I Wish I Had Done That - Volvo The Epic Split

Recently I was sent down a google search rabbit hole of everything bad 80’s action in which I was reminiscing the likes of Arni, Stallone, Seagal and of course the “Muscles from Brussels”, who was also known as Jean Claude “I can do the splits on everything” Van Damme.

And it’s those famous splits I want to talk about for today’s “I wish I had done that”. Ironically after all those great films “splitting away”, his best-known split is between two Volvo trucks going backwards down an abandoned runway in Spain. Who would have thought?

The world famous and most spoofed, Epic Split by Volvo Trucks took the world by storm and it was a bigger hit than any of JCVD’s famous films.

What made the epic split so epic was that you had an ’80s has been action hero who was traditionally ripped off by the advertising industry for a few decades. Then they combined him with Enya who was another 80’s icon destined for the archives. Mashed them together and gave birth to possibly one of the most disruptive examples of how to do a single-minded demonstration with the product at the heart of it.

This film was beautifully executed and it showed a few things about craft and one of them was the importance of the opening shot. It all starts with a portrait shot of a calm albeit older JCVD with closed eyes and folded arms. You feel he is somewhere and it’s moving but the scene is not yet set and the anticipation starts to begin. A moment of 3” silence is broken by something so familiar but not forgotten, something you remembered and loved, but also a has been, Enya, the iconic Irish singer. Then over the familiar beats, you hear the man himself start to speak, breaking the silence.

And when he starts you expect an ad message and to be sold something or something silly like his previous ad work. But instead, we are surprised by him talking about himself and his story.

He begins by talking about the ups & downs and bumpy roads his journey has taken him on. He then goes on to talk about standing before us with a body crafted to perfection. Legs engineered to defy the laws of physics, all whilst the camera is slowly pulling back to reveal where and what he is standing between. Two big ass Volvo trucks.

Talk about a knife edge of keeping the suspense, what is he doing between two trucks.

He then nails it home by saying… “A mindset to master the most epic of splits”… it is here that we finally start to see the trucks parting with the beautiful angelic voices of Enya’s “Only Time” kicking in, WOW, shivers down my spine.

Then the magic for me. I realized the trucks are fucking going backwards, I mean backwards not forwards, wtf! If you could not add anything more in to make me so excited.

I mean really, first they are parting whilst he is starting to do the splits but then to complicate it they are going backwards whilst everything looks so serene and calm and in control with all elements of danger calmed with the voices sent from above.

Mind blown.

It felt more like art than a demonstration of dynamic stability control for Volvo Trucks. But that is exactly what it was, a demonstration of the product and told beautifully and artfully.

That is what makes this so genius, the Epic Split went on to be viewed over 88.5million times with a ton of spoofs being done which added another 50 million views to the count.

Not only was this epic, but it was the 6th in the series of the “Live Test” series that racked up over 100 million views, gained over 170m in earned media and it went on to pick up Grand Prix in Cyber & Film.

Then the following year due to the massive business results of the campaign it picked up the coveted Grand Prix for Creative Effectiveness, as well as along the way a few other awards like just a Black D&AD pencil.

Now if that’s not epic then I don’t know what is.

I Wish I Had Done That

Gary