Canal+ bleeped out 'Netflix' in its ad, then signed a Netflix deal and shot episode three

Announce that Canal+ is now available for streaming, like Netflix, without mentioning Netflix in a Canal+ ad.

Make the ad about an ad shoot where the star may not say 'Netflix', so every mention is a censoring beep.

BETC made a three-episode drama behind the scenes of a Canal+ ad shoot. In episode one a director struggles to get French actor Kad Merad to announce the streaming offer without the word 'Netflix', so the ad fills with a censoring beep. Episode two shows a family dinner where each person reacts to the absurd 'beep' ad. After the first two were shot, Canal+ signed a partnership giving subscribers the entire Netflix catalogue, so BETC shot a third: Merad, poorly briefed, loses the plot among sets and actors from Stranger Things, Orange Is the New Black and Casa de Papel.

The LBB report, published on the eve of the partnership announcement on 15 October, gives no audience or sales results. It records the campaign's pivot from a joke about a rival to an announcement of a deal with that rival.

In October 2019 BETC released a three-episode ad drama for Canal+, set behind the scenes of an ad shoot. The brief was to announce that Canal+ was now available for streaming, just like Netflix, but a Canal+ ad could not legally mention Netflix. French actor Kad Merad, star of the Canal+ series Baron Noir, is therefore directed to deliver an announcement filled with the censoring beep.

After the first two spots, Canal+ signed a partnership with Netflix, announced on 15 October, giving subscribers access to the full Netflix catalogue alongside Canal+ shows, sport and cinema. LBB calls it a true story. BETC had no choice but to shoot a third episode: now Merad may say the word, but he has not been briefed and loses the plot surrounded by Netflix classics' sets and actors.

A legal restriction on naming a competitor became the comic engine of the ad.

Showing the ad shoot itself let the beeps look like production chaos, not corporate caution.

The real-world partnership gave the series a payoff that no script could invent.

If a constraint stops you from saying the thing, make the constraint the joke, and it survives even when the constraint lifts.

The third episode announced the partnership. The report gives no later results.