RKCR/Y&R is launching this year’s campaign for the BBC’s coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in August. The campaign aims to excite, inform and inspire ahead of this year’s spectacle and is coupled with the BBC’s unrivalled editorial, multi-platform offering in the build-up and throughout the games.

The strength, agility and skill of Olympic athletes is absolutely astonishing. The sprinters explode from the blocks as fast as jaguars and the swimmers zip through the water like otters. It feels only fitting that the strength of the athletes is brought to life by the host nation’s exotic animals, against the backdrop of the luscious and vibrant Tijuca Rainforest, before they gradually transition to the human world over the course of the animation. The campaign, which includes trail and titles, has been produced by the award-winning animation house Passion Pictures, who also produced the BBC’s London 2012 Olympic Games campaign. 

To the rousing track ‘Not Gonna Break Me’ by highly acclaimed British artist Jamie N Commons, we see the sloth take on gymnastics, the armadillo clap its hands in chalk for the clean and jerk, as well as the powerful jaguar crack its neck and form up for the 400m, all before they transform into their heroic and spectacular human athlete counterparts. This will continue into the titles for the campaign throughout the games. 

The campaign will launch Sunday 10th July, on BBC One – one of the biggest days of sport across the summer for the BBC – off the back of the Wimbledon Men’s finals.  Three cut downs, radio and social follow in the build-up to the opening ceremony on the 5th August.

Charlotte Lock, Director of Marketing & Audiences, Media & North at the BBC, said: “The Olympics is a spectacle of elite athleticism and Rainey’s creative analogy with the finest athletes of the Rio Rainforest has given us a stunning and original take on the games.   We can’t wait to see it play out across platforms, giving audiences plenty to enjoy and get involved with.”

Mark Roalfe, Chairman and Creative Director at RKCR/Y&R, added: “We’ve set the bar pretty high with our work on the Olympics with BBC Sport in previous years, so humanising animals felt like a fresh and interesting approach to differentiate ourselves from all the activity around Rio 2016.”