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Creative in association withLittle Black Book
McCann NZ Shrinks World With “Old-School Film Techniques”, Then Puts Toddler in Driver’s Seat
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24/08/2026
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Exclusive: Director Joel Kefali and McCann ECD Rory McKechnie tell LBB’s Tom Loudon how using practical effects, a rotating miniature set, and human-made sounds for AA Insurance will appeal to worried parents
McCann New Zealand’s latest campaign, ‘Born Ready’ for AA Insurance, puts a toddler in the driver’s seat in a dream-like “hazard city”, where the young driver must navigate confusing roundabouts, cliff faces, and endless motorways.
After arriving safely home, the perspective changes — the audience realises they have been watching the mother’s fear run wild, and her child is a teenager, not a pre-schooler.
Good Oil director Joel Kefali told LBB “basically everything” was shot in camera or composited on a green screen to capture the very real concern parents have for their children when they start driving.
“We wanted everything to be more or less in camera,” Joel said. “Parents worry about their child driving for the first time, you imagine your teenager still is vulnerable like a toddler.
“We wanted to create a world that felt sympathetic to both of those points of view … at once displaying the kind of trepidation and potential worries and the peril that mum’s imagining.
“I wanted to show that in a playful way, but then … on the other hand, there’s also a world that feels freeing … exciting for the driver.”
The client was “pretty open” to the creative idea, and the strategy of talking to young drivers “from the start”, McCann New Zealand ECD Rory McKechnie told LBB.
“That’s what the ad is about,” he explained, “encouraging people to insure young drivers. From that is a pretty logical step to the insight: that parents always see their kids as more vulnerable than they really are.”
This insight led “pretty quickly” to the idea of “imagining them as literally like your little one,” on the road for the first time — a concept Joel extended into a completely child-like road.
The production employed “old-school film-techniques” including a rotating miniature set to show a moving landscape, and forced perspectives to make the cars seem life sized for the tiny child protagonist. Joel also relied on a combination of stop-motion, traditional motion, and miniatures.
“There were some suggestions of ways [the production] could go, but it was quite up for grabs,” he explained. “Almost like the last piece of the puzzle.”
Joel added a toddler driving a car could easily feel “CG”, and more at odds with the real world setting.
“It felt like the best thing was to fill up this tactile, handmade world because that kind of felt imaginary — like someone’s imagination, or how you might imagine your toddler’s slightly-warped vision of that world.”
The question Rory and McCann kept asking was: how do we create this fantasy world for the toddler?
“That was what Joel brought to the party,” Rory said. “Him saying, ‘I want to do a thing with practical effects, I want to do it in camera, I want to shoot the toddler, and I want to build these sets’ … sort of like playing.”
There’s a “hint of nostalgia” in the campaign, Joel added, which feels almost like an old family film or a family-favourite like ‘Beetlejuice’.
“We were really mindful of it not feeling like we were in some sort of oversized playset, that it was its own [thing],” Joel said.
Rory admitted there is sometimes trepidation around incorporating such styles and techniques, but “it’s quite fun to go back to those real tactile environments again”.
“Part of what made us feel like this direction for the campaign was right,” he explained, is because “there is such a growing appetite for things that feel tactile and handmade.
“It’s cliche to talk about AI, but I think there’s been a knock-on effect from AI, where people are actually wary of CGI as well now. And so suddenly, the way we might have done this film five years ago felt like it needed a fresh approach.
“Going into this world feels very handmade and endearing. It felt like the right thing to do especially with the subject matter of people’s little angels driving for the first time, but also in terms of culture.”
The spot’s final sound design was also deliberately unusual.
“All the sounds are made by people,” Rory said. “So when you hear the cars, it’s a person going ‘broom broom’ and stuff that feels very human.”
Joel added, “It’s not hiding the imperfection.
“The way it’s made is part of the idea and story, in a good way.”
AA Insurance’s head of brand, content, and sponsorship Minna Reinikkala said it was important the campaign related to the “inner panic” parents have watching their children grow and become more independent.
“Watching your child drive away — no matter their age — can be worrying,” Minna said.
“Do they know the best way, will they check their side mirrors when changing lanes, will they freak out at that narrow lane on the harbour bridge, will everyone else drive safely around my baby?
“We want to encourage parents to embrace this milestone and show them their young driver has this — and we’ve got them all covered, with AA Insurance’s car insurance.”
Creative in association withLittle Black Book
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