• Product/Brand - Virgin Atlantic
• Spot - The Idea
• Song Title - Personal Jesus
• Composer - Gore
• Publisher - Sony/ATV EMI
• Artist - Luis Almau
• Master Rights - Soundtree Music
• Music Supervisor - Soundtree Music
• Ad Agency - adam&eveDDB
• Creatives - Ben Priest, Ben Tollett, Emer Stamp, Richard Brim, Daniel Fisher
• Film Company - Rogue Films
• Film Director - Sam Brown
• Post Production - MPC
• Air Date - 4/1/15

Whenever a big brand like Virgin Atlantic switches agencies there’s always a danger that the incoming creatives will throw the baby out with the bath water by trying to reposition it in the public eye.

Thankfully adam&eveDDB’s first campaign since taking took over the Richard Branson-backed airline’s account in August last year has avoided the temptation to trash the award-winning tradition built by its predecessors RKCR Y&R.

With a nod towards the on-screen excesses of Martin Scorcese’s Wolf Of Wall Street, this new commercial, entitled The Idea, will certainly not disappoint viewers for whom a Virgin Atlantic film has become synonymous with state-of-the-art ad production.

Past executions have relied on high profile recordings like Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax and Muse’ Feeling Good to punch the message home.

But for this inaugural spot adam&eveDDB creative directors Richard Brim and Daniel Fisher adopted a subtler, even empathetic approach to the soundtrack by commissioning a re-record of Depeche Mode’s 1990 hit Personal Jesus.

“We knew almost from the start when Agency Producer Panos Louca suggested it that Personal Jesus would be perfect for this commercial,” says Brim.

“We wanted to use a track that would encompass Virgin Atlantic's energy and panache. It had to be throbbing and pulsating and build towards a crescendo while still having some areas of light and shade. Personal Jesus not only complemented the film but felt on brand too.”

According to Fisher, licensing the original was considered, “but we felt that a re-record would be better because it would give us the flexibility to score to picture as well as give the track an edgy modernity.”

The job of re-interpreting the Martin Gore composition went to Luis Almau, music producer at Soundtree.

“The challenge was to mirror the attitude of Dave Gahan’s inimitable vocal performance by adding new instrumental elements which would support both the images and Andy Serkis’ strong VO narrative,” explains Almau.

“But when you’re working with such iconic material, you’re always walking the line between being respectful of what made the original so special and doing something different and interesting enough to warrant re-recording it in the first place!”