We Are All Athletes: Behind C4’s Unexpected Energy Drink Campaign

In marketing, we often see athletes portrayed at a distance from us mere mortals. Their godlike strength, speed, determination – even ruthlessness – is regularly shown to be something that sets them apart from the rest. Being a successful athlete isn’t just uncomfortable, says one of the fitness industry’s biggest names, it’s explicitly “not for everyone”.

With this in mind, the autumn campaign from C4 Energy has flipped the dominant narrative on its head. Created in-house at the energy drink company, ‘We Are All Athletes’ aims to evolve the perception of being an athlete beyond stadiums by illuminating the grit, discipline and drive that lives within everyone – whether they play sport professionally, simply exercise for leisure or do physical labour.

To launch the campaign, C4 Energy teamed up with Neighborhood Film Company and its director Henry DaCosta to produce a film that cements its drink as part of a variety of different active lifestyles. The ad shows NFL player Saquon Barkley striding through a locker room to the beat of The Family Fortune’s track ‘Work’, greeting a diverse mix of ‘ordinary’ people and sportspeople along the way: firefighters, golfers, flag football players, first responders and bull riders.

With all the characters sharing a locker room with the Philadelphia Eagles running back, and the unambiguous tagline emblazoned in the brand’s fluorescent yellow at the end of the spot, C4 is intent on democratising the mindset behind maximising human potential.

“I really admired the C4 team’s push not to make an expected energy drink commercial,” director Henry DaCosta tells LBB. “That stood out to me right away. I loved the core concept of telling the story entirely in a locker room, and the boldness of having one of the world’s top athletes exist on equal terms with the rest of our cast.”

These additional cast members weren’t professional actors, but ‘real’ people, meaning that Henry had to create a comfortable set for them to be themselves. “Thankfully, that was exactly our approach on this film,” he explains. “Everyone wore their own gear and decorated their locker with their own things. The only change in my approach [with non-actors] is that I tend to over-explain and give more direction than usual. I find that non-actors prefer less mystery; they want to know they’re doing it right, and like getting steady, clear reassurance.”

Of course, the protagonist is no Hollywood star himself. However, Saquon was “a dream to work with”, shares Henry. “He’s very natural and comfortable on camera, and a great human off camera. He was incredibly professional and determined to give us his best performance. In fact, for several shots, even after we felt we had what we needed, he asked to do more takes because he thought he could give us better performances. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced that with any celebrity, let alone an athlete.”

The film largely uses Saquon’s POV as he struts through the locker room – capturing the moments of friendly eye contact and conversation with Steadicam shots. At other moments, Henry and DoP Norm Li used a long lens to suggest Saquon’s spotting someone from a distance. “I thought this would be a more interesting way of showcasing all our characters instead of just cutting to each one,” says Henry.

“I wanted to convey that Saquon is part of this big C4 family, and that the audience is too, because anyone can be a C4 athlete. By having the characters look directly at the viewer, we’re saying that anyone could be in Saquon’s shoes. Most of our shots are tight because we were faking a small locker room to feel larger. We re-dressed the same sections of the location to play as new areas. In the edit, Matt [Carter] did an incredible job weaving those cheats together.”

​Matt Carter is the Final Cut editor responsible for bringing all the footage together, and says that balancing all these parts was the biggest challenge of the project, as well as giving the small space a larger, more dynamic feel.

“The spot is just really fun overall,” says Matt. “I love that the tone strikes this unique balance between action and sport, but with a bit of quirkiness mixed in. It obviously features Saquon Barkley, but it also highlights these everyday people so it lives somewhere between sport or celebrity and ordinary life.”

One of Matt’s favourite moments is when the lumberjack pulls a chainsaw out of his locker. “It’s an unexpected and surprising moment that kind of escalates the oddities of everything going on,” he says. “I love the sound effect there, making it seem like the chainsaw’s actually running straight out of his locker.”

Sound plays a significant part in the spot, with the music’s swaggering funk also driving the film onwards, in step with Saquon. The film was originally cut to a famous song which the teams couldn’t acquire the license for, and so a search began for a new track that hit the sweet spot between cool and comedy.

“Henry and I had a lot of conversations about music and we both pulled tracks to explore different directions,” says Matt. “It became this really fun collaborative exploration that helped define the overall feel of the spot.”

“Shoutout to our music supervisor, Genevieve [Vincent],” adds Henry, “for digging through countless tracks with us, and to the assistant editor Megan [Marie Connolly], who exported a million music versions for us – and of course, to Matt for nailing the edit to the music.”

With the tone set, visually and sonically, Significant Others’ senior Flame artist and VFX supervisor, Phil Apostol, says that his team collaborated closely with Final Cut to add the finishing touches.

Despite not appearing to be VFX-heavy at first glance, Phil explains that each cleanup task requires a unique approach – also taking into consideration cost and time efficiencies. “Funnily enough there actually was quite a bit of cleanup involved in this project,” he explains, “the biggest of which involved rebuilding part of the locker room to cover up some of the production equipment that was in frame.

“It’s often said, but when it comes to compositing (and specifically the type of compositing done in Flame), when we’ve done our job well it won’t be obvious that we’ve done anything at all.

“There isn’t necessarily a blueprint for how to approach it, and sometimes finding the path of least resistance is half the battle. I’m most proud of the quality of the finished product overall as well as the collaboration involved between Final Cut and Significant Others.”

All of these elements come together in the ad with a stylish swagger, reminding people this autumn that athleticism isn’t limited to the jerseys of our top sporting stars, but rather a mindset that belongs to everyone. And C4 Energy is standing to support those individuals hoping to get the most out of every day, whether they’re training for a marathon, fighting fires, trimming trees, or just hitting a daily step goal.