What the hell did Fausto Becatti feed this Pick n Pay ad?

Q: What was the brief?

Fausto: We have arguably the greatest rugby team ever, but we rarely give them the same kind of advertising that the world’s biggest athletes get. The challenge was to make a Springbok sponsorship ad that matched the level of these incredible players – with such a beautifully simple idea at the core that ties perfectly to the brand.

Q: This ad looks like a massive undertaking, just how big was this production?

Fausto: Seven shoot days across four countries, more than 30 cast members, five cinematographers, two editors, two colourists, three different camera systems and even a Dan Carter went into making this commercial. But we never wanted the scale to become the point. We knew the ad would only work if we made the performances believable and grounded.

Q: Yeah, the performances feel really grounded and real. What was your approach?

Fausto: For the humour to work, every performance had to feel completely believable. The scenes are heightened and sometimes quite absurd, but I never wanted anyone to look like they were performing for the joke. With recognisable actors, there was a risk the comedy would feel too broad, too polished or just a bit cheesy.

South African humour can so easily be pushed too far, and I wanted these moments to feel like they could genuinely be happening. That’s why I was adamant we need to street cast every character, from the Irish commentators, the kids in the bus and the barfly to the family sitting around the dinner table.

Dan: The mum, dad and daughter around the table are an actual family. The dad is a mechanic, and none of them had ever been on a film set before, which gave the scene that natural chemistry. We cast the boy separately because we needed someone of a particular size for the role.

Q: Fausto, take us through the visual language you developed for this ad?

Fausto: It’s a journey, and we shot out of order, and my goal was to make the spot feel as grounded as possible. I wanted the audience to feel as though they were discovering each scene for themselves. That became the visual language of the film. The camera enters a space, finds a character and then moves closer before carrying us into the next scene. It gives the whole thing a sense of spontaneity, like we are stumbling across the rugby world’s reactions as they happen.

Recent sports advertising is often so polished and frame-perfect but I wanted you to feel the operator behind the camera. A human touch. If something shook a little, the cinematographers would want to go again, and I would say, “No, give me more of that.” I wanted the camera to feel loose and human.

Q: You were adamant to get all action in camera. What was the hardest shot to pull off?

Fausto: I’d say the scrum scene. People kept saying, “Just put the camera on the ground with a super-wide lens,” but that wasn’t the right perspective. To make it feel real, the camera needed to be about two metres underneath the players, on the same lens I was using for the other shots.

The art department pulled it off. Five people spent six days constructing a two-metre-high rostrum with an acrylic section for the split-in-the-earth. The players were positioned above the lens pushing into a constructed scrum machine. All of this for a 2 second shot. Worked perfectly!

Q: How has the ad been received?

Fausto: I was sent loads of WhatsApp screenshots of people’s responses sharing it, and you can see it had been ‘forwarded many times.’ It meant the film had travelled outside the advertising bubble and rugby fans were having their own conversation about it.

Dan: What Fausto isn’t telling you is that he read one comment on Reddit suggesting the ad had probably been made using AI. It bothered him so much that he actually created a Reddit account just to reply, “Hi, I’m the director. It’s all real.” LOLs!

Q: What’s your favourite scene in the ad?

Fausto: The Viking scene, without a doubt. It plays on RG Snyman’s nickname, ‘The Viking’, so the idea was to put him in full Viking kit and have him terrifying this poor English supporter. It had been part of the film from the start, but it was always under threat because of RG’s availability and the cost of making that one scene happen.

At one point, someone suggested we do it in AI instead. I said, “Over my dead body. I would rather lose the scene than do it that way.”

Dan: Thankfully, the agency felt the same way and eventually, we got to Ireland, dressed RG as a Viking and shot it properly. And honestly, it was completely worth it.

Fausto: Huge kudos to Halo for making that happen. Without them, we would never have got the scene over the line. I remember standing there on set with Dan and Gareth O’Callaghan. We were in Ireland and there was a Springbok standing next to us dressed as a Viking! We looked at each other and said, “This is actually happening.” It was one of those moments I’ll never forget.

Q: Let’s talk about the Easter eggs. There’s plenty in there that only proper rugby aficionados would pick up. Can you point some out to us?

Fausto: The big one is right at the beginning with Bismarck du Plessis and that infamous 2013 tackle on Dan Carter. Dan was such a good sport about it. When he joined the shoot, he basically thanked us for making him relive the trauma, which was very funny.

Then we bring the joke back at the end. Bismarck is standing at the butcher counter in Pick n Pay and says, “Go for the ribs.” To anyone else, it sounds like he’s just choosing meat. But rugby people know exactly what that line is referring to.

Fausto: Then, right at the end, the guy pushing the trolley is Daan Human, the Springbok scrum coach. Rugby fans will spot him immediately because he’s such a huge part of what makes the Bomb Squad so dominant. 

And there’s also the bottle of mustard, which is a little nod to Franco Mostert. His nickname is Sous, so that one was just too good not to use. 

Q: Dan, any other memories from the shoot that have stayed with you?

Dan: We couldn’t put ordinary extras into a scrum against the Springboks, so we cast proper club rugby players. That morning, I told them they’d be scrumming against the Boks, but I think they thought I was joking because they barely reacted. Then the Springboks arrived, and I’ll never forget it. These were huge grown men, probably between 25 and 35, suddenly nudging each other like school kids. It was the moment of their lives. 

Fausto: Dan’s rugby knowledge is honestly ridiculous. He knows everything about the game and everything about the Boks. Even when we were casting the English team, he knew exactly what body shape we needed for each position so the super rugby fans would believe they were scrumming against the real English side. I would have needed five days to research all of that. Dan just knew.

Q: When the hype around the ad dies down, what do you think will stay with you?

Fausto: What will stay with me is how much fun we had making it, even when it was really difficult. It felt like a privilege to be given the space to push the craft this far for such an iconic South African brand. Everyone kept pushing for the best version of the idea – the agency, the client, Bioscope, the crew – and that collective ambition is what made the film what it is.