David Fincher has directed a new ad for Xbox and Samsung called “Wake Up,” co-directed with Romain Chassaing. The commercial depicts a bleak urban society of rats, some of which transform into humans when playing Microsoft-published videogames.
The ad shows rats escaping their mundane lives by playing games such as South of Midnight on a phone, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on a PC, and Avowed on a handheld device, presumably an Xbox-branded ROG Ally. The protagonist is seen playing Valorant on a Samsung OLED TV.
The commercial has a distinct late ’90s/early 2000s vibe, reminiscent of Fincher’s music video background and an era of videogame advertising popularized by Sony’s 1999 “Do Not Underestimate the Power of PlayStation” campaign. Microsoft also used a similar approach in its 2002 ad “Life is Short.”
The ad’s message is seen as contradictory to Microsoft’s recent actions, such as firing employees who publicly criticized the company’s supply of AI technology to the Israeli military.
