Produced by Antoni, "Grow Up" is the most extensive content creation in the history of Mercedes-Benz.  The groundbreaking campaign is centred around five short films with young stars like rapper A$AP Rocky. The films tell a story that completely revolutionises the image of Mercedes-Benz, with the car becoming a natural ally for millennials in their journey to adulthood.

For the accompanying stills, we worked closely with CD Veit Moeller and young photographer Alice Moitié  - printing and re-scanning, adding grain to create a strongly analogue film look, with CGI elements helping with the practical aspects of a worldwide campaign.

There's a film and stills for each model - the A-Class, B-Class, CLA Coupé, CLA Shooting Brake and GLA models.

Additionally, each model had a specific character, story and theme.

"We initially created very rough archetypes for each car and story. From there we began to ask questions to ourselves about where they might be in life, what kind of issues they might be facing, what growing up might mean to them. We developed the characters until they felt authentic, and until the conflict that would comprise the stories felt modern, culturally relevant, and insightful."  - Veit Moller, Creative Director 

Watch the films that the stills are centred on, produced by Iconoclast:
"Our competition isn’t ads, they’re real films, real TV shows. Stealing four minutes from the time people would be watching their favourite show on Netflix is a tall order, so we tried to be honest with ourselves with what people might actually be interested in."  - Veit Moller, Creative Director (LBB editorial interview) 

Out in the Wild:
The campaign's media locations are as bold and eyecatching as the rest of the execution, with colossal end-of-wall murals featuring single shots montages from the campaign, and big bold statement cubes in high traffic areas. 

The murals were individually painted by artists directly onto the walls in each location, by German street art wizards Xi Design - watch the amazing process here!

The campaign has drawn wide praise for its radical approach:

"Mercedes-Benz’s Most Ambitious Marketing Project Yet Is All About What It Means to Grow Up Tackling the evolution of luxury ... and, well, life" - Adweek (Ad of the Day) 

"Mercedes-Benz's Biggest Content Campaign to Date May Make You Think Really Deeply About Your Life"- Ad Age (Editor's Pick - Creativity) 

"It’s hard to make a good car ad these days. Audiences are bored of the slick fare they are usually offered, and yet most clients still really, really want that shot of the beautiful new vehicle driving around the cliff edge. In this new set of films, those scenic shots are there ...nestled in among a set of stories that are intriguing, and at times a little darn bleak....These new films make a welcome addition to the car-ad-as-short-film genre and sure beat the average shiny car spot." - Creative Review

Also featured by Hypebeast, Campaign and High Snobiety.

The campaign on Behance

•  Overview of the "Grow Up" campaign

•  A-Class. Grow up. Spend time with family.
•  B-Class: Grow up: Be a good parent
•  CLA Coupé: Grow up. Get a job.
•  CLA Shooting Brake: Grow up. Settle Down
•  GLA: Grow up. Start a family. 

Client: Mercedes Benz
Agency: Antoni
Creative Director: Veit Moeller
Photographer: Alice Moitié

Post Artists: 

Jonas Braukmann, June Lee, Stephanie O'Connor / Recom Berlin

Thomas Saalfrank, Julia Ackermann, Daniel Mattes, Marion Trenkler / Recom Stuttgart
Pêpe Alram, Kate Brown / Recom Farmhouse

CGI Artists:
Sebastian Schierwater / Recom Berlin
Kristian Turner, Anna Toporova / Recom Farmhouse

Art Buyers: Emanuel Mugrauer, Valerie Opitz, Marjorie Jorrot
Production: Iconoclast Germany

See our selection of the campaign images on recomfarmhouse.com

Recom Farmhouse is on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter!
More work at recomfarmhouse.com and our blog madlove.net.