• Product/Brand - Audi RS3
• Spot - Birth
• Music Title - Birth
• Composer - Cohen
• Publisher - String & Tins
• Artist - Will Cohen
• Master Rights - String & Tins
• Ad Agency - BBH
• Creatives - Ian Heartfield, Dominic Goldman
• Film Company - Mill+
• Film Director - Andrew Proctor
• Post Production - The Mill
• Air Date - 29/4/15

Motor car commercials don’t come more metaphorical than this!

With its memorable strapline Vorsprung Durch Technik, Audi’s ad output over the last twenty years has always been synonymous with quality.

But few of its spots have been as genuinely heartstopping as this most recent offer in which the German manufacturer’s high end R8 sports car gives birth to the compact RS3 hatchback model.

It also breaks new ground for Audi since absolutely everything seen in the film, from the car itself to the futuristic hybrid of engineering plant and medical bay in which it is delivered, was created in CG by crack teams of London and LA-based VFX artists assisted by top Hollywood director Rupert Sanders, best known for his work on the 2012 fantasy hit Snow White and The Huntsman.

The soundtrack too is something of a departure from the cutting-edge trip and hip hop licences which have been Audi’s favourite audio fare for the last few years.

“From the outset BBH wanted something that would mash up classical and contemporary styles,” says String and Tins’ composer and sound designer Will Cohen, whose portfolio of small screen successes includes executions for Vauxhall, Volvo, Axe/Lynx and Adidas.

“They had quite a well-known piece as a starting point but it was just too lovely and didn’t have the darker edge the film needed.”

Cohen was finally commissioned to write an original 110 second score after an aria by Richard Wagner – the 19th century German composer famous for soul-stirrers like Ride Of The Valkyries – pushed all the right buttons but didn’t quite fit the final edit.