Sky Highlights How Missing the Start Means Missing the Story

We all know how annoying it is to miss the beginning of a film. First you've got to squeeze past everyone in the pitch darkness to get to your seat, showering them with  popcorn along the way. Then comes the frustration of knowing you've missed a vital bit of scene-setting. Whodunnit? Why? And what's that weird bloke with the dodgy moustache doing in the corner? 

This insight is at the heart of a new print campaign created by Serviceplan Campaign X for Sky TV, which drops the first letter from four classic movies to create titles that sound like completely different films - while keeping the typography of the originals.

Thus, Braveheart becomes Raveheart , Goldfinger becomes Oldfinger, and Kill Bill ends up... well, you get the idea. 

The ads, which ran in magazines, on billboards and on Sky's Facebook page, were created to promote a restart option that allows people watching linear television on Sky TV to watch movies from the beginning, even if they're already playing. Which seems odd in an era of on-demand, but apparently viewers in Germany still watch a lot of linear TV, preferring to simply turn on the box and watch what’s running.

"The initial spark for the idea came from the actual problem: If you miss the beginning, it's hard to follow the movie's storyline," explains Hans-Peter Sporer, executive creative director at Serviceplan Campaign X. "The easiest way to translate this problem was to simply leave out the beginning of the movie title. Obviously we had to find movies that would change their story in a funny or entertaining way and still be very easy to understand. On the other hand, the movies had to be famous enough to be recognized instantly. And additional to that, the artwork had to be iconic enough to work only with type and colour - to keep the simplicity of the idea."

It's a clever use of the medium that's sure to pick up a gong or two come Cannes Lions. And the re-titled films would make for a brilliant party game, where you have to describe the new premise. Picture a woad-smeared Mel Gibson at a Peckham warehouse party...