EDF's debut Havas campaign filmed its engineers making zero-carbon power

Many energy companies tout green credentials, but as Havas London CCO Vicki Maguire put it, offsetting alone won't cut it in the deadline decade — the story is production, not re-selling, since more than a fifth of the UK's energy is produced by EDF.

Shot at EDF locations across the UK — Hinkley Point B, the Hinkley Point C construction site, West Burton battery storage, Teesside offshore wind farm, Torness and Dorenell in Scotland, plus a Tesco rooftop solar installation in Bicester — created by Dan Cole and Andy Garnett and directed by Marcus Söderlund of Academy Films. It launched through an ITV Proudly Presents partnership, with the first 60-inch showing during Sunday drama 'The Singapore Grip'.

The material reports no metrics; the campaign became the first work under EDF's consolidated Havas setup and carried a 'turbines to tariffs' proposition — zero-carbon-backed tariffs as standard for home and SME customers.

In September 2020, energy firm EDF unveiled 'Busy Doing Nothing', its first brand campaign since consolidating its UK brand creative and media accounts into Havas's King's Cross Village that April. The pitch: unlike rivals who re-sell green energy, EDF actually generates zero-carbon electricity at scale.

The film makes that case literally, featuring EDF engineers up and down the country at the company's own sites — Hinkley Point B, the Hinkley Point C construction site, West Burton's battery storage, the Teesside offshore wind farm, Scotland's Torness and Dorenell wind farms, and a solar panel installation on the roof of a Tesco in Bicester — set to Richard M. Sherman's 'Busy Doing Nothing'.

'A big energy company talking about being green might seem obvious, but we're not just talking about it, we are doing something about it,' said EDF head of brand Di Bowden. The campaign ran on TV, video on demand and digital, launched via an ITV Proudly Presents partnership brokered by Havas Media Group.

The claim is verified on screen: real sites, real engineers, no stock footage of wind.

Production beats offsetting as a story — more than a fifth of the UK's energy is EDF-made, a fact competitors can't match.

The ITV drama partnership put the debut in front of a mass Sunday-night audience.

When everyone claims the same virtue, the proof is the footage: shoot the claim where it physically happens.

The 60-second film debuted during 'The Singapore Grip' with a 10-second ITV ident; the material records no results data.