NZ FIRE SERVICE | SPEED OF FIRE | 2003

Watching Fire Spread in Real Time / NZ FIRE SERVICE "SPEED OF FIRE"

As a timer ticks steadily forward, a living room fills with smoke. From New Zealand in 2002 comes an ad that shows the speed of fire exactly as it happens.

The idea

A timer runs in the top right corner of the screen, tracking the fire's progress in real time. A fire starts on a sofa where a mother has carelessly left a cigarette ashtray, and in just under three minutes the whole living room is filled with smoke. It's shown plainly, with no added dramatization.

What happened

It won Gold at the Cannes Lions in 2003.

Afterthought

The answer to the question "how much can happen in three minutes" is almost too heavy to take in. Knowing how fast fire spreads as a fact is one thing, but experiencing it alongside a ticking timer right in front of you is something else entirely. I think this is an ad whose simplicity gives it a strength that's impossible to forget.

Awards

Cannes Lions Gold 2003

Featured in

From 1 Second to 500 Million YearsTen ads lined up by nothing but the length of time they cover

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