New Uber campaign encourages Germans to change their habits

The new ads employ a documentary format, and a tongue-in-cheek tone, while revealing the many maddening trips we make in life that could be avoided if we are willing to be adaptable, change our plans and break old habits. Crucially, each of the films ends with the same simple suggestion: Oder aber Uber? (Or order Uber?).

Serviceplan developed four short films for the campaign that exemplify some of these journeys. Directed by renowned filmmaker Nick Ball and produced by Anorak Film, the spots nod to various German cultural references throughout, including weather-ready ways of dressing and an unwavering determination to stick to the plan.

In Shopping, for instance, we follow a young couple as a quick trip to buy curtains turns into a homeware-laden odyssey that sees them struggling to get home on foot; while in Zwiebellook (a German term for dressing like an onion, using multiple layers) we watch a man waiting patiently and painfully for a bus to take him home after work, as he is forced to repeatedly add and remove layers of clothing to combat changes in weather.

“We became fascinated by the question of why people continue to stick to familiar habits, even when new possibilities have long existed,” Till Diestel, CCO at Serviceplan, says. “That tension is what creates the campaign’s observational, humorous tone.”

The campaign is currently being rolled out across Germany via TV, digital and social media, as well as through a series of out-of-home displays in cities around the country.