How can brands make more sincere visual content that changes people’s mindsets | Perspectives with Safi Graauw
Perspectives with Safi Graauw
Film director, earth scientist and intersectional environmentalist
Safi Graauw is a self-taught creative director and cinematographer whose background in earth sciences characterises the content he makes. As an intersectional environmentalist who is increasingly fascinated by identity politics, Safi weaves strong narratives and stunning aesthetics with purpose-led ideology, creating content that has won prizes at international film festivals and earned him accolades such as the ‘Jonge Haan’ award from the Dutch Society for Advertising in 2019.
Safi has never been afraid to do things differently. As a self-taught director, he may sometimes depart from traditional methods. He takes his creative cues not from directors before him, but the world around him. The stories he is most interested in amplifying have “always been stories about nature.”
“It’s always been the type of story that changes people’s perspective on their environment.”
This fascination with the natural world and its ability to alter perspectives also colours his take on Covid-19, one of the most disruptive features of 2020 that has left an indelible mark on our outlook. We talk about the opportunity that rose for us to re-establish our relationship with our environment, and it isn’t long before we begin discussing various ways the advertising industry needs to reset too. On this topic, Safi doesn’t mince his words: ‘Do I think the creative industry in the Netherlands is becoming more diverse and inclusive? No, no sorry. I'm sorry. Nope. Nope.”
“At the end of the day, the marketing and advertising industry sells products. And we’re in a transition on doing things differently, and also brand missions are changing, but this industry is not there yet.”
This is another area where Safi marks a distinct departure from the advertising norm: drawing on the skills from his academic background, he really explores issues instead of capitalising on trends for the lifespan of a single campaign.
“I tried to indulge myself in my subject and that’s why I know things about my subject. That’s why I’m an earth scientist and a filmmaker at the same time. I’ve indulged myself in this subject for 10 years...
That is what I feel needs to change within an industry. You need to give people the time to indulge themselves in their subject and their ideas.
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The result of this approach has been content that steers advertising and consumption towards diversity and sustainability, something that is becoming increasingly clear the world needs more of in these alien times.
Check out the full conversation to see how Safi inspires us as a creative agency to always strive for the best, championing inclusivity, diverse narratives, and intersectional environmentalism along the way.