It has a car in it — but it also has a blue whale. A graffiti ballerina. A flock of birds pretending to be an aeroplane. A massive bunch of escaping blue balloons. Newspapers actually dancing. A phoenix, a starring performance from a teddy bear and a man holding hands with a stick figure, says the agency.

The new campaign is built around one simple thought: The world won't change. The way you see it will. The all-new CX-5 is a drive that you might actually notice the world around you.

The story follows a dad and his daughter on a drive in their new CX-5, spotting a huge bunch of blue balloons making a break for it. Newspapers dance in the wind. Birds briefly become a plane. Clouds reflected in a building become an enormous blue whale. A man ducks beneath the legs of a graffiti ballerina. Then our driver parks behind a car with a teddy bear in the rear window. The teddy bear waves, he waves back. The world didn't change, the way he sees it did, adds the agency.

The outdoor campaign sees a phoenix that rises out of the clouds behind the CX-5. A pedestrian accidentally holds hands with a graffiti stick man. And an entire street conspires to become blue to celebrate the CX-5's Mica Blue. All because nothing changed, except the way you looked at it.

Deolinda Da Costa of Mazda Southern Africa says, "Mazda has always believed driving should be about more than simply getting somewhere. The all-new CX-5 gives you such a calm, comfortable and connected driving experience that you can actually enjoy what's happening along the way. This campaign captures that beautifully. Although I'm fairly certain the giant whale is not a standard feature."

According to Roanna Williams, Co-CCO at Boundless, this is precisely the kind of work the agency wants to put into the world, "At Boundless, we're trying to make the world's most loved ideas. Which sounds quite ambitious when you say it out loud. But we think loved ideas start by finding something human and true, then making it impossible not to notice. The CX-5 gave us a lovely truth: when driving asks less of you, the world gives you more back. From there we just needed a whale, a phoenix, several thousand birds and a teddy bear with impeccable comic timing."

Bringing this slightly more wonderful version of the world to life was director Alexa Wilson, with the film produced by Darling Films. The trick was to make every moment feel extraordinary without ever tipping over into fantasy. The world, after all, wasn't allowed to change.

Director, Alexa Wilson, says, "The challenge was about seeing the ordinary with new eyes and finding the magic in it without making it feel manufactured. Every moment needed to make you look twice and think, 'Wait, did I just see that?' My favourite moment is when the teddy bear waves and our driver chooses to believe what he saw, so he waves back. For me, that captures the whole idea and the magic of the film; that willingness to go there, and to be the kind of person who sees the world a little differently."

The campaign launches across film, OOH, digital and social, concludes the agency,

For more information, visit www.mazda.co.za. You can also follow Mazda South Africa on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, or on YouTube.

*Image courtesy of contributor