The Orange network deceived the fans in an advertisement. In a good cause. They unmasked themselves

Kylian M’bappe and Antoine Griezzman show off their dribbles and spectacular strikes in the new advertisement of the French branch of Orange. There are hundreds of videos on the internet. But suddenly everything changes. In the middle of the recording, it turns out that these were actions of French football players. However, on the recordings of their characters, models of footballers were digitally applied.

The advertisement of football players from Orange is to draw attention to inequalities

The FIFA World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, July 20. In recent days, however, it has been getting louder about the wage gap between women and men who play football. The total prize pool in the women’s World Cup is $150 million. Although it might seem like a lot, footballers at the World Cup in Qatar could count on almost three times the amount of USD 440 million – Footballers claim that their remuneration is still too small.

And this is what is supposed to help accentuate Orange. All women’s moves have been changed to look like they were performed by the most famous male players thanks to special effects. In this way, Orange proves that gender does not matter and women can provide a football spectacle at least on the same level as men.

While the purpose of the ad is legitimate, not everyone was pleased with its execution. One female commenter pointed out that comparing women to men is not particularly brilliant. “Why can’t women be great on their own?” asks Kami Mattioli. Someone else wondered if the ad was supposed to show that people would watch soccer players if they were men? Enthusiastic entries are also easy to find. Some say it’s the best football ad ever.

understands the problem of inequality. The organization says it is trying to bridge the wage gap between women and men. For this reason, a new payment system has been prepared to guarantee that each participant of the World Cup will receive a guaranteed remuneration for their achievements. But the problem in sport concerns not only football players, but also other disciplines in which women’s games are no less popular than men’s. “I would love to see the WTA grow, grow in popularity, close the gap between the WTA and the ATP in terms of prize money, and attract fans. Our tennis evokes the same emotions as the ATP. There is something that can be found in women’s tennis that you will not find in the ATP – said Świątek in Dubai.

In turn, two years ago, because it turned out that the volleyball players of Developres Rzeszów received PLN 50,000 from the organizers as a reward for winning the Polish Super Cup. The players of Jastrzębski Wêgiel, who won the men’s competition, received PLN 100,000. – The distribution of funds for prizes in leagues and cup competitions managed by PLS has been based on the revenue algorithm for years. Due to the fact that PlusLiga, as the World Champions League, generates higher sponsorship revenues, teams from PlusLiga receive proportionately more money in prizes or bonuses for sports results – explained the press spokesman of the Polish Volleyball League, Kamil Składowski. But even then this argument sparked a discussion. The whole situation took place after the European Volleyball Federation (CEV) equalized bonuses for teams winning the Champions League and Champions League. In 2021, ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle and Imoco Volley Conegliano received EUR 500,000 each, and the federation clearly boasted of equalizing bonuses for teams of both genders. The finals involving both teams were also held on the same day and in one place.

Pure effects, no artificial intelligence or deepfake

The first question I asked myself while watching the Orange video was whether it was used in it. Turns out it wasn’t. Deep fake technology has not been used here, as reported by Marcel, which is responsible for it. Nicolas Vogel explained that these were simply applying frame-by-frame effects. The team first found women’s plays for the video, and once they had edited them, they took the time to find very similar player plays. Then they worked on each image manually, using masking and tracking technology. It is worth noting that the editors had to take care not only of the players, but also of the stands. Because although they proved that women can provide a great football spectacle, unfortunately their matches are still less popular than men’s football, which can be seen in the number of fans.

In total, 22 people worked on the one-minute photomontage for 4-5 months. This gives another context to the recording, because it would be much easier to use artificial intelligence in this case. But would it have such spectacular effects? And above all, would it be fair, given the message of the advertisement, for Orange to save on the employees who are supposed to carry it out?

The film industry has been in crisis for a long time when it comes to special effects. More and more is required from the companies that deal with them, but more money is not required, which means that the quality of the special effects has clearly decreased. We are in the middle of a strike by writers and actors who, for the first time in 60 years, are fighting together for better conditions in the film industry. Lower and lower salaries apply to virtually all employees in the film industry. This is the result of the streaming revolution of the last decade. The revenues from this were not evenly divided and most of it was taken by the producers. The creators are also afraid that they will be replaced by artificial intelligence, which is already happening, because the terrible intro to Marvel’s “Secret Invasion” series was made with AI. So it would be ironic if an advertisement about the football wage gap was made by artificial intelligence instead of a team of people.