Interview: Faustin Claverie and Benjamin Marchal

How I got into advertising...
F : My father, who used to work in advertising, told me not to work in advertising. That’s why.
B : In my parent’s house the bathroom was on the second floor and the TV screen on the ground floor. I had no time to get to the second floor during commercial breaks. I had to love advertising.

A run-down of the most recent campaign I worked on...
F&B : We recently shot three films for Playstation. The budget was pretty low so we decided to shoot the campaign by ourselves with the creative team and Else, our in-house production company. Our collective is called Hungry Beards and any creative at the agency can be part of it if he wants to direct something. We guess we must be the only 80 person collective in this business.

The next big advertising trend is going to be...
F&B : Unfortunately, we are not Nostradamus or Google. As long as it involves a good idea, we are in.

The piece of advertising work I wish I had thought of is...
F&B : Werewolf of the SS, a trailer that was shot by Rob Zombie for a film that was never made. Awesome and pointless. Maybe it’s a good thing that they stopped just after the trailer.

My favorite app at the moment is...
F : This is the only point of disagreement in this interview. Ben loves Hungry Shark Evolution and I prefer Seat Guru.

The best piece of creative work around at the moment is...
F&B : The video game Far Cry Primal seems to be a brave move for such a blockbuster franchise. Instead of state-of-the-art weapons, all you’ve got to fight is a wooden stick or a silex. In a world where most of the people spend their life with a smart phone or a gun in their hand, we find this idea refreshing.

In a film about my life, I’d like to be played by...
F&B : Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russel. A bit like in Tango & Cash.

A word or phrase I overuse...
F&B : Two words because we are two:
Merdier (shit heap) and merguez (spicy sausage). The first one is pretty straight forward. The second one describes a terrible piece of work. We try not to overuse this one too much.

My last social media update said...
F&B : Facebook wished me my birthday on the 19^th of March. Ben doesn’t have an account anymore.

My dream collaboration would be with...
Franck and George Miller on a Miller Lite brief.

A piece of criticism I’ve received was...
F&B : We were told to stop using the words merguez and merdier in client presentations.

A great piece of advice I received...
F&B : Don’t work in advertising.

See all Faustine Claverie works in Lürzer's Archive
See all Benjamin Marchal works in Lürzer's Archive