Ricard: Magic Hour
Hero Statement
Magic hour is golden light, lingering conversations, the ease of a long afternoon. The French have built an age-old ritual around this moment. An unhurried gathering, reliably repeated as the day turns to evening, marked by a magical drink that transforms in the glass the way the hour transforms our world. This campaign is my translation of that ritual, that transformation, for an American audience, by someone who grew up inside it.
Concept Note
This campaign introduces Ricard Pastis to an American audience; not as a foreign import, but as a revelation; a reframe. We’re creating an invitation to experience l’heure de l’apéro: the French ritual of the aperitif, built around the specific quality of late afternoon light and the pleasure of being present with company you enjoy.
At the center of the campaign is the louche: the moment when water meets pastis and the liquid transforms from deep amber gold to something luminous and opalescent. It’s magic, alchemy, reliably beautiful. The drink transforms in your hand. And in taking part in this ritual, something in you transforms too.
The visual world is golden, tactile, and unhurried. Ice sweating in afternoon light. The geometry of star anise on dry sand. A hand passing a glass across a split field of yellow and blue. Warm to cool, before to after, one person inviting another into the magic. The campaign asks its audience to slow down just by watching it.
Production Note
Ricard: Magic Hour was conceived, shot, and directed by one person in a Williamsburg studio: a living space transformed into a production environment for each shoot day. The stop motion sequences, practical lighting, and handmade setups are not a limitation, they are the point. In an era of generated imagery, the campaign’s greatest statement is simply that every frame was made by a human being who conceived of and took care in every detail within it.
Putting the human back in the picture. It’s visible in every frame.