Real Police Star in Cliche-Busting Recruitment Campaign
Press, Behind The Scenes
Supernormal director Vince McMillan and EightyOne’s Chris Bleackley, Chris Appelros, and James Henderson tell LBB’s Tom Loudon the work reframes everyday attributes as police-worthy skills,
New Zealand Police has launched a new nationwide recruitment campaign, highlighting everyday Kiwi attributes as police-worthy skills, and asking, ‘Do you fit the description we’re looking for?’
The campaign film follows current serving officers as they travel across Aotearoa, recruiting with a simple brief: spot everyday Kiwis showing off the skills the police need.
Directed by Vince McMillan, and written by Chris Appelros and James Henderson, the film blends observational humour with standard police terminology to highlight attributes like patience, leadership, fitness, empathy, teamwork, and problem-solving in a unique and memorable way. Vince told LBB the campaign had to avoid the usual policing stereotypes.
“We’ve all seen cops depicted through film and television, and there are a lot of cliches,” he said.“While we were leaning into cop movie tropes, we had to pick and choose whether eating a doughnut or bum-sliding across a car bonnet was the right call. I think we found a good balance between leaning into the conventions playfully while protecting the integrity of the police.”
Read the full interview on Little Black Book here.
